This study examined the development of the evaluation of praise that differs in congruence between what the praiser is praising (i.e. effort or ability) and what led the recipient to succeed. Children aged 7 and 8 years (second graders) and 10 and 11 years (fifth graders), as well as adults, made emotional and motivational evaluations about…

Since its introduction in 2017, NFER has been contracted by Ofqual to develop, deliver and analyse the results of the National Reference Test (NRT) in English and maths. The NRT is administered annually and shows if student performance in English and maths at GCSE level has changed from year-to-year. This year, more than 13,000 Year 11 students…

This research, following a sequential mixed-methods design, delves into metacognitive control in problem solving among 5- to 6-year-olds, using two floor-robot environments. In an initial qualitative phase, 82 pupils participated in tasks in which they directed a floor robot to one of two targets, with the closer target requiring more cognitive…

The retention of foundational knowledge is crucial in learning and teaching mathematics. However, a significant part of university students do not achieve long-term knowledge and problem-solving skills. A possible tool to increase further retention is testing, the strategic use of retrieval to enhance memory. In this study, the effect of a special…

Reading disorders, including reading comprehension disorders, are among the most common referrals for evaluation in schools. If that evaluation involves individually administered tests of reading, the examiner is faced with selecting at least one reading comprehension subtest that is inherently associated with specific task demands, such as a…

Visual media (pictures, photographs) are often used in adult literacy instruction, presumably because they are easy for adult literacy learners to process. However, relatively little research has been conducted on how adult literacy learners comprehend visual media, such as picture stories. Some have argued that picture stories could be used as a…

Background: Condensed courses, as opposed to semester-long courses, are an increasingly popular strategy to improve equity in higher education. With condensed courses, students focus on a smaller number of courses during seven- to ten-week terms (Gullatt, 2006; Zepeda & Mayers, 2006). Historically marginalized students may benefit because the…

Students' expectations for their laboratory coursework are theorized to have an impact on their learning experiences and behaviors, such as engagement. Before students' expectations and engagement can be explored in different types of undergraduate chemistry laboratory courses, appropriate measures of these constructs must be identified, and…

In recent years, smart healthcare technologies used to facilitate precision medicine in clinical practice have increasingly become a topic of discussion. Nurses and nurse preceptors are critical professionals in hospitals, and are also the frontline staff using smart healthcare. The purpose of this study was to investigate nurses' and nurse…

A test battery with two different levels of adaptation is presented: a within-subtest level for the selection of the items in the subtests and a between-subtest level to move from one subtest to the next. The battery runs on a two-level model consisting of a regular response model for each of the subtests extended with a second level for the joint…

This paper represents a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles which included reports of parental dis/satisfaction about their child's autism spectrum disorder (ASD) assessment and diagnoses. Five themes emerged which are visualised in evidence maps: country comparisons of parental dis/satisfaction; factors which enhanced satisfaction;…

The test blueprint is important in test development, where it guides the test item writer in creating test items according to the desired objectives and specifications or characteristics (so-called a priori item characteristics), such as the level of item difficulty in the category and the distribution of items based on their difficulty level.…

Influencing major education policies in the US such as school vouchers and charter schools, market theory assumes that organizational autonomy, parental choice, and competition between schools improve the quality of education. However, whether those policies can influence the instructional core of schools is not well understood. Comparing private…

Rural adolescents are at a greater risk for substance abuse and other mental health challenges. There is a need for enhanced evidence-based prevention efforts. This case study evaluated both remote and in-person instruction of "Second Step®", a social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum aimed to improve school-based prevention efforts.…

The Gifted and Talented program in New York City is one of the largest and longest running programs for gifted students in the nation. Yet little is known about its effects on student outcomes. Using student-level administrative data of New York City public school students between the 2010--2011 and 2018-2019 academic years, we studied the effects…