Arguing that censorship is not simply an attempt to control what is taught in the schools but also an infringement on the legal learning rights of students, this collection of essays offers insights into how censorship can come about, its impacts and repercussions, and the ways it might be fought. The collection stresses action rather than…

Applications of item response theory to practical testing problems including equating, differential item functioning, and computerized adaptive testing, require that item parameter estimates be placed onto a common metric. In this study, three methods for developing a common metric under item response theory are compared: (1) linking separate…

A 1992 study by R. Gershon found discrepancies when comparing the theoretical Rasch item characteristic curve with the average empirical curve for 1,304 vocabulary items administered to 7,711 students. When person-item mismatches were deleted (for any person-item interaction where the ability of the person was much higher or much lower than the…

This paper focuses on the use of emotional memory skills to reduce communication apprehension, pioneered as a new cognitive intervention treatment called "The Imaging System for Public Speaking" (Keaten et al, 1994). The paper briefly explains other cognitive intervention strategies commonly used, including rational-emotive therapy,…

This book provides advice on minimizing the negative effects of divorce on children, including what normal behavior to expect, what language to use and not use, and what legal and custody issues will affect the child. The book contains eight chapters. Chapter 1, "The Decision to Separate," covers such topics as breaking the news to children, trial…

While university researchers cannot agree on a model for teaching literature, or even what literary knowing is, the training for literature that prospective elementary teachers receive is totally that of teaching reading. Such education is unrelated to reading and responding to literature. Even when preservice elementary teachers do receive…

Based on a series of studies of the ways in which literary imagination can be used to explore options, solve problems, and understand others, this book is about reading literature, thinking about it, and teaching it. The book, focusing on literature instruction, offers a way to rethink the contribution of literature to intelligent thinking as well…

The most effective alternative to punishment for violent or disruptive student behavior is to provide children with tools they will need for living peacefully with one another. This guide for elementary school classes examines ways in which a peaceful environment can be achieved and maintained in the classroom. Divided into six units which are…

An important principle in constructing rating scales is to develop items that reflect various degrees of the "pro" (positive) and "contra" (negative) aspects of the trait being measured. Where both positive and negative items are pooled, they can be arranged in order along the trait continuum, but for classical and item…

To generalize test results beyond the particular test administration, an examinee's ability estimate must be independent of the particular items attempted, and the item difficulty calibrations must be independent of the particular sample of people attempting the items. This stability is a key concept of the Rasch model, a latent trait model of…

The fluctuating effects of media can be observed by a data collection technique which reveals patterns of audience response similar to those which C.G. Jung observed in his analyses on word association and dreaming. The technique is known as Continuous Response Movement (CRM). A typical CRM training session automates the audience feedback process…

The disruptive problem behaviors with which children often respond to wartime stresses can leave parents and teachers feeling helpless and discouraged. This manual is intended to provide simple, practical advice for parents and teachers in communities where children are daily subjected to the extreme stress of war and other forms of systematic…

When self-administered surveys or questionnaires are administered, there is often a question of whether respondents have attended to the items in a thoughtful manner. This paper examines the results of three different surveys to investigate the occurrence of nonattending behaviors such as missing items, patterns that indicate lack of…

A survey of Alabama language arts teachers convinced one professor of English teacher education that there are good reasons for incorporating multicultural literature into the classroom, and that it seems especially appropriate for a reader response approach. Since multicultural literature may be as new for the teacher as for the student, teachers…

The use of constructed response items in large scale standardized testing has been hampered by the costs and difficulties associated with obtaining reliable scores. The advent of expert systems may signal the eventual removal of this impediment. This study investigated the accuracy with which expert systems could score a new, non-multiple choice…