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In this paper the writer attempts to derive and apply a theory of validity for inductive or probable argumentation. The following definition of rhetorical validity is proposed: an argument is valid when, in an adversarial situation, the degree of certainty claimed by (or for) a conclusion is less than or equal to that established by its related supporting proof. This definition is based on the following terms and relationships which are consistent with contemporary usage: claims are modified by implicit or explicit qualifiers, claims are drawn from a context in which both favorable and unfavorable evidence resides, and claims should not be considered as valid if they assert a greater probability than is identifiable via scrutiny of the argumentative context. The paper then seeks to establish both empirical and critical procedures for aPplying validity tests to the wide spectrum of nondeductive arguments. A list of references is included. (JM)

This paper argues in favor of using interactional strategies in the study of formal operations reasoning. Interactional designs allow a convergent approach to specifying processes underlying the interaction of variables. In contrast, current methodologies contain two inherent disadvantages: they have limited utility in specifying the processes underlying development, and their results are difficult to interpret. Interactional strategies were used in the design of two experiments on the development of formal operations competencies. The results of these experiments suggest that applying interactional strategies to the study of formal operations growth allows direct comparison between the strengths of existing age-related performance differences and the strengths of the experimentally manipulated treatments. This research design may also reveal catching up and readiness interactions that could result in new interpretations for developmental differences, allowing precise statements as to the nature of the interaction of maturational and experiential factors which determine formal operations development. (GO)

The sequences of learning sets (intersequence) and instructional events (intrasequence) were empirically validated for a hierarchy of concept and rule using skills. Experiments with high school students showed no differences between empirical and reordered inter- or intrasequence on time to mastery; nor was there a difference in the number of skills mastered between the empirical and reordered intersequence groups. The data suggest the use of examples allowed learners to acquire higher-order skills even though they did not at the same time demonstrate mastery of subordinate skills. Effectiveness of the instruction indicates that the events included are more critical than their sequence. (Author)

A course-instructor evaluation form, specifically adapted for this study, was administered to 775 undergraduates in 15 large and small section introductory courses after the second class meeting and again near the end of the semester. The median pretest posttest correlation was +.60. Although there were many systematic changes, students were generally more negative toward their course and instructor at the end of the semester than they were at the beginning. As a separate portion of this project, two instructors deliberately attempted to alter their students' evaluation in one large section of their introductory psychology course. In both cases, there was a significant overall mean difference between the experimental and control groups on the initial evaluation but there was no difference on the end of the semester evaluation. The results of this study indicate that students form reasonably lasting judgments of their instructors and courses but are also able to alter their judgments as warranted by changing situations. (Author)

This paper documents a successful methodology for the validation of data in general and for evaluating educational finance data in particular. The report addresses the errors found as a result of the independent completion of Part B-1 of the Elementary-Secondary General Information System (ELSEGIS)--the Local Education Agency Fiscal Report. This survey collects data on beginning balances, revenues, expenditures, and ending balances from a sample of 2,500 school districts across the country. No discussions of the value of the instrument or the data reported there are provided. While all errors discovered are reported, the major focus is on systematic errors, those errors by type or data element that appear with great frequency. This study is significant in that it shows the magnitude and direction of the errors that may enter a large-scale survey and the steps that could be taken to avoid them. Awareness of the types of errors that may be encountered in a survey could permit a researcher to design his data collection system so that more accurate data could be obtained. (Author/DN)

Intended for employers concerned about problem solving and communication within their organization, this document outlines a strategy for developing an instrument that would provide objective data rather than impressionistic data. A questionnaire was designed to explore the relationship between the central constructs of problem solving and communication and the organizational climate. Data from the questionnaire were used to identify the obstructive factors and seek solutions to them. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire are discussed in detail. An appendix to the document listing the six possible obstructive factors found in the questionnaire follows a list of references. (JC)

The increasing trend toward the formulation of student learnings in goal-based rather than textbook-based organizations, and the steadily growing concern for openness and flexibility in education have created a pressing need for a comprehensive, validated system for classification of knowledge, process, and value student learnings. Such a system serves as a means of communication and as a framework for educational research and development. The insights and end products of a two-year program of cooperative research which has involved public school teachers, evaluators, curriculum specialists, and university researchers in an effort to design and test such a system are described. (Author)

Findings of educational research offer little indication of a relationship between teacher performance and pupil achievement. A review of reported studies suggest that the difficulty may be methodological. Most investigations are either correlational studies or comparative studies using control group designs. Most correlational research is characterized by a lack of theoretical guidance or explicit rationale, and results are often not replicable. Group comparison studies are impeded by difficulty in establishing preexperimental sampling equivalence of groups, inadequacy of traditional data analysis techniques, and within-group variance. Two alternative methodologies which may be useful for educational research are the time-series and multiple baseline designs. The former is an example of a design where a discontinuity in a series of measurements that occurs coincidentally with the introduction of the treatment variable suggests a possible relationship. The multiple time-series design introduces a nonequivalent control situation in order to rule out the possibility that other potential influences on the dependent variable were responsible for the observed changes. The multiple baseline design is an extension of the time-series model in which the researcher attempts to replicate the effect of a treatment variable across a number of behaviors. Baseline behaviors are established, treatments applied successively, and behavior changes recorded. (HMD)

