Previous systematic reviews indicate a lack of reporting of reliability and validity evidence in subsets of the medical education literature. Psychology and general education reviews of factor analysis also indicate gaps between current and best practices; yet, a comprehensive review of exploratory factor analysis in instrument development across the continuum of medical education had not been previously identified. Therefore, the purpose for this study was critical review of instrument development articles employing exploratory factor or principal component analysis published in medical education (2006-2010) to describe and assess the reporting of methods and validity evidence based on the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing and factor analysis best practices. Data extraction of 64 articles measuring a variety of constructs that have been published throughout the peer-reviewed medical education literature indicate significant errors in the translation of exploratory factor analysis best practices to current practice. Further, techniques for establishing validity evidence tend to derive from a limited scope of methods including reliability statistics to support internal structure and support for test content. Instruments reviewed for this study lacked supporting evidence based on relationships with other variables and response process, and evidence based on consequences of testing was not evident. Findings suggest a need for further professional development within the medical education researcher community related to 1) appropriate factor analysis methodology and reporting and 2) the importance of pursuing multiple sources of reliability and validity evidence to construct a well-supported argument for the inferences made from the instrument. Medical education researchers and educators should be cautious in adopting instruments from the literature and carefully review available evidence. Finally, editors and reviewers are encouraged to recognize this gap in best practices and subsequently to promote instrument development research that is more consistent through the peer-review process.

The relation of English Language Arts (ELA) to the economy has played a historic role in educational policy, persisting to today’s corporate reform movement. It is, however, an area that remains under-researched. This study builds upon the limited existing literature base with a systematic replication of the College Board’s National Commission on Writing for America’s Families, Schools, and Colleges’ (NCW) 2004 report, “Writing: A Ticket to Work…Or a Ticket Out.” The guiding research questions for this study are 1) How important is writing in the workplace? 2) Is writing an important hiring consideration? 3) What kind of writing is expected on the job today? 4) Do employees have the writing skills employers seek? 5) Is writing a promotion criterion? 6) Do American companies provide writing training; if so, what is the cost? To answer these questions, human resources executives of Business Roundtable, Fortune 500 (with no redundancy), and Inc. 5000 companies were surveyed regarding the use and importance of writing in their respective organizations. To establish validity evidence, the College Board’s original instrument was pretested and piloted prior to full administration, and a principal components factor analysis was conducted to explore potential latent variables that may explain variance related to respondents’ perceptions regarding the use and importance of writing. Responses were analyzed descriptively and compared to the College Board’s findings, and results suggest that modern employers utilize writing differently and value it more highly now than in 2004. ELA curricula and workforce development initiatives may consequently benefit from updates in order to allow for more equitable economic opportunity.

Assessment centre is very useful and popular method for selection of employees on various positions. It has been used for already several decades all over the world. There are many tasks and tests, which can be used, but selection of criteria and training of assessors are important too. When Assessment centre is over and candidates have gone, meeting of assessors begins. At the meeting the assessors identify, which candidate is acceptable for a given position and which is not. At this meeting outputs and feed backs are worked out and this outputs are passed along to contracting autority and to candidates. One example of real Assessment centre is mentioned in second part of this graduation theses. It also contains a research, which aims to figure out what the validity of this particular Assessment centre is.

Title: Internal motivation of adolescents in sport Objectives: Check to compare emotionally and motivational processes in adolescents using questionnaires. Focus on boys and girl agend 16-18 years, specifically for secondary school students with sports and non-sports focus. Statistically processed and then Compaq the measured data, between the sexes and between schools. Then sorts the results in clear graphs and images. Methods: Students'responses analyzed using questionnaires. School choice was made in secondary schools in Liberec and Prague. Results: Internal motivation does not affect the propensity to exercise. Athletes do not show better results. Keywords: Motivation, motive, emotion, achievement motivation, adolescent.

