Inference, or decision making, is seen in curriculum documents as the final step in a statistical investigation. For a formal statistical enquiry this may be associated with sophisticated tests involving probability distributions. For young students without the mathematical background to perform such tests, it is still possible to draw informal inferences based on data of various sorts, for example by comparing two graphical representations. In doing so it is important to be able to state the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Inferences, Probability, Prediction, Decision Making, Statistical Analysis,...
The following paper is based on a review of 68 referred journal articles that focused on introducing technology to preservice teachers. Ten key strategies emerged from this review, including delivering a single technology course; offering mini-workshops; integrating technology in all courses; modeling how to use technology; using multimedia; collaboration among preservice teachers, mentor teachers and faculty; practicing technology in the field; focusing on education faculty; focusing on mentor...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Statistical Analysis, Technology Integration, Program Descriptions, Journal Articles,...
This study brings together insights from research on teaching and learning in specific subjects, learning environments research, and effectiveness research, by linking teacher interpersonal behaviour to students' subject-related attitudes. Teaching was studied in terms of a model originating from clinical psychology that was adapted to education. Teacher interpersonal behaviour was analysed in terms of two, independent behaviour dimensions called Influence and Proximity. This study investigated...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Influence, Statistical Analysis, Proximity, Motivation, Educational Research,...
The aim of the study was to gain insight into the occurrence of different types of peer interaction and particularly the types of interaction beneficial for learning in different collaborative learning environments. Based on theoretical notions related to collaborative learning and peer interaction, a coding scheme was developed to analyze the verbal interactions of student dyads in three collaborative learning environments: an environment with face-to-face interaction, an environment with...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Peer Groups, Educational Environment, Cooperative Learning, Computer Mediated...
This two-phase study integrated quantitative and qualitative research methods to investigate the relationship between success outcomes of two-year college students with disabilities and self-determination, and how students with higher and lesser degrees of self-determination understand and describe the outcomes of their post-secondary experience. The "ARC Self-Determination Scale" (Wehmeyer & Kelchner, 1995) and the "Demographic and Outcomes Survey" (researcher...
Topics: ERIC Archive, College Students, Disabilities, Research Methodology, Qualitative Research, Self...
During the analysis of a survey of art therapy educators in 2001 (St. John, Kaiser, & Ball, 2004), issues of importance to art therapy and art therapy research education emerged. As a follow-up, the authors interviewed educators attending the 2002 Annual Conference of the American Art Therapy Association (AATA) to gain an understanding of their perspectives in three areas: emphasis on teaching qualitative and quantitative approaches, expected research competencies of graduates, and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Statistical Analysis, Qualitative Research, Art Therapy, Educational Research,...
Coordinate graphs of time-series data have been significant in the history of statistical graphing and in recent school mathematics curricula. A survey task to construct a graph to represent data about temperature change over time was administered to 133 students in Grades 3, 5, 7, and 9. Four response levels described the degree to which students transformed a table of data into a coordinate graph. "Nonstatistical" responses did not display the data, showing either the context or a...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Grade 3, Student Development, Graphs, Grade 5, Grade 7, Grade 9, Flow Charts,...
This paper describes a school/university graduate induction program that has provided support to beginning teachers since 1994. A 10-year follow-up study of program graduates was recently conducted to examine these questions: (a) How many graduates are still in the education profession? (b) How many have remained in the classroom? and (c) What are their retrospective perceptions of the induction program on their initial teaching experiences? Quantitative and qualitative data were collected....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Graduate Surveys, Professional Development Schools, Beginning Teacher Induction,...
Issues such as financial autonomy, academic autonomy and administrative autonomy are crucial to the effective management of university education globally. For many years Nigerian universities have complained of being impeded in these areas because of the supervisory role of the National Universities Commission (NUC) which tend to encroach on their autonomy. In order to confirm this complaint and profer solution 280 university administrators and 100 university union officials from the 10...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Educational Administration, Academic Freedom, Institutional...
The purpose of this study was to collect reliability and validity data on the School Characteristics Inventory (SCI), a quantitative measure based on Sternberg's (2000) theory of contextual modifiability. Data were collected from a national sample of middle school teachers and from teachers participating in a 3-year study investigating teachers' willingness to implement differentiated instruction or differentiated authentic assessments. Factor analysis indicated 6 factors (School Reputation,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Reputation, Validity, Educational Innovation, Factor Analysis, Educational Change,...
