Stopping rules for fixed-form tests with graduated item difficulty are intended to stop administration of a test at the point where students are sufficiently unlikely to provide a correct response following a pattern of incorrect responses. Although widely employed in fixed-form tests in education, little research has been done to empirically…

To improve science learning under demanding conditions, we designed an out-of-school lesson in compliance with cognitive load theory (CLT). We extracted student clusters based on individual effectiveness, and compared instructional efficiency, mental effort, and persistence of learning. The present study analyses students' engagement. 50.0% of our…