Robert C. Newhouse

Alienation and cheating behavior in the school environment

An attempt was made to examine the possible relationship between alienation and cheating behavior. It was hypothesized that the more alienated an individual was in an academic setting, the more likely the incidence of cheating. One hundred twenty subjects were administered Scroles Scale of Anomia and a survey instrument. Chi-square for independent samples indicated difference between alienation and cheating behavior and between cheating and sex beyond the.05 level of significance.

Student Self-Prediction of Academic Achievement

AbstractIncreased use of student judgment of achievement for grading purposes presupposes student ability to supplement or supplant traditional systems based on test data. This assumption was tested using 159 college juniors and seniors who supplied high school and college grade averages, prerequisite course grade and a prediction of their performance on an objectively scored course examination. Predicted performance correlated as highly with actual performance as did college average (.52) and significantly higher than other predictors. A restricted to full regression model comparison indicated student prediction added a dimension to the predictability of actual performance (F = 22.2, p .001) not accounted for by other education predictors.

Reinforcement-Responsibility Differences in Birth Order, Grade Level, and Sex of Children in Grades 4, 5, and 6

This study was concerned with examining reinforcement-responsibility, a measure of locus of control, and its possible relationship to several demographic variables; sex, birth order, and grade level. The sample consisted of 800 elementary school children in Grades 4, 5, and 6. Data were analyzed by a 2 × 3 × 3 unbalanced factorial design with a co-variate adjustment (sex by birth order by grade level). Results indicated that only-born children assume credit for a lesser number of positive events than first- or later-borns, that fourth graders were more inclined than fifth and sixth graders to assume credit for their successes and less likely to accept responsibility for their failures, and females were more accepting of blame for failures than males (p ≤ .05) for all comparisons.

Does Bibliotherapy Reduce Fear among Second-Grade Children?.

The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of bibliotherapy in reducing the fears of second grade children. The experimental design of the study compared two groups using pretest/posttest measures. From a pool of 30 subjects in an intact classroom, 15 were randomly assigned to the experimental group, and 15 to the control group. The treatment involved reading books on fear related subjects to the students and was followed by discussions concerning the book and the childrens feelings. The treatment was conducted on a weekly basis in one hour sessions for 28 weeks. The control group received no bibliotherapy during treatment time, but had normal access to the library. The Link Childrens Fear Scale was administered as a pretest and posttest. The instrument was made up of 24 forced choice, dichotomous yes/no items. Test‐retest reliability was reported as .70. Analysis of variance with repeated measures indicated that differences between the experimental and control groups were not significa...

A Library Essential: Needs Assessment

The use of needs assessment is considered as a critical tool for library organisation and administration. A basic model is examined together with a realistic rationale for implementation. A three‐stage process for needs assessment is described in detail from planning to organising, and concluding with scheduling. Major criteria are suggested which should relate to direct outcomes.

Trait Anxiety as Related to Two Types of Mediated Teaching Procedures

The present study investigated the performance of subjects high and low in anxiety given visual-based vs audio-tutorial instruction (N = 232 undergraduate social science students). A 3 × 2 factorial analysis of variance indicated that highly anxious students performed equally well in both conditions, while students low in anxiety performed well in the visual-based model. In both treatments subjects were superior to controls.

MEANINGFULNESS AND INTRALIST SIMILARITY IN ROTE MEMORIZATION

The study examined the effect of meaningfulness and intralist similarity on serial anticipation learning by 24 volunteers who were given trigram lists to be learned by oral serial anticipation. A sign test performed on total scores for serial anticipation was significant. It was concluded that the lower the intralist similarity and the higher the meaningfulness, the faster the learning.

RESPONSE TIME AS A FUNCTION OF UNCERTAINTY

The purpose of this study was to compare uncertainty among simple reaction time, compatible reaction time and disjunctive reaction time for 25 students. The results indicated variable differences in length of reaction time, i.e., simple RT < compatible RT < disjunctive RT. A sign test, performed for both mean and median scores, was significant. It was concluded that reaction time did increase as a function of uncertainty.