Background/purpose: Critical thinking (CT) is fundamental in science education, but instruments to measure CT in specific domains, such as physics, are still limited. The present study aims to develop and validate the Critical Thinking Test in Temperature and Heat (CTTH), an instrument designed to measure critical thinking skills in the topic of…

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Qualitative Methods in PER: A Critical Examination.] Epistemic beliefs about physics are most often investigated using quantitative instruments that reflect binary conceptualizations of those beliefs. This study reports from a qualitative study which used continua to represent the epistemic beliefs…

This study addresses a significant gap in educational research by employing statistical methods to measure the sequencing of different components and content topics in textbooks. It is well-documented that the structure and sequencing features of textbooks play a crucial role in enhancing students' learning. However, existing literature has…

The study investigated Chinese secondary school teachers' views on ethicality of teachers' practices in classroom assessment. Participants included 1,871 teachers from 205 secondary schools in 23 provinces, 4 municipalities, and 4 autonomous regions in China. A survey study with 14 authentic assessment scenarios revealed that there is no evident…

Portraits of a Graduate (POGs) have become popular in education over the past decade as states and districts work to better define the knowledge and skills that students should master before high school graduation. The impetus for the development of POGs comes from several converging factors in the educational landscape. As states and districts…

Grades are the universal tool for measuring students' performance at school. However, other competency-based evaluation methods have shown to have a stronger impact on the learning quality. We investigated how different methods are collectively represented and discursively constructed among students at an Italian high school class. Thematic…

In order for climate literacy assessments to be applicable in large-scale studies, it is essential that they comply with the standards of test administration while maintaining consistency with a comprehensive definition of the concept. In alignment with the different educational frameworks and the Climate Literacy Principles of the U.S. Global…

In this paper, we develop an open-ended approach to evaluating students' citizenship competences. We aim to give students the opportunity to describe what citizenship means for them in personally relevant contexts. We developed three rubrics relevant to students' citizenship in daily life. Students in grade 10 and 11(M[subscript age] = 16)…

Assessment and evaluation are crucial to improving educational quality. Examining the opinions of teachers from various countries on in-class assessments can significantly enhance education systems. Similarities and differences in Uganda's and Turkey's educational systems justify comparing them. This study aimed to examine and compare the…

This study explored the relationship between K-8 teachers' current usage and engagement of curriculum and instructional practices, assessment practices, and feedback practices through the implementation of standards-based grading practices. The theoretical works of Bobbitt (1924), Bloom (1956), and Sadler (1989) framed this study. A digital survey…

This was the first study in which a psychometrically validated STEM measure, the "Student STEM" (S-STEM), was studied for HSSWD. This study also represented the first time a psychometrically validated STEM measure, the "Student STEM" (S-STEM), was studied for HSSWD. Data were collected from 229 HSSWD in a western state and…

A computer science camp for pre-collegiate students was operated during the summers of 2022 and 2023. The effect the camp had on attitudes was quantitatively assessed using a survey instrument. However, enrollment at the summer camp was small, which meant the well-known Pearson's Chi-Squared to measure the significance of results was not applied.…

We investigated the advancement of self-regulated learning (SRL) in diverse educational settings, including science, mathematics, and humanities disciplines. We identified practices for assessing students' SRL and encouraging reflection. The research questions were: (1) Can sustained changes in students' perceptions of SRL over time be assessed,…

This study investigates pedagogical disagreements about assessment in teacher team meetings. Combining quantitative and micro-ethnographic discourse analysis, we explore the characteristics of teachers' disagreements about assessment and the conditions that afford or constrain their development as productive for teacher on-the-job learning. We…

The ability to draw visual representations such as diagrams and graphs is considered fundamental to science learning. Science exams therefore often include questions which require students to draw a visual representation, or to augment a partially provided one. The design features of such questions (e.g., layout of diagrams, amount of answer…