Background: Understanding the different factors that determine vocabulary development in young children is essential for the diagnosis and rehabilitation of language disorders in children. Language development is closely related to other cognitive processes such as auditory verbal learning and memory. This research focuses on the development of a…

The doctoral defence is the oral examination of the doctoral thesis. While it is a major milestone for doctoral candidates, this event is often shrouded in mystery. In this article, I explore the doctoral defence from an international perspective. I have studied the format of the defence based on written testimonies as well as the literature on…

Purpose: Little is known about the impact external Viva examiners coming from the international community of scholars have on the quality of PhD research. This study aims to argue that the encounter between local and international examiners (IEs) is subject to various complexities, raising doubts about whether IEs' participation and approval of…

The distinction between quantitative and qualitative differences in mastery is essential when monitoring student progress and is crucial for instructional interventions to deal with learning difficulties. Mixture item response theory (IRT) models can provide a convenient way to make the distinction between quantitative and qualitative differences…

This study introduces an approach for modeling multidimensional response data with construct-relevant group and domain factors. The item level parameter estimation process is extended to incorporate the refined effects of test dimension and group factors. Differences in item performances over groups are evaluated, distinguishing two levels of…