This study examined adult students' informal knowledge of percent and its relationship to their computational skills. Sixty adults studying in urban and suburban adult education programs were interviewed to ascertain: (1) their ideas of the meanings of benchmark percents, 100%, 50%, and 25%, as they appear in advertising and media contexts; (2)…

Multi-line-multi-operation calculators such as the TI-80 provide eighth-grade prealgebra and algebra students with significantly better computational tools for basic order-of-operation problems involving integers and signed rational numbers than do calculators offering only last-entry-or-result displays. Effects are more apparent for weaker…

This paper presents a detailed derivation of method of moments estimates used in computer programs for the four-parameter beta compound binomial strong true score model. A procedure is presented to deal with the case in which the usual method of moments estimates do not exist or result in invalid parameter estimates. The results presented…

This generic science education study demonstrates the contrast of findings obtained through analyzing all the raw data as opposed to removing various combinations of identified potential outliers provided through the application of six diagnostic procedures. Outliers are defined as extreme data points with large residuals. It is argued that an…

Though cognitive science has given psychology a new, more detailed and specific way of expressing models of cognition, correspondingly detailed and precise arguments analyzing and supporting those models have not been forthcoming. Consequently, the new models often fail to meet the traditional criteria of scientific theories. Tools are available…

Compares the use of a foundation program approach and a percentage or "power equalizing" approach to state school aid, and discusses typical formulas for calculating state aid under each approach. (JG)

Confidence intervals are an important tool to indicate uncertainty of estimates and to give an idea of probable values of an estimate if a different sample from the population was drawn or a different sample of measures was used. Standard symmetric confidence intervals for proportion estimates based on a normal approximation can yield bounds…

Population invariance is an important requirement of test equating. An equating function is said to be population invariant when the choice of (sub)population used to compute the equating function does not matter. In recent studies, the extent to which equating functions are population invariant is typically addressed in terms of practical…

We show a new approach, based on the utilization of Mathematica, to solve gas permeation problems using membranes. We start with the design of a membrane unit for the separation of a multicomponent mixture. The built-in Mathematica function, FindRoot, allows one to solve seven simultaneous equations instead of using the iterative approach of…

This article is intended to provide adult basic education teachers with examples of functional learning activities for their students through use of the newspaper. It lists activities which are illustrations of those that can be used to teach functional skills in the key areas of reading and computation. For reading, suggested activities include…

The paper describes an approach in which games were planned to provide instruction for three severely handicapped children (5-6 years old) with few leisure, social, or academic skills and many aberrant behaviors. The first of two games involved a language program to teach verbal interactions, picture identification, and picture matching. The…

A procedure is described that enables students to perform operations on fractions with a calculator, expressing the answer as a fraction. Patterns using paper-and-pencil procedures for each operation with fractions are presented. A microcomputer software program illustrates how the answer can be found using integer values of the numerators and…

This paper is concerned with the role of meaning and understanding in the acquisition of computational skill in subtraction. Evidence on the syntactic nature of subtraction errors is reviewed, with common "bugs" described. Then, data collected from interviews with four children are summarized in terms of their semantics of concrete…

The study examined the effectiveness of a tutoring program on counting and number skills for trainable mentally retarded (TMR) and educable mentally retarded (EMR) students (5-14 years old). Experimental Ss received individualized instruction based on counting games while control Ss received instruction on objectives not related to counting.…

Seven questions concerning the role of computation and the role of electronic calculators in arithmetic were posed to a sample of teachers, mathematicians, and laymen. Responses are given in percentage form and typical comments are included. (LS)