This study assessed students' attitudes toward science in Qatar. A cross-sectional, nationwide probability sample representing all students enrolled in grades 3 through 12 in the various types of schools in Qatar completed the "Arabic Speaking Students' Attitudes toward Science Survey" (ASSASS). The validity and reliability of the…

Many teachers of required secondary school mathematics classes are introducing statistics and probability topics traditionally relegated to college or AP Statistics courses. As a result, they need guidance in preparing lesson plans and orchestrating effective classroom discussions. In this article, the authors will describe the students' learning…

Associations between experiencing child maltreatment and adverse developmental outcomes are widely studied, yet conclusions regarding the extent to which effects are bidirectional, and whether they are likely causal, remain elusive. This study uses the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a birth cohort of 4,898 children followed from birth…

In recent years, concerns have emerged both about declines in entrepreneurial activity, and about increases in the amount students borrow to finance postsecondary education--in the aggregate as well as on average. Because the financial obligations associated with student debt could limit access to credit for individuals seeking to start…

It is common in regression discontinuity analysis to control for high order (third, fourth, or higher) polynomials of the forcing variable. We argue that estimators for causal effects based on such methods can be misleading, and we recommend researchers do not use them, and instead use estimators based on local linear or quadratic polynomials or…

Michael Oppenheimer and Jesse Anttila-Hughes begin with a primer on how the greenhouse effect works, how we know that Earth is rapidly getting warmer, and how we know that the recent warming is caused by human activity. They explain the sources of scientific knowledge about climate change as well as the basis for the models scientists use to…

Although research suggests an interplay between identity development and self-esteem, most studies focused on the role of identity commitment and measured only level of self-esteem. This study examined longitudinal associations between Berzonsky's (2011) styles of identity exploration and two distinct features of self-esteem: level of self-esteem…

A major obstacle to developing evidenced-based policy is the difficulty of implementing randomized experiments to answer all causal questions of interest. When using a nonexperimental study, it is critical to assess how much the results could be affected by unmeasured confounding. We present a set of graphical and numeric tools to explore the…

This study uses a randomized design to assess the impact of the Balanced Leadership program on principal leadership, instructional climate, principal efficacy, staff turnover, and student achievement in a sample of rural northern Michigan schools. Participating principals report feeling more efficacious, using more effective leadership practices,…

Bullying is one of the most challenging issues facing students and schools worldwide. The disastrous consequences for victims and offenders are experienced daily by teachers and students and documented by numerous studies. The demand for evidence-based practice (EBP) in schools' anti-bullying work has increased in the last decade, consequently…

In today's technological and global society, STEM disciplines are viewed as fundamental to the nation's economic growth and prosperity. Employment opportunities in STEM fields have increased at a faster rate than in non-STEM fields (Government Accounting Office [GAO], 2006). Additionally, many professions--once perceived not to require STEM…

Many researchers have long assumed imaginative play critical to the healthy cognitive, social, and emotional development of children, which has important implications for early-education policy and practice. But, the authors find, a careful review of the existing literature highlights a need for a better theory to clarify the nature of the…

How do human infants learn the causal dependencies between events? Evidence suggests that this remarkable feat can be achieved by observation of only a handful of examples. Many computational models have been produced to explain how infants perform causal inference without explicit teaching about statistics or the scientific method. Here, we…

The use of the web in teaching and learning and research studies on this issue are increasingly common in science education. In most of these studies, teachers' and students' perceptions of and their attitudes toward the specific web-assisted/based learning activities and the effects of these activities on their achievement and attitudes have been…

To better understand how a once well-intentioned concept of financial tuition assistance for college students has devolved into its current troubled and broken state, this doctoral thesis explored the evolution of the U.S. system of federal financial aid in higher education from a historical perspective. The study began with a review of the…