A simulation study was conducted to examine the effect of item parceling on goodnessof-fit indices at different levels of sample size, number of indicators per factor, factor structure/pattern coefficients, interfactor correlations, and item-level data distribution. Results revealed that the use of item parcels yielded more nonconverged solutions and Heywood cases than individual items. The likelihood of nonconverged solutions and Heywood cases increased as the number of indicators per factor (more items per parcel) decreased. Meanwhile, parcel solutions as compared with item solutions resulted in better fit as measured by the chi-square to degrees-of-freedom ratio, Goodness-of-Fit Index (GFI), Expected Cross-Validation Index (ECVI), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), as well as two incremental fit indices, the Non-Normed Fit Index (NNFI) and Comparative Fit Index (CFI). The same pattern of results was found with data that varied in terms of skewness and kurtosis at the item level. However, the likelihood of nonconverged solutions and Heywood cases was more pronounced when data were extremely skewed/kurtotic at the item level.
This study examined the extent to which statistics and mathematics anxiety, attitudes toward mathematics and statistics, motivation and mathematical aptitude can explain the achievement of Arabic speaking pre-service teachers in introductory statistics. Complete data were collected from 162 pre-service teachers enrolled in an academic teachertraining program for elementary and middle schools in Israel. The data, except for the two achievement tests, were collected during statistics classes prior to the midterm examination. The majority (96%) of participants were female students with a mean age of 21. As regards variables examined in this study, only the hypothesized effect of mathematical aptitude on achievement in statistics was relatively large. The results also indicated that mathematical aptitude, mathematics anxiety, attitudes toward mathematics and statistics, and motivation, together accounted for 36% of the variance in achievement in introductory statistics for the current sample.
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