Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

Construct Validity, Test-Retest Reliability, And Inter-Rater Objectivity Of The Swimming Competence Assessment Scale (Scas), Jon Sundan, Håvard Lorås, Monika Haga

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

This study aimed to investigate the construct validity, test-retest reliability, and inter-rater reliability of a newly developed and comprehensive instrument for assessment of children’s swimming competence. The Swimming Competence Assessment Scale (SCAS) consists of six consecutive test items (entry, swim on front, surface dive, float, swim on back and exit) that aligns with the Norwegian curricular standard of swimming competence. The exploratory factor analysis retained a unidimensional model, supporting one underlaying statistical dimension with acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.79). Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) between test and retest ranged from .84 to .98, and .97 for the total score. Strong …

"Feel For The Water": What Is It, Really?, Robert Keig Stallman, Kristine De Martelaer

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

The phrase, 'feel for the water,' is commonly used. But what does it really mean? The traditional idea of this 'feel' focuses on the sensation of touch and use of the hands to produce propulsion. But what about water resistance? Mastering a feel for how to reduce resistance is equally important as the unique relationship between aquatic propulsion and resistance is of great importance. While being in the water, the effects of gravity and buoyancy also need to be perceived by the learner and taught by the instructor. Reflection on the effects on propulsion-resistance and gravity-buoyancy requires relevant exercises to …

Water Orientation Skills And Basic Safety And Swimming Skills Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Kelle L. Murphy, Min Liu

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Drowning is the leading cause of death among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The current study examined water orientation (i.e., comfort level), water safety, and beginning swimming skills of individuals with ASD of ages ranging from 3 to 13 years using the Aquatic Orientation Checklist (AOC) (Kilian et al., 1984). Data were collected during consecutive Fall and Spring semesters. A total of 23 children (n = 15 boys; n = 8 girls) volunteered for the study. Lessons were conducted twice a week for 10 weeks continuously and each lesson was 45 minutes in length. Overall, the swimming program had …

Fighting Instinct: The Brain, Emotions And Decision-Making In The Water, Jill Nash, Sam Hills

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

This conceptual paper explores the complex interplay among the human brain, emotions, and decision-making processes, particularly in aquatic environments. Integrating insights from neuroscience, psychology, and behavioural economics, we investigate how instinctual responses and emotional states influence our decisions during water-related activities. By analysing both biological and psychological factors, the paper aims to illuminate the intricacies of human behaviour in various aquatic settings and highlights significant gaps in the research on emotional decision-making that warrant further investigation. Additionally, the paper suggests interventions, including plausible communication strategies, to mitigate the impact of instinctual responses and improve safety and decision-making efficiency.

Goggles And Water Competence: An Addendum, Marek Rejman, Robert Keig Stallman Ph.D.

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

We offer this short addendum to the 2017 article that appeared in IJARE, ‘’From swimming skill to water competence: Towards a more inclusive drowning prevention future’’ (Stallman et al., 2017), as an editorial to argue that the essential water competencies ought to be mastered “without goggles.” The focus is on the potential negative effect of goggle use during beginning swimming instruction along with their likely absence during unintended and unexpected immersions in natural bodies of water that often lead to drowning. Rejman and Stallman (2024) demonstrated the development of dependence on goggles among young adults and described its negative effect …

In This Issue 14:4, Stephen J. Langendorfer Ph.D.

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

In This Issue 14:4

The Perceived Benefits Of And Barriers To Open-Water Swimming: A Mixed-Methods Examination, David Elliott Ph.D, Mark A. Christie Ph.D

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

This study set out to determine the perceived benefits of, and barriers to, open-water swimming (OWS). Adopting a mixed-methods approach, six hundred and sixty-five open-water swimmers responded to an online survey consisting of the Exercise Benefits and Barriers Scale (EBBS) and a series of open-ended questions. Data from the EBBS revealed the strongest perceived benefits to be ‘Psychological Outlook’ and ‘Life Enhancement.’ In terms of barriers, those presented in the EBBS received low ratings with only ‘Physical Exertion’ considered as being somewhat problematic. Content analysis performed on the open-ended responses showed social aspects, mental well-being, and connection to nature as …

Evaluation Of Online Information On The Cold Shock Response To Accidental Immersion In Cold Water, Adam Wilson, Heather Massey, Clare M. Eglin

