Using simulated data, this study examined the impact of different levels of stringency of the valid case inclusion criterion on item response theory (IRT)-based true score equating over 5 years in the context of K-12 assessment when growth in student achievement is expected. Findings indicate that the use of the most stringent inclusion criterion…

A valuable extension of the single-rating regression discontinuity design (RDD) is a multiple-rating RDD (MRRDD). To date, four main methods have been used to estimate average treatment effects at the multiple treatment frontiers of an MRRDD: the "surface" method, the "frontier" method, the "binding-score" method, and…

L2 reading research suggests that L1 orthographic experience influences L2 word recognition. Nevertheless, the findings on multi-syllabic words in English are still limited despite the fact that a vast majority of words are multi-syllabic. The study investigated whether L1 orthography influences the recognition of multi-syllabic words, focusing on…

Precision is a key facet of test development, with score reliability determined primarily according to the types of error one wants to approximate and demonstrate. This article identifies and discusses several primary forms of reliability estimation: internal consistency (i.e., split-half, KR-20, a), test-retest, alternate forms, interscorer, and…

This study explores first-year university students' reasoning as they learn to draw Lewis structures. We also present a theoretical account of the formal procedure commonly taught for drawing these structures. Students' discussions during problem-solving activities were video recorded and detailed analyses of the discussions were made through the…

Lay theories suggest that people who are overconfident in their knowledge are less likely to revise that knowledge when someone else offers an alternative belief. Similarly, one might assume that people who "are" willing to revise their beliefs might not be very confident in their knowledge to begin with. Two studies with children ages…

The capture-mark-release-recapture method provides a simple way to estimate population size. However, when used as part of ecological sampling, this method does not easily allow an opportunity to evaluate the accuracy of the calculation because the actual population size is unknown. Here, we describe a method that can be used to measure the…

Research on second language (L2) grammar in task-based language learning has yielded inconsistent results regarding the effects of task-complexity, prompting calls for more nuanced analyses of L2 development and task performance. The present cross-sectional study contributes to this discussion by comparing the performance of 245 learners of German…

Although statistics and research are key components of social work education, students are often described as reluctant consumers and users of statistics. Self-efficacy theory has been used to understand students' engagement with the statistical knowledge needed for practice. This quantitative study explores the relationship between self-efficacy,…

Episodic memory involves flexible retrieval processes that allow us to link together distinct episodes, make novel inferences across overlapping events, and recombine elements of past experiences when imagining future events. However, the same flexible retrieval and recombination processes that underpin these adaptive functions may also leave…

Mixing examples of different categories (interleaving) has been shown to promote inductive learning as compared with presenting examples of the same category together (massing). In three studies, we tested whether the advantage of interleaving is exclusively due to the mixing of examples from different categories or to the temporal gap introduced…

Student engagement refers to the behaviors that suggest whether a student is interested in the learning process. Finn (1989) developed the participation-identification model to explain the correlation between student engagement and identification with school, suggesting that increased participation leads to an increased sense of belongingness in…

In this paper, we present a system for visualizing learning logs of a course in progress together with predictions of learning activities of the following week and the final grades of students by state transition graphs. Data are collected from 236 students attending the course in progress and from 209 students attending the past course for…

When viewers are shown sets of similar objects (for example circles), they may extract summary information (e.g., average size) while retaining almost no information about the individual items. A similar observation can be made when using sets of unfamiliar faces: Viewers tend to merge identity or expression information from the set exemplars into…

In calibration tasks students assess exemplar texts using criteria against which their own work will be assessed. Typically, these tasks are used in the context of training for peer assessment. Little research has been conducted on the benefits of calibration tasks, such as benchmarking, as learning opportunities in their own right. This paper…