Education Commons^™

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 …