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Many of the UK open water accidental deaths have been attributed to the initial responses to cold water immersion (CWI) collectively known as the cold shock response (CSR). The aim of this study was to analyse the publicly available internet information on CWI and CSR for accuracy and quality compared to the ‘gold standard’ published, peer-reviewed research. Seventy-eight webpages which provided information in English on unexpected CWI and CSR were evaluated. Webpages were accessible, widely available, and had appropriate readability scores. Webpage accuracy was suboptimal including only presenting on average 10 (range 3-16) CSR components out of 19. Quality of …

A Preventionist Framework For Reducing Drowning: A Case For Parenting Interventions, Miriam G. Clark, Linda Quan, Patricia Chamberlain

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Drowning is preventable but still claims the lives of over 300,000 people worldwide every year. The purpose of this theoretical review paper is threefold: 1) discuss the theoretical framework for a multi-faceted system of prevention; 2) discuss the importance of parenting, a crucial area where current drowning prevention research is falling short in this multi-faceted approach; and 3) discuss how evidence-based practices from psychosocial parenting research could be used to create drowning prevention interventions that support parents to implement water safety practices in their families. Practical ideas for integrating psychosocial parent interventions with drowning prevention knowledge are discussed. Such interventions …

An Integrated Framework For Food-Energy-Water-Nexus Education And Educational Research, Hannah Scherer, Doug Lombardi

National Collaborative for Research on Food, Energy, and Water Education (NC-FEW)

Our study centers the perspective of practitioners to define and describe FEW-Nexus-based education, identify and describe challenges with FEW-Nexus-based education, and ideate how education research can generate new knowledge to address these challenges. Using artifacts from FEW-Nexus education workshops and existing literature, we developed an integrated framework that can inform both educational practice and educational research. The framework includes ontological (thoughts about the socio-ecological systems aspects of the FEW-Nexus) and epistemological (thoughts about education and educational research of the FEW-Nexus) dimensions. We will next use this framework to probe more deeply into participants’ responses using thematic content analysis.

Learning Food Supply Chains Through Generative Ai – Tips, Techniques, And Student Perceptions, Subbu Kumarappan, Urmila Pal Chaudhuri

National Collaborative for Research on Food, Energy, and Water Education (NC-FEW)

The classroom pedagogies are evolving significantly with Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). The students in a Food Supply Chains class completed a project for various agricultural products describing 12 factors and 7 supply chain principles. They reflected on the use of GenAI and how it impacted their knowledge and critical thinking skills. The students scored GenAI high on ‘relevancy, diverse topics, significance, and sufficiency;' the repeated use of GenAI for food supply chains enabled them recognize the importance of sustainability and ESG factors in the management of natural resources. There were differences in students use and benefits with GenAI use.

Digital Vs. Non-Digital Interventions: A Study Of Intervention Types To Reach Fluency In Operations With Integers In Seventh-Grade Mathematics, Kathleen Brad

Education Doctorate Dissertations

Students in junior high school are struggling with mathematics (U.S. Department of Education, 2023). Mathematical fluency—the automatic and accurate recall of facts—is critical to mathematics learning. There is limited research on junior high school general education students and how we can help them master the foundational concepts. Without fluency, students rely heavily on their working memory to learn new mathematics skills. Fluency in operations with integers is one of those foundational topics of junior high school. With many new digital tools available, are digital interventions more effective than the methods teachers have been using? The researcher compared three intervention styles: …

Academic And Non-Academic Barriers Impacting Student Success And Retention In Corequisite English, Stephanie Tolliver Hyman

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A capstone submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the Ernst and Sara Lane Volgenau College of Education at Morehead State University by Stephanie Tolliver Hyman on March 13, 2025.

Pisa 2022. A Closer Look At Mathematics In Australia, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international comparative study that assesses how well 15-year-olds, who have nearly completed compulsory schooling in most participating educational systems, can use their knowledge and skills to meet real-world opportunities and challenges. In each cycle of PISA, students are assessed in the domains of reading, mathematics and science. Each cycle has a domain that is the major focus and for which there is a higher proportion of questions than from the others. Mathematics was the major focus in the 2022 cycle. The mathematics assessment framework includes 2 mathematics subscales that reflect the …

Teacher Decision Making In Guided-Reading, Brittany Worthen

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

Guided reading provides teachers the opportunity to support students in literacy learning. When planning for and implementing this instructional approach, teachers are required to make various in-advance and in-the-moment decisions that involve responding to students’ instructional needs through adaptive teaching. Grounded in sociocultural and social constructivist theories, this study was designed to understand teacher decision-making within the context of guided reading instruction.

This research was a collective case study aimed at providing a better understanding of the various decisions teachers make when teaching in a guided reading context. Findings pertaining to in-advanced decisions that emerged from the data can be …

Power Of Partnerships, Joni Meade

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

No abstract provided.

