Conducting a fair test is important for educational research. Unfair assessments can lead to gender disparities in academic achievement, ultimately resulting in disparities in opportunities, wages, and career choice. Differential Item Function [DIF] analysis is presented to provide evidence of whether the test is truly fair, where it does not harm…

Persistence represents a crucial trait in learning. A lack of persistence prevents learners from fully mastering their current skills and makes it difficult for them to acquire new skills. It further hinders the administration of effective interventions by learning systems. Although most studies have focused on identifying non-persistence and…

A scoring framework that does not reflect true performance of an examinee would ultimately result in an abnormal score. This study assessed invariance person estimates of 2017 Nigerian National Examinations Council Basic Education Certificate Examination Mathematics Multiple Choice using classical test theory (CTT) and item response theory (IRT)…

This paper investigates how test-based, standardized accountability is impacting on urban school leaders' everyday work in Ontario and British Columbia, Canada. This critical policy analysis draws on theories of new public management and governmentality to document the experiences of school leaders as they enact and navigate test-based…

In Chapter 1, we study the allocation of homogeneous positions under affirmative action policies where some positions are reserved for underrepresented groups on a "minimum guarantee" basis. Each individual has a merit-based score and may be eligible for multiple reserves. When an individual counts towards each of the reserves that she…

Background: Many studies (especially cross-sectional ones) have shown significant links between two of these three constructs-achievement, self-concept and anxiety. Objectives: Unlike past longitudinal studies that examined only two of these three constructs, this study examines all three, grounded in self-determination theory, control-value…

We investigated the potential impact of differential item functioning (DIF) on group-level mean and standard deviation estimates using empirical and simulated data in the context of large-scale assessment. For the empirical investigation, PISA 2018 cognitive domains (Reading, Mathematics, and Science) data were analyzed using Jackknife sampling to…

There has been a growing call for listening to test-takers' voices across diverse assessment contexts. Within classroom assessment (CA), however, test-takers' voices on ethics are under-researched in the high school context of Iran. Hence, this study purported to disclose Iranian high school test-takers' (n = 15) perceptions of the ethical…

This paper introduces and uses Lakatos' idea of research programmes to summarise and critically evaluate academic discourse towards knowledge capital theory. The analysis uses rational reconstruction to formulate the components of the hardcore and protective belt of knowledge capital theory. By critically surveying the literature, it challenges…

Self-report scales have become the most widely used instruments to capture people's self-perception of creativity. Previous studies, however, provided only a limited insight into the psychometric properties of such measures. This paper reports an extensive item response theory (IRT) analysis of the Short Scale of Creative Self (SSCS): one of the…

International Large-Scale Assessments (LSA) allow comparisons of education systems' effectiveness in promoting student learning in specific domains, such as reading, mathematics, and science. However, it has been argued that students' scores in International LSAs mostly reflect general cognitive ability (g). This study examines the extent to which…

We investigated the relationship between the scores assigned by an Automated Essay Scoring (AES) system, the Intelligent Essay Assessor (IEA), and grades allocated by trained, professional human raters to English essay writing by instigating two procedures novel to written-language assessment: the logistic transformation of AES raw scores into…

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of the attributional style on the mathematics performance of senior secondary school students. The study involved a sequential explanatory mixed-method approach (QUANTITATIVE + qualitative). The quantitative part of the study involved 300 students drawn from 2 schools chosen in 2 education…

Sino-foreign cooperative universities (SFCU) represent the advanced manifestation of transnational education in China and has profoundly shaped the country's higher education landscape. Despite the tremendous development of SFCUs, there is limited research on the motivations and driving factors of students choosing to study at SFCUs. To bridge…

Researchers apply individual person fit analyses as a procedure for checking model-data fit for individual test-takers. When a test-taker "misfits," it means that the inferences from their test score regarding what they know and can do may not be accurate. One problem in applying individual person fit procedures in practice is the…