The main purpose of the current study is to examine the construct, convergent and discriminant validity of the Sources of Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale (Usher & Pajares, 2009) in a Turkish sample. Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory (1986) served as the theoretical framework for the current study. According to Bandura (1986), people's…

The purpose of this study is to further enhance the existing reliability and validity evidence related to the School Implementation Scale (SIS) and its use for evaluating the implementation of different integrated academic and behavior tiered Response-To-Intervention (RTI) models. Previous methodology conducted for validation of the instrument has…

A procedure for examining essential unidimensionality in multicomponent measuring instruments is discussed. The method is based on an application of latent variable modeling and is concerned with the extent to which a common factor for all components of a given scale accounts for their correlations. The approach provides point and interval…

These authors congratulate Albert Maydeu-Olivares on his lucid and timely overview of goodness-of-fit assessment in IRT models, a field to which he himself has contributed considerably in the form of limited information statistics. In this commentary, Oberski and Vermunt focus on two aspects of model fit: (1) what causes there may be of misfit;…

This chapter will provide potential models for analyzing learning data through a discussion of screening data and then analyzing that data using appropriate statistical techniques.

The main goal of this research is to design, implement, and evaluate a novel explanation method, the hierarchical explanation method (HEM), for explaining Bayesian network (BN) inference when the network is modeling a population of conditionally independent agents, each of which is modeled as a subnetwork. For example, consider disease-outbreak…

Single case designs (SCDs) are short time series that assess intervention effects by measuring units repeatedly over time both in the presence and absence of treatment. For a variety of reasons, interest in the statistical analysis and meta-analysis of these designs has been growing in recent years. This paper proposes modeling SCD data with…

We offer an introduction to the five papers that make up this special section. These papers deal with a range of the methodological challenges that face researchers analyzing fMRI data--the spatial, multilevel, and longitudinal nature of the data, the sources of noise, and so on. The papers all provide analyses of data collected by a multi-site…

The aim of this study is to validate MOOC-based curriculum in higher education in Iran. The research method is mixed and of exploratory type. Method of grounded theory is used in the qualitative section and the Validation Test Pattern among the faculties and PhD students of Tehran's Universities is considered in the quantitative part. The…

Summer enrichment and residential programs can provide gifted students with positive social interactions and challenging curricula. However, little research has focused on gifted students' perceptions of the learning environment in such programs. This research project evaluated the psychometric properties and practical applications of the…

Education research has shown that reflective study can efficiently enhance learning, and the acquisition of knowledge and skills from real-life situations has become a focus of interest for scholars. The knowledge-learning model based on verbal instruction, used in traditional classrooms, does not make use of real-life situations that encourage…

In this paper, we develop an information distortion model (IDM) of social class differences in self-beliefs and values. The IDM combines psychological biases on frame-of-reference effects with sociological foci on ability stratification. This combination is hypothesized to lead to working-class children having more positive math self-beliefs and…

While prior studies have examined the efficacy of career and technical education (CTE) courses on high school students' outcomes, there is little knowledge on timing of these courses and a potential link to student outcomes. We asked if the timing of these courses predicted differences in the likelihood of dropout and on-time high school…

Federal legislation has demanded increased accountability requirements for teacher excellence. Teachers and school leaders in the local schools are impacted tremendously by this decision. The necessity to provide students with high performing teachers is a priority of all stakeholders. The need to comply with federal grant requirements has added…

An odds ratio approach (ORA) under the framework of a nested logit model was proposed for evaluating differential distractor functioning (DDF) in multiple-choice items and was compared with an existing ORA developed under the nominal response model. The performances of the two ORAs for detecting DDF were investigated through an extensive…