This thesis consists of two parts. In Chapter 2, we focus on the spatial scan statistics with overdispersion and Chapter 3 is devoted to the randomized permutation test for identifying local patterns of spatial association. The spatial scan statistic has been widely used in spatial disease surveillance and spatial cluster detection. To apply it, a…

The growth of online learning in the K-12 sector is occurring both remotely through virtual schools and on campuses through blended learning. In emerging fields, definitions are important because they create a shared language that enables people to talk about the new phenomena. The blended-learning taxonomy and definitions presented in this paper…

The aim of this study is to reveal prospective teachers' perceptions of the concept of science by asking them to use metaphors to describe it. A metaphor elicitation method was employed in this study. The data obtained from the study were considered with both quantitative and qualitative (Content Analysis) analyses. The study determined the…

The acquisition of systematic patterns and exceptions in different languages can be readily examined using the causative construction. Persian allows four types of causative structures, including one productive multiword structure (i.e. the light verb construction). In this study, we examine the development of all four structures in Persian child…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to provide an epidemiological profile of injuries sustained by participants in fitness activities in Victoria, Australia, based on hospital admissions and emergency department (ED) presentations and to identify the most common types, causes, and sites of these injuries. Method: Hospital-treated fitness…

The objective of our study is to introduce a fully automated, computational linguistic technique to quantify semantic relations between words generated on a standard semantic verbal fluency test and to determine its cognitive and clinical correlates. Cognitive differences between patients with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment are…

Schools today are experiencing dramatic changes in how they serve gifted students. Gifted programs that have prevailed for years are disappearing. In response, an increasing number of schools are turning to the Schoolwide Cluster Grouping Model (SCGM) to serve their gifted students. When implemented well, the SCGM represents one viable solution…

The debate over charter school effectiveness relies largely on neoclassical logic: individual parents or students express demand for a widening array of school types and then experience variable levels of organizational quality. We argue that market-like behavior is nested in segments of local organizational fields with different types of charter…

Through a review of the literature on mathematical learning disabilities (MLD) and low achievement in mathematics (LA) we have proposed a model classifying mathematical skills involved in learning mathematics into four domains (Core number, Memory, Reasoning, and Visual-spatial). In this paper we present a new experimental computer-based battery…

A large body of research in the learning sciences has focused on students' commonsense science knowledge--the everyday knowledge of the natural world that is gained outside of formal instruction. Although researchers studying commonsense science have employed a variety of methods, 1-on-1 clinical interviews have played a unique role. The data…

This article reports the findings of a comparative study of pedagogy in lower-secondary school mathematics in Denmark and England. Lesson observations and interviews identified the range of goals towards which teachers in each country worked and the actions these prompted. These were clustered using the lens of Bernstein's pedagogic discourse to…

This study applied text mining methods to examine the abstracts of 2,997 international research articles published between 2000 and 2010 by six journals included in the Social Science Citation Index in the field of Educational Technology (EDTECH). A total of 19 clusters of research areas were identified, and these clusters were further analyzed in…

This study focused on the stability and change in students' achievement goal orientations and whether the students' perceptions of the learning environment vary as a function of their achievement goal orientations. Participants were 169 students of the Finnish National Defense University. The students' goal orientations and their evaluations of…

This column provides an overview of the Common Core text exemplars and gives examples of ways teachers can group text exemplars and other trade books in ways that will support middle graders' understanding of complex texts. Building background by supplementing text exemplars with other titles is particularly emphasized. Suggestions for grouping…

The same stressor can evoke different emotions across individuals, and emotions can prompt certain coping responses. Responding to four videotaped interpersonal stressors, adolescents ("N" = 230, the average values of "X"[subscript age] = 10 years) reported their sadness, fear "and" anger, and 12 coping strategies.…