The ubiquitous use of social platforms across the globe makes them attractive options for investigating social phenomena including migration. However, the use of social media data raises several crucial ethical issues around the areas of informed consent, anonymity and profiling of individuals, which are particularly sensitive when looking at a…

A Concept Inventory (CI) is an assessment to measure student conceptual understanding of a particular topic. This article presents the results of a CI for basic data structures (BDSI) that has been previously shown to have strong evidence for validity. The goal of this work is to help researchers or instructors who administer the BDSI in their own…

This article describes a nexus analysis of the lengthy, complex process of negotiating access to schools for a research project surveying 1,002 children (aged 9-12 years) about their digital and language practices. The analysis distinguished layers of adult-centered gatekeeping, each of which needed to be tackled in sequence. Bottlenecks…

The longitudinal Belfast Youth Development Study (BYDS) followed a group of young people from age 11 to 21 years (from 2001 to 2011), charting their experiences of substance use, offending, education, and peer and family relationships. This allowed the investigation of risk and protective factors associated with different types of behavioural…

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the field of teaching and educational research, requiring new changes to methodological tools in my research. My doctoral study examines Maldivian primary teachers' engagement with social studies pedagogies through reflection. The pandemic posed several complex data collection challenges which I…

The purpose of the study is to examine the retention rates of Full-time, First-Time in College (FTIC) students by academic discipline and explore what services and university policies are available in each college to retain its students. While the data obtained from the Southern University Fact book for the years 2016 - 2020 examined the retention…

A simple experiment was developed to introduce students to the sustainable procurement of water through fog harvesting that can be used for drinking or irrigation purposes. Access to clean water and sanitation is problematic particularly within dry regions such as in areas of Peru, although there is a significant amount of fog in the mountainous…

Using evidence-based practices (EBPs), and using them well, is a critical way to improve student outcomes. EBPs are practices supported by research, that is, there is broad consensus in the research community that they work. This report focuses on 4 EBPs with a well-documented evidence base that they can positively impact student outcomes (Archer…

Analytics derived from the student learning environment provide new insights into the collegiate experience; they can be used as a supplement to or, to some extent, in place of traditional surveys. To serve this purpose, however, greater attention must be paid to conceptual frameworks and to advancing institutional systems, activating new…

This article develops a perspective on big data in education, drawing on a broadly liberal conception of education's primary purpose. We focus especially on the rise of so-called learning analytics and the associated rise of digitization, which we evaluate according to the liberal view that education should seek to cultivate individuality and…

In this book, educators learn what they need to know about the action research cycle and get practical help for working through each step of the cycle--from choosing a topic and generating research questions to analyzing data and reporting results and conclusions. In a clear, concise, user-friendly approach, the author helps readers through the…

This article reports on a study exploring student perspectives on the collection and use of student data for learning analytics. With data collected via a mixed methods approach from 2,051 students across six Australian universities, it provides critical insights from students as a key stakeholder group. Findings indicate that while students are…

This study investigates the effects of a scenario-based assessment design on students' writing processes. An experimental data set consisting of four design conditions was used in which the number of scenarios (one or two) and the placement of the essay task with respect to the lead-in tasks (first vs. last) were varied. Students' writing…

The emergence of big data in educational contexts has led to new data-driven approaches to support informed decision making and efforts to improve educational effectiveness. Digital traces of student behavior promise more scalable and finer-grained understanding and support of learning processes, which were previously too costly to obtain with…

Survey nonresponse poses a significant challenge to the validity and reliability of research findings. In higher education, nonresponse warrants special attention because higher education institutions often make decisions based on empirical research. Nonresponse has been increasing in surveys of general populations, and survey researchers across…