The Lived Experiences Of Disabled Students In Inclusive Classrooms, Tanner Mizel

Dissertations

This dissertation explores the lived experiences of disabled students in inclusive classrooms, with a focus on those participating in extensive support needs (ESN) programs. Intentionally inclusive of students who communicate through diverse methods, including augmentative and alternative communication devices, picture exchange communication systems, American Sign Language, and other nonspoken forms, this phenomenological case study centers the perspectives of students in one middle school’s ESN program through mobile interviews and reflective document analysis. Student perspectives are triangulated through surveys reflecting the perspectives of parents, guardians, and school staff. Grounded in disability studies in education, this study challenges deficit-based approaches to inclusive …

Examining The Influence Of Digital Transformation On Organizational Culture And Employee Adaptability In Higher Education Institutions Across The Gulf Cooperation Council (Gcc), Hussein Elsayed Mohamed Ismail

Journal of the Association of Arab Universities for Research in Higher Education مجلة اتحاد الجامعات العربية للبحوث في التعليم العالي

The study aimed to explore the impact of digital transformation on organisational culture and employee readiness within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Conducted in 2024, it involved research that used a sample of employees and administrators from various universities across the region. Structured questionnaires served as data collection tools, allowing for an in-depth evaluation of the different dimensions of digital transformation. This study primarily utilises secondary data analysis, which involves examining data from existing studies, reports, and scholarly articles. This approach is selected for its efficiency and cost-effectiveness, as it allows access to extensive …

Best Practices: Running Focus Groups With Young Children, H. Colleen Sinclair

Reports

The practice guide provides general recommendations for conducting focus groups with elementary school children in the United States. The guide was assembled with the intention of gathering students' experiences with math, particularly their use of digital learning tools in the classroom. Researchers provide practical and easy-to-follow recommendations for qualitative inquiry with groups of young students.

The Human Complementary Usage Of Ai And Ml For Fair And Unbiased Educational Assessments, Hayri Eren Suna, Mahmut Özer

Chinese/English Journal of Educational Measurement and Evaluation | 教育测量与评估双语期刊

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms have played an influential role in advancing educational assessment. As a means of improving equal opportunities in education, assessing students' learning deficiencies and developing personalized learning suggestions is considered an important aspect. Furthermore, big data-based algorithms play an increasing role in assessing students' cognitive and social-emotional development and conducting research on school-based monitoring. A number of these developments, on the one hand, provide valuable feedback to both students and educational authorities regarding assessment of student growth, and on the other hand, they raise the issue of bias in the …

Uncovering Dimensions Of Learning Management System Event Logs: Insights From Exploratory Factor Analysis, Psychometric Network Analysis, And Consensus Hierarchical Clustering, Surina He, Okan Bulut, Ying Cui, Tarid Wongvorachan

Chinese/English Journal of Educational Measurement and Evaluation | 教育测量与评估双语期刊

Log data extracted from learning management systems (LMS) have become an increasingly valuable resource for understanding students’ learning behaviors. These data are unobtrusive, cost-effective, and offer fine-grained insights. However, their complexity and large volume present substantial challenges in identifying interpretable underlying dimensions across different event types. To address this challenge, this study applied exploratory factor analysis, psychometric network analysis, and consensus hierarchical clustering to analyze 122,167 log entries from 25 event types collected in a large undergraduate course (n = 527 students). Four distinct clusters of student activities were identified in the event logs: submission, quiz-taking, discussion, and background-viewing. …

Toward Better Digital Tool Designs To Assist Students On Math Assessments, Hongwen Guo, Matthew S. Johnson, Luis Saldivia, Michelle Worthington

Chinese/English Journal of Educational Measurement and Evaluation | 教育测量与评估双语期刊

Digital tools in digitally based math assessments are designed to help students solve math problems more effectively. However, inappropriate use of these tools can lead to negative outcomes. Using process data from NAEP, we generalized the differential item functioning methodologies and conducted a systematic investigation of the effectiveness of tool uses. Three measures were proposed to evaluate the effectiveness of a digital tool on an item: its popularity (the proportion of students who used it), its impact on item score (the score gain/loss after matching on performance score and other tool uses), and its impact on item response time (the …

Accessibility Disclosure Statements: Best Practices For Documenting Inclusive And Accessible Web-Based Research Design, Alicia Mason, Elizabeth Spencer, Pan Liu, Kristen Livingston, Sakshi Bhati, Angela Ashmore, Tristan A. Spencer, Lauren Shepard

Faculty Submissions

Accessibility disclosure is a core principle of the Project IRIS Best Practice Framework. This instructional resource-- Accessibility Disclosure Statements: Best Practices for Documenting Inclusive Web-Based Research Design-introduces options for reporting accessible web-based research design efforts in scholarly and professional publications. The three forms of accessibility disclosure statements are introduced: summary statements, reports of analysis--both general and specific-, and detailed process descriptions. Each of these strategies including terms, conceptual definitions, and examples are provided. The instructional resource may be of interest to undergraduate and graduate course instructors teaching research methods courses in a variety of social science disciplines.