Structural equation modeling (SEM) refers to a family of statistical techniques that explores the relationships among a set of variables. Structural equation modeling provides an extremely versatile method to model very specific hypotheses involving systems of variables, both measured and unmeasured. Researchers can use SEM to study patterns of interrelationships among variables, compare different groups to each other, study change over time, and do many other types of sophisticated analyses....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Gifted, Structural Equation Models, Factor Analysis, Enrichment, Statistical...
The perceived problem of low mathematics achievement is a concern to education leaders at all levels of PK-16 education. Results from various research raise concerns about mathematics learning of U.S. middle school students. Education leaders search for interventions to address issues related to improving mathematics achievement. This article presents findings from a middle school mathematics intervention implemented to improve students' mathematics performance. The purpose of this empirical...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Education, Mathematics Achievement, Standardized Tests, Computer Assisted...
In 1993 Wicklein conducted a study to determine the present and the future critical issues and problems facing the technology education (TE) profession. The Wicklein study questioned 25 panelists from 15 states and the District of Columbia to ascertain the issues and problems facing TE. However, in the Wicklein study, only seven of the panelists were classroom teachers. The present study investigates the severity of these problems in schools today as perceived by current Indiana high school and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Technology Education, Graduation Requirements, Teacher Attitudes, Secondary School...
The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices, the Naglieri Nonverbal Abilities Test (NNAT), and the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) in selecting for ethnically diverse students who may be gifted. The participants of the study were 175 students enrolled in Grades 3-5 and Grade 8 in a Midwestern school district serving a small city of approximately 40,000 and surrounding rural areas. The results of this study indicate that the Raven's,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Gifted, Elementary Education, Nonverbal Ability, Test Validity, Student Diversity,...
This paper represents Part I of a two-part study examining preservice teachers' development of a personalized, research-based Science Teaching Rationale (STR). Researchers have historically documented the application of the "rationale paper" (Clough, 1992; Veronesi, 1998) using qualitative methodologies. Since the rationale paper continues to receive attention at conferences (e.g., at the annual conference of the Association for the Education of Teachers in Science) and grow in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Preservice Teachers, Elementary School Science, Statistical Analysis, Evaluation...
The research examined how Chinese leaders view the thinking process, what thinking styles they value and how they prefer to think. The methodological framework used quantitative analyses of two thinking styles inventories. The survey included a sample of nearly 300 leaders from a wide representation of industry sectors across China who completed Sofo's Thinking Style Inventory (TSI) (Sofo 2002). Additionally, 22 of these leaders completed three forms of thinking style (Sternberg 1997). Another...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Cognitive Style, Foreign Countries, Statistical Analysis, Thinking Skills, Cultural...
We queried Florida elementary teachers about how they perceived their principals' professional and personal inviting leadership behaviors during a time when many teachers and principals felt a lot of pressure due to test-based accountability. Despite the pressure, teachers reported that their principals demonstrated fairly high levels of inviting leadership behaviors. Further, we found a positive relationship between elementary teachers' perceptions of their principal's inviting leadership...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Job Satisfaction, Academic Achievement, Educational Practices, Accountability,...
Children and adolescents in the United States are increasingly overweight at younger ages. Many studies have investigated the issue from the perspective of professionals and other adults. This study assessed early adolescents' perceptions regarding the magnitude of, effects of, causes of, solutions for, and learning preferences related to overweight. Data were obtained from 1,168 students, grades four to eight, who visited nine health education centers. Data were collected anonymously via...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Obesity, Health Education, Children, Adolescents, Cognitive Style, Nutrition,...
Background: About 40% of White American women over age 50 experience osteoporosis-related fracture of the hip, spine, or wrist during their lives. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the level of osteoporosis knowledge and beliefs among young women. Methods: University women (n=302) completed a self-administered osteoporosis risk factor questionnaire. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, chi-square analysis, analysis of variance, and the paired samples t-test....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Education, Females, Heart Disorders, Cancer, Risk, Statistical Analysis,...
Background: Publication is the primary means of contributing to and establishing credibility within the scientific community. Some researchers have reported an increase in the average number of authors per manuscript for some scholarly journals in the past two decades. Whereas author proliferation may be warranted in some cases, other reasons for increasing the overall number of authors per manuscript may have more dubious motives, including gratuitous authorship for embellishing curriculum...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Resumes (Personal), Health Education, Content Analysis, Ethics, Credibility,...
