Ambitious efforts are taking place to implement a new vision for science education in the United States, in both Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)-adopted states and those states creating their own, often related, standards. In-service and pre-service teacher educators are involved in supporting teacher shifts in practice toward the new…

Service learning typically involves university students in teaching and learning activities for middle and high school students, however, measurement of university students' self-efficacy in science communication is still lacking. In this study, an instrument to measure university students' perceived self-efficacy in communicating science to…

Developing an attitude influential in individuals' behaviours and related with academic achievement is a concept whose development science educators consider important. This research aims to adapt the 8-item Attitude toward the Subject of Chemistry Inventory (ASCI)--which was developed by Bauer (2008) and revised by Xu and Lewis (2011)--into…

This article introduces an objective grammar and math assessment and evaluates the assessment's outcome and reliability when fielded among eighty-one students in media writing courses. In addition, the article proposes a rubric for grading straight news leads and compares the rubric's reliability with the reliability of rating straight news leads…

Nationwide pre- and posttesting of introductory courses with the Geoscience Concept Inventory (GCI) shows little gain for many of its questions. Analysis of more than 3,500 tests shows that 22 of the 73 GCI questions had gains of <0.03, and nearly half of these focused on basic physics and chemistry. We also discovered through an assessment of…

PISA is an extremely influential large-scale assessment, and its "policy lessons" are being incorporated in a range of nations all over the world. In this paper I argue that not only is PISA influencing policies and practices, but also that "seeing like PISA" is becoming a widespread phenomenon. Globally, education…

Although emotions are not a new topic in learning environments, the emerging technologies have changed not only the type of learning environments but also the perspectives of emotions in learning environments. This study designed to develop a survey to assist online instructors to understand students' emotional statement in online learning…

Problem solving is a complex process valuable in everyday life and crucial for learning in the STEM fields. To support the development of problem-solving skills it is important for researchers and curriculum developers to have practical tools that can measure the difference between novice and expert problem-solving performance in authentic…

The aim of this study is to determine variance difference between maximum likelihood and expected A posteriori estimation methods viewed from number of test items of aptitude test. The variance presents an accuracy generated by both maximum likelihood and Bayes estimation methods. The test consists of three subtests, each with 40 multiple-choice…

Digital information literacy (DIL)--generally defined as the ability to obtain, understand, evaluate, and use information in a variety of digital technology contexts--is a critically important skill deemed necessary for success in higher education as well as in the global networked economy. To determine whether college graduates possess the…

A large study of classrooms in the Caribbean context necessitated the use of a validated classroom observation tool. In practice, the paper-version Stalling's instrument (Stallings & Kaskowitz 1974) presented specific challenges with respect to (a) facile data collection and (b) qualitative observations of classrooms. In response to these…

During emerging adulthood, young people begin the process of balancing individual and relational role commitments. Whereas development within specific domains, primarily career and relationship (work and love), have been explored separately, it is important to understand how emerging adults divide their attention across multiple individual (i.e.,…

Tests of measurement invariance were conducted across culture and gender on the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale-Second Edition (RCMAS-2) Short Form in a sample of 1,003 Singapore and U.S. adolescents. The results of multi-group confirmatory factor analyses across culture and gender supported at least partial measurement invariance. ANOVA…

Plausible distractors are important for accurate measurement of knowledge via multiple-choice questions (MCQs). This study demonstrates the impact of higher distractor functioning on validity and reliability of scores obtained on MCQs. Freeresponse (FR) and MCQ versions of a neurohistology practice exam were given to four cohorts of Year 1 medical…

States are establishing high stakes assessments to serve as measurement tools of students' academic abilities. This study essentially compares Maryland's and Florida's mathematics and science assessments for similarities and differences. Building from 5-10 years of student level quantitative data (secondary data) and critical analyses of the…