The study focuses on assessing the proficiency levels of higher education students, specifically the physics achievement test (PHY 101) at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). This test, like others, evaluates various aspects of knowledge and skills simultaneously. However, relying on traditional models for such tests can result in…

Previous research illustrated that reading comprehension and science performance correlate highly. Because students with specific learning disorders with impairments in reading (SLD-IR) show deficits in reading comprehension, they may struggle to perform in science. As language in science is characterized by linguistic complexity, the question…

Large scale international assessments depend on invariance of measurement across countries. An important consideration when observing cross-national differential item functioning (DIF) is whether the DIF actually reflects a source of bias, or might instead be a methodological artifact reflecting item response theory (IRT) model misspecification.…

Scholars and researchers generally believe that scientific inquiry is an important activity for cultivating students' applied knowledge and high-level thinking ability. The process of scientific inquiry can promote students' learning motivation and trigger their higher-order thinking ability. However, students may not have enough prior knowledge…

The main problem in students' lower achievement lies in the cognitive complexity of the problem. The aim of this research was to create and validate the procedure for the assessment of the cognitive complexity of chemical technology problem tasks. The procedure included the creation of Tables for assessing the difficulty of concepts in chemical…

In this study that aims to motivate struggling students and helping them to improve their learning achievement, we designed and tested an E7-based approach in a virtual laboratory environment. We rely on cognitive load theory and self-determination theory to enable our approach to meet the cognitive and noncognitive needs of struggling students.…

Students experience many difficulties learning the fundamental relationships in Newtonian mechanics, partly due to preexisting mental models that originate from their everyday lives. These preconceptions often persist even after instruction in mechanics and lead to a supposed incompatibility between physics lessons in school and personal…

Attitudes towards learning chemistry have been little studied in secondary school students, especially regarding dimensions related to problem solving, the molecular atomic perspective of chemistry, and real-world connection of chemistry. In the present study, we first aimed to design and assess the psychometric properties of the attitude to…

Background: Video lectures which include the teachers' presence have become increasingly common. As teacher enthusiasm is a nonverbal cue in video lectures, more and more studies are focusing on this topic. However, little research has been carried out on the interactions between teacher enthusiasm and prior knowledge when learning from video…

The concept of hybridisation is one of the most difficult concepts for chemistry students to grasp at all levels of learning. Research showed the students conceptual difficulty ranged from their lack of the prerequisite knowledge for grasping the topic hybridisation to chemical bond formation and orientations of atomic orbitals. This study…

This work applies a cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) framework to understand how the outcome of a high school laboratory task may be positively influenced without making changes to the hands-on practical task itself. Informed by cognitivism, novel practical instruction videos that were based on the same video but had different audio…

Concept mapping instructional strategy is one of the innovations in the teaching and learning of science and biology in particular. Previous studies have reported that teachers and students experienced difficulties in the use of concept mapping. Hence, this study investigated the effects of Concept-mapping instructional strategy on senior…

Purpose: The present study examined the effect of Directed Activity Related to Texts (DARTs) and gender on student achievement in qualitative analysis in chemistry. It focused on the qualitative analysis component of the Chemistry course, which for students has been perceived as being the most difficult aspect of their mastery of the subject.…

Modern international studies of educational achievement have grown in terms of participating educational systems. Accompanying this development is an increase in heterogeneity, as more and different kinds of educational systems take part. This growth has been particularly pronounced among low-performing, less economically developed systems.…

Among a sample of 2,071 Australian high school students nested within 188 science classrooms, the present study explored the role of science teachers' "load reduction instruction" (LRI; instruction that seeks to reduce cognitive load by appropriately balancing explicit instruction with guided autonomy) in student- and classroom-level…