This article is based on my 2023 NCME Presidential Address, where I talked a bit about my journey into the profession, and more substantively about comparable scores. Specifically, I discussed some of the different ways 'comparable scores' are defined, highlighted some areas I think we as a profession need to pay more attention to when considering…

A recent paper proposed an alternative weighting scheme when performing matching-adjusted indirect comparisons. This alternative approach follows the conventional one in matching the covariate means across two studies but differs in that it maximizes the effective sample size when doing so. The appendix of this paper showed, assuming there is one…

The application of network meta-analysis is becoming increasingly widespread, and for a successful implementation, it requires that the direct comparison result and the indirect comparison result should be consistent. Because of this, a proper detection of inconsistency is often a key issue in network meta-analysis as whether the results can be…

In this paper, we utilize both English and German language scholarly literature to describe the use of four core concepts in child protection. Using the scholarly literature, we address the research questions: (1) How are these four concepts used in regard to child protection services? (2) How do these four concepts address and reflect the social…

This research investigates the influence of culture on sketching by comparing UK and Chinese designers. We employed a novel dual-method approach: machine learning algorithms analyzed a dataset of 2,090 digitized sketches from student designers, while protocol analysis based on shape transformation rules examined the sketching processes of…

Measures of learning speed (i.e., the amount of learning/cumulative time learner spends engaged in an intervention) are rarely included in research designed to evaluate and compare academic interventions. We build a case that includes analyses of learning speed metrics in academic intervention research can provide more useful information for…

Uncertainty undermines causal claims; however, the nature of causal claims decides what counts as relevant uncertainty. Empirical robustness is imperative in regularity theories of causality. Regularity theory features strongly in QCA, making its case sensitivity a weakness. Following qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) founder Charles Ragin's…

The synthetic control method (SCM) is a popular approach for estimating the impact of a treatment on a single unit with panel data. Two challenges arise with higher frequency data (e.g., monthly versus yearly): (1) achieving excellent pre-treatment fit is typically more challenging; and (2) overfitting to noise is more likely. Aggregating data…

A key aspect of the educator's responsibility as understood by Hannah Arendt is its dual character. Educators are responsible for both the life and development of the child and the continuance of the world, as Arendt puts it in "The Crisis in Education." Moreover, these aspects of responsibility are in tension with each other. Arendt's…

The main objective of the qualitative comparative analysis is to find solutions that display sufficient configurations of causal conditions leading to the presence of an outcome. These solutions should be less complex than the original observed configurations, as parsimonious as possible, without sacrificing the sufficiency requirement.…

Using the framework of Rita Felski in her 2015 book "The Limits of Critique," this essay offers a postcritical analysis of William Carlos Williams' 1915 poem "The Young Housewife." Its intention is to show how Williams' poem or any poem can be approached through a variety of critical lenses, but that these may get in the way of…

The field of qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is witnessing a heated debate on which one of the QCA's main solution types should be at the center of substantive interpretation. This article argues that the different QCA solutions have complementary strengths. Therefore, researchers should interpret the three solution types in an integrated…

Raising citizens' awareness of the importance of microbiology in everyday life is crucial, especially considering the recent societal challenges such as emerging diseases or antibiotic resistance. Integrating this awareness into secondary education is essential, yet teaching microbiology requires alignment with national curricula. To evaluate how…

Research into mathematics education at university level includes a wide range of theoretical approaches. This poses considerable challenges to researchers in terms of understanding and harmonizing the compatibility and commensurability of those approaches. The research community has already problematised and studied these challenges using…

This paper explores the relationship between education and diversity from a different perspective as compared to the current human rights education-based discourse on the subject matter. Instead of portraying education as the means and respect for diversity as the end, the focus rather lies on a concept of education that incorporates diversity as…