This paper focuses on the construction, development, and use of mathematical models by prospective science and mathematics teachers enrolled in a university physics course. By studying their involvement in an inquiry-based, experimental approach to learning kinematics, we address a fundamental question about the meaning and role of abstraction in…

Grading on the curve is a common practice in higher education. While there are many critics of the practice it still finds wide spread acceptance particularly in science classes. Advocates believe that in large classes student ability is likely to be normally distributed. If test scores are also normally distributed instructors and students tend…

This article examines how conversations during design reviews in which 8th-grade mathematics students shared population models with visiting specialists expanded the disciplinary expertise of the classroom. "Re-contextualizing" is a conversational exchange that visiting specialists initiated to invite groups to consider their models in novel…

This study focussed on how secondary school students construct and use mathematical models as conceptual tools when solving word problems. The participants were 511 secondary-school students who were in the final year of compulsory education (15-16 years old). Four levels of the development of constructing and using mathematical models were…

This paper presents an example of boomerang motion in mathematical terms available to students studying A-level mathematics. The theory developed in the paper postulates possible mathematical models that are verified by experimental results. The paper centres on the three-wing boomerang invented by Professor Yutaka Nishiyama.

Problem. The development of critical-thinking skills during the professional training of respiratory therapists is imperative for good practice. Research evidence suggests that interactive instructional strategies are far more effective than traditional lectures. Missing from the literature are thick descriptions of how faculty organize the…

When the highest-way association is present in a 3-way cross-classification of frequencies, standard logit and loglinear models have an many parameters as there are cells in the table; that is, the models are "saturated." Extensions of logit and loglinear models are described here that provide more parsimonious alternatives to saturated…

This study analytically examined the multiple comparison procedures for testing a combined set of planned and post hoc comparisons. To establish a practical guideline, the following issues were investigated: (1) when the generalized sequentially rejective Bonferroni method (GSRB) is and is not applicable; (2) the required alpha levels for the GSRB…

A modified technique of separable programming was used to maximize the squared correlation ratio of weighted responses to partially ordered categories. The technique employs a polygonal approximation to each single-variable function by choosing mesh points around the initial approximation supplied by Nishisato's method. Numerical examples were…

Among the criticisms of Micko's Halo Model are: 1) it is too restrictive to fit empirical data, 2) it misrepresents unrelated percepts as bipolar structures, 3) it requires all dimensions to be bipolar, and 4) it causes the interpretations of orthogonality of factors and factor loadings to become problematic. (Author/BJG)

In some situations where reliability must be estimated it is impossible to divide the measuring instrument into more than two separately scoreable parts. In such a case, neither Cronbach's coefficient alpha nor Kristof's three-part approach are satisfactory. A technique is developed for estimating reliability in such situations. (Author/BJG)

Peay presented a class of grouping methods based on the concept of the r-clique for symmetric data relationships. The concepts of the r-clique can be generalized readily to directed (or asymmetric) relationships, and groupings based on this generalization may be found conveniently using an adoption of Peay's methodology. (Author/BJG)

The indexing depth in several documentation systems is shown to have a mixed Poisson distribution. (PF)

This paper demonstrates that a meta-analysis technique applied to the Solomon Four-Group Design (SFGD) can fail to find significance even though an earlier "weaker" test may have found significance. The meta-analysis technique was promoted by Braver and Braver as the most powerful single test for analyzing data from an SFGD. They…

B. De Finetti's "Fundamental Theorem of Probability" is reformulated as a computable linear programming problem. The theorem is substantially extended, and shown to have fundamental implications for the theory and practice of statistics. It supports an operational meaning for the partial assertion of prevision via asserted bounds. The…