This article presents the findings of an action research study that evaluated the effectiveness of differentiated instruction in the subject of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in primary education in Greek primary schools. Effective teaching poses a challenge to all educators in all educational levels. The subject of ICT poses multiple challenges to educators due to its applied nature, the limited allocated time and the diverse needs of the students. A differentiated teaching intervention was designed and applied from January to March 2020 to 113 upper elementary students from two elementary schools in Athens. The findings of the research highlight the improvement of the quality of the students’ assessment and the level of students’ active participation due to differentiated instruction. Furthermore, the strategy of flexible grouping, the technique of “thumb it up” cards and the applied differentiated working routine proved to be highly effective. Lastly, the implementation of asynchronous working combined with hierarchical learning activities proved to be challenging to the educator due to its complexity. Based on these findings, the article discusses the importance of further research in the systematic implementation of differentiated instruction in mixed ability classrooms and in multiple subjects.

While previous studies on assessments focused on measurement of principles and constructs, existing attention is given to content validation involving vocational education and skills. The emphasis on content validation has prompted a holistic perspective of teaching and learning to demand alternative research approaches. Using evidence of content validity based on expert judgment and assessment items, this paper argues that vocational knowledge and skills could be determined via constructs and construct functions. Content validity analysis was studied in two major phases, namely, through an assessment of an electrical technology course at a Malaysian higher education institution and expert panels’ examination of items. It was found that to increase confidence in providing reliable instruments for future empirical studies, a careful process in item development and content validity analysis was considered important. Therefore, applying these findings on item analysis and expert panels to reflect content validity can enhance the validity of assessment items.

During the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, universities were obligated to transform from traditional classroom teaching environments to virtual ones. This sudden transformation highlighted the issue of low e-learning system usage amongst instructors of humanity faculties in Jordan's public universities. This study empirically investigated the moderating impact of technology anxiety on the relationship between the instructor's self-efficacy and the e-learning system's actual use to contribute to solving the problem. A survey was distributed to 468 instructors to test the theoretical framework, which yielded 285 valid and complete instruments analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results showed the positive direct effect of self-efficacy on actual use. Furthermore, the level of technology anxiety moderated the relationship. Instructors with low technology anxiety showed a higher level of e-learning system actual usage than those with a high anxiety level. To improve the use of e-learning systems, top management must understand the fundamental role of compulsory training as the Covid-19 pandemic, and the instructor's confidence must be increased by providing training and support.

Academic optimism has an essential role in the adjustment of students in school. This study aimed to examine a model of academic optimism formed from democratic parenting, school climate, internal locus of control, and students’ self-concept. This a cross-sectional non-experimental design research design involved 335 Junior High School students in Kediri. The data collection tool was a scale while the data analysis technique was Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis. The results showed that the theoretical model for developing academic optimism in Junior High School students was in line with the research data and obtained empirical support (X2 = 246.056 < 255.6018; p = 0.110 > 0.05), so this model is feasible and can be used in samples that have been studied. In general, this study adds knowledge about positive psychology studies and supports democratic parenting, school climate, self-concept, and internal locus of control as ultimate factors for creating students’ academic optimism.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Pandemic changed education conditions worldwide forcing all the parties involved to adapt to a new system. This study aimed to collect information related to the effects of teaching English online on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ achievement. Data were collected from EFL teachers and students enrolled in three different Ecuadorian Universities (Technical University of Ambato, Higher Polytechnic School of Chimborazo, and University of Cuenca) from five different levels: A1, A2, B1, B1+, and B2. This preliminary paper reports the results of 480 students regarding four major sections: pedagogical practice and assessment, learning outcomes, affective factors and perceptions of students about the advantages and disadvantages of online learning during the pandemic COVID-19; considering the Hierarchy of online learning needs of Justin Shewell. An online survey questionnaire with 17 questions and a 5-point Likert scale was applied. The Cronbach's Alpha test presented 0.84 and 0.73 level of reliability. The Kolmogorov Smirnov’s statistic and, the Kendall's Tau_b tests, and the Levene's test for homogeneity of variances were performed with the SPSS statistical program. The results made evident that online learning affects academic achievement in EFL students during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was confirmed after analyzing four main areas: pedagogical practices and assessment, learning outcomes, affective factors and students’ perceptions about the advantages and disadvantages of online learning. The importance of online learning was highlighted since it has been understood as a tool to face the emergency produced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The research delved into the assessment of integrating Learning Management System as an aid in teaching. Data were collected from 26 students at Rizal Technological University-College of Education, Philippines, through pretest-posttest quasi-experimental and normative survey design of research. Data were statistically tested using the frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test for dependent and independent samples, and paired t-test. Results of the research indicate that the respondents have optimistic attitudes towards the integration of learning management system in teaching. The respondents performed poorly in the pretest examination but performed very satisfactorily in the posttest examination. Furthermore, the research found out that there is no significant difference between the performances of the experimental group and control group in pretest and posttest, moreover, there is a significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores of the experimental group and the pretest and posttest scores of the control group.

