Several teachers from State College (Pennsylvania) Area School District became intrigued with helping their students better understand the science associated with a unit on air and aviation. In particular, they observed that students often encountered difficulty with abstract flight concepts, such as lift, thrust, and drag. Content issues became…

This study describes the usefulness of a simulation, MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, in helping newly arrived international students adjust to the academic demands of university life. It outlines various phases of the simulation. The narrative regarding its implementation in the classroom demonstrates how well many international students adapt to the value…

To enhance the learning outcomes achieved by students, learners undertook a computer-simulated activity based on an acid-base titration prior to a university-level chemistry laboratory activity. Students were categorized with respect to their attitudes toward learning. During the laboratory exercise, questions that students asked their assistant…

Case studies are an important vehicle for student learning in problem-based learning curricula and higher education. "WebCaseStudy.com" was designed to support student learning through case studies in a simulated community of practice. This paper reports on the process of capturing community of practice knowledge for case studies to…

Background: The current mode of stoichiometry instruction employs a passive pedagogy that consists of students reading, listening, watching, and memorizing disembodied facts, procedures, and principles in preparation for future application. But chemistry students are often subsequently unable to apply this stoichiometry knowledge in equilibrium…

This paper describes a study, now in progress, of new methods for representing the sampling variability of Mantel-Haenszel differential item functioning (DIF) results, based on the system for categorizing the severity of DIF that is now in place at the Educational Testing Service. The methods, which involve a Bayesian elaboration of procedures…

This study extended item parameter recovery studies in item response theory to the nominal response model (NRM). The NRM may be used with computerized adaptive testing, testlets, demographic items, and items whose alternatives provide educational diagnostic information. Moreover, with the increasing popularity of performance-based assessment, the…

Whether or not subjects can simulate mental retardation, a consideration that has implications in criminal cases, was studied using 21 adult Caucasian males between 20 and 30 years of age, largely comprised of students and staff employees of the University of New Mexico. Subjects were asked to give genuine and simulated responses to two major test…

Instructional message design must attract attention and result in learning by facilitating perception, comprehension, and retention. The purposes of this research are: (1) to develop a conceptual framework for message design; (2) to develop a systematic procedure for message design; and (3) to provide one basis for the development of a performance…

A series of computer simulations was run to measure the relationship between testlet validity and the factors of item pool size and testlet length for both adaptive and linearly constructed testlets. Results confirmed the generality of earlier empirical findings of H. Wainer and others (1991) that making a testlet adaptive yields only marginal…

The use of two alternative item response theory (IRT) estimation models in the scaling and equating of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was explored; and item scaling and test equating results based on these models were compared with results based on the three-parameter (3PL) model currently being used with the TOEFL. Models were…

The objectives of this study were to: examine the potential interaction between students' epistemological beliefs and placement in a simulation condition (constructivist versus non-constructivist) on conceptual development; and to assess whether a constructivist computer simulation experience would result in a greater degree of conceptual change…

This booklet provides instructions for simulating the causes and events that led to the resignation of Richard Nixon as President of the United States. Students role-play activities related to the Watergate break-in, the cover-up attempts, the Congressional hearings relating to impeachment considerations, and the resignation of President Richard…

Validity generalization meta-analysis (VG) examines the extent to which the validity of an instrument can be transported across settings. VG offers correction and summarization procedures designed in part to remove the effects of statistical artifacts on estimates of association between criterion and predictor. By employing a random effects model,…

Type I error rates of the likelihood ratio test for the detection of differential item functioning (DIF) were investigated using Monte Carlo simulations. The graded response model with five ordered categories was used to generate data sets of a 30-item test for samples of 300 and 1,000 simulated examinees. All DIF comparisons were simulated by…