Introduction With an increasing knowledge of the health benefits from physical activity (PA) the interest in objectively measuring PA in free living environment has increased. ActiGraph is the most commonly used accelerometer to objectively measure PA, while ActivPAL is considered gold standard when it comes to measuring sedentary behavior. Aims The aim of this study was to investigate if ActivPAL could be used to measure Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity (MVPA) instead of ActiGraph. Methods Data from 79 overweight office workers carrying the ActivPAL and ActiGraph device simultaneously were analyzed. All activities with a cadence of 90 steps per minute (spm) or more lasting for at least 30 seconds from one day from ActivPAL data was extracted and compared to the corresponding activity from ActiGraph. An activity was classified as MVPA by using the cut points of 100 spm for ActivPAL and 3208 activity-counts per minute (cpm) for ActiGraph using vector magnitude (VM). Results A correlation of r=0.326 (p<0.001) was seen between ActiGraph and ActivPAL with a Cohen’s kappa of K=0.14, a percentage agreement of 60.7%, a sensitivity of 61.5% with ActiGraph as denominator and a positive predictive value (PPV) of 84.3% for ActivPAL. Neither age nor BMI affected the association between the estimates by these devices. There was no correlation for time spent in MVPA between devices. Conclusion Cadence from ActivPAL cannot replace ActiGraph to measure MVPA in a free living environment in overweight adults.

Thesis advisor: Laura M. O'Dwyer / The purpose of this study was to determine which of three competing models will provide, reliable, interpretable, and responsive measures of elementary students' understanding of the nature of science (NOS). The Nature of Science Instrument-Elementary (NOSI-E), a 28-item Rasch-based instrument, was used to assess students' NOS understanding. The NOS construct was conceptualized using five construct dimensions (Empirical, Inventive, Theory-laden, Certainty and Socially & Culturally Embedded). The competing models represent three internal models for the NOS construct. One postulate is that the NOS construct is unidimensional where one latent construct explains the relationship between the 28 items of the NOSI-E. Alternatively, the NOS construct is composed of five independent unidimensional constructs (the consecutive approach). Lastly, the NOS construct is multidimensional and composed of five inter-related but separate dimensions. A validity argument was developed that hypothesized that the internal structure of the NOS construct is best represented by the multidimensional Rasch model. Four sets of analyses were performed in which the three representations were compared. These analyses addressed five validity aspects (content, substantive, generalizability, structural and external) of construct validity. The vast body of evidence supported the claim that the NOS construct is composed of five separate but inter-related dimensions that is best represented by the multidimensional Rasch model. The results of the multidimensional analyses indicated that the items of the five subscales were of excellent technical quality, exhibited no differential item functioning (based on gender), had an item hierarchy that conformed to theoretical expectations; and together formed subscales of reasonable reliability (> 0.7 on each subscale) that were responsive to change in the construct Theory-laden scores from the multidimensional model predicted students' science achievement with scores from all five NOS dimensions significantly predicting students' perceptions of the constructivist nature of their classroom learning environment. The NOSI-E instrument is a theoretically grounded scale that can measure elementary students' NOS understanding and appears suitable for use in science education research. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation.

Objetivo. O principal objetivo deste estudo foi desenvolver um questionário de freqüência alimentar- QF AA para calcular o consumo de energia, carboidrato, proteína, lipídio total, lipídio insaturado, fibra, colesterol, retinol, vitamina C, cálcio e ferro de adolescentes freqüentadores de uma escola pública localizada na região oeste da cidade de São Paulo. A validade relativa do QF AA foi testada por meio da comparação entre os valores estimados pelo método de referência (média de 3 dias de R24h) e os calculados pelo QFAA. Metodologia. Depois de identificados os principais alimentos fontes dos nutrientes analisados, o QF AA foi testado em prova piloto. A versão final foi constituída por 76 itens alimentares, agrupados segundo o perfil de cada alimento. O estudo de validade foi realizado durante um período de 6 meses (junho a novembro de 1999) junto a 79 alunos voluntários de ambos os sexos, os quais responderam 4 R24h com intervalo de 45 dias e 1 QFAA ao final do estudo. Os dados foram calculados pelo Virtual Nutri e analisados utilizando-se coeficiente de correlação de Pearson, ajustados pela caloria e corrigidos pela variância intrapessoal. Resultados. Observou-se uma alta variabilidade no consumo da dieta dos adolescentes, mostrando razões de variância extremamente altas para o colesterol, retinol e vitamina C. Os coeficientes de correlação de Pearson, depois do ajuste e da correção pela variância, variaram entre - O,1O a 0,72 para os indivíduos de sexo feminino e de O,16 a 0,91 para os de sexo masculino. A média do coeficiente de correlação para todo o grupo foi de 0,52. Conclusões. Nossos resultados indicam que o QFAA mostrou aceitável desempenho para classificar os indivíduos segundo seu consumo habitual para a maioria dos nutrientes, com exceção do retinol e do ferro. / Purpose. The main purpose of this study was to develop a Food-Frequency Questionnaire - FFQ to calculate the consumption of energy, carbohydrate, protein, total lipid, unsaturated lipid, flber, cholesterol, retinol, vitamin C, calcium and iron by adolescents attending a public school located in the western region of the city of São Paulo. The relative validity of the FFQ was tested in a comparison between values estimated by the reference method (average, three days of R24h) and those calculated by the FFQ. Methodology. After identifying the major food sources of the nutrients analyzed, the FFQ was tested in a pilot test. The final version was comprised by seventy-six food items, grouped according to each of their proflles. The validity study was performed over a six-month period (]une through November, 1999) on seventy-nine volunteer students of both sexes, which responded four R24h with a 45-day interval and one FFQ at the end of the study. Data was computed by the Virtual Nutri and analyzed by using Pearson\'s correlation coefflcient, energy - adjustment and corrected for within-subject variance. Results. High variability was observed in adolescent diet consumption, showing extremely high variance ratios for cholesterol, retinol and vitamin C. Pearson\'s correlation coefficients, after adjustment and correction for variance, range between - O.1O to O.72 for females and from O.16 to O.91 for males. The average correlation coefficient for the entire group was 0.52. Conclusions. Our results indicate that the FFQ has shown an acceptable performance to classify individuais according to their habitual consumption for the majority of nutrients, with the exception of retinol and iron.

