The National Assessment of Educational Progress's (NAEP's) transition to an entirely digitally based assessment (DBA) began in 2017. As part of this transition, new types of NAEP items have begun to be developed that leverage the DBA environment to measure a wider range of knowledge and skills. These new item types include the science…

This study aimed to understand Malaysian physics teachers' teaching practices from a pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) perspective. The physics topic of interest was Archimedes' principle. A multiple-case study approach was used, and classroom teaching observations and audio records of teaching, interviews, and collection of documents were the…

Different approaches are employed when teaching environmental issues. One approach, termed the "environmental scientific approach," perceives environmental education as part of life or earth sciences, providing factual, scientific knowledge. Another approach, termed the "environmental sustainability citizenry approach",…

In early 2020, the COVID-19 crisis forced medical institutions worldwide to convert quickly to online platforms for content delivery. Although many components of medical education were adaptable to that format, anatomical dissection laboratory lost substantial content in that conversion, including features of active student participation,…

In this paper we describe content focused, practical procedures to establish benchmarked performance standards for educational and other tests. To implement our procedures, we identify one or more external benchmark (e.g., NAEP or PISA performance levels, college and career readiness benchmarks); link to the external benchmarks to locate those…

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…

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has synthesized key data on English learners (ELs) into two-page sheets on a variety of subjects. This fact sheet provides the following data on ELs in the United States over the 2017-2018 school year: (1) Percentage of Students Enrolled in K-12 Who Are English Learners; (2) English Language…

This article presents the author's response to the article "Taking Stock: Existing Resources for Assessing a New Vision of Science Learning" by Alonzo and Ke (this issue), which identifies numerous challenges that the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) pose for large-scale assessment. Jill Werthem comments that among those…

Few would deny that teachers play a decisive role in the learning-teaching process of students. The learning-teaching process with a gender equity perspective is an important tool to improve the participation and success of women in chemistry. The learning-teaching process with a gender equity perspective was analyzed using the final scores of two…

The aim of this research; secondary, high school and university levels of the students to understand the concepts related to ecology of Bayburt in Turkey. In this study, a progressive research method was used. In this method, conceptual understanding test was used as data collection tool. Open-ended test questions were used in this study. The test…

Student attitudes, defined as the extent to which one holds expertlike beliefs about and approaches to physics, are a major research topic in physics education research. An implicit but rarely tested assumption underlying much of this research is that student attitudes play a significant part in student learning and performance. The current study…

The purpose of this study is to determine the best IRT model [Rasch, 2PL, 3PL, 4PL and mixed IRT (2 and 3PL)] for the science and technology subtest of the Transition from Basic Education to Secondary Education (TEOG) exam, which is carried out at national level, it is also aimed to predict the item parameters under the best model. This study is a…

Assessment instruments composed of two-tier multiple choice (TTMC) items are widely used in science education as an effective method to evaluate students' sophisticated understanding. In practice, however, there are often concerns regarding the common scoring methods of TTMC items, which include pair scoring and individual scoring schemes. The…

The TAPS pyramid was developed in late 2014 and has been available as a download on the Primary Science Teaching Trust (PSTT) website since August 2015. But where has it gone since then? Who is using it? And how is it being used in schools to change primary science assessment practice? This article attempts to answer these questions with data from…

A one semester undergraduate biochemistry laboratory experience is described for an understanding of recombinant technology from gene cloning to protein characterization. An integrated experimental design includes three sequential modules: molecular cloning, protein expression and purification, and protein analysis and characterization. Students…