The aim of this cross-sectional study is to determine the fundamental motor skills (FMS) proficiency of children with mild intellectual disabled (MID) and to compare their FMS proficiencies in terms of age and gender. This study has three purposes. These are a) Defining the FMS proficiencies of the participants, b) Examining the FMS proficiencies of the participants in terms of gender variable, c) Examining the FMS proficiencies of the participants in terms of the age variable. Participants consisted of 122 MID students aged 7-10 years (M = 8.25, SD = 0.92). FMS proficiency was evaluated with the Gross Motor Development Test-Second Edition (TGMD-2). Independent Samples t test and ANOVA test were used to test the differences between groups. As a result: a) It was observed that the participants could not perform the FMS at the mastery level. Participants failed to demonstrate FMS proficiency appropriate for their age and showed delays in FMS compared to the TGMD-2 normative sample. Most of the participants performed “below average” and “poor” for LOC and OC skills. It was determined that the participants obtained higher scores in LOC subtest compared to OC subtest, b) It was determined that males were more proficiency in FMS and subtests than females, c) No difference was found in FMS proficiency in terms of age. These results show that opportunities need to be increased to develop the FMS proficiency.

The objectives of this research were to: 1) Study the suitability of the indicators to be included in the model, 2) Test the consistency of the model developed from the theories and research studies’ empirical data, 3) Evaluate reliability value of the main components, the sub-components and other related indicators. The population used in the research were the teachers in the schools under the local administrative organization of Thailand. The multistage random sampling was used for the selection of 660 samples from a total population of 30,359 teachers across the country. The following results were observed: 1) All of the 52 indicators used in the research were appropriate according to the specified criteria, 2) The theoretical model was found to have been consistent with the empirical data. All of the statistical figures including; Relative Chi-Square, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation, Goodness-of-Fit Index, Adjusted Goodness-of-Fit Index, Comparative Fit Index, and Normed Fit Index: NFI, were found to have met with the specified criteria in both the first and the second confirmation factor analyzes, and 3) The primary element’s factor loading was between 0.73 to 1.48, which is higher than the criteria of 0.70, the sub-element’s factor loading was between 0.67 to 1.72 and the indicators weight was between 0.68 to 1.37, which is higher than the criteria of 0.30. These results indicate that the theoretical model developed in this research can be effectively used with construct validity for the development of the targeted samples in a research study.

The purpose of the study is to examine pre-service teachers' impromptu speaking skills on the basis of the evaluations of the instructor, peers and their own. The study employed a descriptive case study design, one of the qualitative research methods. A total of 23 pre-service math teachers taking the course of Art of Effective Speech in a state university in Turkey in the 2016-2017 academic year participated in the study. The data of the study were collected through the observations of the researcher and pre-service teachers. Descriptive analysis was used in the analysis of the data. As a result of the study, it was found that in most of the observation items, the pre-service teachers found themselves inadequate in terms of impromptu speaking skills while they were found to be adequate by their peers and instructor. In addition, it was revealed that the pre-service teachers found themselves inadequate in some items related to the use of voice while they found themselves adequate in most of the items related to articulation/diction and body language and in all of the items related to communication. However, while the instructor observed that the pre-service teachers were generally competent in all the sub-dimensions, she determined that they needed improvement in the sub-dimensions of eye contact, pausing at the appropriate place and speaking without repeating words.  

Suspension and expulsion are adversely related to negative outcomes of students, such as falling behind academically, an increased risk of absenteeism or dropout from schools. Suspension discrepancy due to ethnicity is evident and well known in the United States. The proper understanding of factors affecting suspension may lead to intervention towards the reduction of suspension episodes in the schools. The aim of this study is to determine how student, parent and school characteristics affect the likelihood of K-8 school students’ suspension in the United States. We analyze the National Household Education Surveys of 2019 with a sample of 9,699 K-8 students to evaluate the risk factors of suspension. The study finds that 6% students receive K-8 school suspensions. Bivariate analysis suggests that gender, ethnicity, poverty, parental education, school type, repeated grades, contacted for behavioral problem and school type are significantly associated with the K-8 students’ suspension. An adjusted analysis of these factors via multiple logistic regression suggests that the odds of suspension of NH-black students are 2.7 times the odds of NH-white students. Odds of suspension for students with parental education below HS is 3.2 (95% CI: 1.77-5.80) compared those with parental education at Graduate or professional level. Likewise, students of public schools have higher odds of suspension compared to private schools. There is significant evidence that students with repeated grades, poor parents, school type and those contacted for behavioral problems have substantially higher odds of suspension.