Diante da indisponibilidade de um instrumento específico de avaliação da qualidade de vida (QV) de pessoas com qualquer tipo de ferida, em nosso meio, o objetivo deste estudo foi construir e validar a versão feridas do Índice de Qualidade de Vida de Ferrans e Powers (IQVFP-VF). Inicialmente, o estudo recebeu autorização das autoras do instrumento original, aprovação pelo Comitê de Ética da EEUSP e autorizações dos campos para a coleta de dados. Classificado como do tipo metodológico, o estudo foi desenvolvido segundo os procedimentos teóricos, empíricos e analíticos, propostos por Pasquali, Os procedimentos teóricos incluíram a definição e análise dos itens por meio de revisão de literatura, avaliações de juizes (especialistas e pacientes) e pré-teste; os empíricos foram realizados por meio da aplicação do instrumento, resultante da etapa anterior, para análise de suas propriedades psicométricas, em amostras de teste (n=362), re-teste (n = 63) e validade convergente (n=179); e os analíticos, por meio das estratégias estatísticas destinadas às análises das propriedades psicométricas do instrumento final dos procedimentos teóricos. A confiabilidade foi obtida por meio da avaliação da consistência interna - CI (alfa de Cronbach 0,70) e da estabilidade do instrumento - duas semanas pós-teste (coeficiente de correlação intraclasse 0,70). Avaliaram-se a validade de conteúdo, pela concordância entre juizes ( 80%); a de critério concorrente, pela correlação entre os escores do item sua satisfação e dos domínios e instrumento total (coeficiente de correlação de Pearson ou Spearman 0,30); a validade de construto convergente, correlacionando-se os domínios e instrumento total do IQVFP-VF e WHOQOL-bref (esperando-se correlações moderadas a fortes 0,30 entre os domínios similares e < 0,30 entre os diferentes) e a validade de construto discriminante, comparando-se os escores dos domínios e instrumento total quanto a idade, número e duração da ferida e intensidade de dor, no momento e na última semana (Testes de Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, t-Student e ANOVA). A análise fatorial confirmatória (AFC) foi testada pelo grau de correlação entre os itens e os domínios originais (saúde/funcionamento-SF; sócio-econômico-SE; psicológico e espiritual-PE e família-Fa) e medidas de ajuste de modelo (LISREL). A amostra foi composta de pacientes ambulatoriais com feridas, pertencentes a dezesseis instituições, que se enquadraram em critérios pré-estabelecidos. Os resultados mostram coeficientes alfa de Cronbach 0,90; 0,88; 0,65; 0,81; 0,55 para o instrumento total e domínios SF, SE, PE, Fa respectivamente, na avaliação da CI; para a estabilidade, encontraram-se correlações 0,83 (p < 0,000); para a validade concorrente, correlações de 0,28 a 0,69; para a validade convergente, correlações de 0,17 a 0, 60 e para a validade discriminante, correlações significativas entre: QV geral e número de feridas (p=0,047); PE e duração da ferida (p=0,017); SF (p= 0,043), SE (p= 0,008), PE (p= 0,000) e qualidade de vida geral (p=0,003) para as faixas etárias mais avançadas; e SE e a pior dor da semana anterior à entrevista (p = 0,015). À AFC sugeriu que o modelo é razoavelmente ajustado para o quatro domínios. Concluindo-se o estudo, pode-se considerar que o IQVFP-VF - como um instrumento específico e relacionado à saúde - é válido e tem confiabilidade atestada nos aspectos mais importantes para a população com feridas: a QV geral, a saúde e os aspectos psicológicos e espirituais / The scarcity of a specific tool to evaluate the quality of life (QOL) of persons with any kind of wounds, in our culture, lead to the development of this study. It aimed to develop and validate a wound version of the Ferrans & Powers QOL Index (QLI -WV). The study was authorized by the QLI authors and was approved by the Ethics Committee of Nursing College of the University of São Paulo and authorized by the institutions where data were collected. This methodological research was based on the procedures established by Paquali. The theoretical pole included the selection and analysis of the items to be included in the instrument (literature review, evaluations by specialists and patients committees and pre test). The empirical ones were developed through the application of the resulted instrument (from last step) to test sample (n=362), teste-retest sample (n=63) and convergent validity sample (n=179). And the analytical pole included the statistical strategies to analyse the instrument´s psychometric properties. The reliability was obtained through: internal consistency - IC (Cronbach´s alpha 0,70) and stability, two weeks after the first instrument apllication (Intraclass correlation coeficient 0,70). The content validity was analysed through the concordance level between judges ( 80%); the concurrent validity, through the correlation among the scores of the item your satisfaction and domains and overall QOL (Pearson or Spearman correlation coeficient 0,30); the convergent validity, through the correlation between the domains and overall QOL of QLI -WV and WHOQOL-bref (strong to moderate correlation between similar domains and weak between the different ones) and the discriminant validity through the comparison among the domains and total QOL and age, wound number and durability, and present and the worst last week pain (Mann Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, t-Student and ANOVA tests). The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was tested by the correlation between the QLI-WV items and original domains (health & functioning - HF; socioeconomic - SE, psychological/spiritual - PS and family - Fa) and the adjustment measures model (LISREL). The sample was composed by outpatients who were assisted at 16 Health Services, and who met the pre established criteria. The results showed Cronbach´s alpha coeficients of 0.90; 0.88; 0.65; 0.81; 0.55 respectively for total QOL and domains (HF, SE, PS and Fa) for IC; r 0.83 (p < 0.000) for stability; r = 0.28 to 0.69 for concurrent validity; r = 0.17 to 0. 60 for convergent validity and significative correlation between: overall QOL and number of wounds (p=0.047); PS and wound durability (p=0.017); HF (p= 0.043), SE (p= 0.008), PS (p= 0.000) and overall QOL (p=0.003) for old patients; and SE and worst last week pain (p = 0.015). CFA suggested a reasonable fit for a four original subscale. The author concludes that QLI-WV - as a specific and health related QOL instrument - can be considered reliable and valid as it confirmed their psychometric properties, related to the most important wound care aspects as the total QOL, health and psychological and spiritual issues

