bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
TEACHER STRESS: PREVALENCE, SOURCES, AND SYMPTOMS
Authors: KYRIACOU C. , SUTCLIFFE J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. A questionnaire survey was used to investigate the prevalence, sources, and symptoms of stress among 257 schoolteachers in 16 medium‐sized, mixed comprehensive schools in England. About one‐fifth of the teachers rated being a teacher as either very stressful or extremely stressful. There appeared to be little association between self‐reported teacher stress and the biographical characteristics of the teachers. Sources of stress with relatively high mean stress ratings included ‘pupils’ poor attitudes to work', ‘trying to uphold/maintain values and standards’, and ‘covering lessons for absent teachers’. A principal components analysis of the sources of stress revealed four factors labelled' pupil misbehaviour', ‘poor working conditions’, ‘time pressures’, and ‘poor school ethos’. The most frequent symptoms of stress reported were ‘exhaustion’ and feeling ‘frustrated’. A principal components analysis of the symptoms of stress revealed one factor labelled ‘awareness of stress symptoms' which appeared to be largely defined by reported frequency of feeling ‘very tense’.
EXAMINATION PAPER LENGTH: HOW MANY QUESTIONS?
Authors: HILL B. J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The effect of examination length on inter‐marker reliability has been investigated for four three‐hour examinations in engineering subjects. The shortening of the examinations has been simulated by considering alternative combinations of solutions from scripts from the full‐length examinations which have already been subjected to multiple marking. The results suggest that the five or six solutions required in the full‐length examinations are too few to assess the candidates accurately. As expected, reducing the length of the examination increases the effect of marking error.
CHILDREN'S DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF INFERENCES ABOUT INTENTIONS AND MOTIVES IN MORAL JUDGMENT
Authors: EMLER N. P.
Published: May 2011

Summary. A sample of 42 children, age 5 to 7, were tested for their ability to give appropriate causal accounts of incidents and to consider intentions and motives in judging the characters involved in these incidents. Results indicated that children are able to consider intention before they develop the ability to consider motives in moral judgment. A comparison of the causal accounts and moral judgments showed that children can make the appropriate causal inferences before they are able to make use of these in their moral judgments. This supports an interpretation of immature moral judgments as reflecting a deficiency in mediation rather than a deficiency in capacity.
SELECTING PICTURES OF ANOTHER PERSON'S VIEW
Authors: HUGHES M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Two experiments are reported which compared different forms of presentation of a perspective‐taking task. The task required 4‐year‐old children to select pictures showing another person's view of an array similar to Piaget and Inhelder's mountains. In Experiment 1 virtually all children failed a standard version of the task; however, 13 out of 20 succeeded when the task was preceded by preliminary questions which referred to critical attributes of the array and the pictures. These preliminary questions enabled children to adopt a successful two‐stage strategy on the task. Experiment 2 replicated this finding and showed that both sets of preliminary questions were required for this effect; it also showed that when the task was presented in two stages which directly mirrored the successful strategy, virtually all children succeeded on the task. Similar results were found for 3‐year‐old children.
THE EFFECTS OF QUANTITATIVE FEEDBACK ON CHILDREN'S EXPECTATION OF SUCCESS
Authors: CLIFFORD MARGARET M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. A pair of studies conducted with first, third, and fifth graders supports the prediction that concrete, quantitative feedback, as opposed to qualitative comments, increases the validity of children's expectations of their level of performance. Children were presented with a series of puzzles on which they worked under different feedback conditions. The validity of expectations was examined under two conditions, and also the attributions they made for their levels of performance. These data also confirm previous findings which indicate that overestimation of levels of performance decreases with age. In addition it was found that children's attribution of success to ability decreased with age. Few children at any grade level attributed their performance on these particular puzzles to luck, as opposed to effort.
KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURES AND STYLES OF LEARNING: A SUMMARY OF PASK'S RECENT RESEARCH
Authors: ENTWISTLE N. J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Recent research on representations of knowledge and styles of learning carried out by Pask and his colleagues is summarised and discussed in relation to earlier work. The claims made for the wide applicability of conversation theory to learning and teaching in schools and higher education are considered in the light of the evidence presented to date.
INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP DIFFERENCES IN STUDY PROCESSES
Authors: BIGGS J. B.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Study processes are postulated to intervene between classes of presage variables (personological, institutional) and product variables (academic performance). Results from several studies indicate that particular study strategies are deployed with differing success according to certain personality factors, most notably a syndrome of characteristics related to internal or external locus of control. Institutional factors that have an effect on study behaviour include Faculty membership (Arts/Science), mode of evaluation (Objective/Essay), and method of combining marks for final grade.