This paper reports the problems involved in measuring the extent to which the practice in program sites matches model theory formulated in Head Start Planned Variation. The main focus in studying program implementation is the question of internal validity, whether the children in the HSPV programs actually receive the treatment being evaluated. Several attempts were made to develop an appropriate measure, though none of the measures was found to be completely adequate. Three types of information needed to develop a good measure of implementation were determined: a definitive model description, clear-cut standards of implementation, and judgments concerning comparability within and between models. The problems connected with obtaining this information were described. It is concluded that precise and accurate evaluation of program implementation is difficult and some suggestions are made to alleviate evaluation problems. (SDH)

Results from classical power analysis (Brewer, 1972) suggest that a researcher should not set a=p (when p is less than a) in a posteriori fashion when a study yields statistically significant results because of a resulting decrease in power. The purpose of the present report is to use Bayesian theory in examining the validity of this generalization. Using the t-test and Bayes' theorem we show that while the substitution of p for a (when p is less than a) reduces unconditional or simple power, it actually increases the conditional power of the test--i.e., the probability that the alternative hypothesis is true given a statistically significant result. Because of this, the substitution of p for a a posteriori (when p is less than a), i.e., acting as though the value of a is equal to the obtained p value, seems to be a harmless practice at worst, and on the positive side, provides important information to the research consumer interested in the validity of the alternative hypothesis given the data of the study. (Author/RC)

The fatal flaw of competency/performance-based teacher education (C/PBTE) is the lack of empirical knowledge on teacher behavior as it relates to pupil outcomes. Competencies identified have been based on reason, logic, and experience--all insufficient without empirical evidence. It seems that many accusations against C/PBTE are justified, and it is certainly true that C/PBTE has not yet demonstrated its superiority over other bases for teacher certification. Teaching is more than mastery of techniques. A large part of teaching is art, which does not easily lend itself to behavioral description. The major problem with the argument against C/PBTE is that there is no more factual basis for other teacher education programs than there is for C/PBTE programs. All teacher education programs are based on armchair speculation, reason, logic, and experience. At present, C/PBTE proponents should make no claims for product criteria except in the sense that the product is teacher behavior. Teachers must be included in the essential steps of planning and evaluating C/PBTE programs. Also, research must be designed to funded to continue the validation process. (PB)

This study was designed to develop a methodology for evaluating the application of Instructional Technology (IT), conceived of in terms of a systems approach. An idealized model of IT was prepared based on a literature review of current models. The model was matched against basic nursing education programs purporting to use IT. A rating technique was used to measure the "goodness of fit." Strengths and weaknesses of each program are identified as well as general trends in IT use. Six of the most effective programs were selected for validating the methodology. Data supporting the approach is presented. (Author)

In this paper, the steps implemented by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to upgrade the quality of the 1973 Graduate Science Student Support Survey are cited. Changes which were incorporated into the survey were intended to increase the scope and accuracy of data collected. To verify the coverage, a list of the institutions that made up the population surveyed in 1973 was compared with lists of Ph.D.-granting institutions maintained by federal agencies and professional associations with an interest in higher education. Discripancies were checked by telephone inquiry and adjustments in the survey base were made. The second major component of the study was to reconstruct the 1973 survey responses from departmental records for a sample of departments and to compare the resulting data with that which had been reported by the department. Also, selected student interviews were held in order to make comparisons with departmental records. (Author/CP)

This paper reviews studies in which scores on Piagetian tests of logical thought were correlated with IQ, mental age (MA) and chronological age (CA), and examines the possible effects of the size of the age range and mean age of subjects on these correlations. The data included 44 groups of subjects obtained from 36 studies in which Piagetian and intelligence tests were administered to intellectually normal children (mean IQ=109) from the preoperational through formal operational periods (40 to 216 months of age). Results revealed that averaged correlations between Piagetian tests and MA were consistently higher than the corresponding correlations for IQ and CA. The mean age of the subjects and no effect on the size of correlations between Piagetian tests and IQ, MA and CA, but the size of the age range was found to significantly affect the IQ and CA correlations (Piagetian tests/IQ correlations were higher within a narrow age range; Piagetian tests/CA correlations were higher within a wide age range; Piagetian tests/MA correlations showed no effect for size of age range). It was concluded that MA scores yield higher and more consistent correlations with Piagetian tests than either IQ or CA scores, and are not affected by the age range or mean age of the subjects sampled. (Authors/ED)

