Breadth and depth of curriculum are important for success in science teaching and learning. Curriculum theorists recommend less breadth and more depth than overloaded, superficial science curricula. This study investigates breadth and depth in the official biology syllabi in the seventh to eighth or ninth years in four diverse jurisdictions,…

In educational and psychological research, it is common to use latent factors to represent constructs and then to examine covariate effects on these latent factors. Using empirical data, this study applied three approaches to covariate effects on latent factors: the multiple-indicator multiple-cause (MIMIC) approach, multiple group confirmatory…

This study compares the successes of numbers 94 7th grade students in science education with assessment-evaluation questions based on skill and acquisition. Assessment-evaluation achievement tests based on skill and acquisition were developed by researchers towards the measurement of force and acquisitions in friction units taking place in the…

Inquiry-Based Teaching Practice (IBTP) is an essential component of science education, and promoting its implementation is at the heart of various reform efforts. Even though science teachers regard IBTP as an essential pedagogical method, they rarely use it for various reasons. This study utilizes Bronfenbrenner's ecological framework to examine…

Large-scale assessment programs, such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), employ item response theory (IRT) and marginal estimation methods to estimate student proficiency in specific subjects such as mathematics, science, or reading. Each of these…

Large-scale assessments (LSAs) use Mislevy's "plausible value" (PV) approach to relate student proficiency to noncognitive variables administered in a background questionnaire. This method requires background variables to be completely observed, a requirement that is seldom fulfilled. In this article, we evaluate and compare the…

Previous studies measured flow states using students' self-reported experiences, resulting in issues regarding nonobjective and nonreal-time data. Thus, this study used an electroencephalogram (EEG) to measure the EEG-detected real-time flow states (EEG-Fs) of 30 students from the 4th and 5th grades. Their EEG measurements, self-reported…

This article presents a new perspective on measuring gender differences in the large-scale assessment study Trends in International Science Study (TIMSS). The suggested empirical model is directly based on the theoretical competence model of the domain mathematics and thus includes the interaction between content and cognitive sub-competencies.…

On international comparisons, the development of Oman's education system in terms of the increase in educational enrolment rates and in the level of teacher qualifications has been remarkably rapid. Almost 100% access to basic education has been achieved, and almost all students progress onto post-basic education. A report from the World Bank in…

We conducted a methodological review of articles using the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) or Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data published by the SSCI-indexed science education journals, such as the "International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education," the "International…

In many surveys, the data comprise a large number of categorical variables that suffer from item nonresponse. Standard methods for multiple imputation, like log-linear models or sequential regression imputation, can fail to capture complex dependencies and can be difficult to implement effectively in high dimensions. We present a fully Bayesian,…

A variety of differential item functioning (DIF) methods have been proposed and used for ensuring that a test is fair to all test takers in a target population in the situations of, for example, a test being translated to other languages. However, once a method flags an item as DIF, it is difficult to conclude that the grouping variable (e.g.,…

The different strategies and methodologies used by teachers in their day-to-day activity may have an impact on the academic performance of their students. Indexes constructed to summarize how teachers address different teaching tasks can be used to quantify the teaching activities' associations with academic results. In the IEA's Trends in…

Trend estimation in international comparative large-scale assessments relies on measurement invariance between countries. However, cross-national differential item functioning (DIF) has been repeatedly documented. We ran a simulation study using national item parameters, which required trends to be computed separately for each country, to compare…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of dimensionality, common-item set format, and different scale linking methods on preserving equity property with mixed-format test equating. Item response theory (IRT) true-score equating (TSE) and IRT observed-score equating (OSE) methods were used under common-item nonequivalent groups design.…