This study focused on the relationships between teacher characteristics and students' mathematics achievement in EU countries, including Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Slovenia, Sweden, and Turkey, which are the only EU countries participated in TIMSS 2015 at the eighth-grade level. The data consisted of the sample of 31,969 eighth-grade…

The study aims to investigate how confidence in mathematics/science, amount of books in the home, gender, whether a student likes being in school, and computer software predicted mathematics and science achievements of students in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019. The sample of the study consisted of…

In this study, in line with TIMSS 2019 data, 8th grade students' school engagement in the Turkish education system and various variables in the field of science and mathematics, which are thought to be related to school engagement, were examined with the Random Forest method, a method amongst data mining methods. This research focuses on student…

In the educational literature on peer effects, attention has been brought to the fact that the mechanisms creating peer effects are still to a large extent hidden in obscurity. The hypothesis in the study reported in this article was that the Frame Factor Theory (FFT) can be used to reveal such mechanisms. Using data from the Swedish TIMSS 2015 (N…

Inquiry-Based Teaching Practice (IBTP) is an essential component of science education, and promoting its implementation is at the heart of various reform efforts. Even though science teachers regard IBTP as an essential pedagogical method, they rarely use it for various reasons. This study utilizes Bronfenbrenner's ecological framework to examine…

In this study, the effects of some student (e.g., gender, bullying, etc.) and school variables (e.g., emphasis on academic achievement, clarity of teaching, etc.) on the TIMSS 2015 science and mathematics achievement of eighth grade students in Türkiye were examined by controlling for the socioeconomic status of the students at the student and…

This study focuses on the relationship between students' early academic skills and academic achievement. In this context, it is aimed to examine the predictors of students' early literacy and numeracy skills on their later math and science achievements across countries. A quantitative research approach using a correlational survey design was…

Previous research on the implications of early-tracking education systems has not specifically focused on how studying in academic and non-academic tracks shapes the features and characteristics of shadow education (private tutoring) that students are involved in. The study compares the scale and features of private tutoring and the underlying…

Today's economy demands higher order thinking skills (HOTS), and the public education system has a critical role in supporting students' acquisition of HOTS. Yet, numerous studies documented inequity in access to higher quality instruction that promotes HOTS, which could result in wide test score gaps in HOTS. In this study, I examined test score…

This dissertation explored whether unnecessary linguistic complexity (LC) in mathematics and biology assessment items changes the direction and significance of differential item functioning (DIF) between subgroups emergent bilinguals (EBs) and English proficient students (EPs). Due to inconsistencies in measuring LC in items, Study One adapted a…

Field independence describes the extent to which individuals are influenced by context when trying to identify embedded targets. It associates with cognitive functioning and is a predictor of academic achievement. However, little is known about the neural and cognitive underpinnings of field independence that lead to these associations. Here, we…

The authors examined the relationships of ACT Aspire test scores and high school course grades, AP test scores, and Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test scores, demonstrating criterion-related as well as convergent and discriminant validity evidence. They found that ACT Aspire test scores are strong…

In the present research, we investigated the relation between changes in students' state self-control capacity and their motivational test-taking effort over the course of an achievement test. Thereby, we considered trait self-control as a major predictor of achievement-related behavior as a covariate. N = 1840 apprentices repeatedly rated their…

The present study examined data from the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study to address cross-cultural differences in 4th grade students' attitudes towards science and how students' sense of school belonging (SSSB) scores were related to attitude towards science. Regression results indicated that SSSB emerged as a…

This three-article dissertation considers the pedagogical practices for developing statistically literate students and teaching data-driven decision-making with the goal of preparing students for civic engagement and improving student achievement. The first article discusses a critical review of the literature on data-driven decision-making…