The present study seeks to develop a situated construct of learner engagement within an instructional experience. Despite compelling potential benefits to instructional practice, extant learner engagement research has been limited to either within-the learner constructs or adding a simplistic behavioral component to a model and largely discounting…

Identity development frameworks provide insight into why and to what extent individuals engage in STEM-related activities. While studies of "STEM identity" often build off previously validated disciplinary and/or science identity frameworks, quantitative analyses of constructs that specifically measure STEM identity and its antecedents…

In this article, we address the issue of participation in adult education building on the cultural capital framework. This theoretical framework suggests that (educational) practices are affected by one's social background and, more precisely, by the cultural resources handed down in the family context. To examine the validity of this theoretical…

Universities are inundated with detailed applicant and enrolment data from a variety of sources. However, for these data to be useful there is a need to convert them into strategic knowledge and information for decision-making processes. This study uses predictive modelling to identify at-risk adult learners in their first semester at SIM…

To date, hardly any evidence is available on the quality of adult education programs for vulnerable adults. Evaluation instruments or models mostly focussed on regular education and less on programs of adult education aiming to enhance social inclusion. This study presents a first exploration of the construct validity of a newly developed…

Psychometrically sound evaluation measures are vital for examining the contribution of professional training to organizational success in a reliable manner. As training evaluations tend to be both time-consuming and labor-intensive, there is an increasing demand for economic evaluation inventories. Simultaneously, evaluation measures have to meet…

Conventional pundits, pollsters, and forecasters are focused on whether the economy will improve sufficiently in 2012 for President Barack Obama to gain reelection. The Keys to the White House, a prediction system that the author developed in collaboration with Vladimir Keilis-Borok, founder of the International Institute of Earthquake Prediction…

The purpose of this study was to develop a research-based model for designing and deploying instructional narratives based on principles derived from narrative theory, development theory, communication theory, learning theory and instructional design theory to enable adult learning and retention and the effective transfer of that retained learning…

Teacher efficacy is a topic of significance in mainstream education and various instruments have been developed to measure this construct. The available instruments however, are general both in terms of their subject matter and context. To compensate for this generality, the present study aims to develop a new teacher efficacy instrument whose…

Background: Most instruments that assess quality of life have been validated by means of the classical test theory (CTT). However, CTT limitations have resulted in the development of alternative models, such as the Rasch rating scale model (RSM). The main goal of this paper is testing and improving the psychometric properties of the INTEGRAL…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of the design characteristics component of the Jeffries/National League for Nursing Framework for Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating Simulations when developing a simulation-based approach to teaching structured communication to new graduate nurses. The setting for the study was a medium…

Strengthening the association between education and communication is difficult due to the scarcity of educationally initiated research into the mechanics of communication. Most of the existing communication research is domiciled in the departments of sociology, psychology, anthropology, journalism and business. Many educators are satisfied in…

The annual Student Outcomes Survey collects information on the outcomes of two groups of students--those that have completed a qualification (graduates) and those that have completed only part of a course and then left the vocational education and training (VET) system (module completers). At the time of selecting the survey sample, insufficient…

The purposes of this study were to investigate the reliability and construct validity of measures of reading component skills with a sample of adult basic education (ABE) learners, including both native and nonnative English speakers, and to describe the performance of those learners on the measures. Investigation of measures of reading components…

The series of Working Alliance Inventories remains the most extensively researched and utilized instruments to measure the working alliance. However, these instruments have not been normed and validated among individuals on probation or parole. Therefore, this study provides psychometric properties for a modified, offender version of the Working…