Jonathan Z. Shapiro

Effects of a Computer-Augmented Learning Environment on Math Achievement for Students with Differing Cognitive Style

The relationship between cognitive style and success in a computer-augmented learning environment was investigated. Fifty-nine students enrolled in a developmental education course in algebra were assigned to one of two instructors and one of two treatment conditions (computer-augmented instruction or traditional instruction). Student cognitive style (field-independence-dependence) was determined by performance on the Group Embedded Figures Test. Significant variables identified from a stepwise regression included main effects for prior achievement, cognitive style, and instructor. In addition, a significant treatment by cognitive style interaction was found. Field-dependent students exhibited greater math achievement in a computer-augmented environment, whereas students with indiscriminate cognitive style demonstrated greater achievement in a traditional learning environment. The results supported the hypothesis that learning environments differentially effect students with dissimilar cognitive style characteristics.

State Board Desegregation Policy: An Application of the Problem-Finding Model of Policy Analysis.

This article introduces the use ofproblem-finding models to analyzepublicpolicy, an approach that permits the analysis of an aspect ofpolicymaking that is generally ignored by most policy analysis approaches, namely, how perceptions of policy problems influence thepolicyprocess. This study usesproblemfinding in analyzing 20 years (1964-1984) of state board of education desegregation policy in Illinois.

Alternative Perspectives on Policy Analysis: A Response to Douglas E. Mitchell's "Educational Policy Analysis: The State of the Art"

In the Educational Administration Quarterly, Douglas E. Mitchell presented an article on the state of the art in educationalpolicy analysis. It is argued here that Mitchells representation of thefieldfails to reflect current literature and issues in an adequate fashion. After presenting and critically analyzing Mitchells argument, an alternative representation of thefield, more consistent with the current literature, is offered.

Contextual limits on validity attainment: An artificial science perspective on program evaluation

Abstract This article presents a conceptual framework, based on the work of Herbert Simon and Christopher Alexander, which promotes a contextual perspective on understanding and conducting program evaluation. The basic argument is that evaluation should be context responsive, and therefore the pursuit of evaluation goals, such as validity attainment, must be tempered by the demands of the context within which the evaluation will take place. This notion of evaluation as artifact is exemplified using the Chen and Rossi model of theory-based evaluation research.

Evaluation of a Worksite Program in Health Science and Medicine: An Application of Stake’s Model of Contingency and Congruence

This paper reports the results of an evaluation of a worksite program in health science and medicine. The evaluation design was based on an approach suggested by Stake (1976), which requires the assessment of theoretical and empirical aspects of program structure and operation. The significance of Stakes model is that establishing the logical contingency of program conceptualization and the congruence between the conceptual model and empirical data constitute the necessary and sufficient conditions for validating the evaluative inference that the programs goals were successfully attained due to the intended treatment. The effect of meeting the contingency and congruence conditions is to minimize the likelihood of accepting a spurious relationship as causal. Suchman (1976) illustrates the potential problem of considering indicators of program impact only:

The Social Costs of Methodological Rigor: A Note on the Problem of Massive Attrition

This article argues that certain threats to validity arise from the social, rather than methodological, consequences of research design. The need for an evaluator to attend to both methodological and social concerns is demonstrated by an example where the unchecked effects of the social consequences of a methodologically rigorous research design invalidated most of a planned evaluation. A second example is presented in which explicit trade-off decisions between methodological rigor and social costs enabled the evaluation effort to proceed.

Book Reviews : DECISION ANALYSIS FOR PROGRAM EVALUATORS. By Gordon F. Pitz and Jack McKillip. Sage Publications, 1984, 312 pp.;

Decision Analysis for Program Evaluators, authored by Gordon F. Pitz and Jack McKillip (1984), ostensibly is a book on the role that decision analysis can play in the process of program evaluation. Decision analysis refers to a set of formalized procedures that indicate the optimal decision alternative that a decision maker should implement, given the decision maker’s values, preferences, and perceptions of a decision problem. According to Pitz and McKillip, because decision analysis is a method for assisting decision makers and the central purpose of evaluation is to assist decision makers, then decision analysis and evaluation research must be related activities.

25.00, cloth

The Ad Hoc Publication Committee of the Criminalistics Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences was charged with determining the need for a journal devoted to criminalistics. Based on a survey of Criminalistics Section members, the committee reported its findings and recommendations at the 1983 section meeting. This paper presents the results of that survey as well as the committees recommendations concerning a new journal. Statistical results are reported on attitudes towards the quality of The Journal of Forensic Sciences, the utility of regional journals, and the need for a new journal. Differences within the sample are then analyzed, controlling for professional affiliations and the rate of attendance and presentation at AAFS annual meetings.