The interaction between personality and environmental factors as determining performance is, however, rather complex and no easy generalisations can be drawn, beyond saying that academic success is not achieved by any single study strategy; ‘good’ students work effectively in quite diverse but characteristic ways. Ten dimensions of study process have evolved as sub‐scales in a Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ), and they show a stable second‐order structure consisting of three orthogonal dimensions: Reproducing, Internalising and Organising. Each dimension comprises a unique version of the value‐motive‐strategy complex. Two different models of the interaction between dimensions are postulated together with implications for future research.
ON SHARED KNOWLEDGE: TEACHERS AND SEVERELY SUBNORMAL CHILDREN
Authors: SWANN W. S.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The interaction between one teacher and two severely subnormal children, aged 6 and 8, in structured teaching sessions is described. The two children differed considerably in verbal comprehension of the crucial task attributes, colour, shape and size, and in the quality and quantity of their participation in the interaction. It was found that the teacher was sensitive to differences between the children and differed in certain aspects of the quality of her interaction, but not in quantity. However, these differences appear to be a function of relatively static models of the children and do not appear to be adaptive to the particular task involved.
INVITED ADDRESS: SCOTTISH COUNCIL FOR RESEARCH IN EDUCATION*
Authors: VERNON P. E.
Published: May 2011

Summary.— Changing ideas on intelligence testing and the heritability of intelligence are followed through a fifty‐year period. Common criticisms of intelligence tests are examined, but it is concluded that intellectual tests will continue to be of value in diagnosing the strengths and weaknesses, particularly of exceptional children.

The arguments about the extent to which heredity and environment contribute to the development of intelligence are traced through a turbulent period. The evidence presented is consistent with an environmental contribution of over 20 per cent of the variance, although the precise value is not considered to be as important as recognising that both genes and environment have very substantial effects on the measured intelligence of children. The inaccuracies detected in some of the research reports on the heritability of intelligence are not considered to invalidate the argument as a whole.
KINDERGARTEN PROGRAMMES AND THE YOUNG CHILD'S TASK ORIENTATION AND UNDERSTANDING ABOUT TIME SCHEDULING
Authors: NASH B. C.
Published: May 2011

Summary. In a cumulative study over five years, detailed evaluation of kindergarten programmes was made along the dimensions of teacher treatment of time, classroom spatial arrangement, equipment and materials, and communication between people. After preliminary studies, four types of programme varying in time scheduling and planning for and reinforcement of task orientation were defined. The effects of the programmes on four‐ and five‐year‐old pupils were observed.

As predicted, the task orientation of the children in both age groups varied with the degree of attention to programme planning to enhance it. Detailed description of the task orientation enhancing programme is provided. Girls in all programmes increased their task orientation more than boys, and in regular programmes decreased their task orientation in response to teacher‐planned interruptions.

In the enhancing programmes, children felt more responsibility for their own learning. It is concluded that the climate of the classroom for young children is set mainly through the treatment of time. The early part of the school is the period when task orientation can be increased and during the second half of the year it is consolidated or decreased. In programmes of the type most commonly used in North America and Great Britain, task orientation was found to decrease between January and May for almost half the children.
A CROSS‐CULTURAL STUDY OF SCIENCE CLASSROOM INTERACTIONS
Authors: HACKER R. G. , HAWKES R. L. , HEFFERNAN M. K.
Published: May 2011

Summary. A British observational study of science classroom interactions was replicated in Atlantic Canada with 33 teacher‐class units. Observational data from the Canadian classrooms were cluster‐analysed and two preferred teaching styles emerged from this analysis. It was concluded that patterns of teaching in the Canadian classrooms studied differed substantially from those patterns observed in classrooms in the United Kingdom. An overall comparison of the results of the two studies revealed a less practical approach to science teaching in the Canadian classrooms observed, with greater emphasis on the informational aspects of science and convergent, problem‐solving activities.
REMOVING THE MARKS FROM EXAMINATION SCRIPTS BEFORE RE‐MARKING THEM: DOES IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE?
Authors: MURPHY R. J. L.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Two senior GCE examiners re‐marked photocopies of the same two hundred GCE examination scripts. One hundred of these scripts still had the marks and comments of the original examiners on them, whereas these were removed from the other one hundred. Comparisons were made between the marks awarded by the two examiners to these scripts and the original marks and it was found that removing previous marks and comments made a considerable difference to the extent to which these three sets of marks agreed.
SOCIAL CLASS AND MEMORY FOR CATEGORISED AND UNCATEGORISED LISTS
Authors: WETHERICK N. E. , PATERSON SHIRLEY , DALLAS‐ROSS CLARE
Published: May 2011

