We investigated whether and to what extent different scoring instructions, timing conditions, and direct feedback affect performance and speed. An experimental study manipulating these factors was designed to address these research questions. According to the factorial design, participants were randomly assigned to one of twelve study conditions.…

As a part of a larger project, this study reports a large-scale investigation of the impacts of the Iranian National University Entrance Examination (INUEE) on Iranian high school students and their parents. For this purpose, in a mixed methods research design, 1350 high school students selected based on convenience sampling from three western…

In response to geoscience education research and calls for the need to reform STEM teaching in higher education, many geoscience faculty are adopting research-based pedagogies to improve student learning in their courses. Our own effort to reform our introductory geology course included daily student-centered activities and other reforms we…

The growing influence of high-stakes exams has had drastic impacts on English learners and their teachers. The linguistic demands of these exams have harmed English learners' aspirations and attainment, while teachers are pressured to teach to the test and replace critical approaches to language learning with practices designed to encourage rapid…

Aptitude testing is used to select candidates with the greatest potential for professional interpreter training. Implicit in this practice is the expectation that aptitude test scores predict future performance. As such, the predictive validity of score-based inferences and decisions constitutes an important rationale for aptitude testing.…

The present study examined the effects of decorative pictures (DP) on cognitive load during learning factual knowledge from texts assessed by physiological proxies, namely pupil dilation and the electroencephalogram (EEG) theta (4-6 Hz) and alpha (8-13 Hz) frequency band power at frontal and parietal electrodes, respectively. In a complete…

There are multiple levels of processing relevant to reading that vary in their visual, sublexical, and lexical orthographic processing demands. Segregating distinct cortical sources for each of these levels has been challenging in EEG studies of early readers. To address this challenge, we applied recent advances in analyzing high-density EEG…

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham ADHD Rating Scale (SNAP-IV) in a sample of South African children with neurodevelopmental disorders (n = 201), primarily Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual Disability. We conducted a confirmatory factor analysis to inspect the two-factor structure of the…

Prior achievement is essential to estimating the role of schools and school factors on student outcomes because it measures students' pre-existing knowledge and skills. However, its very strong effects and their implications for research and policy are not widely appreciated. Analyses of student achievement in five domains shows that prior…

Pre-service biology teachers' environmental literacy is still generally low. It is necessary to improve their environmental literacy through the innovation of open inquiry learning kits. There are two primary aims of this study: (1) to develop appropriate open inquiry learning kits that can foster pre-service biology teachers' environmental…

This study examines the convergent validity of the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children (PAQ-C) for assessing moderate-to-vigorous and total physical activity (PA) in school children. 430 participants (51.6% girls) aged 9-12 years provided valid accelerometer data (wGT3X-BT) and completed the PAQ-C. Convergent validity was assessed using…

This study was the first to examine two related constructs within the context of leadership. Stoicism is an ancient philosophy offering practical advice for a virtuous and eudaemonic life. As a method to examine one's emotional experiences (Sellars, 2006), leaders such as Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Teddy Roosevelt (Aurelius, ca. 160 A.D.,…

Personalized recommendation plays an important role on content selection during the adaptive learning process. It is always a challenge on how to recommend effective items to improve learning performance. The aim of this study was to examine the feasibility of applying adaptive testing technology for personalized recommendation. We proposed the…

Purpose: To continue to stay relevant in the era of Industry Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) alongside the unprecedented disruption of COVID-19, the importance of lifelong learning is indisputable though this concept has existed for decades. In this context, open and distance learning (ODL) institutions are urged to re-think and re-design their online…

School systems around the world use achievement tests to assign students to schools, classes, and instructional resources, including remediation. Using a regression discontinuity design, we study a Florida policy that places middle school students who score below a proficiency cutoff into remedial classes. Students scoring below the cutoff receive…