This report presents a literature review that was conducted to answer the question -- what can be learned from high performing jurisdictions with respect to scientific literacy? The review intends to build a picture of the education systems, specifically science education, in the five jurisdictions which performed the best in the scientific…

Instructional coaching has been associated with increased student achievement therefore much research has been devoted to the components of effective instructional coaching. Although some of the literature implies a need for consistency in instructional coaching, no research had been done to determine if student achievement was impacted by the…

In this paper, it is aimed to evaluate different aspects of students' response time to items in the mathematics test and their test effort as an indicator of test motivation with the help of some variables at the item and student levels. The data consists of 4th-grade Singapore and Turkish students participating in the TIMSS 2019. Response time…

Over the past two decades, efforts to support school improvement have transitioned from top-down prescriptive approaches to more collaborative and flexible approaches. A number of studies have investigated the effects of these newer "turnaround programs" on student and school outcomes. In Colorado, two recently implemented turnaround…

Autonomy is often discussed as a necessary condition for professionalism in any field, including the teaching profession. In the educational context, autonomy is seen to be critical for teachers to be able to synthesize their knowledge and skills and translate them into effective classroom practices in the best interest of their students. In…

Physical programming (PP) is defined as the design of interactive physical systems between the real and virtual worlds using a combination of software and hardware. A physical programming platform (PPP) defines a structure that includes hardware and software where such applications can be made. The aim of this study is to introduce the MIDEP…

Identifying effective means of ameliorating achievement gaps and addressing literacy deficits is essential. Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) is one avenue for providing this effective instruction to the students that can most benefit from it. In the current study, kindergarten students in a public school district in Illinois received…

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted traditional learning in schools with the sudden shift to distance learning. Schools continue to see the effects of this shift but must better understand the academic effects on students. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of COVID Learning Loss in the mathematics and reading scores of elementary…

Faced with decreasing funds and increasing costs, a growing number of school districts across the United States are switching to four-day school weeks (4DSWs). Although previously used only by rural districts, the policy has begun to gain traction in metropolitan districts. We examine homeowner, teacher, and student outcomes in one of the first…

The purpose of this study was to examine the predictive effects of inquiry-based and teacher-directed instructional practices on students' attitudes toward science and science achievement in a nationally representative sample of 7,708 15-year-old-students from Taiwan who took part in the sixth cycle of the Program for International Student…

The current study compared the model fit indices, skill mastery probabilities, and classification accuracy of six Diagnostic Classification Models (DCMs): a general model (G-DINA) against five specific models (LLM, RRUM, ACDM, DINA, and DINO). To do so, the response data to the grammar and vocabulary sections of a General English Achievement Test,…

The study addresses the phenomenon of science teachers' innovative work activities referring to Rogers' Diffusion theory of innovation (RDI) based on four countries (Sweden, Norway, Lithuania, Italy) TIMSS 2015 data set. The countries were chosen according to different criteria: 1 -- years of teaching; 2 -- gender; 3 -- hours spent for…

This study proposes explanatory cognitive diagnostic model (CDM) jointly incorporating responses and response times (RTs) with the inclusion of item covariates related to both item responses and RTs. The joint modeling of item responses and RTs intends to provide more information for cognitive diagnosis while item covariates can be used to predict…

One needs higher order thinking skills in positioning perspectives for any kinds of problems that affect one's view of life in order to develop a fundamental scientific understanding. For this reason, science teaching requires thinking skills instruction to be included in classes. This study aimed to observe the effects of student-centered…

The present analysis examined the relationship between PISA results and their influence on policy development within a select group of European nations which included Estonia, Italy, France, and Finland. These countries reflect four distinct outcomes in relation to PISA results: (1) high achievement and high equity (Estonia); (2) stagnant…