There is a longstanding debate on whether the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) or the change score approach is more appropriate when analyzing non-experimental longitudinal data. In this article, we use a structural modeling perspective to clarify that the ANCOVA approach is based on the assumption that all relevant covariates are measured (i.e.,…

The randomized control trial (RCT) is the primary experimental design in education research due to its strong internal validity for causal inference. However, in situations where RCTs are not feasible or ethical, quasi-experiments are alternatives to establish causal inference. This paper serves as an introduction to several quasi-experimental…

Quantum mechanics (QMs) is a foundational subject in many science and engineering fields. It is difficult to teach, however, as it requires a fundamental revision of the assumptions and laws of classical physics and probability. Furthermore, introductory QM courses and texts predominantly focus on the mathematical formulations of the subject and…

The Biggest Mover Program, an educational program to improve daily exercise and healthy eating was developed to address the learning needs of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities and physical challenges. The program was part of a three-part program to improve the knowledge of students, staff, and teachers through the use of…

E-learning research is plenty of difficulties, as also research in education is. Usually, the high number of features involved in e-learning processes complicates and masks the identification and isolation of the factors which cause the expected benefits, when they exist. At the same time, a bunch of threats are ready to weaken the validity of the…

This is a descriptive study which intends to determine whether the difficulty and discrimination indices of the multiple-choice questions show differences according to cognitive levels of the Bloom's Taxonomy, which are used in the exams of the courses in a business administration bachelor's degree program offered through open and distance…

This article describes an assessment activity that can show students how much they intuitively understand about statistics, but also alert them to common misunderstandings. How the activity can be used formatively to help improve students' conceptual understanding of analysis of variance is discussed. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

Collaborative problem solving is an essential component of any 21st century science career. Scientists are hired, retained, and promoted for solving problems in dynamic and interdisciplinary teams. They discuss issues, explain and justify their opinions, debate, elaborate, and reflect on their collective knowledge. At the same time, both…

The SUN approach to biological energy transfer education is fundamentally different from past practices that trace chemical and energy inputs and outputs. The SUN approach uses a hydrogen fuel cell to convince learners that electrons can move from one substance to another based on differential attraction. With a hydrogen fuel cell, learners can…

The article extends and applies previous approaches by Klauer and Fischer to the statistical evaluation of ability changes in tests conforming to the Rasch model (RM). Exact uniformly most powerful unbiased (UMPU) hypothesis tests and uniformly most accurate (UMA) confidence intervals (CIs) for the amount of change can be constructed for each…

Pretest-posttest experimental designs often are used in randomized control trials (RCTs) in the education field to improve the precision of the estimated treatment effects. For logistic reasons, however, pretest data often are collected after random assignment, so that including them in the analysis could bias the posttest impact estimates. Thus,…

Understanding students' prior beliefs in nuclear physics is a first step towards improving nuclear physics instruction. This paper describes the development of a diagnostic survey in nuclear physics covering the areas of radioactive decay, binding energy, properties of the nuclear force and nuclear reactions, that was administered to students at…

This article describes a STARTALK intensive summer high school Mandarin language and culture program that was conducted for three summers. Participants across the three years included 40 Mandarin Level II and 53 Mandarin Level III high school students. Quantitative and qualitative data are presented to show the effectiveness of the program.…

This report summarizes the complex research literature on quantitative methods for assessing how impacts of educational interventions on instructional practices and student learning differ across students, educators, and schools. It also provides technical guidance about the use and interpretation of these methods. The research topics addressed…

iCivics, a free online, civics education program created by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, is aligned to state and national standards to teach core civics content. The research question for this study is: Does spending at least 30 minutes on the iCivics interactive web site 2 times per week improve student scores on a civics test? A…