Multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) models have generated increasing interest in the psychometrics literature. Efficient approaches for estimating MIRT models with dichotomous responses have been developed, but constructing an equally efficient and robust algorithm for polytomous models has received limited attention. To address this gap,…

The use of machine learning with educational data mining (EDM) to predict learner performance has always been an important research area. Predicting academic results is one of the solutions that aims to monitor the progress of students and anticipates students at risk of failing the academic pathways. In this paper, we present a framework for…

Item response models typically assume that the item characteristic (step) curves follow a logistic or normal cumulative distribution function, which are strictly monotone functions of person test ability. Such assumptions can be overly-restrictive for real item response data. We propose a simple and more flexible Bayesian nonparametric IRT model…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to combine seemingly unrelated factors to explain global competitiveness. The study argues that school discipline and education investment affect competitiveness with the association being mediated by educational performance. Crucially, diachronic effects of discipline on performance are tested to demonstrate…

Succeeding theories and empirical investigations have often been built over conceptual understanding to develop talent education. Opportunities provided by society are crucial at every point in the talent-development process. Abilities differ and can vary among boys and girls. Although they have some responsibility for their own growth and…

The purpose of this article is to identify the order of significance of the variables that affect science and mathematics achievement in middle school students. For this aim, the study deals with the relationship between science and math in terms of different angles using the perspectives of multiple causes-single effect and of multiple…

Bourdieu's theory of cultural and social reproduction posits that students' habitus--learned behavioural and perceptual dispositions rooted in family upbringing--is a formative influence on how they react to their educational environments, affecting academic practices and academic achievement. Although originally conceived as a "class"…

Cross-national comparisons of responses to survey items are often affected by response style, particularly extreme response style (ERS). ERS varies across cultures, and has the potential to bias inferences in cross-national comparisons. For example, in both PISA and TIMSS assessments, it has been documented that when examined within countries,…

The purpose of this article is to identify the order of significance of the variables that affect science and mathematics achievement in middle school students. For this aim, the study deals with the relationship between science and math in terms of different angles using the perspectives of multiple causes-single effect and of multiple…

This third article in a series describing survival analysis of engineering student retention and graduation introduces accelerated failure-time as an alternative to the Cox proportional hazards model to the context of student data. The new survival analysis of graduation data presented here assumes different distributions including exponential,…

In this study, the authors introduced a multivariate multilevel model to estimate the consistency among students and schools in the rates of growth between mathematics and science achievement during the entire middle and high school years with data from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY). There was no evident consistency in the rates…

The first and second International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement Science Studies examined and compared science achievement in 19 and 26 countries, respectively. This paper considered 10 technical issues that arose in these 2 studies of science education and achievement. The issues discussed were the: (1) need for the…

This book contains a compilation of papers presented at the International Conference on Education and New Developments (END 2017), organized by the World Institute for Advanced Research and Science (W.I.A.R.S.). Education, in our contemporary world, is a right since we are born. Every experience has a formative effect on the constitution of the…