Several high-stakes English proficiency tests including but not limited to IELTS, PTE Academic, and TOEFL iBT recommend a 2-year time limit on validity for score usage. Although this timeframe provides a useful rule-of-thumb for the recency of testing, it can have far-reaching consequences. In response to stakeholder queries around IELTS validity…

In common with many other higher tariff universities in the United Kingdom, Durham University uses contextual data about the socio-economic circumstances of applicants to inform decisions about whom to admit to its undergraduate degree programmes. This paper draws on data for undergraduates who entered Durham University in the period 2018-2020 (N…

The purpose of this research is to determine whether PISA 2018 mathematical literacy test items show a differential item functioning across countries. For this purpose, only the items in booklet number three were examined using the MIMIC method with Latent Class Analysis (LCA) approach. PISA 2018 tests are mostly developed in English. Therefore,…

Several measures have been developed to assess loneliness in the general population. Here, we examined if, and how accurately, widely-used measures capture the experience of loneliness in autistic adults. A total of 203 autistic participants from the UK completed an online survey, which included two widely-used loneliness questionnaires: the…

The educational value of portfolios as assessments has been widely acknowledged across the higher education sector and literature as providing a platform to promote student-centred and reflective learning (Brown, 1997; Snadden & Thomas, 1998; Karlowicz, 2000). While there is plentiful research investigating the benefits of providing portfolios…

The broad autism phenotype is the phenotypic expression of the primary characteristics of autism. However, currently available tests do not agree with the two-domain operationalization of broad autism phenotype or autism, and their internal structure has shown instability across applications. This study presents the Broad Autism…

The published study of Nurrenbern and Pickering in 1987 raises awareness among chemistry educators that students' success in answering numerical questions does not necessarily reflect their degree of understanding of the related chemical concepts. Efforts have been made to provide more opportunities for students to improve their ability in…

Teaching is a stressful profession with a high turnover rate. Schools and related institutions need to take more action to support teachers and keep teacher stress at a manageable level. The continued research and practical effort require measures to examine teachers' stress in a briefer and accurate manner. The Teacher Stress Scale is a recently…

Purpose: Children and adolescents who stutter may be at risk of elevated anxiety and depression symptoms, although studies have indicated variability in reported internalizing symptoms in this population. This study considers the association between anxiety and depression symptoms and stuttering, as well as child, family, and contextual factors…

This study examined 283 online learner dictionary definitions in terms of scores based on word frequency level and readability. Results revealed three findings. First, in terms of word frequency levels, definitions from the Cambridge learner dictionary incorporated fewer non-high frequency words (mid and low frequency words) compared to Oxford,…

This study examined the similarities/differences between the social phenotypes of Williams syndrome (WS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). As cultural norms may affect symptom evaluation, this study administered the Social Responsiveness Scale-2 to Japanese individuals with WS (n = 78, 4.4-44.0 years) and ASD (n = 75, 4.7-55.4 years). The scores…

Anatomical examinations have been designed to assess topographical and/or applied knowledge of anatomy with or without the inclusion of visual resources such as cadaveric specimens or images, radiological images, and/or clinical photographs. Multimedia learning theories have advanced the understanding of how words and images are processed during…

We use sequence analysis to compare the different trajectories that individuals take through the education system and into work and identify the characteristics that could be used to target those who are at most risk of poorer labour market outcomes. As well as age 16 exam performance, we find that parental advice, aspirations, and attitudes…

The practice assignments in a mathematics textbook or course can be arranged so that most of the problems relating to any particular concept are massed together in a single assignment, or these related problems can be distributed across many assignments--a format known as spaced practice. Here we report the results of two classroom experiments…

The aim was to investigate the association between experiencing a therapeutic relationship and subsequent authenticity. Forty-six clients completed the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory (B-LRI), Relational Depth Inventory (RDI), a measure of the therapeutic alliance (ARM-5) and the Authenticity Scale (AS) at intervals over 10 therapy…