Concept inventories have been determined to be useful assessment tools for evaluating students' knowledge, particularly in the sciences. However, these assessment tools must be validated to reflect as accurately as possible students' understanding of concepts. One possible threat to this validation is what previous literature calls the item order…

This study was conducted in a large-scale environmental literacy project. In the project, we developed a Learning Progression Framework (LPF) for matter and energy in social-ecological systems; the LPF contains four achievement levels. Based on the LPF, we designed a Plant Unit to help Levels 2 and 3 students advance to Level 4 of the LPF. In the…

Admission into university in Turkey is very competitive and features a number of practical problems regarding not only the test administration process itself, but also concerning the psychometric properties of test scores. Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) is seen as a possible alternative approach to solve these problems. In the first phase of…

In a first-semester general chemistry course, metacognitive training was implemented as part of an online homework system. Students completed weekly quizzes and multiple practice tests to regularly assess their abilities on the chemistry principles. Before taking these assessments, students predicted their score, receiving feedback after…

This study investigated the differences between Taiwanese experienced and preservice elementary school science teachers' content knowledge (CK) about electric circuits and their ability to predict students' preconceptions about electric circuits as an indicator of their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). An innovative web-based recruitment and…

In this article, we examine how American Indian students in Montana performed on standardized state science assessments when a small number of test items based upon traditional science knowledge from a cultural curriculum, "Indian Education for All", were included. Montana is the first state in the US to mandate the use of a culturally…

One primary goal of many science courses is for students to learn creative problem-solving skills; that is, integrating concepts, explaining concepts in a problem context, and using concepts to solve problems. However, what science instructors see is that many students, even those having excellent SAT/ACT and Advanced Placement scores, struggle in…

We present the Electricity and Magnetism Conceptual Assessment (EMCA), a new assessment aligned with second-semester introductory physics courses. Topics covered include electrostatics, electric fields, circuits, magnetism, and induction. We have two motives for writing a new assessment. First, we find other assessments such as the Brief…

The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between a 1:1 laptop program and the achievement test results for the Ohio Graduation Tests (OGT). Two cohorts were examined (N=193): 1. Tenth graders who took the OGT subtests in Reading, Writing, Math, Science, and Social Studies in 2014 (n=109) and who had received traditional instruction…

Recent research has shown that over-extraction of latent classes can be observed in the Bayesian estimation of the mixed Rasch model when the distribution of ability is non-normal. This study examined the effect of non-normal ability distributions on the number of latent classes in the mixed Rasch model when estimated with maximum likelihood…

Eight faculties in South Africa offer undergraduate physiotherapy training with gross anatomy included as a basis for clinical practice. Little information exists about anatomy education for this student body. A 42-question peer-reviewed survey was distributed to physiotherapy gross anatomy course coordinators in all the eight faculties. Seven…

We investigated whether use of an adaptive-responsive online homework system (OHS) that tailors homework to students' prior knowledge and periodically reassesses students to promote learning through practice retrieval has inherent advantages over traditional-responsive online homework. A quasi-experimental cohort control post-test-only design with…

When considering performing an Introductory Physics for Life Sciences course transformation for one's own institution, life science majors' achievement goals are a necessary consideration to ensure the pedagogical transformation will be effective. However, achievement goals are rarely an explicit consideration in physics education research topics…

The media analysis is situated in the larger body of studies that explore the varied reasons why different policy actors advocate for international large-scale student assessments (ILSAs) and adds to the research on the fast advance of the global education industry. The analysis of "The Economist," "Financial Times," and…

The Chinese government has implemented centralised science curriculum standards to change science teaching from a didactic to inquiry-based approach to support all students in acquiring science literacy. Framed through theoretical perspectives of inquiry-based instruction and cultural pedagogy, this study examined the influence and impact of these…