COVID-19 pandemic policies requiring disease testing provide a rich context to build insights on true positives versus false positives. Our main contribution to the pedagogy of data analytics and statistics is to propose a method for teaching updating of probabilities using Bayes' rule reasoning to build understanding that true positives and false…

What is the processing cost of being garden-pathed by a temporary syntactic ambiguity? We argue that comparing average reading times in garden-path versus non-garden-path sentences is not enough to answer this question. Trial-level contaminants such as inattention, the fact that garden pathing may occur non-deterministically in the ambiguous…

This paper asks whether improving the quality of public schools can be an effective long-run crime-prevention strategy in the U.S. Specifically, we examine the effect of school quality improvements early in children's lives on the likelihood that they are arrested as adults. We exploit quasi-experimental variation in school quality due to…

Recent controversies have highlighted the importance of local school district governance, but little empirical evidence exists evaluating the quality of district policy makers or policies. In this paper, we take a novel approach to assessing school district decision making. We posit a model of rational decision making under uncertainty that…

Recent controversies have highlighted the importance of local school district governance, but little empirical evidence exists evaluating the quality of district policy makers or policies. In this paper, we take a novel approach to assessing school district decision making. We posit a model of rational decision making under uncertainty that…

This study examines how college majors are related to marital outcomes through homogamy based on college attainment and fields of study. Grounded in theories of educational assortative mating, opportunity structure, and personal preferences, we investigate how college majors predict marriage probability, spouse selection, and economic inequality…

Although online learning has increased in popularity in higher education, attrition rates in this delivery method are also high. An archival study over a 14-year time period was conducted to (a) compare the drop rates in a face-to-face vs. online introduction to physical geology course and (b) explore possible factors related to the probability of…

This study investigates the potential of European universities as hosts for Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) grantees. Factors explaining both the probability of a university hosting an MSCA grantee and its extent are estimated using a zero-inflated negative binomial regression model. Results reveal that the probability of hosting MSCA…

Many problems in real life are full of uncertainty. Probabilistic thinking is one way to solve this uncertainty problem. The personality abilities that are interesting to examine include how independent the students are in facing probabilistic solutions. For this reason, it is necessary to study the probabilistic thinking profile of prospective…

Standard meta-analysis methods are vulnerable to bias from incomplete reporting of results (both publication and outcome reporting bias) and poor study quality. Several alternative methods have been proposed as being less vulnerable to such biases. To evaluate these claims independently we simulated study results under a broad range of conditions…

Providing opportunities for students to express ideas in their own words is key to promoting authentic disciplinary engagement and robust conceptual understanding. In this article, we discuss our experiences and observations related to students' informal vocabulary in the context of a middle school probability unit. We noticed that students'…

Past studies have documented some pre-service teachers' (PSTs) difficulties in reasoning about sampling variability. This study adds to the body of literature by investigating the ideas that PSTs employ in reasoning about sampling variability, and by conjecturing what is behind the difficulties especially during the contextuality episodes. This…

Epidemics and pandemics are difficult periods for the affected community, specifically in the proliferation of mental health issues. In such adverse times, factors of psychological vulnerability such as propensity to worry and low emotional stability might have a detrimental effect on the mental health of the individuals. To investigate the impact…

The COVID-19 pandemic is arguably the worst crisis the world has faced, so far, in this new century. We haven't seen a pandemic like this since the "1918 Flu" at the beginning of the last century, and, as of this writing, there appears to be no end in sight. What those of us who're focused on quantitative methods have noticed, in…

Decades of educational research have demonstrated that students are most likely to be successful when instruction is explicit and engaging and provides students with multiple opportunities to practice with teacher feedback. To be explicit means more than simply telling students what to do. It is the teacher's responsibility to help the student…