Esta pesquisa foi conduzida com o intuito de monitorar a confiabilidade e a validade do instrumento de classificação de pacientes proposto por PERROCA (1996), baseado nas necessidades individualizadas de cuidado de enfermagem. O proceso de validação compreendeu 2 etapas: o teste de confiabilidade entre avaliadores e o teste de validade de constructo. O instrumento de classificação de pacientes foi aplicado, na primeira etapa, pelas enfermeiras lotadas na Unidade de Terapia Intensiva Geral de um hospital de ensino, em 50 pacientes escolhidos aleatoriamente. Na etapa posterior, 141 pacientes foram avaliados por enfermeiras de Unidades de Internação e Unidades de Terapia Intensiva da mesma instituição. A avaliação do grau de concordância nos escores totais obtidos pelas enfermeiras foi verificado mediante a utilização do coeficiente de correlação de Pearson e do coeficiente Kappa. Para viabilizar a demonstração da validade de constructo do instrumento recorreu-se a múltiplas técnicas, tais como: Pearson (para estudar a associação entre os 13 indicadores); Análise de Componentes Principais e Análise de Variância (para verificar a possibilidade de redução do número de indicadores que compõem o instrumento) e Regressão Logística Ordinal (para determinar a capacidade preditiva do instrumento em captar os diferentes níveis de cuidado). A análise de confiabilidade revelou que as correlações são altas e positivas entre os escores dados pelas enfermeiras, apresentando um Kappa entre 0,68 e 0,90 com IC de 95%, indicando uma boa concordância. Esses métodos demonstraram a validade de construção do instrumento, apotando: 1 - todos os indicadores críticos como sendo indicadores do grau de complexidade do paciente; 2 - nítida diferenciação entre as categorias de cuidados, criando gradiente de complexidade; 3 - o indicador crítico Cuidado Corporal como o mais importante para captar a mudança na categoria de cuidado e o indicador Sinais Vitais como o de menor importância; 4 - alto valor preditico do instrumento, 99,8%; 5 - adequação do método de padronização do escore utilizado para delimitar categorias de cuidados. O estudo permitiu concluir que este instrumento apresenta evidências de confiabilidade e validade estando em condições de ser aplicado na prática gerencial do enfermeiro como norteador das necessidades de cuidado do paciente, bem como da carga de trabalho da equpe de enfermagem. / The purpose of this research was to check the reability and validity of PERROCA´s instrument model for classifying patients, based on the particular needs of nursing. The instrument process was divided into two parts: the reability assessment by the valuators and the assessment of the construct validity. At the first part, that patients´classification instrument was used in 50 patients randomly chosen by the nurses of the General Intensive Care Unit of a medical school. At the second part, 141 patients were evaluated by the nurses in the Intensive Care and Hospitalization Units of the same institution. Pearson´s quotient correlation and Kappa´s quotient were used to observe the concordance degree of the total scores by the nurses. Several techniques were used to show the construct validity of the instrument; such as: Pearson (to study the relationship among the 13 indicators); Principal Component Analysis and Analysis of Variance (to detrmine further any reduction of the instrument´s number of indicators) and Ordinal Logistic Regression (to obsereve the instrument´s predictive ability in drawing different levels of care). The reability analysis showed a high and positive correlation in relation to scores given by the nurses; that is, a Kappa between 0.68 and 0.90 with 95% of CI, showing a good cocordance. The construct validity of the instrument was showed by: 1- all critical indicators as being indicators of the patients´complexity degree; 2- a clear differentiation in the categories, producing a complexity rate; 3- Corporeal Hygiene, as a critical indicator, as the one most important to observe the change in the care category and the Vital Signs indicator as the one of the least importance; 4- high preditive value of the instrument, 99.8%; 5- adequacy of the method to standardize the used score for outling the care categories. This study showed that the instrument model has drawn evidence of reability and validity, therefore being useful for nursing management practice as a guide to the patients´s care needs as well as to the workload of the nursing team.

