Examination of Gender-Related Differential Item Functioning Through Poly-BW Indices.

The existing differential item functioning (DIF) detection approaches relying on item difficulty or item discrimination are limited for understanding the associates of DIF items, and consequently, DIF items were conventionally either deleted or ignored. Given the importance of minimizing DIF items in test construction, teachers or testing practitioners need more information regarding possible associates of DIF items. Using an example of a teacher-made mathematics achievement test, this study aimed to examine how the Poly-BW indices (power, defenselessness, disturbance, and hint) contributed to the properties of gender-related DIF items.

A Lognormal Ipsative Model for Multidimensional Compositional Items.

Compositional items - a form of forced-choice items - require respondents to allocate a fixed total number of points to a set of statements. To describe the responses to these items, the Thurstonian item response theory (IRT) model was developed. Despite its prominence, the model requires that items composed of parts of statements result in a factor loading matrix with full rank.

Using Brain-Breaks as a Technology Tool to Increase Attitude towards Physical Activity among Students in Singapore.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of classroom-based Brain Breaks Physical Activity Solution in Southeast Asia Singaporean primary school students and their attitude towards physical activity (PA) over a ten-week intervention. A total of 113 participants (8-11 years old) were randomly assigned to either an experimental (EG) or a control group (CG), with six classes to each group; the Brain Breaks group (EG: six classes) and the Control group (CG: six classes). All EG members participated in a Brain Breaks video intervention (three-five min) during academic classes and the CG continued their lessons as per normal.

Implementation of Brain Breaks in the Classroom and Its Effects on Attitudes towards Physical Activity in a Chinese School Setting.

This study aimed to examine the effects of three-months of classroom-based Brain Breaks Physical Activity Solution (Brain Breaks) on attitudes toward physical activity levels of primary school children in Henan Province, China. The participants were 704 children enrolled in grades 3-5 who were randomly assigned to either an experimental or a control group. The experimental group participated in Brain Breaks video intervention for 3-5 min daily, at low-to-moderate intensity for three consecutive months.

Brain Breaks® Physical Activity Solutions in the Classroom and on Attitudes toward Physical Activity: A Randomized Controlled Trial among Primary Students from Eight Countries.

Classroom-based physical activity (PA) interventions have received considerable attention due to improvements seen in academic achievement, classroom behaviors, and attitude toward PA. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Brain Breaks® Physical Activity Solutions in changing children's attitudes toward PA. Students ( = 3036) aged 8-11 years from schools in Croatia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, South Africa, and Turkey were randomly assigned to either a control or an experimental group.

Sense of school belonging: Psychometric properties and differences across gender, grades, and East Asian societies.

As students' sense of school belonging (SOSB) is essential for their psychosocial well-being and academic success, developing precise measures of SOSB is critical for assessing it properly. After an unrelated item was deleted, the SOSB scale showed good psychometric properties, based on Rasch analysis of data from 36,963 students in Grade 4 or Grade 8 from four East Asian societies. While no items showed gender differential item functioning (DIF), two items showed substantial society DIF, and two items showed grade DIF in Japan and South Korea.

Chinese immigrant students in Hong Kong: Exploring performance and influences on their civic learning.

Guided by the "opportunity-propensity" (O-P) framework, this study explores how immigrant status might affect students' civic knowledge through an antecedent factor (socioeconomic status [SES]), opportunity factors (civic learning at school and civic participation at school), and propensity factors (perceived open classroom climate, perceived student-teacher relationship, and perceived importance of conventional citizenship). The data were taken from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2016. The sample comprised 2,544 eighth graders from Hong Kong.

Implementation of Brain Breaks in the Classroom and Effects on Attitudes toward Physical Activity in a Macedonian School Setting.

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of Brain Break activities on interest and motivation for physical activity among schoolchildren and the contribution of such activities on learning for health and holistic development. The study sample was comprised of 283 participants, primary school students from 3rd to 5th grades from two public schools in the Republic of Macedonia. Six experimental and six control groups were included in the study.

