The early childhood sector in Singapore has witnessed vast changes in the past two decades. One of the key policy aims is to improve classroom quality. To ensure a rigorous evaluation of the quality of early childhood environments in Singapore, it is important to determine whether commonly used assessments of quality are valid indicators across…

This paper addresses the wicked problem of measuring the productivity of learning and teaching in higher education. We show how fundamental validity issues and difficulties identified in educational productivity research point to the need for a qualitatively different framework when considering the entire question. We describe the work that needs…

It is commonly assumed that belief-based reasoning is fast and automatic, whereas rule-based reasoning is slower and more effortful. Dual-Process theories of reasoning rely on this speed-asymmetry explanation to account for a number of reasoning phenomena, such as base-rate neglect and belief-bias. The goal of the current study was to test this…

The current study proposes novel methods to predict multistage testing (MST) performance without conducting simulations. This method, called MST test information, is based on analytic derivation of standard errors of ability estimates across theta levels. We compared standard errors derived analytically to the simulation results to demonstrate the…

Purpose: To produce a novel, efficient measure of children's expressive vocal development on the basis of automatic vocalization assessment (AVA), child vocalizations were automatically identified and extracted from audio recordings using Language Environment Analysis (LENA) System technology. Method: Assessment was based on full-day audio…

In tests used to measure reading comprehension, validity is important in obtaining accurate results. Unfortunately, studies have shown that people can correctly answer some questions of these tests without reading the related passage. These findings bring forth the need to address whether this phenomenon is observed in multiple-choice only tests…

Fluency is an important construct in clinical assessment and in cognitive taxonomies. In the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model, Fluency is represented by several narrow factors that form a subset of the long-term memory encoding and retrieval (Glr) broad factor. The CHC broad classification of Fluency was evaluated in five data sets, and the CHC…

This article describes the revision of Vespia, Heckman-Stone, and Delworth's (2002) Supervision Utilization Rating Form (SURF) and validation of the resulting Adapted SURF. The Adapted SURF is designed to provide supervisors with a cleaner measure of supervisee behaviors that contribute to effective supervision.

According to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), "psychological flexibility" refers to an individual's ability to maintain mindful awareness of his or her thoughts and emotions in the present moment while behaving according to his or her personal values. Psychological inflexibility could set the foundation for emotional distress and…

The "5 Cs of PYD Model" is an influential theory involving the role of Intentional Self-Regulation (ISR) in positive youth development (PYD). The model, which was developed with U.S. populations, has recently been used in other cultural contexts and, as such, the measurement invariance of the ISR-PYD model across cultural contexts must…

The Occupational Work Ethic Inventory (OWEI) has been widely used to measure work ethic constructs by professionals in the fields of Career and Technical Education (CTE) and Human Resource Development (HRD). However, there are circumstances when a shorter instrument would have advantages, especially when a measure of work ethic is needed along…

Teachers' teaching approaches have become an important issue in the search of quality in education and teaching because of their effect on students' learning. Improvements in teachers' knowledge and awareness of their own teaching approaches enable them to adopt teaching process in accordance with their students' learning styles. The Approaches to…

Educating students with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties requires a thorough systematic approach with the focus on academic instruction. This study addresses the development of a tool, consisting of two questionnaires, for measuring systematic academic instruction. The questionnaires cover the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle and academic…

In this article, we revisit the concept of strong differentiability of real functions of one variable, underlying the concept of differentiability. Our discussion is guided by the Straddle Lemma, which plays a key role in this context. The proofs of the results presented are designed to meet a young audience in mathematics, typical of students in…

A proof is a connected sequence of assertions that includes a set of accepted statements, forms of reasoning and modes of representing arguments. Assuming reasoning to be central to proving and aiming to develop knowledge about how teacher actions may promote students' mathematical reasoning, we conduct design research where whole-class…