Summary. Two experiments suggest that Jensen may be wrong in supposing that middle class children's superiority in the recall of categorised lists is evidence of a permanent middle class superiority in Level II ability. Categorised and uncategorised lists of single‐syllable words were given to 176 children aged 15, 11, 8 and 6 years. Four‐way analysis of variance of the number of words remembered indicated that Jensen's findings may indicate only a transitory developmental phenomenon arising from the greater emphasis on verbal interaction in middle class families and the faster rate of verbal development in girls than in boys.
ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE SCHOOL, THE TEACHER, AND CLASSMATES AT THE CLASS AND INDIVIDUAL LEVEL
Authors: GUSTAFSSON J.‐E.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The responses of the pupils in 60 6th grade classes to a 40‐item questionnaire assessing attitudes towards the school, the teacher, and the classmates are factor analysed at two levels of aggregation, classes and pupils‐within‐classes. The same factors were found at both levels but they accounted for different amounts of variance: at the class level factors reflecting attitudes towards the teacher and characteristics of the class as a whole were strong, while at the individual level factors reflecting attitudes towards the school and the individual pupil's relations to the classmates were strong. Relations between personality variables and the attitude scales are also studied at the two levels of aggregation and implications of the results for the measurement of personality are discussed.
CHILD‐REARING ATTITUDES OF MOTHERS OF UNDER‐, AVERAGE‐, AND OVER‐ACHIEVING CHILDREN
Authors: BANNER C. N.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The relationships between child‐rearing attitudes of mothers and levels of academic achievement of their 11‐year‐old (grade six) elementary school children were examined. The sample included 191 mothers (103 mothers of sons and 88 mothers of daughters). Maternal attitudes were assessed by the Parental Attitude Research Instrument. The criterion of academic achievement for the children consisted of objective achievement test scores in reading plus mathematics. Level of academic achievement was denned in terms of the relationship between expected and actual achievement using the regression‐equation method. Those items of the Parental Attitude Research Instrument, which discriminated significantly between mothers of under‐, average‐, and over‐achievers, were subjected to factor analysis. The test data of the mothers of sons and mothers of daughters were processed separately. Four factors were identified for the mothers of sons and also four factors for the mothers of daughters. The results indicated that, compared with the mothers of average‐ and over‐achievers, the mothers of under‐achieving sons are more dominant, rigid, and restrictive in the sense of being possessive and intrusive, while the mothers of underachieving daughters are more dominant, rigid and restrictive in terms of being protective.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN CHILDREN'S PREFERENCES AMONG RECENT PAINTINGS
Authors: BELL R. , BELL G.
Published: May 2011

Summary. A study of preferences among recent paintings was conducted with 86 Melbourne schoolchildren. Although dimensions of preference were found which were similar to those identified by children in other studies (i.e., representation, colour, and complexity), differences by sex and grade were found only for colour and complexity. In addition, preference for representational painting, often found in studies encompassing a range of periods, was not noted for these more recent paintings.
ACHIEVEMENT RELATIVE TO A MEASURE OF GENERAL INTELLIGENCE
Authors: GLOSSOP J. A. , APPLEYARD R. , ROBERTS C.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Four indices of achievement relative to a measure of general intelligence were constructed for a sample of 178 adolescents. Measures of achievement were taken from tests in reading comprehension and mathematics from an English essay and from the results of public examinations at 16+. Relative achievement measures were derived from the regression residuals of the four separate achievement scores against scores on the AH4 test of general intelligence. Using reliability estimates for two achievement tests, reading comprehension and mathematics, and for the intelligence test, it was calculated that 69 per cent of the variance in the regression residual for reading comprehension, and 56 per cent in that for mathematics, were independent of unreliabilities in the tests. Analysis of the relationships between the four regression residuals indicated a single major component on which all the residuals were highly loaded, but the low correlation found between essay and mathematics with intelligence controlled suggested the involvement of two independent skills. Correlations with an additional set of variables indicated that pupils from poorer social backgrounds, with poorer records of attendance and poorer ratings of conduct in school obtained lower scores relative to their intelligence test scores for all the achievement measures; boys tended to obtain lower scores than girls except in mathematics where there was no significant sex difference.
ASSESSING BEHAVIOURAL ADJUSTMENT TO SCHOOL
Authors: YOUNGMAN M. B.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The development of a 34‐item self‐report measure of behavioural adjustment to school is described in detail. Analysis identified three distinct scales—studiousness, compliance and teacher contact. All three scales and the total score are shown to have acceptable reliability and well‐defined construct validity within a normal lower secondary school population. Various applications of the instrument, including the use of a teacher form, are also discussed.
HAS PIAGET'S CONSTRUCT OF FORMAL OPERATIONAL THINKING ANY UTILITY?
Authors: SHAYER M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The relation between Piaget's logical theory of formal operational thinking and his account of cognitive development is discussed. The consistency of the latter is tested by a factor‐analytical study of the performance of 481 14‐year‐olds on five formal tasks. The content and concurrent validity of the group tests developed is reported, together with test‐retest and internal consistency reliabilities. Formal operational thinking was found to be a unitary construct, and both heterogeneity of performance and décalage were found to be smaller than a recent review had suggested. Yet it was concluded that a theory possessing predictive power is still elusive.
THE EFFECT OF EXTRAVERSION AND DETAIL CONTENT ON THE RECALL OF PROSE BY ELEVEN‐YEAR‐OLD CHILDREN
Authors: RIDING R. J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Judges allocated the 30 details in a prose passage to the six content categories of abstraction, action, time interval, quantity, appearance and direction of movement. Groups of extravert, ambivert and introvert 11‐year‐old children listened to the 230‐word passage and were tested for recall after one hour. Half of each extraversion division were given a free‐recall test while the rest answered questions. The principal finding was of a significant interaction between extraversion and detail content in their effect on recall. Abstractions were best recalled by extraverts, time intervals and quantities by ambiverts, and directions by introverts. There was little difference between the groups in their recall of action and appearance details. These results were considered in terms of a possible relationship between extraversion and the mode in which information is represented in memory. A secondary finding was of a significant interaction between extraversion and recall test type in their effect on recall.
REFLECTION‐IMPULSIVITY AND READING ABILITY IN SEVEN‐YEAR‐OLD CHILDREN
Authors: ROBERTS TESSA
Published: May 2011

