The need to identify student cognitive engagement in online-learning settings has increased with our use of online learning approaches because engagement plays an important role in ensuring student success in these environments. Engaged students are more likely to complete online courses successfully, but this setting makes it more difficult for…

In this article, a large data set containing every course taken by every undergraduate student in a major university in Canada over 10 years is analysed. Modern machine learning algorithms can use large data sets to build useful tools for the data provider, in this case, the university. In this article, two classifiers are constructed using random…

Covariates have been used in mixture IRT models to help explain why examinees are classed into different latent classes. Previous research has considered manifest variables as covariates in a mixture Rasch analysis for prediction of group membership. Latent covariates, however, are more likely to have higher correlations with the latent class…

This article focuses on analysing the effect of educational differentiation policies of OECD educational systems on socioeconomically disadvantaged students, based on data from PISA 2009. The analysis is conducted on the basis of a definition of two subgroups of disadvantaged students: those that achieve high scores, and those obtaining scores…

Objective: This study examined the power of child, perpetrator, and socio-economic characteristics to predict injury in cases of reported child physical abuse. The study was designed to assess the validity of the assumption that physically injurious incidents of child physical abuse are qualitatively different from those that do not result in…

This study explores a labelling feature that allows students to tag parts of their online messages. Data comes from four sequentially offered sessions of a graduate education course. Students engaged in two to three online activities in groups of three or four. Students (n = 53) contributed from 0 to 56 labels (M = 12.42, SD = 13.50) and 18 to 114…

The objective of the present study was to examine associations between children's attachment behavior at early school-age, dimensions of narrative performance, and behavior problems as assessed in middle childhood. Children's attachment patterns with mother were assessed at age 6 (N = 127) using the Main and Cassidy (1988) separation--reunion…

This article examines equity in national systems of education in terms of differences in student outcomes, as measured by mathematics achievement scores on Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2003. The author uses four measures for assessing equity in student outcomes: (1) the strength of the relationship between student…

Reviews definitions of the concept of cultural pluralism. Suggests criteria for defining and measuring the concept and develops a typology of cultural pluralism suitable for makinq comparative analyses. Relates types of pluralism thus identified to variations in ethnic political activity, with emphasis on Canada. (Author/MJL)

A procedure for predicting categorical outcomes using categorical predictor variables was described by Moonan. This paper describes a related technique which uses prior probabilities, updated by joint likelihoods, as classification criteria. The procedure differs from Moonan's in that the outcome having the greatest posterior probability is…

This introductory article discusses a study that investigated how at-risk students are defined in each of the Canadian provinces and Northern Territories and similarities in the definitions in the policy-making and policy implementation arenas. Different types of students that may be at-risk are described. (Contains references.) (CR)