Background: Although quantitative assessment of male condom use errors and problems has received increased research attention, few studies have qualitatively examined this sexual health behavior. Purpose: This study examined problems of male condom use as experienced by college men and women at a large, public Midwestern university. Methods: Single-sex focus groups were conducted, two involving men (n=9, n=9) and two involving women (n=7, n=13). Eight research questions guided the discussion....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Education, Females, Focus Groups, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Health...
The purpose of this study was to determine whether students identified as having brain injury were receiving Section 504 or special education services and, if so, under which disability category were special education services being provided. The participants were parents of students who were enrolled in grades 1-12 during the 2001-2002 school year. Two samples were drawn using a computer-generated sampling technique. Sample 1 consisted of all students in the school population and Sample 2...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Injuries, Brain, Special Education, Related Services (Special Education), Elementary...
The present exploratory study examined the involvement of 77 Mexican-origin fathers in their school-age (grades 4-6) child's education. Fathers were classified into one of three groups based on their linguistic acculturation status. The three groups were predominantly English-speakers (n = 25), English/Spanish-speakers (n = 27), and predominantly Spanish-speakers (n = 25). Five analyses of covariances (ANCOVAs) were conducted using the following father involvement dimensions as outcomes:...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Parent Teacher Cooperation, School Activities, Linguistics, School Involvement,...
This cross-sectional study was conducted with the aim of examining the relationships between smoking behavior and leisure physical activity habits of adolescents (n=170, 85F & 85M, mean age= 15.42 [plus or minus] 0.58, age range=15-17 years) attending vocational health schools in Turkey. Participants were randomly selected from four provinces of the country and classified into two groups according to their participation in leisure physical activity. The logistic regression analysis of the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Activities, Smoking, Adolescents, Foreign Countries, Case Studies,...
This study examined the use of rubrics in scoring a performance-based assessment. After receiving a health lesson of ways to have a healthy brain, fifth grade students were given an assignment to illustrate and write a booklet that demonstrated their knowledge of the topic. From students' responses the researchers constructed four sample papers based on their work that demonstrated varying levels of knowledge about the brain. A "true" score for each sample paper was the result of the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Knowledge Level, Achievement Tests, Brain, Grade 5, Thinking Skills, Performance...
The purpose of this study was to compare four distinct Hawaiian districts on the island of Oahu regarding their efforts in presenting quality health education and physical activity. The ethnic groups represented in this study included Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Asian and Caucasian. Questionnaires based on the Action for Healthy Kids Healthy Schools Summit Survey were sent to 168 schools on Oahu. The return response of the surveys was 79% with 132 schools either returning the survey or being...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Education, Elementary Schools, Health Education, Physical Activities,...
Working with Romanian colleagues from the Institute of Public Health, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, researchers set out to discover what health promotion strategies and interventions were being used by Romanian health professionals, to find out who Romanian citizens learn healthy behaviors from, and to discover the perceived needs regarding health promotion which include; strengths, weaknesses, barriers, and enablers of healthy behavior. A quantitative survey examining health promotion activities,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Education, Health Promotion, Community Action, Health Personnel, Public...
Literacy in the United States is a widespread problem. There are many Americans who do not have the ability to read at a level above the ninth grade. Today's technological advances have resulted in more information being placed on the Internet. Consequently, the same individuals who had a limited capacity to read information from traditional sources will have similar difficulties reading information on the Internet. This study examined three well-known Internet sites for readability. Results of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Readability, Internet, Web Sites, Information Sources, Health Education, Readability...
The ever increasing availability of mathematics education software and internet-based multimedia learning activities presents teachers with the difficult task of deciding which programs are best suited for their students' learning needs. The challenge is for teachers to select pedagogical products that not only promote significant mathematical learning but also offer user-friendly functions, and are useful in the classroom. With the aim of assisting teachers in the selection process, this...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Education, Multimedia Materials, Computer Software, Data Analysis,...
Mathematics is a very important subject in Nigeria. Yet, for more than twenty years, mathematics education in Nigeria has been in a sorry state. Mathematics achievement has been very low and frustrating. So far, every effort made to save Nigerian education from the devastating effect of persistent poor mathematics achievement has failed. An experiment to address the problem of poor achievement in mathematics in Nigerian high schools was carried out in Edo State of Nigeria. Eighteen simple...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Experimental Groups, Control Groups, Mathematics Instruction, Mathematics...