Summary. Reading ability and performance on the Matching Familiar Figures Test were compared for two samples of seven‐year‐old children, a sample of 70 constituting a complete top infant year group in two infant schools and a sample of 42 poor readers from nine top infant classes in the same city. Considerably more of the poor readers than the main sample were found to be impulsive. There was a consistent tendency for girls to be more reflective than boys.
NON‐DIRECTIVE AND INTRUSIVE TEACHING STYLES OF MIDDLE‐ AND WORKING‐CLASS ENGLISH MOTHERS
Authors: PHINNEY JEAN S. , FESHBACH NORMA DEITCH
Published: May 2011

Summary. Sixty‐three mother‐child dyads, selected from middle‐ and working‐class English backgrounds, were observed in semi‐structured teaching activities. The five activities were selected for the 2½‐3½ year‐old child sample. Observers scored precoded maternal and child behaviours. An analysis of covariance, with mother's age and child's age as covariates, indicated that middle‐class mothers used significantly fewer negative statements and imperatives, and significantly more questions. They were also less intrusive. Within‐class correlations showed two maternal styles in the working class, a negative intrusive style and a positive, non‐directive style.
INTERACTION AMONG DIMENSIONS OF ACADEMIC MOTIVATION AND CLASSROOM SOCIAL CLIMATE: A STUDY OF THE PERCEPTIONS OF JUNIOR HIGH AND HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS
Authors: FRY P. S. , COE K. J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Previous studies have found a relationship between classroom social climate dimensions and specific academic outcome factors. The present study explored relationships among multidimensional characteristics of classroom social climates and pupil academic motivations in those settings. Classrooms perceived to be high in teacher support and involvement were associated with student motivations of self‐improvement, academic success and enjoyment of learning. By contrast, classrooms perceived to be teacher‐controlled or competition‐oriented were related with anti‐school feelings and a relative absence of self‐improvement desires and enjoyment of learning. Task‐oriented classrooms were associated with pupils expressing a greater desire for career preparation. Findings of these relationships are of significance for social systems intervention. Implications of these relationships are discussed in terms of reducing dissonance between classroom influences and negative affects of pupils, and for achieving greater congruence between positive motivations and classroom climate.
SOME DETERMINANTS OF EARLY SECONDARY SCHOOL PERFORMANCE
Authors: YOUNGMAN M. B.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This paper reports further analyses of a study of primary/secondary transfer for which certain findings have already been published (Youngman and Lunzer, 1977; Youngman, 1978; Youngman, 1979). Here the concern is to examine the various pupil characteristics that might determine subsequent academic performance in secondary school. It employs covariance regression models rather than the more customary stepwise or complete models and consequently slightly different hypotheses are investigated. Specifically the analyses seek to determine what measures or sets of measures have independent effects on achievement or progress in reading or mathematics. Two samples (N=290 and 359) are analysed separately to test the possible generality of the results obtained.

The results presented comprise the two sample correlation matrices, a covariance regression summary table for reading achievement, and summary charts for all four performance criteria analyses. Most of the discussion and interpretation is based on these summary charts. From them it is seen that in spite of differences in intellectual level (Youngman, 1978) variations between the results for the two samples are small. The predominant pattern indicates that neither biographic nor dispositional (that is, attitude or personality) characteristics show any marked independent effect on performance. On the other hand intellectual characteristics show strong effects, both individually and in association with other intellectual measures.
EXTRAVERSION, NEUROTICISM, INTELLIGENCE AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN NORTHERN NIGERIA
Authors: MAQSUD M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This study in the Northern Nigerian educational system tested the hypothesis of British and American studies that academic achievement at primary school is positively associated with extraversion. One hundred and sixty primary school boys completed the JEPI and Raven's Progressive Matrices. The relationships between the subjects' E, N, intelligence and achievement scores were examined. Contrary to the findings of British and American studies, the results of this enquiry yielded a significant negative association between extraversion and academic attainment.
WISC PERFORMANCE SCALE AND COLOURED PROGRESSIVE MATRICES WITH DEAF CHILDREN
Authors: EVANS L.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The study set out to evaluate the suitability of the WISC Performance test and Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices for use with deaf children aged 5 to 12 years. The two tests were administered to 125 deaf children, together with a pure‐tone measure of hearing loss. Eventual performance in CSE examinations at age 16 was recorded for the older subjects. Test scores were not influenced by degree of hearing loss. The WISC Performance test was found to have good measures of reliability and predictive validity, but presented difficulties in administration to some young or physically handicapped children. The Coloured Progressive Matrices had satisfactory reliability, close comparability with WISC Performance scores and useful predictive validity in the case of the older subjects, but the suitability of this test for use with the younger deaf children was not confirmed.
THE EFFECTS OF A DYSLEXIA‐CENTRED TEACHING PROGRAMME
Authors: HORNSBY BEVÉ , MILES T. R.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Results are presented for 107 retarded children who received tuition by means of a ‘dyslexia‐centred’ programme. In 41 cases the teaching was organised by a hospital clinic, in 44 cases by a unit attached to a university department, and in 22 cases by a private body, these three centres being different in many other ways but alike in that all took the concept of dyslexia seriously. It is argued that in suitable conditions such teaching can be effective, and the implications for the concept of dyslexia are briefly discussed.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF SEX DIFFERENCES IN EVALUATIONS OF OTHERS' SUCCESSES AND FAILURES
Authors: ROGERS C. G.
Published: May 2011

