The reconciliation of theories of concepts based on prototypes, exemplars, and theory-like structures is a longstanding problem in cognitive science. In response to this problem, researchers have recently tended to adopt either hybrid theories that combine various kinds of representational structure, or eliminative theories that replace concepts…

In a 2014 paper in "Theory and Research in Education," Howard Curzer and colleagues critique the Defining Issues Test of moral judgment development according to eight criteria that are described as difficulties any measure of educational outcomes must address. This article highlights how Curzer et al. do not consult existing empirical…

Mixed methods research (MMR) is increasingly becoming a popular methodological approach in several fields due to the promise it holds for comprehensive understanding of complex problems being researched. However, researchers interested in MMR often lack reference to a guide that can explain the key issues pertaining to the paradigm wars…

Children vary in the extent to which their development is shaped by particular experiences (e.g. maltreatment, social support). This variation raises a question: Is there no single level of plasticity that maximizes biological fitness? One influential hypothesis states that when different levels of plasticity are optimal in different environmental…

The minimum unit pricing (MUP) alcohol policy debate has been informed by the Sheffield model, a study which predicts impacts of different alcohol pricing policies. This paper explores the Sheffield model's influences on the policy debate by drawing on 36 semi-structured interviews with policy actors who were involved in the policy debate.…

The technological literacy of students has recently become one of the primary goals of education in countries such as the USA, England, New Zealand, Australia, and so forth. However the question here is whether these educations--their long-term policy documents as well as the standards they provide in particular--address sufficient learning about…

This paper examines the dynamic interplay between language policy and local stakeholders in the process of dialect planning in the city of Shanghai, in the context of social tensions surrounding the decline of Shanghai dialect in mainland China. A process-oriented Language Management Theory (LMT) model is adopted as the analytical framework to…

Early investigation led the Evaluative Study of Action Research (ESAR) team to conclude that the complexity of a global, large scale study (evaluation of more than 100 highly diverse action research [AR] projects) called for an overarching research evaluation framework that differed from traditional frameworks. This article details the flexible,…

The purpose of this study is extend previous methods by Raudenbush and Liu (2001) and Spybrook et al. (2011), and provide methods for power analysis of tests of treatment effects in studies of polynomial change with two levels of nesting (e.g., students and schools) where the treatment is either at the third level (e.g., school intervention) or at…

The role of public school superintendent is complex, challenging, political, and sometimes volatile. A shortage of candidates has plagued California during the past 10 years, due to high turnover rates resulting from the fallout of the NCLB punitive reform measures, increasing baby boomer retirements, and a reluctance of district leaders to step…

Assessment forms an important part of instruction. Assessment that aims to support learning is known as formative assessment and it contributes student's learning gain and motivation. However, teachers rarely use assessment formatively to aid their students' learning. Thus, reviewing the factors that limit or support teachers' practices of…

The present study introduces a systemic model that demonstrates a description of the relationship between the labour-market and vocational education from the perspective of systemic theory. Based on the application of the relevant methodology, the two open social systems are identified and analyzed. Their key-features are presented and the points…

This paper provides an alternative way of document representation by treating topic probabilities as a vector representation for words and representing a document as a combination of the word vectors. A comparison on summary data shows that this representation is more effective in document classification. [This paper was published in:…

Skill prerequisite information is useful for tutoring systems that assess student knowledge or that provide remediation. These systems often encode prerequisites as graphs designed by subject matter experts in a costly and time-consuming process. In this paper, we introduce "Combined student Modeling and prerequisite Discovery"…

The incorporation of prerequisite skill structures into educational systems helps to identify the order in which concepts should be presented to students to optimize student achievement. Many skills have a causal relationship in which one skill must be presented before another, indicating a strong skill relationship. Knowing this relationship can…