A number of health education professional associations exist to advance the profession through research, practice, and professional development. Benefits of individual membership may include continuing education, networking, leadership, professional recognition, advocacy, professional mobility, access to research findings, advances in the profession, service opportunities, and the ability to help shape the future direction of the profession. The purpose of this study was to analyze membership...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Education, Professional Recognition, Professional Associations, Statistical...
Every year in the United States, health and social problems result from adolescents' use and abuse of alcohol. Alcohol use is associated with high-risk behaviors and is a leading cause of death among adolescents. Research indicates that alcohol advertising influences drinking intentions for children and adolescents. Using content analysis of 486 advertisements, the focus of this study was to analyze persuasive themes and responsibility messages in alcohol advertising from a popular...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Social Problems, Advertising, Health Education, Drinking, Death, Adolescents,...
This article has three purposes: to explain the two different uses of power analysis that can be used in health education research; to examine the extent to which power analysis is being used in published health education research; and to explain the implications of not using power analysis in research studies. Articles in seven leading health education journals ("American Journal of Health Behavior," "American Journal of Health Education," "American Journal of Health...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Education, Health Promotion, Health Behavior, Meta Analysis, Bibliometrics,...
This study explored the effectiveness of selected statistical measures at motivating or maintaining regular exercise among college students. The study also considered whether ease in understanding these statistical measures was associated with perceived effectiveness at motivating or maintaining regular exercise. Analyses were based on a cross-sectional survey of 546 students. Students identified the total number of disease cases as the most effective measure for motivating behavior change,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, College Students, Diseases, Behavior Modification, Program Effectiveness, Behavior...
Since Congress passed .08 blood alcohol concentration (BAC) as the national standard for impaired driving in October 2000, 28 U.S. States including Indiana have enacted .08 BAC law. This study investigated perceived impact of the .08 law among Indiana residents and their attitudinal and perceptional changes since the enforcement of the law. The focus of this study was to examine demographic differences in these changes. Using random-digit dialing that included unpublished numbers and new...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Employment Level, National Standards, Drinking, Motor Vehicles, Laws, Biochemistry,...
Health educators use several different data collection techniques involving qualitative and quantitative methods. One common qualitative data collection technique is the focus group. Although a focus group, when utilized appropriately, can yield useful information, too often in health education practice it is misunderstood and thus misused. The purpose of this article is to describe four general misconceptions about the focus group: (1) the focus group is quick, easy and inexpensive; (2) the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Education, Research Methodology, Focus Groups, Data Collection,...
This study identifies the extent that knowledge of selected study designs and elementary statistical techniques may assist readers in understanding the statistical component of articles in the "American Journal of Health Education." The frequency of and trend in use of selected statistical research designs and statistical methods is reported, based on 366 research and review articles in Volumes 25 to 34, covering 1994 to 2003, of the "Journal." Almost 85% of the articles...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Education, Research Methodology, Correlation, Content Analysis, Periodicals,...
Advocacy and public policy were determined to be one of the six key focal points for the profession at the Health Education in the 21st Century meeting held in 1995. A content analysis of journals of the member organizations of the Coalition of National Health Education Organizations was conducted to discover whether there was a difference in the number of advocacy and policy initiative-related articles published between the 5-year periods immediately preceding and following this meeting. The...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Education, Health Promotion, Public Health, Content Analysis, Public Policy,...
This paper explores the concept of pragmatic meta-analytic studies in eLearning. Much educational technology literature focuses on developers and teachers describing and reflecting on their experiences. Few connections are made between these experiential "stories". The data set is fragmented and offers few generalisable lessons. The field needs guidelines about what can be learnt from such single-case reports. The pragmatic meta-analytic studies described in this paper have two common...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Evaluation, Meta Analysis, Online Courses, Statistical Analysis,...
The central messages of this paper are that (a) unequal variances may be more prevalent than typically imagined in educational and policy research, and (b) when considering tests of equal variances one needs to be cautious about what is being referred to as "Levene's test" because Levene's test is actually a family of techniques. Depending on which of the Levene tests that are being implemented, and particularly the Levene test based on means which is found in widely used software...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Statistical Analysis, Educational Policy, Educational Research, Computer Software,...