Summary. 240 children aged 9, 12 and 15 years evaluated successes and failures of other children. Information concerning the other children's levels of ability, effort and outcome together with sex was supplied. A number of sex differences were found particularly concerning the extent to which the evaluations related to the effort and outcome information supplied. The results are compared to those of earlier studies conducted in the United States of America and Iran.
AN ANALYSIS OF GROUP INTERACTION AND MATHEMATICAL ERRORS IN HETEROGENEOUS ABILITY GROUPS
Authors: WEBB NOREEN M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This study investigated group interaction and mathematical errors of 11th‐grade students working individually and in four‐person heterogeneous ability groups. Averaging over all types of errors, high‐ability students did best in the individual condition, low‐ability students did best in the group condition, and medium‐ability students did equally well in both conditions. When types of errors were distinguished, for high‐ability students, the group condition was detrimental to learning new material (the mathematical algorithm) but was advantageous for performance on previously learned material (computational and algebraic manipulations); for medium‐ability students, the group condition was good for learning the algorithm but not for performance on computational and algebraic manipulations; for low‐ability students, group work was beneficial for performance of new and previously learned material. Group interaction was related to achievement: students who described or received explanations about the mathematical algorithm did well on the algorithm on the test, and students who explained how to perform computational or algebraic manipulations did well on those manipulations on the test.
EFFECTS OF PERSONAL LECTURE NOTES AND TEACHER‐NOTES ON RECALL OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
Authors: MAQSUD M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Two experiments studied the effects of note‐taking, strategy of note‐taking (short/long notes) and reviewing personal notes and/or simplified teacher‐notes on immediate and delayed recall. One hundred and sixty university students, classified as either short or long note‐takers, served as subjects. They listened to a recorded lecture and then their immediate and delayed retention was assessed by means of the free recall test. Analysis of results revealed that the act of note‐taking has facilitative effects on both immediate and long‐term recall. Free recall scores of subjects who took short notes in their normal lectures tended to be significantly higher than those who took long notes. Reviewing personal lecture notes and/or simplified and organised teacher‐notes facilitates delayed recall.
THE USE OF ORIENTATIONS IN CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS OF FAMILIAR OBJECTS: PRINCIPLES VERSUS PERCEPTS
Authors: IVES S. W.
Published: May 2011

Summary. It has been suggested that drawings are constructions which follow certain principles and that young children are reluctant to relinquish these principles. Kindergartners, second graders, fourth graders were asked to draw familiar objects (e.g., toy car) placed in several orientations or in an orientation of their choice to determine if the orientation depicted in their drawings would be guided more by graphic principles or by the view before them. The use of graphic principles prevailed in the choice of orientation even though many children in second and fourth grade carefully recorded other aspects particular to the objects in front of them (e.g., make and model of car).
THE EFFECT OF HEADINGS ON CHILDREN'S RECALL FROM PROSE TEXT
Authors: HARTLEY J. , KENELY JILLIAN , OWEN GWENDA , TRUEMAN M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. One hundred and seventy‐five children studied a short passage in one of four conditions—control, passage with title, passage with headings in the form of statements, and passage with headings in the form of questions. The results showed that the passages with headings were recalled significantly better than the control passage or the passage with a title, on both immediate and long‐term recall (14 days later). In addition, low ability children profited best from the text with headings in the form of questions.
USING STUDENT RATINGS AND CONSULTATION TO IMPROVE INSTRUCTION
Authors: McKEACHIE W. J. , LIN Y‐G. , DAUGHERTY MONICA , MOFFETT MARY M. , NEIGLER CYNTHIA , NORK J. , WALZ MARTINA , BALDWIN R.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The effect upon teaching of feedback from student ratings was compared with the effect produced when such feedback was supplemented by consultation from a more experienced teacher. Consultation enhanced the positive effect of the feedback in terms of later student ratings. The effect upon student achievement in the classes of the teachers involved tended to be positive but not consistent across courses.
UNDERSTANDING THE PURPOSE OF STRATEGY TRAINING
Authors: LAWSON M. J. , FUELOEP SANDRA
Published: May 2011

