Purpose: The purpose of this study was to review research published by Educational Administration Quarterly (EAQ) during the past 10 years to determine if confidence intervals and effect sizes were being reported as recommended by the American Psychological Association (APA) Publication Manual. Research Design: The author examined 49 volumes of…

This paper draws on earlier work on ideas that underpin the collection and use of evidence in science in schools. It establishes that different types of practical work share the same procedural underpinnings. It then takes the work of Toulmin on argumentation to suggest that the idea of the "public claim" can be used to forge a link…

A new report published by the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions is a minor variant on six similar reports published by the Friedman Foundation over the past three years. The new report repeats some of the errors in the previous reports, and it follows a parallel structure, arguing that the costs of dropping out are dramatic for the…

Many students find it difficult to learn the kinds of knowledge and thinking required by college or high school courses in mathematics, science, or other complex domains. Thus they often emerge with significant misconceptions, fragmented knowledge, and inadequate problem-solving skills. Most instructors or textbook authors approach their teaching…

Multilevel models are proven tools in social research for modeling complex, hierarchical systems. In multilevel modeling, statistical inference is based largely on quantification of random variables. This paper distinguishes among three types of random variables in multilevel modeling--model disturbances, random coefficients, and future response…

Children's learning--in the domains of science and religion specifically, but in many other cultural domains as well--relies extensively on testimony and other forms of culturally transmitted information. The cognitive processes that enable such learning must also administrate the evaluation, qualification, and storage of that information, while…

The validity of inferences based on achievement test scores is dependent on the amount of effort that examinees put forth while taking the test. With low-stakes tests, for which this problem is particularly prevalent, there is a consequent need for psychometric models that can take into account differing levels of examinee effort. This article…

Like all probabilistic decisions, recognition memory judgments are based on inferences about the strength and quality of stimulus familiarity. In recent articles, B. W. A. Whittlesea and J. Leboe (2000; J. Leboe & B. W. A. Whittlesea, 2002) proposed that such memory decisions entail various heuristics, similar to well-known heuristics in overt…

Children's sensitivity to context when making inferences about ability was investigated. In three studies, elementary school children (ages 5 to 10, total N = 332) were asked to reason about the relation between academic ability and the speed with which characters completed puzzle tasks. Participants were primed to interpret the characters' task…

The purpose of this article is to discuss evidence-based practice (EBP) from the perspective of a self-identified evidence-based practitioner. Discussion of EBP includes choosing an initial intervention and evaluation procedures, the iterative process of rechoosing and refining an intervention over the treatment life span, and the importance of…

Evidence-based practice has received increased emphasis within the social work field in the past decade and social work educational programs are including more evidence-based practice content in their curricula. This article examines some issues social work educators may wish to consider as they teach evidence-based practice to social work…

This study examines the relationship between English as a second language (ESL) learners' depth of vocabulary knowledge, their lexical inferencing strategy use, and their success in deriving word meaning from context. Participants read a passage containing 10 unknown words and attempted to derive the meanings of the unknown words from context.…

This paper, written in the twenty-first anniversary year of the journal "Educational Psychology in Practice", attempts to uncover those distinctive aspects of the discipline and the practice of applied psychology in general and educational psychology in particular. After considering some of the reasons for attempting this task at this point in…

This paper explores alternative approaches for facilitating efficient, evidence-centered item development for a new type of verbal reasoning item developed for use on the GRE® General Test. Results obtained in two separate studies are reported. The first study documented the development and validation of a fully automated approach for locating the…

Introduction: Evidence-based medicine (EBM) integrates published clinical evidence with patient values and clinical expertise, the output of which is informed medical decision making. Key skills for evidence-based practice include acquisition and appraisal of clinical information. Faculty clinicians often lack expertise in these skills and are…