This article builds upon a proiminent definition of construct validity that focuses on variation in attributes causing variation in measurement outcomes. This article synthesizes the defintion and uses Rasch measurement modeling to explicate a modified conceptualization of construct validity for assessments of developmental attributes. If…

Attentional control theory indicates that concentration is considered an important variable that contributes to learning. There are some devices for players to practice their concentration, but there are few virtual reality (VR) designs which can increase the level of difficulty for students to discipline their mental concentration with…

The attribution of learning success or failure is crucial for students' learning and motivation. Effective attribution of their learning success or failure in the context of a small private online course (SPOC) could generate students' motivation toward learning success while an incorrect attribution would lead to a sense of helplessness. Based on…

Navigating scientific challenges, persevering through difficulties, and coping with failure are considered hallmarks of a successful scientist. However, relatively few studies investigate how undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students develop these skills and dispositions or how instructors can facilitate this…

Students' causal attributions play an important role in recent studies due to their effects on academic self-concept and performances. Most common causal attributions are students' ability, effort, task difficulty, and chance. The present study aims at identifying students' preferred causal attributions of failure and success while experimenting.…

The purpose of this research is to gather empirical evidence for attribution theory (Weiner in J Educ Psychol 71(1):3-25. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.71.1.3, 1979) to explain students' feelings of helplessness when learning mathematics. The relationships between mathematics literacy in PISA 2012 and learned helplessness were also observed.…

Material development is important for training beginner student interpreters, as it guides the direction of interpreting learning. One key principle is difficulty progression, which requires a good knowledge of the indicators of difficulty. Since text structure outweighs words and sentences in the information processing of consecutive…

Background: Previous literature highlights the importance of causal attributions in achievement and motivation. However, the studies about causal attributions in second language acquisition (SLA) are limited and scarce. Aims: This study was designed to determine the frequency of successful and unsuccessful activities per English level and to…

This study examines the process of judging complex real-life events in Israel: the disengagement from Gush Katif, Rabin's assassination and the Second Lebanon War. The process of judging is based on Weiner's attribution model, (Weiner, 2000, 2006); however, due to the complexity of the events studied, variables were added to characterize the…

Some researchers on binary choice inference have argued that people make inferences based on simple heuristics, such as recognition, fluency, or familiarity. Others have argued that people make inferences based on available knowledge. To examine the boundary between heuristic and knowledge usage, we examine binary choice inference processes in…

The present investigation aims to analyze the effect of motivation on students' causal attributions to choose or abandon chemistry when it first becomes optional in the secondary education curriculum in Spain. Attributions to the effect of the family and to the teacher and classroom methodology were found to be common predictors of the choice to…

Empirical studies have revealed that teachers face problems when assessing task difficulty for their students. By drawing on research that focuses on how individuals assess what others know, we argue that these difficulties are a consequence of the imputation of one's own knowledge to others (i.e., social projection). In particular, we tested the…

Anywhere in the world, accounting is highly regarded as one of the most challenging subjects in business programs. This is usually associated with a high failure rate; a pressing issue that deserves an intervention. This paper analyzed the factors associated with failure in accounting as experienced by a college in the Sultanate of Oman in…

In Turkey, first-year preservice English teachers learn L2 writing in at least two compulsory courses throughout their undergraduate ELT [English Language Teaching] programs. This study, conducted in this context, intends to investigate preservice English teachers' perceptions about L2 undergraduate writing difficulty and their causal attributions…

Project-based learning activities commonly occur as part of science classroom instruction. However, while there is a large body of research about self-regulation of discreet tasks, there is limited research about how students sustain self-regulated learning during complex, long-term learning tasks. A multiple case study design with quantitative…