In this ITEMS module, we frame the topic of scale reliability within a "confirmatory factor analysis" and "structural equation modeling" (SEM) context and address some of the limitations of Cronbach's a. This modeling approach has two major advantages: (1) it allows researchers to make explicit the relation between their items…

Training programs enhance the skills of participants. Role-play, one method used for such skill development, is learning through performing a set of behaviors, in accordance with predetermined expectations of a job role in an organizational context. Some learners find role-play daunting, even traumatic. To counter this experience, this article…

Current events influence public interest and drive Internet word searches. For over a decade, linguists and dictionary publishers have analyzed big data from Internet word searches to designate "Words of the Year" (WsOY). In this study, we examine how WsOY can foster critical digital literacy and illuminate essential aspects of inquiry…

Feedback can be defined by Irons (2008) as "any information, process or activity which affords or accelerates student learning based on comments relating to either formative or summative assessment activities" (p. 7). The current study aims to synthesize quantitative research studies to further explore the impact of feedback on academic…

This chapter describes how three higher education institutions aligned leadership development and career readiness. Best practices for the strategic integration of leadership development with career development that promote college student career readiness are included.

Students experiencing chronic health difficulties represent a growing population in public schools. Given the unique challenges faced by these students including increased absences, resulting academic, and social/emotional/behavioral deficits, it is vital that schools are prepared to adequately meet their needs. One of the sometimes daunting tasks…

For students to become powerful learners, their teachers must engage in powerful learning themselves. Yet the professional learning many teachers experience is often disconnected from the curriculum, disconnected from specific students and their learning needs, and disconnected from their daily work. What is needed is a tightly connected…

This report presents the number of child care providers and children enrolled in northeastern Minnesota in 2018, the economic impact of the child care industry, estimates of the unmet need for child care and costs to add capacity to meet demand, the economic impact of the child care shortage, and examples of best-practice business involvement in…

My dissertation is situated in the field of computer science education research, specifically, the learning and teaching of programming. This is a critical area to be studied, since, primarily, learning to program is difficult, but also, the need for programming knowledge and skills is growing, now more than ever. This research is particularly…

Background: To build research capacity for early-career faculty conducting HIV/STI research with minoritized communities and to enhance diversity in the scientific workforce, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Center for AIDS Prevention (CAPS) conducts a training program for visiting professors (VPs), begun in 1996. VPs are in…

The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service has been developing and refining webinar delivery practices since 2012. On the basis of a review of existing literature and our own experiences, we have established methods for necessary planning, organization of content and people, and effective delivery of…

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is a data reduction technique used to condense data into smaller sets of summary variables by identifying underlying factors potentially accounting for patterns of collinearity among said variables. Using an illustrative example, the 5 general steps of EFA are described with best practices for decision making…

Despite widespread calls for evidence-based research in education, this strategy has heretofore generated a surprisingly small return on the related financial investment. Some scholars have suggested that the situation follows from a mismatch between education as an assumed field of study and applied empirical research methods. This article's…

Field experiments, which are a powerful research technique, are common in some fields, but they have not been widely used in studying the effect of financial and counseling planning interventions. Financial services can benefit from the expanded use of field experiments to explore potential causal mechanisms for the effects of financial planning…

Throughout continuing education focusing on the adult learner, standardized and sometimes even effective measures of instructor performance have remained elusive. As Smith (2012) stated, "Teaching practice cannot be measured according to lists of competencies or techniques, it cannot be safeguarded by a collection of prescriptions for good…