A problem of teacher education is to successfully integrate the knowledge students learn in the college classroom with the practical experiences of student teaching. A principal objective of an ideal teacher training situation would be to establish a vertical integration of the various types of exposure to reading both prior to and during contact in classrooms with children learning how to read. An integrated time frame competency development model includes elements of information, skill development, and application. The model must be evaluated to determine its construct validity and internal consistency. Validation of the competencies required of preservice teachers is important. Studies of teacher behavior have not been consistent. The trend is to define teaching competencies in reading in terms of pupil performance in reading. An approach to the validation problems of a competency-based preservice reading education program being developed at Northwestern University consists of nine points concerning competency categories as hypotheses which must be exhaustively analyzed. (MKM)

This paper questions evidence for the thesis that causal reasoning of older children is more logical than that of younger ones, and describes two experiments which attempted to determine (1) whether there are true developmental differences in causal reasoning, and (2) what explanations for developmental differences can be supported. In the first experiment a problem that was completely unfamiliar to the subjects was used, so that subjects could not base their responses on previous statements of parents or teachers. Results indicated a clear developmental difference. In order to generate plausible interpretations of this finding, an information processing model was constructed to describe the steps involved in performing the experimental task. Various developmental differences were tested using an interactional strategy. Siegler and Liebert's regularity-without-contiguity task was analyzed and different versions presented to children of different ages. Competing explanations of the developmental difference were tested. Findings indicated that the difference lay only in the subjects' ability to overcome the influence of the blinking lights of the computer used in the experiment. The use of such an interactional design is recommended as a procedure for directly comparing the strength of factors which are hypothesized as central by different theories. (GO)

The Michigan Department of Education implemented a large-scale social action program through its Compensatory Education School Aid Act of SY 1971-72. Schools received $200 per pupil and were held accountable for pupil achievement. This paper describes the educational delivery systems in three urban schools, the evaluation of pupil achievement, and the state validation process. The results showed that the downward trend in achievement among inner-city students was reversed, and that promising educational practices were documented and replicated. The success of the programs has resulted in the continuation and recent large increase in funding for Michigan schools. (Author)

The estimation of genetic models reported by J. L. Jinks and L. J. Eaves in a recent review are critically examined. A number of errors in procedure and interpretation are found. It is concluded that the evidence, provided by kinship correlations, for the proposition that intelligence is highly heritable, is not persuasive. (Author/BJG)

In attempting to define the "ecology" of human development, the term's history and connotations are discussed. The ecological approach requires that the person, the environment, and the relations between them be conceptualized in terms of systems, and subsystems within systems. The experimental situation is not limited to being unidirectional and dyadic, allowing only first-order effects. Two or more environmental settings can and should be included, and these environments should be studied and described along with the subject. An ecology of human development must be concerned not only with the developing child, but also with the developing ecology; that is, changes both in the micro- and macrostructures which envelop the child and those in his immediate environment. Finally, the author urges a reversal of usual experimental procedure, beginning the experiment by trying to change one of the environmental elements in order to get some idea of the delicate balance between the developing organism and its surroundings. (Author/BW)

The Carroll County Competency Based Teacher Certification (CBTC) Project is a cooperative effort of the Carroll County School System and the School of Education, West Georgia College, intended to develop a plan for identifying and measuring teacher competency areas and related teacher behaviors, and the extent to which these teacher behaviors affect student outcomes as well as the extent to which they relate to the school goals and objectives. Five observational instruments are employed in the study of 60 teachers from 15 schools, grades one through twelve, and three training programs for 43 observers. The report details the specification of what is to be measured; the development of procedures to be used in measuring it: tryout and validation of the procedures; and the repetition of these steps until a satisfactory validity is achieved. (JMF)

Although the nongraded school idea has had widespread publicity, there is little general agreement regarding criteria for identifying a nongraded school. There is also little available evidence regarding the permanence of the nongraded organization among schools that adopted the innovation. The project considered here developed and validated criteria for the nongraded school idea. Nongraded schools in every State were surveyed as to the extent to which the criteria were present in their programs. Data were also collected relating to the organization, implementation, and persistence of the idea. Additionally, perceived reasons for discontinuing a nongraded program were surveyed and analyzed. Outcomes of the study offer clarification of the nongraded concept, the extent to which this form of school organization exists, and reasons for apparent success or discontinuance. (Author)

