High demands on learners in Web-based learning environments and constraints of the human cognitive system cause disorientation and cognitive overload. These problems could be inhibited if appropriate cognitive tools are provided to support learners' cognitive processes. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors influencing the use of…

This study aimed to investigate children's performance and perception of problem difficulty in solving everyday mathematical problems with familiar versus unfamiliar contexts. In addition, the ways that children identify the similarities in problem-solving approaches between problem settings and everyday shopping were also examined. Forty-eight…

This study documents the transformation of a graduate-level course for teachers that had traditionally been taught in a face-to-face (f2f) model, in multiple sections, at a large university. By designing the course for online delivery and developing various interactive multimedia modules, the university was able to offer the course at a…

This is the 30th Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 2008. Section 664(d) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), as reauthorized in 2004, requires that the Department of Education report annually on the progress made toward the provision of a free appropriate…

The 4th International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM 2011) brings together researchers from computer science, education, psychology, psychometrics, and statistics to analyze large datasets to answer educational research questions. The conference, held in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, July 6-9, 2011, follows the three previous editions…

New information and communications technologies and research in cognitive science have led to new ways to think about and implement learning environments. Among these new approaches to instruction and new methods to support learning and performance is an interest in and emphasis on complex subject matter (e.g., complex and dynamic systems…

Item response theory (IRT) has been used extensively to study differential item functioning (dif) and to identify potentially biased items. The use of IRT for diagnostic purposes is less prevalent and has received comparatively less attention. This study addressed differential objective function (dof) to identify potentially biased content units.…

Analogy items from the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) were evaluated for differential performance by black and white examinees. Black and white examinees were first matched for overall SAT-V scores prior to conducting item analyses. A content and psycholinguistic analysis of 220 disclosed SAT analogy items from 11 test forms was performed.…

A discussion of language acquisition assumes that lexicon plays a central role, and that the principles of conventionality and contrast are also essential. It examines the hypotheses children draw on about possible word meanings and how they map their meanings into forms. This process begins with children's emerging knowledge of conventional words…

A survey investigated the attitudes of second language learners about authentic texts, written and oral, used for language instruction. Respondents were 186 randomly-selected university students of German. The students were administered a 212-item questionnaire (the items are appended) that requested information concerning student demographic…

A new testing strategy that provides protection against the problem of having examinees in adaptive testing choose difficulty levels that are not matched to their proficiency levels was introduced and evaluated. The method, termed restricted self-adapted testing (RSAT), still provides examinees with a degree of control over the difficulty levels…

To establish that measures of vocational identity are sensitive to variations in development, researchers need to demonstrate that different patterns of scores on these measures predict subsequent coping with later tasks of vocational development. This study investigated the ability of the Vocational Identity Scale (VIS) to predict coping with a…

A scaling procedure is proposed, based on item response theory (IRT), to fit non-hierarchical test structure as well. The binary scores of a test of English were used for calculating the probabilities of answering each item correctly. The probability matrix was factor analyzed, and the difficulty intervals or estimates corresponding to the factors…

The effects of review options (the opportunity for examinees to review and change answers) on the magnitude, reliability, efficiency, and concurrent validity of scores obtained from three types of computerized vocabulary tests (fixed item, adaptive, and self-adapted) were studied. Subjects were 97 college students at a large midwestern university…

This report identifies generic competencies (skills necessary for success in the workplace) and foundations (skills and qualities underlying the competencies). Chapter 1 explains use of this report to help educators make high school courses more relevant to the needs of a modern work force and to help employers ensure that their employees possess…