Conjoint Scaling as a Decision Aide in Curriculum Development.

In a series of three independent studies that focused on the classic sources of curriculum (the learner, society, and subject matter), data were gathered that might bear on the choices facing the curriculum developer. Learner data tentatively revealed what characteristics of pictures affected the deployment of third-grade children's visual attention. Society data provided increased awareness of the structure and direction of a group of mothers' goals for their infants. Subject-matter data from an expert judge provided useful suggestions for the organization of content for a preschool motor curriculum. In each of these studies, polynomial conjoint scaling, a form of multidimensional scaling, reduced a complex matrix of data to a simple visual display that was useful to the curriculum developer in his decision-making process. (Author)