"Grit" is defined as passion and perseverance for achieving long-term goals and consists of two proposed subcomponents: consistency of interests and perseverance of effort. It has become a much-discussed construct even though research on its underlying factor structure has produced inconclusive results. Furthermore, grit as measured by…

This study provides a comparison of the results of latent class analysis (LCA) and mixture Rasch model (MRM) analysis using data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study -- 2011 (TIMSS-2011) with a focus on the 8th-grade mathematics section. The research study focuses on the comparison of LCA and MRM to determine if results…

In the current study, the appropriateness of the Mathematics Attitude Questionnaire administered to middle school 8th grade students in the TIMSS 2015 application to the exploratory structural equation and confirmatory factor analysis models was examined. The study was conducted on 6079 students making up the sample of Turkey. In the TIMSS 2015…

The aim of this longitudinal study is to evaluate 3 views on the relationship between nonword repetition and vocabulary: (i) the storage-based view that considers nonword repetition, a measure of phonological storage, as the driving force behind vocabulary development, (ii) the lexical restructuring view that considers improvements in nonword…

This study examined the separability of domain-general and domain-specific content knowledge from Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) reading ability. A pool of 1,491 nursing students in China participated by responding to a nursing English test and a nursing knowledge test. Primary data analysis involved four steps: (a) conducting a…

Among predictors of second language (L2) reading, both first language (L1) reading and L2 listening embody the complexities of comprehension ability in their construct. Their contributions to L2 reading have rarely been examined together, probably because of the different theoretical frameworks in which they are postulated. Therefore, the field…

The purpose of the present study was twofold: (a) it examined the relationship between peer-rated likeability and peer-rated oral presentation skills of 96 student presenters enrolled in a science communication course, and (b) it investigated the relationship between student raters' severity in rating presenters' likeability and their severity in…

Frequent social interactions are strongly linked to positive affect, longevity, and good health. Although there has been extensive research on changes in the size of social networks over time, little attention has been given to the development of contact frequency across the life span. In this cohort-sequential longitudinal study, we examined…

This article proposes a two-stage procedure aimed at identifying faking in personality tests. The procedure, which can be considered as an extension and refinement of previous item response theory (IRT)-based proposals, combines the information provided by a structural equation model (SEM) in the first stage with that provided by an IRT-based…

Hong Kong attained champion of the PIRLS 2011 that aroused keen interest in understanding the underlying reasons of a non-alphabetic language. The study aimed at unravelling various aspects of the student and home factors which contributed to remarkable Chinese reading performance. Totally 3,875 students from 132 primary schools completed the…

The current study explores the nature and relationships among test takers' performance appraisals, appraisal calibration, and reported cognitive and metacognitive strategy use in a language test situation. Performance appraisals are executive processes of strategic competence for judging test performance (e.g., evaluating the correctness or…

This study examined the level, structure and cognitive, educational and psychological determinants of beliefs about the relevance and nature of mathematics, about gender-stereotypes with respect to mathematics abilities and about enjoyment of mathematics. Prospective preschool teachers from programs at vocational schools and higher education…

This article proposes a model-based procedure, intended for personality measures, for exploiting the auxiliary information provided by the certainty with which individuals answer every item (response certainty). This information is used to (a) obtain more accurate estimates of individual trait levels, and (b) provide a more detailed assessment of…

The aim of this study is to examine validity and reliability of Community of Inquiry Scale commonly used in online learning by the means of Item Response Theory. For this purpose, Community of Inquiry Scale version 14 is applied on 1,499 students of a distance education center's online learning programs at a Turkish state university via internet.…

Perspectives from reading and information fields have identified similar skills belong to two different kind of literacy being online reading abilities and ICT skills. It causes a conflict between two research fields and increase difficult of integrating study results. The purpose of this study was to determine which views are suitable for…