Standard errors and bias of unidimensional and multidimensional ability estimates were compared in a factorial, simulation design with two item response theory (IRT) approaches, two levels of test correlation (0.42 and 0.63), two sample sizes (500 and 1,000), and a hierarchical test content structure. Bias and standard errors of subtest scores…

Based on the premise that teachers are the chief condition in the literate classroom, and that one of the most important things children do is to observe the way adults think and learn, this book presents five essays suggesting methods of inviting children into the adult world of reading and writing. After a foreword by Donald Graves and an…

Writing is at the heart of education. The business of English teachers is to make people more comfortable in using language, particularly written language. Language serves two broad functions: (1) representing elements of external reality; and (2) defining relationships among the people who use the language. The writer's first need is to use the…

Presenting findings from a wide-ranging study, this book considers the present state of literature teaching in American middle and secondary schools. Probing both context and the instructional approaches, the book shows a discipline staffed by teachers better educated than their predecessors but carrying heavy class loads and isolated from current…

In an effort to demonstrate how quality literature can engage children in reflective thinking about stories, themselves, and the world, this book suggests children's literature worthy of discussion, shows how interactions work, and encourages adults to bond with children. The book begins with a chapter on how to use the book and a chapter on the…

Based on Louise Rosenblatt's transactional theory of reader response, the studies collected in this book present findings and recommendations that contribute to the understanding of how children create meaning from stories, how they acquire literacy skills to express that meaning, and what role educators play in these literary processes. The book…

This handbook provides direct, detailed instructions for involving a variety of adults (teachers, teacher aides, volunteers, and parents) in team teaching young children. The handbook describes specific ways to promote positive relationships among children and among the adult team members, and how to avoid common mistakes when giving feedback.…

Disorder and linearity are essential to science, but empirically derived laws indicate that counts do reflect underlying structure and can support inference. Starting from the premise that a linear structure underlies data, G. Rasch deduced that the necessary and sufficient mechanism to convert from counts to linear measures is the logistic ogive.…

A study examined the ways teachers and children in a preschool classroom enacted informal book-reading and other informal book-related events. Four key patterns in children's activities and teachers' curricular responses were identified: (1) children naturally selected their own "themes" for reading at the book center, and often these themes were…

A study at the United States Air Force Academy examined reasons for "survey saturation" among students. Despite relatively high return rates, anecdotal student data suggested that students felt burdened by frequent administration of surveys; and administrators expressed concerns about the general validity of survey data. Information was…

This book of fables from the animal kingdom contains: "The Frog Who Knew Too Much"; "Long Tail the Lizard"; "The Otter Who Went to the Bottom of the Sea"; "The Single-Wattled Cassowary and His Lethal Toe"; "The Rebel Gerbil"; "Why Hairless Monkeys Turn Out So Bad"; and "The Eagles'…

This document contains four papers from a symposium on leadership and executive development. The study reported in "Leadership and Culture: Work-Related Values and Leadership Styles among U.S. and German Employees" (K. Peter Kuchinke) revealed only a weak correlation between cultural values and leadership styles. Critical incident…

Several current television series for preschool children convey stories, not through meaningful dialogue, but through visual information and intonational cues embedded within nonsensical dialogue. This study examined young children's ability to construct meaning from such materials. Participating were 135 preschoolers, 3 to 5 years old. Subjects…

Recent research has investigated the impact of neighborhood violence on children's mental health and moral development. Based on the view that the way in which children construe their experiences of violence mediates the impact of unsafe neighborhoods and that children's narrative is important for children's construction of self and incorporation…

A study examined teachers' actual use of media and pictures in their teaching of geography in the secondary schools of five countries (a previous study focused on representations). About 180 teachers from Australia, Greece, Japan, Sweden, and the United States responded to a questionnaire concerning how often they used various types of media or…