This dissertation study presents a case study of one of the largest educational agencies in China. The study investigated the instructional effectiveness of the test prep program in Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). The purpose of this study is threefold: 1) to examine the educational effectiveness of a language proficiency test…

The aim of this study was to explore how the Coding as Another Language using ScratchJr (CAL-ScratchJr) curriculum, developed by Boston College's DevTech Research Group utilizing the ScratchJr app, impacted second grade students' computational thinking, coding skills, and reading comprehension. To accomplish this, the research team randomly…

Purpose: Language sampling is a critical component of language assessments. However, there are many ways to elicit language samples that likely impact the results. The purpose of this study was to examine how different discourse types and elicitation tasks affect various language sampling outcomes. Method: A diverse group of K-3 students (N =…

Multi-informant reports of student emotional and behavioral problems determine eligibility for school-based services; however, multiple informants often yield inconsistent reports of child concerns. Informant discrepancies are thought to reflect either measurement error or meaningful differences (e.g., situational variation). It is important to…

We examined the relation of morphological awareness with language and literacy skills, namely phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, vocabulary, word reading, spelling, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension. We also examined potential moderators of the relations (grade level, orthographic depth of language, receptive vs.…

Integrative learning is an important outcome for graduates of higher education. Therefore, it should be well-defined and assessed reliably. The American Association of Colleges & Universities has developed a rubric to define and assess integrative learning, but it has low reliability. This pilot study examines whether this rubric's reliability…

Conceptual Metaphor (CM; e.g., Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, 1999; Kovecses, 2020) is central to our thinking and ubiquitously manifested in our language. Given its importance, the teaching of conceptual metaphors has gained much attention in Cognitive Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. While most empirical studies have focused on specific aspects…

Over the past 2 decades, a growing number of randomised controlled trials have assessed the impact on children's language skills of interventions encouraging parents to read books to their offspring. We present the results of a meta-analysis of the impact of 30 such interventions. Results indicate that they are often ineffective, and that only one…

Seductive details in text are interesting but unimportant text segments. Although seductive details can make expository text more interesting, they do not necessarily promote learning of main ideas. This study investigated whether task relevance instructions that targeted main ideas would promote memory for main ideas when students read a text…

The goal of this study is to compare in-service and pre-service teachers' computational thinking skills and to take in-service teachers' opinions about the contribution of professional life to differentiation in this skill. The study was conducted in Turkey. The type of the study is mixed method. Quantitative data were obtained from 870…

Although faculty agree that critical thinking is an important learning outcome for college courses, experts disagree on how to define and conceptualize critical thinking. Some researchers see it as a general skill, similar to reading or mathematics. Others see it as highly specific to each academic discipline, with critical thinking in one…

Teachers need to be aware of biology misconceptions in their classrooms and how to address them. In response, researchers and science educators have suggested and examined effective practices to prevent and ameliorate misconceptions. An extensive review of the literature gives researchers and educators insights into trends, practices, and gaps in…

Purpose: Spoken language serves as a primary means of social interaction, but speech and language skills change with age, a potential source of age-related stereotyping. The goals of this study were to examine how accurately age could be estimated from language samples, to determine which speech and language cues were most informative, and to…

Emerging cognitive control supports increasingly efficient goal-directed behaviors. With age, children are increasingly expected to decide autonomously and with little external aid which goals to attain. However, little is known about how children engage cognitive control in such a self-directed fashion. The present study examined self-directed…

Relations between participation in Imagination Library, a book distribution program that serves children from birth through age 5, and children's literacy outcomes in kindergarten were examined. Children (n = 2,428) who participated in the program had greater letter knowledge and higher scores on measures of phonological awareness when compared to…