This document reports on the development of a measurement model aimed at determining preference for sex and number of children in a family. These new scales reflect the utility for sex and number of children, disentangle their separate effects, and provide independent measures of each. They are sensitive to deviations from a first choice, and index an underlying preference structure that is often at variance with a stated first preference. Two advances in psychological measurement theory provide the basis for the models and measures developed and tested in both the experimental and field data. The authors detail the development of both the model, using conjoint measurement theory, and the scales, using the unfolding theory. Six different models of family composition have been tested in exploratory work to date. They range from the simplest--that the utility for a boy adds to the utility for a girl to give the utility for a family--to a threshold model which implies some sort of stopping rule, such as having at least one or two sons. The most viable model asserts that the relevant variables are the total number of children and the algebriac difference between the number of boys and the number of girls preferred. A cross-cultural analysis of scale validity is reviewed. (Author/PC)

The report is a review of research results which concern sequencing (procedures for validating the hypothesized ordering of the subordinate tasks in a learning hierarchy) and practical applications of learning hierarchies in instructional design. Indirect versus direct validation procedures are examined in detail. (Author)

Researchers have long been aware that "pretest sensitization" is a potential threat to the external validity of experimental studies. Only recently, however, has it been suggested that "posttest sensitization" might also limit the generalizability of results. This latter phenomenon would exist to the extent that the effects of a treatment are latent and appear only when a posttest is administered. Under this condition, the treatment would work differently for subjects in the researcher's sample than for other individuals who might later receive only the treatment without the accompanying posttest. To be scientifically useful, it is imperative that the hypothesis of posttest sensitization be capable of empirical verification, and a quasi-experimental design is proposed for this purpose. (Author)

The need for an empirically defensible means of sequencing instruction appears to have been the primary motivator for research into learning hierarchies. Also, valid learning hierarchies could act as congealing forces in individualizing instructional systems by providing psychological roadmaps for diagnosing students' preinstructional skills and monitoring students' progress through instructional systems. Four methods for generating candidates for learning hierarchies are available: introspection, formal analysis, observation, and statistical "fishing." Experimental transfer of training studies and statistical studies have been used to evaluate posited hierarchies. White recently made significant modifications of these standard evaluation methods to improve the internal validity of research into learning hierarchies. Several external validity issues remain to be resolved before scarce resources should continue to be allocated for additional learning hierarchy research. (Author)

The establishment and validation of a learning hierarchy for use in the teaching of selected principles and strategies was useful in judging a conditional argument in the familiar content domain. Preservice elementary teachers were instructed in two basic skills: (1) translating a simple argument from verbal to symbolic form, and (2) judging the validity of a simple argument given in symbolic form. Several sequences, with and without a Gagne guided thinking component, were investigated. Subjects attained the first skill readily, while the sequence providing the learning of the second skill prior to the first appeared to be the better one. The guided thinking information appeared to have no significant influence on the attainment of the terminal objective, judging a simple conditional argument presented in verbal form. (Author/SM)

The Randominzed Response Technique was used with 83 undergraduate students in an Introductory Statistics course to: (1) demonstrate a means by which information of a sensitive nature can be obtained in a confidential manner; and (2) illustrate to a group of somewhat skeptical students an application of statistics to an interesting, real-world problem. The technique requires that each participating student respond to one of two questions, without revealing the one to which he/she is responding. The first question is neutral (e.g., Is the last digit of your student ID odd?); the other sensitive (i.g., Have you masturbated within the past two weeks?). The student is asked to choose a two-digit number (00-99) from a table of random numbers. Then, all students with numbers 00-69 are told to answer the sensitive question, and all with 70 or above answer the neutral question. Thus, only the student knows the question to which she/he is responding. The procedure provides an interesting demonstration of the utility of a statistical procedure applied to a practical, health science problem. (Author/DEP)

Confined to existing monetary and human resources, the Navy's Postgraduate Selection Board is responsible for selecting officers for graduate education who will both perform well and develop skills applicable to later Navy billets. Although different methods have been employed for this selection process, most decisions have been based on officer fitness reports and prior academic records. Data from the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB), and a biographic data form were used in attempts to predict Naval Postgraduate School grade averages in four separate curricula: Operations Research/Systems Analysis, Aeronautical Engineering, Communications Management, and Management. Results indicate that academic aptitude and biographic data could be used for selection to the Naval Postgraduate School. Implementation would require the availability of biographical data and GRE scores for all candidates. The costs of developing these data would seem small when compared to (1) the time saving that could accrue by streamlining the postgraduate selection process, and (2) the more effective use of officer/student human resources. (BJG)

A set of APL (A Programing Language) programs written for use on a time-sharing IBM System/370 computer and used to aid in the teaching of selected econometric concepts is described. The programs involve the simulation of a set of n observations; of a simple regression model Y = A BX U; the plotting of the Y and X simulated values; the estimation of the regression coefficients A and B and their comparison with the true population coefficients; and the plotting of the estimated and true regression lines for comparative purposes. The uses of the programs in teaching the statistical concepts and their applications to econometric problems are described, and sample outputs are shown. (WDR)