This article examines the influence of youth's family and school contexts to understand disparities in Canadian youth's mathematics achievement. Using hierarchical linear analysis, some of the main assumptions of social capital theory are tested using the Canadian data from the 1999 Programme for International Student Assessment. Findings revealed that many family-school contextualized effects were not significant, suggesting that researchers need to look at the conceptualization and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Human Capital, Mathematics Achievement, Family Structure, Social Capital, Student...
The purpose of this study was to investigate beginning teacher attrition and the factors of collaboration and school setting (urban, suburban, and rural). Quantitative data were collected from present and former teachers in a Midwest state using the researcher-created Collaboration Survey. Building principals and central office staff supplied attrition data from the 1998-2002 school years. Semi-structured follow up interviews with five percent of the sample population and unsolicited written...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Rural Schools, Teacher Persistence, Beginning Teachers, Teacher...
There are effective conflict transformation programs available for students at the middle level. What is missing is a program designed to have an enduring message, that is, a message that is both positive and vivid. Project WIN provided a positive message by teaching students how to create a justice-based community in their classrooms and the program made the message more vivid by teaching students about "transforming power." Project WIN was implemented in a low-income, urban middle...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Control Groups, Low Income Groups, Conflict, Urban Youth, Adolescents, Intervention,...
The transition period in Romania has generated a series of important changes, including the reforming of the Romanian tertiary education. This process has been accelerated after the signing of the Bologna treaty. Important changes were recorded in many of the quantitative aspects (such as number of student enrolled, pupil-student ratio etc) as well qualitative aspects. The article aims to identify and analyze the main aspects related to the academic fraud in tertiary education, within Bucharest...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Postsecondary Education, Integrity, Ethics, College Students,...
The purpose of this article is to comment on the prior article entitled "Examining Instruction, Achievement and Equity with NAEP mathematics data," by Sarah Theule Lubienski. That article claims that a prior article by the author suffered from three weaknesses: (1) An attempt to justify No Child Left Behind (NCLB); (2) drawing causal inferences from cross-sectional data; (3) and various statistical quibbles. The author responds to the first claim, by indicating that any mention of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Federal Legislation, Research Methodology, Inferences, Statistical Analysis, Equal...
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 requires that public schools adopt research-supported programs and practices, with a strong recommendation for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) as the "gold standard" for scientific rigor in empirical research. Within that policy framework, this paper compares the relative utility of federally-recommended RCT versus the demonstrated "extended term mixed-method" (ETMM) designs as options for monitoring effects of novel programs...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Research Methodology, Multitrait Multimethod Techniques, Qualitative Research,...
This paper explores auto-photography as a form of research practice in the area of identity and self-esteem research. It allows researchers to capture and articulate the ways identity guides human action and thought. It involves the generation and examination of the static images that participants themselves believe best represent them. Auto-photography is an important tool for building bridges with marginalized groups in the research process, since it offers researchers a way to let...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Photography, Research Methodology, Questionnaires, Researchers, Self Esteem, Females,...
This article describes in candour, the journey of a novice researcher deciding which methodological approach to apply to her doctoral research. Eager to commence fieldwork, she considers five options: ethnography, phenomenology, biography, grounded theory, and case study. Upon discovering however, that none of the described alternatives satisfactorily fits with her envisaged mode of research, she embarks on an unplanned journey into more creative possibilities and solutions. It is a process...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Grounded Theory, Ethnography, Criticism, Phenomenology, Feminism, Biographies,...
The major objective of this study was to investigate the effects of non-normality on Type III error rates for ANOVA F its three commonly recommended parametric counterparts namely Welch, Brown-Forsythe, and Alexander-Govern test. Therefore these tests were compared in terms of Type III error rates across the variety of population distributions, mean difference (effect size), and sample sizes. At the end of 100,000 simulation trials it was observed that the Type III error rates for four tests...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Sample Size, Effect Size, Comparative Analysis, Statistical Analysis, Hypothesis...
Regarding the increased complexity and dynamics of environmental factors and rapid changes, traditional organizations are not longer able to match with such changes and are destroying. Hence, as a tool for survival and matching with these changes, learning organizations are highly considered by many firms and corporations. What you are reading, is a summary of theoretical basics and findings of a research about the rate of organizational learning of schools. Present research is based on...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Statistical Analysis, Organizational Development, Environmental...