Research offers mixed conclusions about whether grades have positive or negative influence on students' achievements and motivation. To investigate students' perceptions regarding how grades activate or deactivate them in their studies, we conducted individual semi-structured interviews with 35 Norwegian and Swedish upper-secondary school…

Self-report surveys are widely used in applied linguistics. Nevertheless, insufficient effort responding--often stemming from a lack of motivation from participants--can compromise survey data quality and distort research findings. This study investigated insufficient effort responding through an online survey assessing second language (L2)…

As institutions increasingly focus on improving student retention and graduation rates, understanding factors that influence student success has become crucial. Course failures in students' first terms have been shown to have strong associations with student retention. While extensive research has analyzed failure rates of individual courses, this…

In a data-driven world, the ability to critically assess empirical data is a core aspect of scientific literacy and a major goal of physics education. Yet, students often fall back on heuristics that conflict with statistical reasoning. A common example is the "the more measurements, the better the quality of the data" (MMB) heuristic,…

The dismal results from the fall 2024 release of "The Nation's Report Card" (the National Assessment of Educational Progress) confirmed what many who follow schooling outcomes for children already feared: post-pandemic academic recovery for students was middling at best, with reading and math scores still falling short of their…

When student achievement is assessed, we seek to elicit a student's maximum performance -- a goal requiring the assumption that the student is fully engaged. Otherwise, to the extent that disengagement occurs, test performance is likely to suffer. Effectively managing test-taking disengagement requires an understanding of the testing conditions…

Background: For older Latinos, some benefits of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) include enhanced cognitive functioning, decreased loneliness, and reduced premature mortality. Despite LTPA benefits, adults [greater than or equal to]50 years are one of the most inactive age groups in the United States. Methods: This qualitative study aimed to…

Despite well-established benefits, the majority of young people around the globe are not sufficiently active. In many countries, including Australia, physical activity (i.e. physical education and school sport) is not mandatory in the final two years of high school (i.e. senior school years). The aim of this study was to assess the impact of a…

This case study explored the ways that aspects of a high school blended learning program (pseudonym: BL High) encourage or discourage personalization. For K-12 learners a major concern exists in the increasingly rigid dominion of the programmatic over the personal, which leaves many students disengaged and disconnected. Having expanded the ways in…

The 2023 edition of 'Key data on teaching languages at school in Europe' depicts the main education policies related to the teaching of languages in schools in 39 European education systems. It answers questions about the number and range of foreign languages studied by students, the instruction time dedicated to foreign language teaching, the…

The study aims to analyze visualization as a methodological technique used during lectures in higher educational institutions. An empirical study of visualization as a methodological technique for lectures was conducted using an online questionnaire using the Google forms service. The purpose of the questionnaire was to determine the frequency of…

Traditional item analyses such as classical test theory (CTT) use exam-taker responses to assessment items to approximate their difficulty and discrimination. The increased adoption by educational institutions of electronic assessment platforms (EAPs) provides new avenues for assessment analytics by capturing detailed logs of an exam-taker's…

Social motivation--the psychobiological predisposition for social orienting, seeking social contact, and maintaining social interaction--manifests in early infancy and is hypothesized to be foundational for social communication development in typical and atypical populations. However, the lack of infant social-motivation measures has hindered…

Background: Co-curricular activities are often touted as valuable STEM learning opportunities in higher education settings. Particularly in engineering, industry encourage and seek students with co-curricular experiences. However, many engineering undergraduates do not regularly participate in those experiences. Some researchers have suggested…

This study examined whether individual differences in personality (development) from adolescence to emerging adulthood were associated with burnout and happiness in emerging adulthood. At Time 1 (2009; M[subscript age] = 15.7 years), Time 2 (2012), and Time 3 (2015), Belgian participants (N = 329; 43.1% boys) reported on the personality dimensions…