Papers by Elena C . Papanastasiou
Research in Developmental Disabilities
Educational Research and Evaluation, Aug 1, 2005
Permitting item review is to the benefit of the examinees who typically increase their test score... more Permitting item review is to the benefit of the examinees who typically increase their test scores with item review. However, testing companies do not prefer item review since it does not follow the logic on which adaptive tests are based, and since it is prone to cheating strategies. Consequently, item review is not permitted in many adaptive tests. This study attempts to provide a solution that would allow examinees to revise their answers, without jeopardizing the quality and efficiency of the test. The purpose of this study is to test the efficiency of a “rearrangement procedure” that rearranges and skips certain items in order to better estimate the examinees' abilities, without allowing them to cheat on the test. This was examined through a simulation study. The results show that the rearrangement procedure is effective in reducing the standard error of the Bayesian ability estimates and in increasing the reliability of the same estimates.
This paper describes a 5-year inservice teacher professional development project to improve teach... more This paper describes a 5-year inservice teacher professional development project to improve teachers' abilities to work in diverse settings, Linking All Types of Teachers with Intercultural Education (LATTICE). LATTICE involved K-12 public school teachers in Michigan and international graduate students and internationally oriented faculty at a large state university. Through 4-hour monthly meetings, the project sought to enhance K-12 teachers' understanding of national and international cultures and promote cultural tolerance. It also worked to enhance international students' understanding of the United States and of global intercultural issues. Meetings involved large and small group discussions of specific topics. A survey of past and current participants was conducted during the project's fifth year. Results indicated that LATTICE positively changed teachers' beliefs and classroom practices. Access to intercultural resources and frequent and varied communication channels (e.g., e-mail, monthly meetings, small and large group discussions, and formal and informal opportunities to interact with people from other cultures) all contributed to the changes in teachers' beliefs and practices. Appended are participant questionnaires used in the study. (Contains 21 bibliographic references.) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Multicultural transformations RUNNING HEAD: Multicultural transformations Multicultural transformations through LATTICE: An evaluation of a model of professional development for teachers U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality.
Εκπαιδευτικός Όμιλος Κύπρου, 2018
The purpose of this study was to establish the psychometric properties of the Attitudes Toward Re... more The purpose of this study was to establish the psychometric properties of the Attitudes Toward Research scale (ATR), including the validity of the scale through confirmatory factor analysis. After slightly altering the scale by deleting 19 items, and by narrowing down the subscales to four, the fit of the model was established. The revised version of the ATR scale (R-ATR) includes 13 items, which measure Research usefulness, Research anxiety, and Positive predisposition towards research. Overall, the analyses performed on the R-ATR suggest that it has strong psychometric properties, and that it can prove helpful to researchers interested in examining issues related to research methods attitudes, as well as to practitioners to be used for evidence-based practice.
The purpose of our study was to examine the issue of answer changing in relation to students' abi... more The purpose of our study was to examine the issue of answer changing in relation to students' abilities to monitor their behaviour accurately while responding to multiple-choice tests. The data for this study were obtained from the final examination administered to students in an educational psychology course. The results of the study indicate that decision making regarding answer changing can be informed by metacognitive monitoring when a student's attention is drawn to cues solicited during testing. However, answer changing can be a "tricky" test-taking strategy, and how it relates to test performance is based on an interplay of variables both at a person level as well as at a task level. This is probably why this strategy is frequently misunderstood by both test-takers and educators.
This article examines the following issues: a) attitudes and awareness levels of the Cypriot soci... more This article examines the following issues: a) attitudes and awareness levels of the Cypriot society in regard to the contents of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; and b) the views of this society regarding (the extent of) the protection of these rights by the State. Research data have been collected from three populations in Cyprus: (a) elementary students aged 9-13 years old; (b) high school students, and (c) university students and adults aged 18 years and older. The sample consisted of 1435 Cypriots who participated in the survey through telephone interviews and questionnaires, as well as 18 individuals (adults) that participated through focus groups and personal interviews. The results show some of the most serious problems of the Cyprus society regarding the rights of children. The perceptions of children do not see the child as a distinct and autonomous personality with inherent rights and dignity. Furthermore, it appears from the data that the competencies of the various bodies related to children's rights are not clear in society and there is confusion among citizens about the responsibilities and competences of each institution.
Cypriot students have consistently scored low in science in international studies since 1995 desp... more Cypriot students have consistently scored low in science in international studies since 1995 despite various curriculum reform efforts during the last decades. Given the importance of teacher professional development, and the opportunity to further utilize data from an international study, the purpose of this paper is to show how data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) can be used for a professional development workshop focused on helping teachers identify reasons for low achievement in science, and proposing ways to support students in science. Overall, this professional development workshop could be considered as an effective way of using empirical data from international studies for professional development purposes as it gave teachers the opportunity to reflect on possible reasons that Cypriot students did not do well on certain items while allowing them to make connections between their teaching practice and student content knowledge misconceptions.
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Papers by Elena C . Papanastasiou