Education Commons^™

A Multilevel Nonlinear Approach Of Piecewise Regression For Detecting Turning Points: Developing An Alternative Platform With An Application Of Timss, Jing Zhang

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Studies in recent years have explored the methods of identifying the turning points when dealing with the non-linear relationship. Four approaches applied by researchers, the eyeball approach, the establishment approach, the theory-driven approach, and the data-driven approach, are all under the traditional piecewise regression framework when seeking turning points. Thus, the purpose of this study is to introduce a multilevel piecewise regression model to identify the turning point beyond the traditional piecewise regression, as a completely non-linear approach.

Data used for this study is TIMSS 2019 United States sample. TIMSS is a project guided by the International Association for the …

Teacher Perceptions Of School Climate: A New Instrument And Validity Study, Rui Jin

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The United States government has growingly emphasized school climate, as it has been involved as an accountability indicator in the Every Student Succeeds Act. However, there remains considerable debate on both conceptualizing and measuring school climate. Moreover, teachers, a critical informant of school climate, have been ignored because most previous studies have paid attention to the students.

To better inform the research and practice related to the teacher perceptions of school climate and its measurement, this dissertation first identified the related instruments in the literature. The results showed only one survey measured three domains of school climate (academic climate, community, …

A Bifactor Approach To Dimensionality Assessment, David Michael Dueber

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Bifactor confirmatory factor analysis models and statistical indices computed from them have previously been used to provide evidence for the appropriateness of utilizing a unidimensional interpretation of multidimensional data. However, the ability of bifactor indices to aid in the assessment of subscore strength has not been investigated.

A simulation study was conducted to relate bifactor indices to the strength of subscores corresponding to specific factors. The bifactor indices OmegaHS and ECV_SS were found to be strongly predictive of subscore strength conditional upon OmegaS. The number of factors was also found to play a minor role in this relationship. Cutoffs …

Predicting Pre-Service Teachers’ Self-Efficacy In Content Area Reading: A Multiple Regression Analysis, Fatih Destebasi

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The main purpose of this study was to predict secondary and middle school pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy in content area reading by using demographic, academic achievement, literacy methods courses, faculty support, preparedness for content area reading, and attitudes toward teaching reading in content classrooms as variables. Based on that purpose, this study was guided by the following research question: What are the predictors of secondary and middle school pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy in content area reading among variables from verbal persuasion of teacher education faculty, preparedness for content area reading, attitudes toward teaching reading in content classrooms, number of literacy method courses, …

Assessing The Performance Of Two Procedures For Detecting Differential Item Functioning Within The Multilevel Partial Credit Model, Carol Hanley

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This is a simulation study that evaluates the performances of two models for the detection of uniform differential item functioning (DIF). Simulated data are generated by a multilevel partial credit model (MLPCM). The purpose of this study was to compare the accuracy of two DIF detection procedures, hierarchical ordinal logistic regression (HOLR) for multilevel data and multilevel generalized Mantel-Haenszel (MGMH: French & Finch, 2013; French, Finch, & Imekus, 2019). Conditions manipulated were the number of participants per cluster (20, 40), number of clusters (50, 100, 200), DIF magnitude (0, .4, .8), and magnitude of intraclass correlation coefficient (.05, .25, .45). …

Can Less Be More? Study Load And Its Effect On Science Achievement Among Chinese Eighth-Grade Students, Xian Wu

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The present study addressed a core research question of “Can less be more?” concerning study load, which has become increasingly worrisome and controversial around the world. This idea reflects the philosophy of pursuing efficiency and effectiveness on learning, namely that a lighter study load may result in more successful academic achievement. The study adopted the IPO (input-process-output) model to address five interrelated research questions: 1) What are the structural characteristics of study load? 2) Is there any individual difference in study load? 3) What are the characteristics of teachers and schools under which students tend to have a heavier study …

Assessing Stem Literacy In An Informal Learning Environment, Maureen Ann Lafemina Cavalcanti

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This mixed methods study investigated methods for assessing STEM literacy amongst middle grades students participating in an informal learning environment, specifically, a summer STEM camp. Adopting a situated perspective on STEM literacy, this dissertation employed psychometric techniques and discourse analysis to answer the overarching research question: How can STEM literacy amongst middle school students be assessed in the context of a summer STEM camp? An integrated review of literacy within and across STEM disciplines first offered a new direction for conceptualizing STEM literacy. With this understanding, subsequent research methods applied novel approaches for investigating STEM literacy in the context of …