Summary. Two groups of retarded adults were trained to use a cumulative rehearsal strategy for a serial recall task. Those subjects who received instructions which emphasised the intended purpose and potential uses of the trained strategy showed significantly better serial recall performance than subjects invited to participate in ‘a remembering task’. The superiority in serial recall performance was present up to one week after training ceased. The results are discussed in terms of the role of executive, or metacognitive, skills in the facilitation of transfer.
EXTRAVERSION AND PERFORMANCE ON RAVEN'S MATRICES IN 15–16 YEAR OLD CHILDREN: AN EXAMINATION OF ANTHONY'S THEORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXTRAVERSION
Authors: CROOKES T. G. , PEARSON P. R. , FRANCIS L. J. , CARTER MARIAN
Published: May 2011

Summary. Anthony's theory (1973) of the development of extraversion in children requires that there should be a negative correlation between extraversion and intelligence in adolescents over the age of 13 or 14. To test this, Raven's Progressive Matrices and the Junior Eysenck Personality Inventory were administered to a large group (802) of 15‐ and 16‐year‐olds. There was a significant positive correlation between extraversion and the Matrices, so Anthony's theory was not supported.
STRUCTURAL AND ORGANISATIONAL FEATURES OF SENSORIMOTOR INTELLIGENCE AMONG RETARDED INFANTS AND TODDLERS
Authors: DUNST C. J. , BRASSELL W. R. , RHEINGROVER REGINA M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. According to Piaget, cognitive development is characterised by the simultaneous and concurrent emergence of constructs that require the same underlying intellectual processes. Such syncronies in development—structure d'ensemble in Piaget's terms—are a fundamental feature of his stage theory. In the present study, the structural features of sensorimotor intelligence were assessed among three groups of retarded infants and toddlers administered the seven Uzgiris and Hunt Piagetian based scales. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA)—a procedure designed to partition variables into optimally homogeneous groups—was performed on two measures of relationship (stage congruence and intercorrelations) among the responses of the subjects on these scales to determine the methodological utility of the statistical procedure. The results proved positive, and yielded information useful for discerning the unique patterns of organisation of sensorimotor intelligence among the three groups of children. The potential utility of HCA as an analytical technique for studying Piaget's structure d'ensemble stage criteria is illustrated.
TEACHING STYLES AND PUPIL PROGRESS: A RE‐ANALYSIS
Authors: AITKIN M. , BENNETT S. N. , HESKETH JANE
Published: May 2011

Summary. The object of the study was to examine the statistical techniques available for the analysis of process‐product studies involving non‐randomised quasi‐experimental designs, and to demonstrate the practical effects of their use on the data from the Teaching Styles study (Bennett, 1976). Of particular concern were the ‘unit of analysis’ or aggregation problem, and the differential effects of treatment grouping by cluster and factor methods.

The original grouping of teachers into formal, informal and mixed styles was investigated using a latent class model for the 38 binary questionnaire items. Convincing evidence of three overlapping latent classes was found. The comparison of latent classes in terms of pre‐test gain scores was examined using a series of variance component models, allowing for correlation of children within the same class. Differences among classes were altered by the probabilistic clustering of the latent class model compared to the original findings, and the significance of the differences was reduced when the correlation among children was allowed for.
FORMAL OR INFORMAL? A RE‐ASSESSMENT OF THE BRITISH EVIDENCE
Authors: GRAY J. , SATTERLY D.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The original findings of the study Teaching Styles and Pupil Progress (Bennett, 1976) commanded widespread attention and generated considerable debate about the relative effectiveness of ‘formal’ and informal teaching styles. This article is prompted by a number of developments. These include: recent re‐analysis of the original data reported elsewhere in this issue (Aitkin et al., 1981); some further re‐analysis of the same data which we ourselves have undertaken; the existence of a number of other British studies which are directly relevant to these questions; and the continuing dominance of the ‘formal/informal’ dichotomy in much discussion of research on teacher effectiveness. Our concern is to determine whether there is an overall trend in the British evidence in favour of one or other style and to reach some judgment about how important the formal‐informal distinction might be in future studies of teacher effectiveness.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES ATTRIBUTED TO SELF‐CORRECTION IN READING
Authors: THOMPSON G. B.
Published: May 2011

Summary. An appraisal was made of data reported by Clay (1969) as evidence for individual differences in self‐correction behaviour in children's reading. It was found that the index of incidence of self‐correction behaviour used by Clay had several properties which could not be justified and no other measure from the data could support the original conclusions.
THE ‘BOTTLES TEST’: A QUICK, CONVENIENT, ALTERNATIVE PROCEDURE FOR ASSESSING CONSERVATION OF LIQUID QUANTITY
Authors: BENNER HAZEL , WHELDALL K.
Published: May 2011

