Data from a moderately-selective state university in the Midwest is used to cross-examine the most appropriate data analytical techniques for predicting versus explaining college student persistence decisions. The current research provides an overview of the relative benefits of models specializing in prediction versus explanation with particular…

Locus of Control (LOC) is a general term used in social and educational psychology to refer to the perceived source of control for behavioural outcomes. Since the 1980s, various instruments have been developed to measure this construct in relation to pro-environmental behaviours and action. In this article, we revisit the value of this construct…

The purpose of this study was to construct a higher-order thinking test of science for pre-service elementary school teachers. The test was created using the ADDIE model. The analysis stage was carried out by identifying the needs and baseline of higher-order thinking skills of students from the department of primary School Teacher education in…

Apart from providing a bird's eye view of a given domain of inquiry (Ioannidis et al., 2015), systematic reviews such as methodological syntheses offer a magnifying glass on prevalent existing problems in primary research and furnish empirically grounded solutions to rectify these issues (Page et al., 2021). As survey research in second language…

For the last 40 years, special education and applied behavior analysis researchers have discussed the notion of social validity, particularly those researchers who conduct single-case research. A substantial part of this discussion has involved critiquing the rigor of methods used to assess social validity. We conducted a scoping literature review…

General intelligence is a fundamental human capacity with significant educational implications. However, it is often not considered in educational research despite substantial evidence illustrating its association with positive life outcomes and student's capacity to learn. There are a number of potential reasons for this including the…

A recent article in this journal claims that the simple view of reading represents a long-outdated account of what underlies the ability to read. Its authors argue that if teachers are to be better informed about what is known about reading then the simple view must be replaced by a more current model, one that captures the substantial progress…

The addition of disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD) to the fifth edition of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" ("DSM-5") was a controversial decision in 2013 and one that continues to the present. Researchers have found that DMDD exhibits both poor interrater reliability and discriminant…

The literature on proof by contradiction (PBC) is nearly unanimous in claiming that this proof technique is "more difficult" for students than direct proof, and offers multiple hypotheses as to why this might be the case. To examine this claim and to evaluate some of the hypotheses, we analyzed student work on proof construction problems…

The assessment of human performance is not a new phenomenon. We have evidence that people have been required to prove their worth dating back at least to the Epic of Gilgamesh. What has changed, at least on a large scale, is the importance given to quantitative evidence in the evaluation process. For example, many employers have begun subjecting…

Purpose and background: The purpose of this paper is to critically review the traditional and contemporary validation frameworks--the content, criterion, and construct validations; the evidence-gathering; the socio-cognitive model; the test usefulness; and an argument-based approach--as well as empirical studies using an argument-based approach to…

This study examined whether the five scales of the MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation Inventory produced valid scores when used in university English language courses across four different countries. We surveyed 1,147 students in English language courses in Iran, Mexico, China, and Egypt and analyzed their responses by performing measurement…

Construct validity and building validity arguments are some of the main challenges facing the language assessment community. The notion of construct validity and validity arguments arose from research in psychological assessment and developed into the gold standard of validation/validity research in language assessment. At a theoretical level,…

The aim of this research is to develop a reliable and valid scale to determine the mathematical thinking skills of gifted students. In addition, with the developed scale, thinking skills of gifted students was examined in terms of various variables. In this context, the research was carried out on two different study groups. The first stage of…

Courses: This activity can be used in writing-based (communication) courses across various disciplines including, but not limited to, introduction to writing and rhetoric, business communication, and communication research methods. Objectives: On completion of this activity, students will develop critical reading, thinking, and writing skills as…