A new indicator of item difficulty, which identifies effectiveness ranges, overcomes the limitations of other item difficulty indexes in describing the difficulty of an item or a test as a whole and in aiding the selection of appropriate ability level items for a test. There are three common uses of the term "item difficulty": (1) the probability…

Educators generally assume that questioning promotes learning and that higher level questions do so better than lower level questions. But there are a number of problems with these assumptions. First, the classification of questions as higher level or lower level is ambiguous. The distinction is confused by such issues as non-controversial…

The main aim of this study was to compare children diagnosed as dysphonetic and dyseidetic on a number of mental processing variables to determine if opposite patterns of relative strength and weakness between the groups could be documented. Another aim was to externally validate the diagnostic criteria, which were based on standardized clinical…

A new readability formula is designed to work on passages that are 40 to 99 words long, while existing readability formulas require a passage of 300 words or longer. The new formula requires the passage to have at least three sentences and is reliable for the fourth through the twelfth grades. (Four figures which demonstrate the use of the formula…

Examined were preschoolers' spontaneous use of correspondence strategies. A total of 40 children 4 and 5 years of age were asked to divide a pile of cookies into two equal groups. The cookies were two sizes, halves and wholes, so even though there were trials with an odd number of cookies, it was possible to divide the cookies evenly. When…

To determine whether consensus existed among teachers about the complexity of common classroom materials, a survey was administered to 66 pre-service and in-service kindergarten and prekindergarten teachers. Participants were asked to rate 14 common classroom materials as simple, complex, or super-complex. Simple materials have one obvious part,…

To investigate the effects of task difficulty level and control over the level of difficulty on children's intrinsic motivation to play, attempts and successes were recorded as 80 four-year-old children played a bean bag game. The object of the game was to hit a target from one of five distances. Each of the distances constituted a different level…

This study was conducted in an effort to determine the value of using Bloom's "Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Cognitive Domain," along with Sanders'"Classroom Questions: What Kinds," in instructional sessions designed to increase the cognitive level of questioning by preservice classroom teachers. The question posed was: Are student teachers…

Proposes to test the hypothesis that despite previous negative findings, readers do alter their reading rate according to their purpose and to establish test conditions under which this competence can be exhibited. (Author/RC)

Describes a study which tested two hypotheses with 4- to 5-year-olds: (1) that a positive relationship exists between repeated exposure and preference for objects of peers, and (2) that preference for stimuli can be modulated by their relative novelty and complexity. (JMB)

Research supported in part by Veterans' Administration Medical Research Funds.

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze the performance of Louisiana's potential teachers on the Common Examinations of the National Teacher Examinations (NTE). Scores from 1352 examinees who took the Common Examinations of the NTE in February, 1979, were analyzed. The performance of Louisiana's potential teachers compares favorably…

The relative difficulty ratio (RDR) is used as a method of representing test difficulty. The RDR is the ratio of a test mean to the ideal mean, the point midway between the perfect score and the mean chance score for the test. The RDR tranformation is a linear scale conversion method but not a linear equating method in the classical sense. The…

The purposes of this study were to examine the development of classification ability in 36 month olds and to clarify the positive relationship between classification ability and general cognitive development. Subjects, 16 Japanese children (8 males, 8 females), were individually tested by the use of 12 colored pictures of animals and vehicles.…