Creativity is an imperative skill for today's learners, one that has important contributions to issues of inclusion and equity in education. Therefore, assessing creativity is of major importance in educational contexts. However, scoring creativity based on traditional tools suffers from subjectivity and is heavily time- and labour-consuming. This…

The aim of the present study is to reconcile previous findings (a) that testing mode has no effect on test outcomes or cognitive load (Comput Hum Behav 77:1-10, 2017) and (b) that younger learners' working memory processes are more sensitive to computer-based test formats (J Psychoeduc Assess 37(3):382-394, 2019). We addressed key methodological…

This action research aimed to enhance fluency thinking in the Year 9 Science and Technology course on Genetics by integrating bell ringer exams with inquiry-based learning. The study's objectives were to achieve an 80% pass rate in fluency thinking and to assess student satisfaction with this pedagogical approach. The sample comprised 20 Year 9…

We report on an innovative design of algorithmic analysis that supports automatic online assessment of students' exploration of geometry propositions in a dynamic geometry environment. We hypothesized that difficulties with and misuse of terms or logic in conjectures are rooted in the early exploration stages of inquiry. We developed a generic…

The ability to solve complex problems successfully represents a key competence for students' educational success and beyond. While strategy application and metastrategic knowledge constitute two underlying components that drive successful complex problem solving (CPS), little is known about how these two facets develop individually and jointly in…

Implementing a randomized controlled trial design, the present study investigated the effects of two types of accommodations, linguistic modification and a glossary, for English learners (ELs) taking a computer-based mathematics assessment. Process data including response time and clicks on glossary words were also examined to better interpret…

This study explores using transfer learning in machine learning for natural language processing (NLP) to create generic automated essay scoring (AES) models, providing instant online scoring for statewide writing assessments in K-12 education. The goal is to develop an instant online scorer that is generalizable to any prompt, addressing the…

The purpose of this study was to understand the impact, implementation and costs associated with a one-semester elective lab course in 9th grade, Accelerating Literacy for Adolescents (ALFA) Lab, which seeks to improve students' reading achievement, particularly for those from economically disadvantaged communities. This study used three cohorts…

Competence-based, science e-testing (CBSeT) is a novel external assessment tool which provides feedback to science teachers about their students' competence-based skills, thereby giving relevant assessment information which teachers could potentially use in their teaching practice. The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which…

Empirically supported multimedia learning (MML) principles [1] suggest effective ways to design instruction, generally for elements on the order of a graphic or an activity. We examined whether the positive impact of MML could be detected in larger instructional units from a MOOC. We coded instructional design (ID) features corresponding to MML…

We compared students' performance on a paper-based test (PBT) and three computer-based tests (CBTs). The three computer-based tests used different test navigation and answer selection features, allowing us to examine how these features affect student performance. The study sample consisted of 9,698 fourth through twelfth grade students from across…

The current study explores students' collaboration and problem solving (CPS) abilities using a human-to-agent (H-A) computer-based collaborative problem solving assessment. Five CPS assessment units with 76 conversation-based items were constructed using the PISA 2015 CPS framework. In the experiment, 53,855 ninth and tenth graders in Taiwan were…

Research indicates that the performance-gap between English Language Learners (ELLs) and their non-ELL peers is partly due to ELLs' difficulty in understanding assessment language. Accommodations have been shown to narrow this performance-gap, but many accommodations studies have not used a randomized design and are based on relatively small…

In 2015, the "Programme for International Student Assessment" (PISA) introduced multiple changes in its study design, the most extensive being the transition from paper- to computer-based assessment. We investigated the differences between German students' text responses to eight reading items from the paper-based study in 2012 to text…

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to overwhelm the functioning and outcomes of educational systems throughout the nation. The public education system is under particular scrutiny given that students, families, and educators are under considerable stress to maintain academic progress. Since the beginning of the crisis, school-systems…