In the School of Education at the University of Adelaide, the use of oral evidence is increasingly common as students engage with reflective practices now dominant in teacher-education programs. These experiences offer both a dynamic perspective and a challenge to academic assessors and raise three questions, each of which are addressed in this…

Higher order factor analysis is an extension of factor analysis that is little used, but which offers the potential to model the hierarchical order often seen in natural (including psychological) phenomena more accurately. The process of higher order factor analysis is reviewed briefly, and various interpretive aids, including the Schmid-Leiman…

The program can compute a great number of different correlation and other statistical measures. The user is free to select among the measures and also among the variables that are read by the program. When a particular set of variables has been treated in the prescribed way, a new set may follow together with new measure definitions. (Author)

A desirable property of the equamax criterion for analytic rotation in factor analysis is presented. (Author)

Bounds are obtained for a coefficient proposed by Kaiser as a measure of average correlation and the coefficient is given an interpretation in the context of reliability theory. It is suggested that the root-mean-square intercorrelation may be a more appropriate measure of degree of relationships among a group of variables. (Author)

Distributional characteristics of the measure of sampling adequacy (MSA) were investigated in sample correlation matrices generated from multivariate normal populations with covariance matrix equal to the identity. Systematic variation of sample size and number of variables resulted in minimal fluctuation of the overall MSA from .50. (Author/RC)

A scale-invariant simple structure function of previously studied function components for principal component analysis and factor analysis is defined. First and second partial derivatives are obtained, and Newton-Raphson iterations are utilized. The resulting solutions are locally optimal and subjectively pleasing. (Author/JKS)

Considers some characterizations of the multivariate normal distribution based on properties of linear functions of dependent vector variables. (RC)

Maximally reliable composites found in canonical reliability when expressed in the form of a canonical factor analysis solution are shown to have highly desirable data reduction properties. Theoretical relationships among canonical factor analysis, principal components analysis and canonical reliability analysis are emphasized. (Author/JKS)

Following the work of Tucker, Cooper, and Meredith, image and anti-image covariance matrices from a correlation matrix that may be singular are derived. The algebra of image and anti-image covariance matrices and the work of Tucker, Cooper, and Meredith are reviewed. (Author/JKS)

Generalized symmetric means are redefined in a way which allows them to be calculated for any matrix sampling design. It is proved that these sample generalized symmetric means are unbiased estimates of the analogous population generalized symmetric means. Illustrative examples are given. (Author)

A direct proof of Tucker, Cooper, and Meredith's procedure for obtaining the squared multiple correlations from a singular correlation matrix is given. (Author)

The authors recommend a more appropriate curriculum for transportation in industrial arts than that currently in use. They say this could be achieved by adding an economic and human behavior emphasis to the mechanical orientation proposed by other educators. (CT)