This study compares the effects of two resources, a paper rubric (CR) or the comment bubbles from a word processor (CCB), to support peer co-evaluation of expository texts in primary education. A total of 57 students wrote a text which, after a peer co-evaluation process, was rewritten. To analyze the improvements in the texts, we used a rubric…

In 2019, a new English Senior Secondary syllabus (QCAA, 2019) was implemented in all schools across Queensland, Australia. This syllabus, incorporating high-stakes external examinations and supporting documents, instigated a shift in the teaching and assessing of senior secondary English that has been both challenging and revitalising for…

Background: UNESCO [(2015). "Quality Physical Education Guidelines for Policymakers." Paris: UNESCO Press.] highlighted the importance of developing physical literacy (PL) from childhood, although it remains unclear how best to evidence an individual's PL journey. The aim of this study was to explore key stakeholders' views of current…

In our fast-changing and technology-driven societies, education in mathematics and science is crucial for ensuring that children and young people have the necessary skills, knowledge and mindset to be responsible and active citizens. Despite the emphasis on the key competences of basic numeracy and scientific literacy in the European Education…

Staggered adoption of policies by different units at different times creates promising opportunities for observational causal inference. Estimation remains challenging, however, and common regression methods can give misleading results. A promising alternative is the synthetic control method (SCM), which finds a weighted average of control units…

Competency-based education that uses direct assessment in lieu of credit or clock hours as the measure of student learning is a relatively recent innovation in American higher education. Common features of these innovative programs include competency-based curriculum, authentic assessment, mastery learning, student self-pacing, federal financial…

A growing body of research shows that findings from studies often fail to replicate (Open Science Collaboration, 2015; Simmons, Nelson, & Simonsohn, 2011). Deviations from study protocols, sampling error, reduced statistical power, and unethical reporting procedures have been cited as reasons for replication failure (Gilbert, King, Pettigrew,…

Effective science instruction involves opportunities for all students to do science, including engaging in the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices through inquiry-based learning. Many students with learning disabilities have the accommodation of shortened or reduced assignments in their Individualized Educational Programs to allow them equal…

The students who suffer the most from the lack of equity in assessment by using inappropriate assessment techniques are those from Historically Marginalized Groups (Koelsch et al., 1995; Marion et al., 2020; Penuel & Watkins, 2020). The theory of justice, (Freire, 1993; Rawls, 1971) provided the lens to examine how the institution of schools,…

The work in this dissertation is presented in two parts. The first part (Chapters 3 and 4) details work relating to students' explanations of reaction mechanisms in organic chemistry. The second part (Chapters 5 and 6) details work relating to the evaluating the uptake of research-based instructional practices in introductory chemistry,…

This study uses two different approaches to examining student outcomes and understanding in the context of aspects of acid-base chemistry. It introduces the use of evidence centered assessment design as a design framework of a multi-dimensional acid-base titration laboratory and as an analysis tool of student performances in a lab setting and in…

A 2020 study from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Hussman School of Journalism and Media found that since 2004 over one-quarter of U.S. newspapers have disappeared. This reduction has left many people, especially those in poor rural areas, living in news deserts, where access to professionally vetted information is limited, if not…

Studying development processes, as they unfold over time, involves collecting repeated measures from individuals and modeling the changes over time. One methodological challenge in this type of longitudinal data is separating retest effects, due to the repeated assessments, from developmental processes such as maturation or age. In this article,…

Traditional approaches to language assessment have been criticized for their inadequacy in taking account of language learners' potential for development. To obviate this pitfall in traditional assessment, language teachers and researchers have been paying increasing attention to dynamic assessment (DA), which is rooted in Vygotsky's (1978)…

In this third and final manuscript from the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society (HAPS) 2022 Lab Survey we document the efforts of Human Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) educators in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Institutional, instructional, and student demographics, and laboratory activities and learning outcomes were the focus of…