Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an international comparative study designed to measure trends in mathematics and science achievement at grades 4 and 8, as well as to collect information about educational contexts (such as students' schools, teachers, and homes) that may be related to student achievement. TIMSS has…

Collecting treatment integrity data is critical for (a) strengthening internal validity within a research study, (b) determining the impact of an intervention on student outcomes, and (c) assessing the need for implementation supports. Although researchers have noted the increased inclusion of treatment integrity data in published articles, there…

This research shares the challenges of bringing in real-world big business data into the classroom so students can experience how today's business decisions can improve with the strategic use of data analytics. Finding a true big data set that provides real world business transactions and operational data has been a challenge for academics…

Growing interest in Big Data is leading industries, academics and governments to accelerate Big Data research. However, how teachers should teach Big Data has not been fully examined. This article suggests criteria for redesigning Big Data syllabi in public and private degree-awarding higher education establishments. The author conducted a survey…

In this era of "Big Data," institutions of higher education are challenged to make the most of the information they have to improve student learning outcomes, close equity gaps, keep costs down, and address the economic needs of the communities they serve at the local, regional, and national levels. This book helps readers understand and…

Existing research demonstrates that pre-decisional information sampling strategies are often stable within a given person while varying greatly across people. However, it remains largely unknown what drives these individual differences, that is, why in some circumstances we collect information more idiosyncratically. In this brief report, we…

Background: Billions of dollars are spent annually on grant-funded STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education programs. These programs help students stay on track toward STEM careers when standard educational practices do not adequately prepare them for these careers. It is important to know that reliable and accurate…

Are social science, cross-border research projects, where recruitment and data collection are carried out remotely (e.g. through social media and online platforms), required to follow similar ethical and data-sharing procedures as 'on-the-ground' studies that use traditional means of recruitment and participant engagement? This article reflects on…

In order to further understand the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer-plus (LGBTQ+) youth, they must be identified in surveys and data at the federal, state, and local level. Being able to identify LGBTQ+ youth in data, particularly in surveys and research about school climate and negative school experiences, including…

Although the importance of listening to young children's voices is acknowledged in international literature, it is not clear whether educational researchers "really" listen to them and, if they do, what research designs and methods facilitate that. Therefore, using the EPPI-centre approach (2007), a systematic literature review was…

Intensive longitudinal data is increasingly used to study state-like processes such as changes in daily stress. Measures aimed at collecting such data require the same level of scrutiny regarding scale reliability as traditional questionnaires. The most prevalent methods used to assess reliability of intensive longitudinal measures are based on…

Background: Online crowdsourcing platforms, such as Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), have become popular alternatives to the ubiquitous student samples used in psychology research. r/SampleSize, an alternative pool on the website Reddit, allows for online participant recruitment without compulsory or immediate payment, making it potentially useful…

This article is written with the recognition that, as higher education studies evolve as a multidisciplinary area of inquiry, there is a need to reflect on the theoretical and practical concerns emerging from conducting higher education research. This is especially the case for early-career researchers who enter this relatively new field of study.…

This volume provides alternatives for tackling existing empirical, methodological, and analytical challenges. It does so by providing a broad overview of less established, as well as emerging methods, which are of great relevance for current research on professional learning and development. As such, it offers a comprehensive collection of…

The purpose of this study was to explore how evaluators justify using story-based methodologies when examining causality. The two primary research questions of the study included: 1) what arguments are made by evaluators to justify the credibility of story-based causal methodologies to evaluation stakeholders; and 2) from the perspective of…