The self-report and think-aloud approaches are the two dominant methodologies to measure metacognition. This is problematic, since they generate respondent and confirmation biases, respectively. The Meta-Performance Test is an innovative battery, which evaluates metacognition based on the respondent's performance, mitigating the aforementioned biases. The Meta-Performance Test consists of two tests, the Meta-text, which evaluates metacognition in the domain of reading comprehension, and Meta-number, in the domain of arithmetic expressions solving. The main focus of this article is to present the development of the battery, in terms of its conceptual basis, development strategies and structure. Evidence of its content validity is also presented, through the evaluation of three experts in metacognition, two experts in Spanish language, two experts in mathematics and five students who represent the target population. The results of the judges' evaluations attested to the Meta-Performance Test content validity, and the target population declared that both the battery understanding and taking are adequate. Contributions and future research perspectives of the Meta-Performance Test in the field of metacognition are discussed.

In modern times, the importance of education cannot be overstated. Beyond the acquisition of knowledge, perhaps the most important aim of education may be the development of character in individuals, including vitality, courage, sensitiveness, and intelligence, from which our society may experience increased prosperity, peace, and freedom. In this paper we address the daunting challenge of achieving successful, widespread, and inclusive university education. How do we enliven and engage the students in our classrooms? How can we help each and every student in the class self-actualize and reach the highest potential for learning? Active learning is one well-established and potent solution for accelerating the accumulation of knowledge. In this paper, an experiment in active learning utilizing team-based adaptive online quizzes in an introductory math finance course involving 378 undergraduate students over two years is conducted to explore the potency of this active learning methodology compared to a control group with traditional teaching. We find active learning unambiguously improves knowledge accumulation in the individual students, while simultaneously bolstering inclusive excellence across all students in the class, as measured by a relevant and meaningful quantitative metric. The paper concludes with a discussion comparing the quality of active vs. traditional teaching methods and offers interpretations of the quantitative results. The results of this paper support the widely accepted theme in the literature that active learning has a positive effect on student performance in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) courses.

The aim of the research was to investigate the relation between middle school students' perceptions of school climate and school motivation, whether school climate perceptions have a significant power on school motivation as well as to see if those perceptions and motivation differ significantly depending on gender, grade level, and school location variables. The sample of the study consisted of 674 middle school students studying in two state schools, which were located in the central district and village in Kosk province in Aydin in Turkey. Data were collected by using School Climate Perceptions Scale and School Motivation Scale with three questioned personal information form. Results showed that there were significant medium-level correlations between school climate perceptions and school motivation of middle school students. While grade-level variables had significant differences in both school climate perceptions and school motivation of middle school students, the location did not create a difference. On the other hand, gender had a significant difference only with school motivation. Finally, the model tested student-teacher relation significantly predicted 18% of the school motivations of middle school students.

This study aimed at investigating the outcomes of the cooperation practices, which were utilized to enhance the quality of work-integrated learning at Nong Khai Technical College. The investigation covered the following three aspects: 1) the changes that had arisen from the development of specified indicators; 2) the learning that occurred, and 3) the body of knowledge, which had been obtained from the practice. A participatory action research methodology was adopted during two semesters. There were 19 teachers and 30 students involved in the project. The results of the study revealed three key features. Firstly, the post-practice evaluation in both the first and the second cycles was higher than in the pre-practice evaluation. Secondly, the researcher, research participants and the college learned from various issues of the practice. This learning included gaining an awareness of the importance of collaborative work, the importance of studying the theoretical perspective in order to enhance the existing knowledge and experiences, and the importance of planning, practice, observation, and reflection in comprehensive work. Finally, the knowledge gained was found to correlate with Kurt Lewin's Force-Field Analysis which consists of the following elements: 1) expected change, 2) driving factors for change, 3) resistance to change, and 4) overcoming resistance.

Individuals’ engagement with reading and maintaining it depends on personal motivations. Having a multidimensional structure, reading motivation is affected by intrinsic factors. Studies on reading motivation can make a significant contribution to identifying students’ intrinsic motivation profiles closely, encouraging them to read, and increasing their reading engagement. The present study aimed to determine the individual and socioeconomic variables predicting middle school students’ intrinsic reading motivations. Employing the predictive correlational design, the study was carried out with 459 students attending six different public schools in the city of Sanliurfa. The participants were determined by stratified purposeful sampling method. The study data were collected by the Intrinsic Reading Motivation Scale and the Personal Information Form. According to the hierarchical regression analysis results, all the models constructed in the study were significant. All of the variables explained the intrinsic reading motivation with a 22% variance explanation percentage. As a result, it can be said that the change observed in intrinsic reading motivation variance mostly stemmed from reading engagement (ΔR²=.12), family (ΔR²=.07), demographic characteristics (ΔR²=.03), and school (ΔR²=.01), respectively. It can be stated that the predictors of the intrinsic reading motivation determined in this study should be taken into consideration by educators.

