Play is an essential component of childhood, but parents and educators sometimes view it as an optional add-on, which gets in the way of learning. This view persists in spite of evidence that play is helpful and sometimes critical to learning in multiple domains, perhaps because precise mechanisms whereby play occasions learning are not well…

This study examines three core processes in undergraduates' reasoning about four different evidence types (i.e., anecdotal, observational, correlational, and causal). In particular, we examine undergraduates' processes of evidence identification, evaluation, and selection of evidence to include in writing and how these manifest across different…

The Stranger Face Trust (SFT) questionnaire and the Imaginary Stranger Trust (IST) questionnaire are two new self-report measures of generalized trust that assess trust in real (SFT) and imaginary (IST) strangers across four trust domains. Both were designed to be objective, empirically valid, and easy to administer and score. To assess…

To measure "treatment" effects, social science researchers typically rely on nonexperimental data. In education, school and teacher effects on students are often measured through value-added models (VAMs) that are not fully understood. We propose a framework that relates to the education production function in its most flexible form and…

The purpose of this study was to clarify the role of mindfulness in suicide ideation (SI) in college students by testing which component(s) of mindfulness would add to the explanation of SI when depression, hopelessness and suicide attempt history were considered. Seven hundred sixty-three undergraduate college students provided survey data on…

This article is concerned with the large-sample parameter estimator behavior in applications of Bayesian confirmatory factor analysis in behavioral measurement. The property of strong convergence of the popular Bayesian posterior median estimator is discussed, which states numerical convergence with probability 1 of the resulting estimates to the…

This study investigated the relationship between alexithymia and depression amongst university students and how it is mediated by anxiety. Data was collected from a sample of university students (n= 74, Men = 41, Women = 33) aged 18 to 25 (Mean = 22.05, SD = 0.38). The findings revealed a statistically significant gender difference with men being…

Noncognitive factors have gained attention in recent years as potential intervention targets for academic achievement improvement in students. Two notable facets, intelligence mindset and grit, have been of particular interest. Both have been shown to consistently improve educational outcomes, although little work has focused on reading ability.…

Limited research has been conducted on the state-level factors that may be associated with intentional school shootings. We obtained school shooting data from the "Washington Post" that identified any act of intentional interpersonal gunfire in a K-12 school over the course of two decades. We also compiled new data on active school…

One of the challenges of discussing validity arguments for machine scoring of essays centers on the absence of a commonly held definition and theory of good writing. At best, the algorithms attempt to measure select attributes of writing and calibrate them against human ratings with the goal of accurate prediction of scores for new essays.…

Turning to key texts of Paulo Freire and Jacques Lacan, this paper argues that the experience organized in critical pedagogy can be rearticulated on the basis of a structural-practical connection to psychoanalysis. I pay specific attention to the methodical parallels that develop between the accounts of the psychoanalytic and pedagogical…

Background: Reducing hospital admissions for people with a learning disability is a key objective of national guidelines. However, there are currently little available data which indicate factors which might reduce the risk of hospital admission. Using a cohort of people at risk of hospital admission, this research sought to explore the…

Project-based learning (PBL) is one of most common teaching strategies in design education. With the complexity in design projects, PBL is usually accomplished in groups. The final project success depend on both technical capabilities and individual personalities: personality types and communication styles. Although previous studies have…

The reliability of a test score is usually underestimated and the deflation may be profound, 0.40 - 0.60 units of reliability or 46 - 71%. Eight root sources of the deflation are discussed and quantified by a simulation with 1,440 real-world datasets: (1) errors in the measurement modelling, (2) inefficiency in the estimator of reliability within…

This descriptive correlation design study examined levels of grit and other demographic data of administrators in northeast Texas public schools. The study focused on administrators employed at the time of the study in an administrative position in a public PK-12 district in northeast Texas. More research was needed to be conducted regarding grit…