In this paper, we present a physical modeling activity whose objective is to allow students to determine the differences between a disk and a sphere using pure scientific criteria. Thereunto, we reproduce the Sun-Earth-Moon system with low-cost materials and compare the illumination effects on the Moon considering two possible shapes for it (a…

What drives parents to decide to send their children to a particular type or stream of schooling over another? Existing literature suggests that parents take several factors into account while making their children's school choice: the academic reputation of the school, the distance between the child's home and school, a stronger focus on…

Recent semantic space models learn vector representations for word meanings by observing statistical redundancies across a text corpus. A word's meaning is represented as a point in a high-dimensional semantic space, and semantic similarity between words is quantified by a function of their spatial proximity (typically the cosine of the angle…

The time required to determine the larger of 2 digits decreases with their numerical distance, and, for a given distance, increases with their magnitude (Moyer & Landauer, 1967). One detailed quantitative framework to account for these effects is provided by random walk models. These chronometric models describe how number-related noisy…

The purpose of this study was to identify academic factors that might predict online course success for community college students. Online course success was a focus of national research and debate as studies consistently indicated lower success rates in online courses as compared to traditional courses; however, research that identified academic…

Student interaction patterns in eight elementary school classrooms were examined to investigate (1) the relationship between interaction patterns and sociometric indicators of friends, (2) the process by which children become stratified, and (3) the structure of peer relationships in classrooms. Chapter 1, the introduction, briefly discusses the…

Employing basic and interpretive data derived from five sample high schools in remote areas of Ontario, Canada, an examination was made of the psychological and sociological factors affecting the educational progress of secondary students. Using field study methods, objective data from school records and offices were collected (N=497), along with…