This study aims to produce empirical evidence of the validity and reliability of instrument items for the competency framework of agricultural teaching staff in Malaysian agricultural vocational colleges. The validity and reliability of the framework were analyzed using Rasch Model Measurement assisted by Winsteps 3.72 software. This research instrument contained 116 items, which was distributed to 30 instructors at the Teluk Intan Agricultural Vocational College, Malaysia. The selection of respondents was made by strata random where the researcher makes the strata of the population according to the percentage and then selects randomly based on the desired percentage. Validity analysis of the instrument was done through four functional testings. For reliability and separation of respondents, it was found that the individual reliability value was very good and acceptable. The results of the item polarity analysis detected no negative value (-) in the Point Measure Correlation value. Item matching analysis found that 11 items had to be dropped as they failed to meet the required conditions. From the analysis on local dependence that determines dependent items based on the standardized residual correlation value, it was discovered that the correlation value for the items used was detected; 13 items need attention. The results of the data analysis checking the functionality of the items suggested that some items should be dropped. The omission of these items has provided evidence that the instrument of competence of agricultural instructors is crucial to have a high level of validity and reliability for use in actual studies.

The early phase is the decisive period for the teachers’ career. Intellectual styles (particularly thinking styles) play a vital role in teachers’ professional development. With the purpose of measuring thinking styles of teachers at the early phase, this study was designed to validate a revised inventory of thinking styles (TSI-R2) for pre-service and early career teachers. A sample of pre-service teachers (n = 248) were invited to join the pilot study and a sample of teachers with one year work experience (n = 252) participated in the main study. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis were performed. The results suggested that with slight modification, TSI-R2 was a reliable and valid instrument to measure thinking styles of pre-service teachers and early career teachers, which has some implications to enhancing teacher education and development.

Fictional characters give literary works a sense of reality. The actions of fictional characters play a crucial role in children's personality development. Young readers who lack critical reading skills are more likely to incorporate fictional characters into their lives because they have a hard time telling reality from fiction. Therefore, we should determine how children perceive fictional characters and teach them that they are imaginary figures. In this way, we can help them approach those characters' actions from an external and critical perspective. This study adopted a qualitative research design (case study) to investigate secondary school students' perceptions of fictional characters. The sample consisted of 45 secondary school students (28 female and 17 male). Data were collected through interviews and document review techniques. Data were analyzed using content analysis. Results showed that participants were more likely to be interested in and identify with characters with appealing personality traits. They had four types of approaches to fictional characters: (1) Wanting to change the storyline depending on what the fictional character goes through, (2) being influenced by them, (3) seeing them as role models, or (4) ignoring them. They wanted to change the storyline, especially when the villain got what he wanted or when the hero or the victim was unhappy, suggesting that they mostly took the protagonist's side (the good guy). While most participants attributed an ontological meaning to anthropomorphic characters, the symbolic meaning became of secondary importance. They were more interested in and identified more with characters with good living conditions and no death experiences.

This article introduces the concept of the carrying capacity of data (CCD), defined as an integrated, evaluative judgment of the credibility of specific data-based inferences, informed by quantitative and qualitative analyses, leavened by experience. The sequential process of evaluating the CCD is represented schematically by a framework that can guide data analysis and statistical inference, as well as pedagogy. Aspects of each phase are illustrated with examples. A key initial activity in empirical work is data scrutiny, comprising consideration of data provenance and characteristics, as well as data limitations in light of the context and purpose of the study.  Relevant auxiliary information can contribute to evaluating the CCD, as can sensitivity analyses conducted at the modeling stage. It is argued that early courses in statistical methods, and the textbooks they rely on, typically give little emphasis to, or omit entirely, discussion of the importance of data scrutiny in scientific research. This inattention and lack of guided, practical experience leaves students unprepared for the real world of empirical studies. Instructors should both cultivate in their students a true respect for data and engage them in authentic empirical research involving real data, rather than the context-free data to which they are usually exposed.

An empirical investigation of elementary school teacher candidates on classification activities dealing with animate and inanimate objects in terms of being living or non-living demonstrates that as the size of the objects increases, subjects are more likely to classify them correctly as either being an animal or having living characteristics. Despite a variety of misconceptions having an impact on the results, size magnitude is shown to play a significant role on proper classification. The subjects’ performance on these activities at an advanced stage of their preparation suggests that their factual and procedural knowledge are deficient due to a lack of opportunities for conceptual development of the items tested. The identification of the role of size on the proper classification of objects in the activities bears significantly on the science curricular structure at the elementary school level. As the results of this study indicate, both pre-service elementary school teachers and by extension their prospective students need longer practice dealing with living and non-living classification activities, particularly in tasks where the microscopic features of matter can be investigated so that the proclivity to regard size as the defining characteristic is effectively addressed.

