Managing test specifications--both multiple nonstatistical constraints and flexibly defined constraints--has become an important part of designing item selection procedures for computerized adaptive tests (CATs) in achievement testing. This study compared the effectiveness of three procedures: constrained CAT, flexible modified constrained CAT,…

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of guided, inquiry-based laboratory activities using the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach and self-evaluation on students' science achievement. The study involved three sixth grade classes studying an electricity unit taught by the same primary school teacher. Before the study began, one…

Objective: Motivating clients to change the health behaviour, and maintaining an interest in exercise programmes, is an ongoing challenge for health educators. With new developments in technology, simulation and gaming are increasingly being considered as ways to motivate users, support learning and promote positive health behaviours. The purpose…

This paper focuses on the potential role of reflection and double loop learning in policy analysis and shared community learning. The discussion is illustrated by the case of HS2, a proposed high-speed railway project in England. It is noted that the foundation of social learning models is a rejection of traditional reliance on technologies or…

The debate about whether making a risky choice is based on a weighting and adding process has a long history and is still unresolved. To address this long-standing controversy, we developed a comparative paradigm. Participants' eye movements in 2 risky choice tasks that required participants to choose between risky options in single-play and…

The connection between the molecular-level structure of a substance and its macroscopic properties is a fundamental concept in chemistry. Students in college-level general and organic chemistry courses were interviewed to investigate how they used structure-property relationships to predict properties such as melting and boiling points. Although…

This paper reports a study conducted to formally evaluate a social problem-solving skills game during the start of the development to ensure that the desired game attributes were successfully embodied in the final game. Two methods, heuristic evaluation and participatory design, were adopted to assess whether the features of the game pose…

To ensure the quality of digital simulation game, we utilized the usability evaluation heuristic in the design and development processes of e-café operational management game-based learning material for students. The application of usability evaluations during this study is described. Additionally, participant selection, data collection and…

The practice of documentation is discussed as a means of making learning visible in the LC classroom. A documentation heuristic consisting of a four-stage cycle was used to capture, analyze and report what Bass and Eynon (2009) refer to as the "visible evidence of invisible learning" (p. 5). A variety of documentation samples are…

Teaching fundamental public relations courses to students from diverse backgrounds poses additional complexities in learning effectiveness. This exploratory study evaluated the effectiveness and identified the challenges of using films to teach public relations among nonmajor students. Results from an online survey and two focus groups found that…

During this heuristic phenomenological inquiry, we examined our lived experiences as five women (three doctoral students, two early career faculty) in the process of becoming music teacher educators participating in a year-long, online, group-facilitated professional development community (PDC). Data included recorded meetings via Skype, journal…

By bringing together the national German sports game community and an international scientific community in a joint conference, the 6th International Teaching Games for Understanding Conference (TGfU) Meets the 10th German Sports Games Symposium of the German Association of Sport Science (DVS), held July 25-27, 2016, at the German Sport University…

Often when failing to solve problems, individuals report some idea of the solution, but cannot explicitly access the idea. We investigated whether such intuition would relate to improvements in solving and to the manner in which a problem was solved after a 24- hour delay. On Day 1, participants attempted to solve Compound Remote Associate…

This study focuses on the implementation of the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) curriculum (Hand, 2007), which combines current understandings of learning as a cognitive and negotiated process with the techniques of argument-based inquiry, critical thinking skills, and writing to strengthen student outcomes. Success of SWH is dependent on the…

Meta-design theory emphasizes that system designers can never anticipate all future uses of their system at design time, when systems are being developed. Rather, end users shape their environments in response to emerging needs at use time. Meta-design theory suggests that systems should therefore be designed to adapt to future conditions in the…