Diagnostic assessment approaches intend to provide fine-grained reports of what students know and can do, focusing on their areas of strengths and weaknesses. However, current application of such diagnostic approaches is limited by the scoring method for item responses; important diagnostic information, such as type of errors and strategy use is…

Despite its omnipresence, quantitative research examining both the nature and the function of adolescent gossip has been limited. The present study aimed to address this limitation in the literature by examining the nature and function of adolescent gossip; in particular, it aimed to explore observed differences between the gossip of those popular…

Algebra I is a crucial course for middle and high school students for successful STEM-related coursework. A key issue is whether students should take Algebra I in Grade 8 versus Grade 9. Large-scale policy studies show conflicting results, and there are few (particularly longitudinal) individual difference studies. In the study, 53 students were…

It is important for students to learn concepts and using them for solving problems and further learning. Within this respect, the purpose of this study is to investigate students' abilities to apply science concepts that they have learned from Science-Technology-Society based approach or textbook oriented instruction. Current study is based on…

StudentU is a comprehensive program that provides education, nutrition, and social support services to disadvantaged middle and high school students outside of the regular school day. In this paper I investigate the effects of this multiyear program on the early high school outcomes of participating students by exploiting data from oversubscribed…

Background: A good classroom environment can promote students' learning motivation and affect their academic efficacy and adaptation. This study compares the perceptions of Taiwanese middle school students regarding actual and preferred classroom environments and explores the association with sex and grade level. Methods: Data were collected using…

For over a century, genetic arguments for the existence of racial inequality have been used to oppose policies that promote social equality. And, over that same time period, American biology textbooks have repeatedly discussed genetic differences between races. This experiment tests whether racial terminology in the biology curriculum causes…

During adolescence (e.g. ages 13-15) communication and connectedness with peers is an essential part of adolescents' self-formation; mobiles phones are a conduit that maintains both communication and connectedness among adolescents whereby social interactions and connectedness are not limited by place, context or time. To study mobile phone usage…

In this study, the authors examine the impact of a yearlong supplemental reading course involving daily instruction in the learning strategies curriculum on lower achieving adolescent students' reading achievement and motivation. Using a multiple-cohort randomized treatment-control group design over 4 years, they compared achievement and…

This study involved 458 ninth-grade students from two different Arab middle schools in Israel. Half of the students learned science using project-based learning strategies and the other half learned using traditional methods (non-project-based). The classes were heterogeneous regarding their achievements in the sciences. The adapted questionnaire…

The first operational administration of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) took place during the 2014-2015 school year. In addition to the traditional paper-and-pencil format, the assessments were available for administration on a variety of electronic devices, including desktop computers, laptop computers,…

The relationship lying between critical thinking and creative thinking is opposite or complementary, results of previous relevant researches have not yet concluded. However, most of researches put the effort to compare the respective effect of the thinking methods, either the teaching of creative thinking or that of critical thinking. Less of them…

We investigated the impact of an augmented reality (AR) versus interactive simulation (IS) activity incorporated in a computer learning environment to facilitate students' learning of a socio-scientific issue (SSI) on nuclear power plants and radiation pollution. We employed a quasi-experimental research design. Two classes (a total of 45…

In this study, we identified the code-related (decoding, fluency) and language comprehension (vocabulary, listening comprehension) demands of the CBM-Maze test, a formative assessment, and compared them to those of the Gates-MacGinitie test, a standardized summative assessment. The demands of these reading comprehension tests and their…

In scientific arguments, claims must have meaning that extends beyond the immediate circumstances of an investigation. That is, claims must be generalised in some way. Therefore, teachers facilitating classroom argumentation must be prepared to support students' efforts to construct or criticise generalised claims. However, widely used…