The overriding objective of this study was to investigate secondary and university teachers' assessment conceptions in an EFL context using a four-factor ("Student Accountability", "School Accountability", "Improvement" and "Irrelevance") teachers' conceptions of assessment (TCoA) inventory (Brown, 2006).…

Student participation in undergraduate research (ugr) may be influenced by interest in research, future career and educational plans, perceived value of undergraduate research experiences, or perceived competence in research skills. The purpose of this study was to develop a questionnaire that could be used to validly and reliably assess students'…

Aspiring entrepreneurs give and receive support in growth-fostering interactions with seasoned entrepreneurs, mentors, peers, and others. This dissertation investigates viewpoints held by entrepreneurs about their experiences of effective mentoring support. Little is known about how an entrepreneur learns through interacting with different…

The purpose of this study was to assess the relative influence of career, financial, personal, and legal factors on African American male engagement in postsecondary career and technical education and to determine whether the influence of these factors was moderated by the participants having graduated or not graduated high school and by their…

The purpose of this study was to develop a core HIV/AIDS knowledge assessment (CHAKA) for students enrolled in counseling-related degree programs. Although there are studies that examined counseling HIV/AIDS knowledge, the instruments that were used were limited in ways that may compromise the accuracy of the inferences that were made. This study…

In the development of the national economies, the economy education in school curricula has an important place, because students may not have received the necessary economic realities and requirements. For that reason, it is necessary to determine the perception of wants and needs of children. In this study, it was aimed to develop a scale for…

Parallel analysis (PA) is an often-recommended approach for assessment of the dimensionality of a variable set. PA is known in different variants, which may yield different dimensionality indications. In this article, the authors considered the most appropriate PA procedure to assess the number of common factors underlying ordered polytomously…

Bi-factor analysis is a form of confirmatory factor analysis originally introduced by Holzinger. The bi-factor model has a general factor and a number of group factors. The purpose of this article is to introduce an exploratory form of bi-factor analysis. An advantage of using exploratory bi-factor analysis is that one need not provide a specific…

This paper presents heuristic explanations of factor scores, structure coefficients, and communality coefficients. Common misconceptions regarding these topics are clarified. In addition, (a) the regression (b) Bartlett, (c) Anderson-Rubin, and (d) Thompson methods for calculating factor scores are reviewed. Syntax necessary to execute all four…

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is used routinely in the development and validation of assessment instruments. One of the most significant challenges when one is performing EFA is determining how many factors to retain. Parallel analysis (PA) is an effective stopping rule that compares the eigenvalues of randomly generated data with those for…

An overview of popular software packages for conducting dimensionality assessment in multidimensional models is presented. Specifically, five popular software packages are described in terms of their capabilities to conduct dimensionality assessment with respect to the nature of analysis (exploratory or confirmatory), types of data (dichotomous,…

This paper presents and discusses the statistical analysis of the responses from an online survey administered to a sample of US superintendents (n=225) in an attempt to explore and authenticate the construct validity of the ISLLC 2008 Standards through exploratory factor analysis. Using a Principal Axis Factor method, 6 factors were extracted…

The attitude towards the study of chemistry for new entrant chemistry students from a multi-national, regional, tertiary educational institution in the South Pacific was investigated using a purpose-designed diagnostic instrument. The Attitude toward the Study of Chemistry Inventory (ASCI) was used to quantify attitude in a cohort of first year…

Three studies were combined to test the reliability, validity, and factor structure of the imaginative capability scale (ICS). The ICS was a new self-report measure, which was developed to be empirically valid and easy to administer. Study 1 consisted in an exploratory factor analysis to determine the most appropriate structure of the ICS in a…

The study's purpose was to develop and validate a scale for assessing interest in mathematics among elementary students as part of an identification protocol for gifted and talented programming. Lohman recommends assessment of interest as a critical element within the ideal approach to identification. Hidi and Renninger's Four-Phase Interest…