Differences In Reading College Readiness By The Language Status Of Texas High School Students: A Statewide, Multiyear Analysis, Lidia Garza Calderón, John R. Slate, Tershundrea Branch, Clare A. Resilla

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

The extend to which differences were present for Emergent Bilingual students and non-Emergent Bilingual students in their performance on the Texas state-mandated English I End-of-Course exam for the 2018-2019, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022 school years was examined. Specifically addressed was the extent to which Emergent Bilingual students and non-Emergent Bilingual students differed in their performance on three Grade Level performance standards: Approaches Grade Level standard, Meets Grade Level standard, and Masters Grade Level standard in the pre-pandemic year and the first and second-post-pandemic years. Non-Emergent Bilingual students had statistically significantly better English I End-of-Course exam performance than Emergent Bilingual students in …

Creating A School Climate Of Belonging And Engagement Through Visionary Leadership And Student Art, Jeff Irvine, Kyra Kristensen-Irvine

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

This research adopted a case study methodology to investigate how student artwork helped establish a school climate that was intentionally inviting to students and the wider school community. Through the visionary leadership of two principals, a Kindergarten to Grade 5 school and a middle school enhanced their common areas through student visual arts projects. Previous research on school physical environments focused on safety, cleanliness, and noise levels. This paper addresses a research gap, identifying the role that physical environments played in promoting a positive school climate which in turn promoted students’ sense of belonging and engagement.

Algebra I End-Of-Course Exam Differences By The At-Risk Status Of Texas Hispanic Students: A Multiyear Statewide Investigation, Daniel Craft, John R. Slate

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

Examined in this investigation was a comparison of the Algebra I End-of-Course exam performance between Hispanic students who were at-risk and Hispanic students who were not at-risk in the 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 school years. Inferential statistical procedures yielded statistically significant differences in all three school years between these two groups of Hispanic students. In all three school years, higher percentages of Hispanic students who were at-risk did not meet the three grade level standards (i.e., Approaches Grade Level, Meets Grade Level, and Masters Grade Level) than Hispanic students who were not at-risk. Moreover, Hispanic students who were at-risk correctly …

Novice School Prinicpals' Culturally Responsive Leadership Practices, Maria De Lourdes Viloria, Alexandra Vasquez, Georgina Hernandez

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

This paper investigates the perspectives of three novice school leaders who explore ways to accommodate new instructional practices at their campuses by setting high expectations and getting to know students and their educational needs. The three novice school leaders who participated in this investigation emphasized the importance of communication and relationships with all the stakeholders, including: teachers, staff, students, parents, office personnel, and community members. Additionally, all three novice school leaders expressed gaining trust and proactively providing support to teachers at all times. Moreover, they concurred that the key skills required for success as a novice school leader are: communication, …

Journal Of Educational Leadership In Action, Volume 9, Issue 3, Full Issue

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

No abstract provided.

The History Matters: Fighting For Equal Education In Lowell, Massachusetts, 1970-1990, Robert Forrant, Chandaranee Khoeun, Chrisna Khuon

Institute for Asian American Studies Publications

This is a story about Southeast Asian and Latino parents in Lowell, MA who confronted the Lowell School Committee in the late 1970s and 1980s, demanding that schools be desegregated and that their children have equal educational opportunities. While the school struggle unfolded, acts of anti-Asian and anti-Latino violence were perpetrated in Greater Boston and around the country, including the tragic death of Vandy Phorng, a 13-year-old Cambodian American in 1987. Following his death, the federal lawsuit that Southeast Asian and Latino parents had filed moved through the federal court for two years before the city settled. However, further racism …

2024-2025 Common Data Set, Systems Intelligence And Data Analytics, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Common Data Sets

The Common Data Set (CDS) initiative is a collaborative effort among data providers in the higher education community and publishers as represented by the College Board, Peterson’s, and U.S. News & World Report. The combined goal of this collaboration is to improve the quality and accuracy of information provided to all involved in a student’s transition into higher education, as well as to reduce the reporting burden on data providers.