This study aims to first investigate the effect of the extreme response style (ERS) which could lead to an attitude-achievement paradox among the countries participating in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 2015), and then to determine the individual- and country-level relationships between attitude and achievement…

This study implemented the principles of dynamic assessment (DA) with computer technology, iSpring Quiz Maker, to (1) identify the English listening difficulties of 172 L2 English learners; (2) diagnose their individual learning needs, and (3) promote their future potential abilities. Upon evaluating the participating junior high school students'…

Situational Judgment Tests for Teachers (SJTTs) were developed as an alternative to the existing evaluation programs for selecting student teachers. A Situational Judgment Test for Middle-school Teachers (SJTMT), a Situational Judgment Test for Primary-school Teachers (SJTPT), and a Situational Judgment Test for Early-childhood Teachers (SJTET)…

The present study examined the relationships of Taiwanese eighth graders' perceived autonomy support from teachers, parental psychological control, implicit theories of intelligence, and achievement goal orientations to their agentic, behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement in schoolwork. Also, the current research explored the determining…

In the literature, response style is one of the factors causing an achievement-attitude paradox and threatens the validity of the results obtained from studies. In this regard, the aim of this study is two-fold. Firstly, it attempts to determine which item response tree (IRTree) models based on the generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) approach…

The current study explores students' collaboration and problem solving (CPS) abilities using a human-to-agent (H-A) computer-based collaborative problem solving assessment. Five CPS assessment units with 76 conversation-based items were constructed using the PISA 2015 CPS framework. In the experiment, 53,855 ninth and tenth graders in Taiwan were…

This study aimed to examine the mediating effects of motivational beliefs in the relations between parental involvement and science achievement. Three types of motivational beliefs, namely, self-concept, intrinsic value, and utility value were addressed based on the Expectancy-Value Theory model. A representative national sample from Taiwan of…

The current scales for self-blame are not suitable for school bullying scenarios and most lack validity. This study used a self-developed scale to measure bullied victims' tendency to self-blame and further examined whether victims and bully/victims exhibited different tendencies toward self-blame under both bullied and generalized scenarios. The…

This study investigated if and to what extent grade 8 and 9 students in Taiwan attributed materialistic properties to sound concepts, and whether they hold scientific views in parallel with materialistic views. Taiwanese middle school students are a special population since their scores in international academic comparison tests such as TIMSS and…

Mathematical disposition could influence learning and performance, they usually determine how well students motivate themselves and persevere in the face of difficulties, and they influence the choices-making about coursework, and even educational and career paths. The aim of this study is to investigate the same students' mathematical disposition…

General strain theory is an established criminological theory. Although the theory has been examined by many, the propositions of mediating effects through negative emotions, lower social control, and criminogenic social learning environment are understudied. In addition, previous studies that touched on these mechanisms were limited to…

The study compared the aberrance detection powers of the BW person-fit indices with other group-based indices (SCI, MCI, NCI, and Wc&Bs) and item response theory based (IRT-based) indices (OUTFITz, INFITz, ECI2z, ECI4z, and lz). Four kinds of comparative conditions, including content category (CC), types of aberrance (AT), severity of…

Previous studies have indicated that situational factors can influence students' creativity. However, no studies have specifically examined the relationship between classroom goal structures and student creativity during real classroom activities. For this study, we recruited 232 seventh-grade students from Taipei City and randomly divided them…

Task difficulty is a critical issue affecting test developers. Controlling or balancing the item difficulty of an assessment improves its validity and discrimination. Test developers construct tests from the cognitive perspective, by making the test constructing process more scientific and efficient; thus, the scores obtained more precisely…

Background: Drug use has been noted among students in Taiwan during the past decade and schools have a role in preventing or delaying students' drug use. We developed and evaluated a school-based, drug-use prevention program integrating the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and life skills for junior high school students. Methods: We recruited 441…