Individual level data for the entire cohort of undergraduate mathematics students of a relatively small US public university was used to estimate the risk that a student will switch major to another one before degree completion. The data set covers the period from 1999 to 2006. Survival tables and logistic models were estimated and used to discuss…

We present results of our investigation into student understanding of the physical significance and utility of the Boltzmann factor in several simple models. We identify various justifications, both correct and incorrect, that students use when answering written questions that require application of the Boltzmann factor. Results from written data…

The aims of the present study were to measure the effects of individual answer (correct vs. incorrect), individual answer of group members (no vs. some vs. all correct), self-confidence about the responses (low vs. mid vs. high), sex (female vs. male students), and group size (2-4 students) on the odds for change and for correctness after peer…

This study aimed at providing explanation and prediction of principals' inclusive education intentions and practices under the framework of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). A sample of 209 principals from Hong Kong schools was surveyed using five scales that were developed to assess the five components of TPB: attitude, subjective norm,…

When a child does not seem to be ready for primary school, a popular practice is to grant the child more time by letting it repeat kindergarten. However, previous quasi-experimental research demonstrated negative, though diminishing, effects of kindergarten retention on academic learning during the first years of primary school. The present study…

A randomized control trial was conducted to study whether providing 10th grade students with information about the returns to upper secondary and tertiary education, and a source of financial aid for tertiary education, can contribute to improve student performance. The study finds that the intervention had no effects on the probability of taking…

Objective: Young people in urban areas are often the focus of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention programmes because of their high risk of unwanted pregnancy and contracting an STI. Young people in rural areas are far less studied but also have a high risk of similar outcomes. This study evaluates Giving Our Girls…

Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) are used to reduce poverty while incentivizing investments in children. Targeting CCTs to certain groups of children can improve efficiency, but positive effects on eligible children may be offset by reductions in investments for ineligible siblings. Using data from Nicaragua, we estimate program effects on…

The paper aims at elaborating a strategy regarding students' admission at the colleges of technology in the western region of Saudi Arabia. Purposely, the study surveys the opinion of the students attending the Jeddah College of Technology (J.C.T) and reports on seven socio-economic factors, specifically, the "J.C.T. evaluation system,"…

Kindergarten retention is a popular practice for children who are considered unready for primary school. However, past research has not yet succeeded to find consistent, strong empirical evidence supporting the practice. In the current study, kindergarten repeaters' development in nine psychosocial domains is compared with that of equally at risk…

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of a summer bridge program geared toward first-year students at a large public university located in the Southeastern United States. The research question guiding this study was, "Does participation in a summer bridge program increase academic success for first-year college students?"…

The Success By 6® (SB6) initiative is designed to support early care and education centers in improving and sustaining quality in Pennsylvania's Keystone STARS Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). The SB6 evaluation report examines implementation and outcomes. The findings have implications for SB6 continous quality improvement process…

Preschoolers' experiences with shapes are important because geometry is foundational to aspects of mathematics and it is now part of the Common Core for school-readiness. Exposure to shapes also provides experiences that are key to developing spatial thinking more broadly. Yet achieving a strong conceptual understanding of geometric categories can…

Quite a number of interesting problems in probability feature an event with probability equal to 1/e. This article discusses three such problems and attempts to explain why this probability occurs with such frequency.

The St. Petersburg game is a probabilistic thought experiment. It describes a game which seems to have infinite expected value, but which no reasonable person could be expected to pay much to play. Previous empirical work has centered around trying to find the most likely payoff that would result from playing the game n times. In this paper, we…