Comparative and case study researchers have responded to critiques of their methods by developing formal procedures to validate theoretical claims through set theoretical logics of causal conditions. This 'logico-formalist turn' has involved the stricter application of the schemas of set theory and the philosophy of logic to raise validation…

In mixed methods approaches, statistical models are used to identify "nested" cases for intensive, small-n investigation for a range of purposes, including notably the examination of causal mechanisms. This article shows that under a commonsense interpretation of causal effects, large-n models allow no reliable conclusions about effect…

Reference intervals, or reference ranges, aid medical decision-making by containing a pre-specified proportion (e.g., 95%) of the measurements in a representative healthy population. We recently proposed three approaches for estimating a reference interval from a meta-analysis based on a random effects model: a frequentist approach, a Bayesian…

Automated scoring of student responses to open-ended questions, including short-answer questions, has great potential to scale to a large number of responses. Recent approaches for automated scoring rely on supervised learning, i.e., training classifiers or fine-tuning language models on a small number of responses with human-provided score…

Iterated learning models of language evolution have typically been used to study the emergence of language, rather than historical language change. We use iterated learning models to investigate historical change in the accent classes of two Korean dialects. Simulations reveal that many of the patterns of historical change can be explained as…

The research on education philanthropy typically characterizes foundations as practicing either "traditional" or "strategic" philanthropy. These labels are used to indicate divergent ways of thinking about the impact of grants and approaches to grantmaking between the two models. Drawing on a theoretical framework informed by…

Purpose: Agricultural extension services in poor countries often identify opinion leaders based on criteria such as wealth and social status. We explore the effectiveness of this top-down approach by analysing the role of so-called model and nodal farmers in the diffusion of malt barley in a highland community in Ethiopia. Research approach: We…

This study aimed at designing instructional material named Biotechnology Instruction Module (BIM) which is enriched with active learning methods to enhance the 8th grade students' learning of the topic. The development of the teaching materials proceeded within the stages of the ADDIE instructional design model. The final form of the instructional…

Knowledge tracing (KT) models are a popular approach for predicting students' future performance at practice problems using their prior attempts. Though many innovations have been made in KT, most models including the state-of-the-art Deep KT (DKT) mainly leverage each student's response either as correct or incorrect, ignoring its content. In…

When telling a story, a speaker needs to refer to story characters using appropriate expressions, which requires a mental model of the discourse. We hypothesize that, compared to those of adults, children's discourse models are based more on factors that are less cognitively demanding, such as animacy, and as they grow older, discourse factors…

The goal of this study is to explore the role of model comparison, which is a key activity of young learners' informal reasoning, with statistical models and modeling in the context of informal statistical inference. We suggest a framework to describe this reasoning (the RISM framework), and offer an illustrative case study of two-sixth graders…

The design of solar power plants and the operating principles are learned by engineering students during the last academic year. Typically, this subject is taught using the traditional methodology based on lectures where students are not considered as an active player of the class. The aim of this experience was to implement innovative…

Learning analytics research has used both knowledge engineering and machine learning methods to model student behaviors within the context of digital learning environments. In this paper, we compare these two approaches, as well as a hybrid approach combining the two types of methods. We illustrate the strengths of each approach in the context of…

In many classrooms, teachers have started to incorporate graphic novels in classroom instruction. However, research has suggested that some readers may have limited understanding of how to read graphic novels, which can create challenges for teachers using the medium. Drawing from a larger study, this article highlights two cases, an expert…

Language is one of the hallmarks of intelligence, demanding explanation in a theory of human cognition. However, language presents unique practical challenges for quantitative empirical research, making many linguistic theories difficult to test at naturalistic scales. Artificial neural network language models (LMs) provide a new tool for studying…