Summary. A sample of 40 six‐ to seven‐year‐old children were tested for conservation of liquid quantity using traditional Piagetian procedures involving pouring to achieve the transformations. These results were then compared with those subsequently obtained using an alternative procedure in which sealed bottles were inverted to achieve similar transformations. Very high correlations between the results of the two procedures were obtained for both conservation of equality and of inequality. The ‘Bottles Test’ is therefore suggested as a quick, convenient, alternative to conventional liquid conservation assessment procedures.
RE‐EXAMINATION OF THE COVARIATION OF FIELD INDEPENDENCE, INTELLIGENCE AND ACHIEVEMENT
Authors: ROBERGE J. J. , FLEXER B. K.
Published: May 2011

Summary. A principal factor analysis was performed on a matrix of correlations among measures of field independence, intelligence, and achievement in reading and mathematics. Factors of general intelligence and verbal ability were identified. Field independence shared a substantial amount of variance with general intellectual ability.
WISC‐R CORRELATES OF ACADEMIC ATTAINMENT AT 16½ YEARS
Authors: YULE W. , GOLD R. D. , BUSCH CAROL
Published: May 2011

Summary. As part of a longitudinal study, a randomly selected group of 82 adolescents were tested on both WISC‐R and academic attainments. This paper reports the relationships between WISC‐R and attainment, and with CSE and GCE results.
THE USE OF ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE CODES IN CHILDREN'S DISCRIMINATION LEARNING
Authors: PRYCE SUSAN D. , SLATER A. M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Four experiments are described in which children's and adults' abilities to detect and respond to the absolute and relative features of stimuli varying in size were investigated. The first two experiments confirmed and extended previous findings and indicated that young children depend primarily on relative codes and have difficulties in registering the absolute values of stimuli. In Experiment 3 this finding was reversed and four‐year‐old children (a) performed best in a learning task in which both the absolute and relative components of the stimuli were held constant, and (b) learned more quickly in a task requiring abstraction of the absolute components of the stimuli than in one where relative cues only were available. Differences in the methodologies of the two designs were explored in Experiment 4 in order to resolve the apparently contradictory nature of these findings. Overall, the results of the four experiments lead to the conclusion that relational responding to a stimulus that is of intermediate size is more difficult than responding to the absolute properties of a stimulus, which in turn is more difficult than responding to a simple relational cue such as smallest or largest.

The results of the experiments show that children from an early age are able to abstract and respond both to the relative and absolute properties of stimuli, and that the features responded to in a particular experiment are determined primarily, not by age, but by the characteristics of the experimental design and by the nature of the absolute or relative response required.
SEMANTIC CONTEXT AND GRAPHIC PROCESSING IN THE ACQUISITION OF READING
Authors: THOMPSON G. B.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Two experiments provided tests of predictions about children's use of semantic contextual information in reading, under conditions of minimal experience with graphic processing. The predictions were from the theory of Smith (1978) and from an extension of the La Berge and Samuels account of attentional limitations. In Experiment 1, 24 children of age 6½ years read, orally, passages of continuous text with normal and with low semantic constraints, under conditions (lower case, upper case, mixed case) in which the subjects had different degrees of experience with the graphic processing. In Experiment 2, 48 children of ages 8 and 11 years read the same passages under a different set of graphic conditions which included cursive handwriting. The results were not consistent with the predictions from either theoretical account. The results were discussed also in relation to the account of Morton (1964, 1969, 1979).
THE EFFECTS OF ITEM BY ITEM FEEDBACK GIVEN DURING AN ABILITY TEST
Authors: WHETTON C. , CHILDS R.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Answer‐until‐correct (AUC) is a procedure for providing item by item feedback during a multiple‐choice test, giving an increased range of scores. The performance of a group of children on an ability test using AUC procedures was compared with a group using conventional instructions. AUC scores considerably enhanced reliability but not validity. A comparison of item analyses for the two groups showed no evidence of learning during the test. This suggests that attempts to derive measures of ‘ability to learn’ which are based on changes in responding during the course of a test administered with feedback should be treated with caution. Evidence should be provided that similar changes in response pattern do not occur in a conventionally administered test.
PUPIL PERCEPTION AND PUPIL EVALUATION BY SENIOR SECONDARY TEACHERS IN RELIGIOUS AND COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOLS IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
Authors: HENRY RACHAEL M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The application of Repertory Grid Technique to teachers' perceptions and evaluations of senior secondary pupils in two urban religious schools and a rural comprehensive challenged traditional approaches underlying classifications such as ‘progressive’ versus ‘traditional’ as representations of teacher outlook. It also revealed a generally low level of articulation and differentiation in those teachers' construct systems in the area of pupil perception. The analysis of individual grids failed to support the assumptions of intrapersonal and transpersonal meaning implicit in previous interpretations of construct frequency and rank data in this area. Finally, disjunctions between the Repertory Grid data and pupils' 16PF scores indicated possible constraints operating on the interpretation of Repertory Grid data.
EFFECTS OF ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS ON STUDENTS' APPROACHES TO STUDYING
Authors: RAMSDEN P. , ENTWISTLE N. J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. 2208 students from 66 academic departments in six contrasting disciplines from British universities and polytechnics completed an ‘approaches to studying’ inventory and a course perceptions questionnaire. Factor analyses of these instruments confirmed the factor structures previously reported. Approaches to studying can be described in terms of three main factors—orientations towards personal meaning, reproducing, and achieving. In the present analysis the final factor split into two: achieving orientation and a factor labelled ‘disorganised and dilatory’ which showed a close relationship with self‐rating of academic progress. The course perceptions questionnaire produced two main factors. One described formal teaching methods, vocational relevance, and clear goals and standards, and the other represented a favourable departmental evaluation with the highest loadings on good teaching and openness to students. Subsequent analyses examined links between students' perceptions of their main academic departments and their reported approaches to studying. Departments with highest mean scores on meaning orientation were perceived as having good teaching and allowing freedom in learning. Departments with the highest mean scores on reproducing orientation were seen to have a heavy workload and a lack of freedom in learning. The implications of these statistical findings are discussed in relation to continuing analyses of interview data which clarify the ways in which the organisation of teaching and courses may affect students' approaches to learning.
THE LEARNING PROCESSES OF AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: INVESTIGATIONS OF CONTEXTUAL AND PERSONOLOGICAL FACTORS
Authors: WATKINS D. , HATTIE J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Two studies are reported which investigate sex, faculty, and age (academic year) differences in the study methods of students at an Australian university. Significant main effects were found, but there was little evidence of any interactions. Correlations with grade point average indicated that success in Science‐based faculties was related to using a deep‐level approach to study relatively infrequently adopted by these students. It would seem that it was the young students, the male students, and the students enrolled in Science‐based faculties who were most in need of study methods counselling.
THE McCARTHY SCALES OF CHILDREN'S ABILITIES: A NORMATIVE STUDY ON ENGLISH 4‐YEAR‐OLDS
Authors: LYNCH A. , MITCHELL LESLEY B. , VINCENT ELAINE M. , TRUEMAN M. , MACDONALD LOIS
Published: May 2011

