To measure "treatment" effects, social science researchers typically rely on nonexperimental data. In education, school and teacher effects on students are often measured through value-added models (VAMs) that are not fully understood. We propose a framework that relates to the education production function in its most flexible form and…

Background: Educational and developmental psychologists often examine how groups change over time. Two analytic procedures -- analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and the gain score model -- each seem well suited for the simplest situation, with just two groups and two time points. They can produce different results, what is known as Lord's paradox.…

Purpose: Mental health professionals' personal values have a critical role in providing efficient services to culturally diverse clients, being social advocates, and promoting social justice. In the present study, mental health professionals in Turkey were assumed to be grouped under three categories: the ones who are sensitive, who are rigid, and…

"Kalila and Dimna," which is considered as one of the classic works of the Eastern literature, is a political morality and advice book that is still in effect thanks to the knowledge of wisdom it offers. The aim of this study is to examine this work according to the Western classifications of values (UNESCO, Rokeach, Schwartz, Spranger)…

The study was designed to investigate the moral reasoning stages of secondary school head teachers of Pakistan. Objectives of the study were (1) to investigate the stages of moral reasoning among secondary school head teachers in the light of Kohlberg's theory of moral development, (2) to find out the differences in moral reasoning of secondary…

The purpose of the present study is to examine the relation between social values perceptions and moral maturity levels of folk dancers, and evaluate this relation in terms of some variables. The relational screening model was used in the study. The "Multi-dimensional Social Values Scale," which was developed by Bolat (2013), and the…

This reflective commentary on the character and role of methodology in educational and social inquiry recounts my 45-year journey as an applied researcher and evaluator, primarily in the domain of education. The journey starts in graduate school in the early 1970s, where the methodological challenge was to master "the proper methods, properly…

Measurement invariance is a necessary precondition for meaningful cross-country comparisons, and three levels have been differentiated: configural, metric, and scalar. Unfortunately, establishing the most stringent form, that is, scalar measurement invariance, across groups is difficult. Recently, Muthén and Asparouhov proposed testing for…

This contribution offers a commentary on Neil Selwyn's write up of his keynote talk from the Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference in 2018 (Selwyn, this issue). The article has three main sections, namely an account of what Learning Analytics has done, an account of the values behind Learning Analytics, and some ideas for moving forward.…

Life aspirations have aroused much interest in youth studies. Yet, their psychological correlates remain unclear, especially in countries outside the US. The aim of this study was to explore associations among aspirations, values and moral foundations in 157 Mongolian youth, through questionnaires used widely around the world. Correlational and…

The idea that sport builds character has been around for a long time. However, sports may not build the type of character once thought. Character of athletes was defined based on differing views held by sport scholars, coaches, athletes, and sport enthusiast. Sport scholars tend to view character of athletes from a moral perspective. Coaches,…

From the end of the 1970s, all teacher education programmes have been a part of academic higher education in Finland. Thus, TE has been implemented in universities and all Finnish comprehensive and upper-secondary school teachers have a master's degree. Research methods courses have been an essential part of teacher education courses for over 40…

Moral foundation theory posits that specific moral transgressions elicit specific moral emotions. To test this claim, participants (N = 195) were asked to rate their emotions in response to moral violation vignettes. We found that compassion and disgust were associated with care and purity respectively as predicted by moral foundation theory.…

At least sixteen US states have taken steps toward holding teacher preparation programs (TPPs) accountable for teacher value-added to student test scores. Yet it is unclear whether teacher quality differences between TPPs are large enough to make an accountability system worthwhile. Several statistical practices can make differences between TPPs…

Based on the value orientation theory, the purpose of this study was to determine the impact of value orientation incongruence between physical education teachers and an externally designed curriculum on student learning in a concept-based fitness-centered physical education curriculum. Physical education teachers (n = 15) with different value…