The Impact of Brain Breaks Classroom-Based Physical Activities on Attitudes toward Physical Activity in Polish School Children in Third to Fifth Grade.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the Brain Breaks® Physical Activity Solutions in changing attitudes toward physical activity of school children in a community in Poland. In 2015, a sample of 326 pupils aged 9-11 years old from 19 classes at three selected primary schools were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups within the study. During the classes, children in the experimental group performed physical activities two times per day in three to five minutes using Brain Breaks® videos for four months, while the control group did not use the videos during the test period.

Psychometric Properties of the Attitudes toward Physical Activity Scale: A Rasch Analysis Based on Data From Five Locations.

This article describes the development and validation of the Attitudes toward Physical Activity Scale (APAS) to measure the attitudes, beliefs, and self-efficacy toward physical activity by children at the primary school level. The framework included: physical fitness, self-efficacy, personal best goal orientation in physical activity, interest in physical activity, importance of physical activity, benefits of physical activity, contributions of video exercise to learning in school subjects, contributions of video exercise to learning about health and environmental support. The sample comprised of 630 school students between grades 1 and 7 from five countries, namely Lithuania (29%), Poland (26%), Serbia (19%), Singapore (16%) and Zimbabwe (11%).

Testing the multidimensionality of the inventory of school motivation in a Dutch student sample.

A factor analytic and a Rasch measurement approach were applied to evaluate the multidimensional nature of the school motivation construct among more than 7,000 Dutch secondary school students. The Inventory of School Motivation (McInerney and Ali, 2006) was used, which intends to measure four motivation dimensions (mastery, performance, social, and extrinsic motivation), each comprising of two first-order factors. One unidimensional model and three multidimensional models (4-factor, 8-factor, higher order) were fit to the data.

Using multidimensional Rasch to enhance measurement precision: initial results from simulation and empirical studies.

This study aimed to explore the effect on measurement precision of multidimensional, as compared with unidimensional, Rasch measurement for constructing measures from multidimensional Likert-type scales. Many educational and psychological tests are multidimensional but common practice is to ignore correlations among the latent traits in these multidimensional scales in the measurement process. These practices may have serious validity and reliability implications.

The development and validation of the core competencies scale (CCS) for the college and university students.

This article describes the development and validation of the Core Competencies Scale (CCS) using Bok's (2006) competency framework for undergraduate education. The framework included: communication, critical thinking, character development, citizenship, diversity, global understanding, widening of interest, and career and vocational development. The sample comprised 70 college and university students.

A comparison of factors associated with physical inactivity among East Asian college students.

Background: Little is known on the level of physical inactivity and its behavioral and cultural correlates among East Asian college students.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine and compare the level and behavioral and cultural correlates of physical inactivity among college students in Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Method: Data were collected from a representative sample of college students (N = 12,137) in five East Asian economies during the 2008-2009 academic year.

The development and validation of the Self-directed Learning Scales (SLS).

This article describes the development and validation of the Self-directed Learning Scales (SLS) using data from 14,846 secondary students. Self-directed learning refers to a process whereby the learner consciously and actively directs his/her actions in the learning process. The SLS comprised a battery of subscales measuring students' goal setting, planning, academic motivation, academic self-efficacy, inquiry and information processing, strategic help-seeking, management of learning resources, and self-monitoring.

Validation of scores from self-learning scales for primary students using true-score and Rasch measurement methods.

The validation of scores from the Self-learning Scales for primary pupils is presented in this study. The sample for the study comprised 1253 pupils from 20 Year-3 and 20 Year-5 classes from ten primary schools in Hong Kong. The 10-item Usefulness Scale is designed to measure primary pupils' attitudes toward the usefulness of self-learning strategies situated in ten learning contexts.

Establishing longitudinal factorial construct validity of the quality of school life scale for secondary students.

The purpose of this study was to establish the longitudinal factorial construct validity of the Quality of School Life (QSL) scale, which was initially designed to measure the well-being of students in Australian high schools. The items comprising the scale were based on theoretical models and existing measurement instruments concerning the domains of schooling and the quality of life experienced by adults. Three latent structure models, two reported earlier in the literature and one new in this context, were reviewed and their merits compared on the basis of two sets of empirical data comprising, respectively, 5932 secondary students in the 1993 cohort and 8269 secondary students in the 1999 cohort using confirmatory factor analysis procedures.