The National Institute of Mental Health created the National Database for Autism Research (NDAR) to accelerate autism knowledge through data sharing and collaboration. However, our experience using NDAR reveals systematic challenges across several aspects of data submission, selection, management, and analysis that limit utility of this resource.…

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by difficulties in communication and social-emotional interaction. It is associated with an increase of parental stress and poor family functioning, both of which are harmful for a child's functioning and adaptive behavior. An important source of support to parents are…

Fostering creative thinking and promoting metacognitive processes are two major goals of 21st -century education. Recent research has pinpointed the essential role of meta-creativity in the process of creative thinking. Nevertheless, the concept of meta-creativity has not been widely adopted. The purpose of the present study is, therefore,…

This systematic literature review explored the impact of integrating AI tools in higher education using the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) by Lev Vygotsky. It examined how AI tools assist the students in identifying and operating within their ZPD, how to create and facilitate a collaborative learning environment, and how to provide the…

The alignment of learning materials with learning objectives (LOs) is critical for successfully implementing the problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum. This study investigated the capabilities of Gemini Advanced, a large language model (LLM), in creating clinical vignettes that align with LOs and comprehensive tutor guides. This study used a…

Studies have shown that there are differences between the presentations of males and females diagnosed with autism. There remains a developing understanding about how the presentation of autism differs between boys (hereafter referred to as 'assigned males at birth') and girls (assigned females at birth). This study sought to investigate the…

This study examined the impact of the Head Start Research-based, Developmentally Informed (REDI) preschool intervention on high school outcomes and explored longitudinal mediation. 356 children (58% White, 25% Black, 17% Latinx; 54% female, 46% male; M[subscript age] = 4.49 years) were recruited from Head Start classrooms which were randomized to…

We study the peer effects of grade retention in the context of Indiana's statewide third-grade retention policy. When a retention occurs, it changes the peer group for two cohorts: rising fourth graders who lose a peer and rising third graders who gain a peer. We identify peer effects in both cohorts by leveraging plausibly exogenous variation in…

Many students persistently misinterpret histograms. This calls for closer inspection of students' strategies when interpreting histograms and case-value plots (which look similar but are different). Using students' gaze data, we ask: "How and how well do upper secondary pre-university school students estimate and compare arithmetic means of…

The ability to properly evaluate one's own academic progress has long been considered a predictor of academic success. However, its distinctive role in the context of computational mathematics remains underexplored. Grounded in social cognitive theory, this study investigates the critical role of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies in…

In this exploratory study, we designed and validated game-based performance tasks to assess the development of representational flexibility in autistic adolescents through virtual reality (VR)-based training. Representational flexibility, a critical cognitive ability, involves attention switching, generating representations, and recognizing…

Algebra has been identified as a gatekeeper to careers in STEM, but little research exists on how algebra appears for practitioners in the workplace. Surveys and interviews were conducted with 77 STEM practitioners from a variety of fields, examining how they reported using algebraic functions in their work. Survey and interview reports suggest…

While environmental problems are urgent in modern society, they are especially difficult to tackle because of their normative and politically controversial nature. Universities may choose different theoretical paradigms for the teaching of environmental problems. However, limited theoretical and/or practical analysis has been undertaken of the…

This study investigated the impact of computer-aided assessment on the enhancement of critical thinking skills in non-routine problem-solving across three distinct learning delivery modalities: fully online, balanced blended, and predominantly face-to-face (F2F) blended. The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of computer-aided assessment in…

Students with and without disabilities may be educated across various service delivery models (SDMs): general education, cotaught, pull-out, and self-contained. Still, evidence for their relative effectiveness at scale remains limited. Using longitudinal administrative data from Indiana, we measured the effect of different SDMs on test scores,…