Early identification of school alienation is of great importance for students' educational outcomes and successful participation in society. This study examined the psychometric characteristics of a newly developed assessment instrument, the School Alienation Scale (SALS), to measure school alienation among primary and secondary school students.…

The purpose of this study is to compare the conceptions of learning biology (COLB) of Taiwanese and Turkish high school students. In addition, it was investigated whether there is a gender difference in students' COLB in both countries. The COLB questionnaire was implemented in both countries and students' COLB were identified. A total of 562…

The purposes of this study are to (1) examine the factorial validity of Schein's career anchors orientation inventory (COI), comparing the original eight-factor model with an alternative nine-factor model, (2) examine the cross-cultural invariance of the COI and its factor structure across two countries, (3) investigate whether core…

This study examined the psychometric properties of a social-networking site (SNS) activities scale (SNSAS) using Rasch Analysis. Items were also examined with Rasch Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Differential Item Functioning (DIF) across groups of university students (i.e., males and females from the United States [US] and Europe; N =…

Several recent, highly influential comparative studies have made strong statistical claims that improvements on global learning assessments such as PISA will lead to higher GDP growth rates. These claims have provided the primary source of legitimation for policy reforms championed by leading international organisations, most notably the World…

The current study provided evidence for the factor structure of the Academic Expectation Stress Inventory (AESI) in a sample of 213 Mainland Chinese and 184 South Korean high school students. We examined cross-national invariance of the AESI using multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis across two Asian cultural samples. Results suggested a…

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) launched the Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) in an effort to measure learning in international postsecondary education. This paper presents a study of scoring equivalence across nine countries for two translated and adapted performance tasks. Results reveal…

Research on the graphical facilitation of probabilistic reasoning has been characterised by the effort expended to identify valid assessment tools. The authors developed an assessment instrument to compare reasoning performances when problems were presented in verbal-numerical and graphical-pictorial formats. A sample of undergraduate psychology…

The validity of the Multidimensional School Anger Inventory (MSAI) was examined with adolescents from 5 Pacific Rim countries (N = 3,181 adolescents; age, M = 14.8 years; 52% females). Confirmatory factor analyses examined configural invariance for the MSAI's anger experience, hostility, destructive expression, and anger coping subscales. The…

The measurement of higher-order competencies within a tertiary education system across countries presents methodological challenges due to differences in educational systems, socio-economic factors, and perceptions as to which constructs should be assessed (Blömeke, Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, Kuhn, & Fege, 2013). According to Hart Research…

Identifies problems in assigning final grades to students based upon summing up a number of examination components. Presents a critical analysis of an article on the same topic by P. J. Squire which appeared in the journal in 1978. (Author/DB)