Este estudo teve por finalidade a construção e validação de um instrumento para classificação de pacientes baseado nas necessidades individualizadas de cuidado de enfermagem. Para compor o instrumento foram considerados 13 indicadores críticos : Estado Mental e Nível de Consciência, Oxigenação, Sinais Vitais, Nutrição e Hidratação, Motilidade, Locomoção, Cuidado Corporal, Eliminações, Terapêutica, Educação à Saúde, Comportamento, Comunicação e Integridade Cutâneo-Mucosa. Cada um desses indicadores possui gradação de 1 a 5, apontando a intensidade crescente da complexidade assistencial. O paciente é classificado em todos os indicadores em um dos 5 níveis, na opção que melhor descreva a sua situação. Para validação do conteúdo foi aplicada a Técnica Delphi em 2 fases. Participaram como juízes 15 profissionais da área de enfermagem que atuam junto a instituições de assistência ou vinculados a Hospital Escola na cidade de São José do Rio Preto. Os resultados obtidos mostraram concordância dos juízes quanto a : manutenção dos 13 indicadores críticos no instrumento; pertinência e clareza do conteúdo dos indicadores críticos e a existência de nível de complexidade assistencial crescente / This study had in its aim the construction and the validation of a patient classification instrument which has been based on the patient’s individual necessities that require the nursing care. It was considered in the instrument 13 critical indicators : Mental State and Level of Conciousness, Breathing, Vital Signs, Nutrition and Hydration, Movement, Locomotion, Corporeal Hygiene, Eliminations, Therapy, Health Teaching, Behavior, Communication and Skin Integrety. Each one of these indicators has a 1 to 5 gradation denoting an increasing level in the nursing care complexity. The patient is classified in all the indicators in one of the five levels, in the option that better describes his/her situation. The content validation of the instrument was done by the Delphi Tecnique aplication through 2 rounds. A team of 15 nursing experts who attend pacients or teach in the Medical School in São José do Rio Preto were participants in this research. The obtained results have showed the experts’ agreement concerned to: the maintenance of the 13 critical indicators in the instrument; property and intelligibility of the critical indicator contents and the presence of an increasing level in the nursing care complexity