Engagement is one of the most widely misused and overgeneralized constructs found in the educational, learning, instructional, and psychological sciences. The articles in this special issue represent a wide range of traditions and highlight several key conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and analytical issues related to defining and measuring…

Numerous methods are available to assess physical activity (PA) but systematic observation (SO) excels in being able to provide contextually rich data on the setting in which the activity occurs. As SO is particularly useful for determining how activity is influenced by the immediate physical and social environments, its use is becoming more…

This study explored motivation and engagement among North American (the United States and Canada; n = 1,540), U.K. (n = 1,558), Australian (n = 2,283), and Chinese (n = 3,753) secondary school students. Motivation and engagement were assessed via students' responses to the Motivation and Engagement Scale-High School (MES-HS). Confirmatory factor…

This article summarizes critical evaluation needs, challenges, and lessons learned in translational research. Evaluation can play a key role in enhancing successful application of research-based programs and tools as well as informing program refinement and future research. Discussion centers on what is unique about evaluating programs and…

This special series focused on treatment integrity in the child mental health and education field is timely. The articles do a laudable job of reviewing (a) the current status of treatment integrity research and measurement, (b) existing conceptual models of treatment integrity, and (c) the limitations of prior research. Overall, this thoughtful…

Methodological problems in measuring and interpreting infantile heart rate reactivity in research are discussed. Various ways of describing cardiac activity are listed. Attention is given to the relationship between resting state and heart rate responsivity. (Author/WY)

Two pathways in the development of a scientific concept can be differentiated: the limited-operationalization approach, which capitalizes upon the availability of an instrument; and the popular consensus approach, which comes from a sudden interest and popularity of the phenomenon in the real world. The phenomenon of mentoring is a contemporary…

The author feels that the stakeholder approach unavoidably pushes the evaluation toward technical compromises and accommodations that diminish the long-term gains in knowledge. (PN)

The conceptualization and measurement of key job characteristics has not changed greatly for most social scientists since the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and Quality of Employment surveys were created, despite their recognized limitations. However, debates over the roles of job skill requirements, technology, and new management practices in…

Documenting treatment integrity is an important issue in research and practice in any discipline concerned with prevention and intervention. However, consensus concerning the dimensions of treatment integrity and how they should be measured has yet to emerge. Advances from three areas in which significant treatment integrity work has taken…

The concept of treatment integrity cuts across a diversity of fields involved with providing treatments or interventions to individuals. In medical treatments, the concept of "treatment compliance" or "treatment adherence" is an important and problematic issue. In the field of nutrition, the concept of "dietary adherence" is important for…

An introduction to profiles is presented with examples provided to permit an overall appraisal of the potential of profiles, of the principles upon which they might be based, and of the problems that will have to be overcome if their potential is to be realized in practice. The larger scale examples of profiles discussed are the Scottish Pupil…

Numerous forms and meanings of validity have been developed to provide researchers with the opportunity to assess the many potential sources of ambiguity that exist in any research finding. A Validity Network Schema (VNS) developed by Brinberg & McGrath (1982) is extended and elaborated in order to describe the components of the research…

Notes how current writing research models remain of limited usefulness to the study of writing development because they do not explain important conditions such as coherence, nor do they define the systematic relationships in writing contexts. (RL)

Although important progress has been made in educational evaluation during the past decade new problems believed to be more serious threaten the progress that has been made. These problems are said to be a mixture of logistics and politics and are in large part an outgrowth of the increasing pluralism of American society. (Author/AM)