For computerized adaptive tests (CATs) to work well, they must have an item pool with sufficient numbers of good quality items. Many researchers have pointed out that, in developing item pools for CATs, not only is the item pool size important but also the distribution of item parameters and practical considerations such as content distribution…

This paper examines the relationship between specific documentaries and white student teachers' emotional responses to their viewing as part of a postgraduate teacher education course on educational equality. Documentaries are considered in terms of features (including elements of text), form (including stylistic conventions) and function in…

The critical challenge of recruiting, preparing, and retaining high-quality mathematics and science teachers for high-need urban schools is complex. Therefore, identifying factors that support and impede a teaching residency program's implementation may have the potential to build an effective initiative that will benefit all stakeholders.…

This article highlights the practices of administrators and master teachers who are trying to balance the needs for accountability, prescribed curriculum, and learning standards with a broader view of education that gives equal importance to skills not so easily quantified by standardized tests. The author makes a case for the use of careful…

Data from competence tests usually show a number of missing responses on test items due to both omitted and not-reached items. Different approaches for dealing with missing responses exist, and there are no clear guidelines on which of those to use. While classical approaches rely on an ignorable missing data mechanism, the most recently developed…

We investigated how adolescents (sixth-graders, N = 357) morally evaluated hypothetical bullying and defending protagonists and whether these evaluations related to behavior in bullying as nominated by peers. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) resulted in four factors for the evaluation of the hypothetical bullies: "Evil soul,"…

This article explores how an experienced teacher navigates the demands of curriculum to implement her inquiry-centered teaching and learning philosophy, and how administrators along the way supported her during this change. Interviews with this classroom teacher surface suggestions for twenty-first-century professional development and support,…

Whether moral conceptions are universal or culture-specific is controversial in moral psychology. One option is to refrain from imposing theoretical constraints and to ask laypeople from different cultures how "they" conceptualize morality. Our article adopts this approach by examining laypeople's associations of moral character in…

The present study investigates the plasticity of altruistic behavior in children, analyzing the effect of a short intervention on 6- to 7-year-olds. After a 10-session intervention performed in a school context, altruism significantly increased. The intervention, which included relaxation practices, cooperative activities and emotional security…

This article examined how the group membership of the person being judged influenced the level of moral reasoning. Nearly 200 ordinary Italians were given two measures of moral ingroup inclusiveness (the Bogardus social distance scale and a self-categorization measure) and the short form of Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT). The protagonists…

The nominal response model (NRM), a much understudied polytomous item response theory (IRT) model, provides researchers the unique opportunity to evaluate within-item category distinctions. Polytomous IRT models, such as the NRM, are frequently applied to psychological assessments representing constructs that are unlikely to be normally…

By maintaining that moral functioning depends upon four components (sensitivity, judgment, motivation, and character), the Neo-Kohlbergian account of moral functioning allows for uneven moral development within individuals. However, I argue that the four-component model does not go far enough. I offer a more accurate account of moral functioning…

How can teachers engage in new ways of teaching that demonstrate student achievement beyond required standardized testing? This article by teachers for teachers shares one team's experience engaging in documentation with children via ongoing projects. Teachers shifted how they viewed assessment, used assessment tools and negotiated the…

It has been claimed that there are universal goals of child-rearing, such as survival of the child or the promotion of their capacity to contribute to economic and social reproduction. Yet in certain circumstances parents appear to pursue child-rearing practices that actively harm children, threaten their survival and inhibit their ability to grow…

In this article I examine what it means to be a good child in Vietnam. Throughout the country ancestral worship is widely practiced. This traditionally places emphasis on the need for a boy child to continue the practice of worship into the next generation. Because of this, while the high value placed on the boy child has been tempered by the…