Explicit-reflective nature of science (NOS) instruction has demonstrated a positive impact on student learning. Although explicit-reflective NOS instruction often consists of questions that draw students' attention to NOS ideas, there are few recommendations in the science education literature about how the form of these questions might inform NOS…

Many undergraduate chemistry students hold alternate conceptions related to resonance--an important and fundamental topic of organic chemistry. To help address these alternate conceptions, an organic chemistry instructor could administer the resonance concept inventory (RCI), which is a multiple-choice assessment that was designed to identify…

International large-scale assessments (ILSA) are an important source of information for education policymakers across the globe. Despite sponsors' warnings, when results are published, media attention focuses on country rankings and changes in scores. Score changes are evaluated using a two-sided z-statistic, with statistical significance declared…

Students and educators often face time constraints, making it essential to develop interventions that are both easy to implement and have a substantial impact on learning and performance. One promising strategy is retrieval practice, particularly in the context of physics education, where many students struggle with basic knowledge. Prior research…

Sound waves are one of the important topics studied in physics. However, students' graph representation is still low, leading to their low concept understanding of physics learning. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the learning process to improve students' graph representation by providing a valid and reliable graph representation test…

Student attrition in online courses remains a significant concern, particularly in STEM disciplines. Common pedagogical practices in STEM, such as timed, high-stakes "traditional" exams, may contribute to attrition by adversely affecting cognitive development, student attitudes toward their discipline, and various aspects of motivation.…

For STEM faculty to approach teaching as a scientist, they must develop tools for data collection and analysis of student learning outcomes. Here, we report a methodology for the development of a learning outcomes assessment instrument and statistical analysis of that instrument that can be undertaken in a short amount of time by a few faculty…

Traditional written examinations in higher education face challenges of authenticity and integrity. This study evaluated interactive oral assessments (IOA) as an alternative to traditional written examinations in bioscience education. Using a mixed-methods approach, data from 722 students across multiple offerings of the course (2009-2023) were…

Molecular genetics is often one of the most challenging subjects for students in biology courses. Identifying misconceptions on this subject will help teachers improve teaching and increase student success. Based on this thought, this study aimed to determine students' misconceptions about molecular genetics using a four-tier test. The researcher…

Prior research has demonstrated that students' performance on physics test items can be accurately predicted using machine learning algorithms based on their gaze behavior. These gaze data are typically recorded during item completion and capture students' visual attention to both the verbal item stem and accompanying visual representations, such…

This study provides a solid validity inferential network to guide the development, interpretation, and use of machine learning-based next-generation science assessments (NGSAs). Given that machine learning (ML) has been broadly implemented in the automatic scoring of constructed responses, essays, simulations, educational games, and…

At a conference on educational physics, someone described a series of multiple-choice problems to test students' ideas about various mechanical phenomena. One of the problems questioned students' conceptions about the shape of the Earth's orbit in the solar system. The question was as follows: "Which of the following schematic illustrations…

The Regulations of the Commissioner of Education provide that an intermediate-level science test is to be administered in Grade 8 to serve as a basis for determining students' need for academic intervention services in science. The New York State Grade 8 Intermediate-Level Science Test consists of two required components: a Written Test and a…

In Flanders, open admission into higher education has led to heterogeneity in academic preparedness of incoming STEM students. Higher education institutions offer low stakes positioning tests to these students in order to help them assess their level of starting competences. Due to the unique nature of these tests, little can be inferred about…

This study investigates the performance of GPT-4, an advanced AI model developed by OpenAI, on the force concept inventory (FCI) to evaluate its accuracy, reasoning patterns, and the occurrence of false positives and false negatives. GPT-4 was tasked with answering the FCI questions across multiple sessions. Key findings include GPT-4's…