Background: Verbal short-term memory (STM) capacity has been considered to support vocabulary learning in typical children and adults, but evidence for this link is inconsistent for studies in individuals with Down syndrome (DS). The aim of this study was explore the role of processing demands on the association between verbal STM and vocabulary…

Objectives: One third of school-aged children in New York State (NYS) are overweight or obese, with large geographic disparities across local regions. We used NYS student obesity surveillance data to assess whether these geographical variations are attributable to the built environment. Method: We combined NYS Student Weight Status Category…

The traditional approach to estimating the consistency of school effects across subject areas and the stability of school effects across time is to fit separate value-added multilevel models to each subject or cohort and to correlate the resulting empirical Bayes predictions. We show that this gives biased correlations and these biases cannot be…

How does teachers' gender influence their information and communication technology-based instruction in Saudi Arabian government schools? Using unique data collected in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2014, the analyses presented here show that male and female teachers in intermediate school classrooms differently use information and communication…

In the 2005 Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE), statistical literacy featured as a primary goal. The 2016 revision eliminated statistical literacy as a stated goal. Although this looks like a rejection, this paper argues that by including multivariate thinking and--more importantly--confounding as recommended…

This exercise introduces students to the application of statistics and its investigative methods in political science. It helps students gain a better understanding and a greater appreciation of statistics through a real world application.

The increasing use of digital learning tools and platforms in formal and informal learning settings has provided broad access to large amounts of learner data, the analysis of which has been aimed at understanding students' learning processes, improving learning outcomes, providing learner support as well as teaching. Presently, such data has been…

This article illustrates the Bayesian approximate measurement invariance (MI) approach in Mplus with longitudinal data and small sample size. Approximate MI incorporates zero-mean small variance prior distributions on the differences between parameter estimates over time. Contrary to traditional invariance testing methods, where exact invariance…

One way to use formative feedback to increase student engagement is through a student response system (SRS). Originally appearing as classroom "clickers," very little literature exists concerning the ease of use, usefulness and integration, and overall satisfaction of current SRS software smartphone applications. Using the technology…

This paper proposes a teacher effect change model in the form of a latent variable regression 5-level hierarchical model (LVR-HM5). Using multiple years of student achievement data, the LVR-HM5 attempts to simultaneously estimate teacher effect as well as teacher initial status and the gap parameter to model the change of such latent parameters…

This paper presents insights from classroom practice where mathematical thinking, and in particular statistical literacy, are central to solving a STEM problem. We demonstrate that when an investigation sparks student interest and requires active participation, there are opportunities to experience the functionality of statistics.

The aim of this paper is to approach the teaching of the Poisson distribution in a friendly and amusing way. It constitutes a common practice to adopt the main probability distributions in order to predict results of sport events and to estimate the win return of betting activities (Chalikias 2009). In particular, by using the Poisson…

The International Statistical Literacy Project (ISLP) was established in 1994 by the International Statistical Institute and operates under the auspices of the International Association for Statistical Education. Today, the ISLP has 134 country coordinators spread across all continents of the world. The aim of this article is to describe and…

A major challenge in the widespread application of Mokken scale analysis (MSA) to educational performance assessments is the requirement of complete data, where every rater rates every student. In this study, simulated and real data are used to demonstrate a method by which researchers and practitioners can apply MSA to incomplete rating designs.…

The topics of correlation and linear regression constitute a complex and subtle system of statistical and mathematical ideas whose teaching-learning raises numerous practical and theoretical problems. In this research paper, the patterns of reasoning that students exhibit, under the approach of informal inferences when they face problems of…