The article focused on the use of assessment for learning in promoting active learning and learner participation in mathematics. Assessment for learning (AfL) has been found to enhance learning and improve performance. However, teachers’ use of AfL to enhance active learning has not been clearly outlined. This study is part of the broader research study that explored mathematics teachers’ use of AfL to enhance mathematics teaching and learning in primary schools in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg. A case study research-type and a qualitative approach were used to collect data from mathematics teachers. Nine teachers were purposefully selected from whom data were collected using semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation. The findings revealed that teachers had limited pedagogical knowledge in using AfL to promote active learning in their classrooms. They failed to apply a learner-centred approach that promotes effective learner participation in mathematics classrooms. Therefore, it is recommended that teachers undergo ongoing continuous development on classroom time management and planning for the effective use of AfL.

Science literacy, which is included in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) as an assessment area, is an important research and discussion area of science education literature with all its dimensions. In this study, the clustering results of the students from 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries participating in the PISA 2015 test and sampled by systematic sampling method are obtained by K-Means Clustering and Two-Step Cluster Analysis using the factor scores and PISA science literacy average scores. It is thought that the study is of great importance in terms of dividing individuals into clusters according to science instruction methods and the mean of plausible values and having an idea about how each cluster is defined. As a result of the K-means cluster analysis, it was determined that the input variable with the highest level of importance in the formation of the first and third clusters in which the students with the highest scores were included was teacher-directed science instruction, and after this variable, the input variable with the highest level of importance was the perceived feedback from science teachers. Within the scope of the Two-Step Clustering Analysis, it was determined that teacher-directed science instruction has the most importance in terms of the decomposition of clusters, followed by adaptive instruction in science lessons in terms of importance level.

Response times are one of the important sources that provide information about the performance of individuals during a test process. The main purpose of this study is to show that survival models can be used in educational data. Accordingly, data sets of items measuring literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills of the countries participating in Round 3 of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies were used. Accelerated failure time models have been analyzed for each country and domain.  As a result of the analysis of the models in which various covariates are included as independent variables, and response time for giving correct answers is included as a dependent variable, it was found the associations between the covariates and response time for giving correct answers were concluded to vary from one domain to another or from one country to another. The results obtained from the present study have provided the educational stakeholders and practitioners with valuable information.

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the levels of occupational professionalism and occupational alienation in kindergarten teachers. Correlational survey model among the quantitative research models was used in the research. In this context, 224 kindergarten teachers were reached via convenience sampling model. The data of the research was collected via the Teacher Information Form, Teachers’ Occupational Professionalism Scale and Occupational Alienation of Preschool Teachers Scale. SPSS software and statistical measures such as independent samples t-test, ANOVA and Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation were used to analyse the obtained data. According to the research findings, both occupational professionalism and occupational alienation levels of kindergarten teachers were found to be high. Levels of occupational professionalism and occupational alienation may differ according to some demographic variables among teachers. The relationship between occupational professionalism and occupation alienation was found to be statistically significant. The same is also true for the sub-dimensions of the scales. Lastly, the findings and results obtained during the research were discussed in the light of the literature and suggestions were made.

Purpose in life is a key construct in the development of young adults, particularly college students. There are many instruments measuring sense of purpose in life, but few studies have examined their measurement properties among college students. The current study compares the measurement invariance properties of the Purpose in Life (PIL) scale and the Claremont Purpose Scale (CPS) across college year and undergraduate school. Using both a unidimensional and a two-dimensional model, we found that the PIL’s interpretability is limited among college students. Using a three-dimensional model, the CPS was invariant with respect to both grouping variables. The study suggests that the CPS can be used to make meaningful comparisons among college students categorized by school year and undergraduate school. The study also has some implications about the construct of purpose in life; namely, scale structures that work well statistically and theoretically among adults might not generalize to young adults.

What are missing in the U.S. education policy of “college for all” are supporting data and indicators on K-16 education pathways, i.e, how well all students get ready and stay on track from kindergarten through college. This study creates synthetic national longitudinal education database that helps track and support students’ educational pathways by combining two nationally-representative U.S. sample datasets: Early Childhood Longitudinal Study- Kindergarten (ECLS-K; Kindergarten through 8th grade) and National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS; 8th grade through age 25). The merge of these national datasets, linked together via statistical matching and imputation techniques, can help bridge the gap between elementary and secondary/postsecondary education data/research silos. Using this synthetic K-16 education longitudinal database, this study applies machine learning data analytics in search of college readiness early indicators among kindergarten students. It shows the utilities and limitations of linking preexisting national datasets to impute education pathways and assess college readiness. It discusses implications for developing more holistic and equitable educational assessment system in support of K-16 education longitudinal database.