Summary.— The anglicised version of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA) was administered to 89 4 1/4‐year‐old English children in Stoke‐on‐Trent. English 4 1/4‐year‐old norms are presented and compared to equivalent American norms. Results suggest that the use of the MSCA's American norms give an estimate of intelligence in English children which is higher than their American peers. There is a small but consistent bias in favour of girls and there are noticeable social class differences.
SEX DIFFERENCES IN OBJECTIVE TEST PERFORMANCE
Authors: MURPHY R. J. L.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The choice of techniques used in making educational assessments may have a crucial influence on the relative performance of various groups of individuals. It has, for example, been suggested that males may obtain better results when objective (multiple‐choice) tests are employed rather than other methods of assessment. This particular possibility is explored in relation to a selection of 16 GCE examinations, which were selected for the investigation because they all included both objective tests and other methods of assessment in their overall schemes of assessment.

The results from the majority of these examinations supported the hypothesis that males perform better, in relation to females, on objective tests than they do on other forms of assessment. The influence of different levels of written language skills on the performance of males and females on certain non‐objective forms of assessment is put forward as a possible explanation for these results. The implications of the findings for those wanting to avoid bias, when constructing schemes of assessment, are also discussed.
THE PSYCHOMETRY OF OBJECTIVE MOTIVATION MEASUREMENT: A RESPONSE TO THE CRITIQUE OF COOPER AND KLINE
Authors: CATTELL R. B.
Published: May 2011

Summary. In the last 40 years the evaluation of tests has developed from an itemetric to a structural psychometric viewpoint. A contemporary critique of the Motivation Analysis Test, however, illustrates the need for a wider appreciation of this advance than is manifested in many current discussions on tests. Perhaps the most frequent instance of this problem is the confusion of the homogeneity coefficient with a reliability coefficient or even with a concept validity coefficient.

The MAT criticism is shown to be faulty in not recognising that (a) validity tends to be better with low than high homogeneity; (b) item correlation with the test pool is, through specifics, substantially lower than with the factor; (c) when there are, as here, few items per scale, the removal of the item from the pool underestimates the mean r of items with the pool; (d) motivation and interest measurement, by contrast with, say, ability measurements, require, for a broad factor (e.g., an ergic (drive) expression), a far broader coverage in content and in method, i.e., low homogeneity is needed also on psychological grounds; (e) dynamic traits are also culturally more embedded than other modalities and the test examined had not been adapted to an English milieu.

Advance in objective dynamic structure measures requires special skills (a) psycho‐metrically, because of the instrument factor and ipsative scoring problems and (b) psychologically, because high clinical insight and creative artistry is demanded in item construction.