This study aimed to develop a valid and reliable instrument that measures the functional vision of students with low vision. Thus, an assessment tool and performance activities were developed for three vision skill groups (near vision skills, distance vision skills, and visual field) that include functional vision skills. The universe was 1485 students studying in various primary and middle schools (from 2nd to 7th grades) affiliated to the Ministry of National Education, and simple random sampling was used to select 310 students. The data were collected using the Gazi Functional Vision Assessment Instrument developed by the researchers. Many-facet Rasch model and generalizability theory were used for the rater reliability of the measurements obtained from the instrument, while discriminant analysis was used for the validity of the measurements. The analysis showed that the measurements were reliable, and the inferences based on these measurements were valid. Thus, this instrument can be used to identify and assess the functional vision status of students with low vision.

Within the context of Self-Regulated Learning (SRL), a process of directing oneself to facilitate individual learning more effectively, the SRL instrument development is deemed necessary to measure students’ self-reliance in learning mathematics in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) framework. The research aims to develop and test the validity and reliability of an SRL instrument, namely a 14-item SRL questionnaire accommodating four aspects, namely planning, self-monitoring, self-controlling, and evaluation. The study involved 420 junior high school students in East Java, Central Java, and Yogyakarta Special Region. The results show that the questionnaire was developed as planned and that planning, monitoring, controlling, and evaluating aspects can reflect the SRL variable in a valid, reliable, and significant way supported by each aspect's behavior indicator. The SRL variable theoretical model corresponds (good fit) with the empirical data, and all of the items are likely valid and reliable to assess student's mathematics SRL in the STEM framework. The SRL questionnaire was also found suitable for use by teachers to measure junior high school students’ self-reliance in SRL.

This study was conducted to corroborate in understanding the teachers’ beliefs about assessment practices. The prior studies related to teachers’ assessment beliefs in mathematics have been done to assess teachers’ beliefs in the general context of mathematics teaching. This study developed an instrument to assess teachers’ assessment beliefs of mathematical thinking. The research aimed to develop and validate a scale of assessment beliefs of mathematical thinking by using the confirmatory factor analysis. The first draft of the scale contained 25 items. The sample of the study consisted of 537 mathematics teachers from public schools in Oman. The instrument was a questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale. The scale was validated by asking a number of experts in mathematics educational measurement and evaluation. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was applied to test the model of assessment beliefs of mathematical thinking scale using AMOS 25.0. All constructs had acceptable reliability. The model had a good model fit for the assessment beliefs of mathematical thinking scale which obtainable from the fit indices tests. The findings revealed that all fit criteria indices were realized. The results also showed acceptable validity and construct reliability for the scale.

Online learning during the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has awakened and affirmed the necessity of learning based on digital technology. The article was aimed to analyze the effectiveness of online learning at bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees of Islamic Religious Education as a reference to develop a learning pattern post-COVID-19 pandemic. The research employed a mixed-method design with a concurrent triangulation model. The samples were taken using stratified random and purposive sampling. Meanwhile, the data were collected through questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and forum group discussion. A descriptive analysis and one-way analysis of variance were used to analyze the quantitative data, while interpretative descriptive for the qualitative data. The research showed that online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic at the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees of Islamic Religious Education have been effective. In detail, online learning at the doctoral degree was the most effective among all. On the other hand, face-to-face learning is still necessary. Therefore, the learning pattern developed post-COVID-19 pandemic combines face-to-face and online learning (hybrid learning). The formulation is adjusted to the characteristics, educational purpose and orientation, level of ability, readiness, and learning autonomy of the students at each educational level.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the relevance of turning the camera on or off during distance learning as an argument for active or passive student participation. Seventy-five (75) students participated in the study and were divided into five groups (1-5) according to teaching method (i.e., synchronous instruction online with camera (1) and without camera (2), synchronous transmission of the recording online with camera (3) and without camera (4) and received the online instruction (5)) only. In the beginning and at the end, all students were tested with the same adapted test to determine general physical and motor status. All groups had the same training program twice a week for 45 minutes for 7 weeks. The first training of the week was dedicated to strength development, the second to endurance. In the end, all participants completed a questionnaire to determine their additional physical activity and how they felt about using a camera. The camera being turned on was identified as a factor that made participants uncomfortable but contributed significantly to the effectiveness of the course. However, 94.6 % of all participants cited non-camera methods as their favourite.

Higher education plays an important role in providing students with knowledge and skills to enter the labor market. The quality of higher education, the satisfaction of the quality of higher education has been concerned by many individuals and organizations. The study aims to explore the factors affecting student satisfaction with the quality of higher education services in Vietnam. Research data was collected from survey results by questionnaires from 396 students of An Giang University, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. SPSS 20, AMOS 24 software is used for analysis and evaluation of scales through Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient; exploratory factor analysis EFA; CFA confirmatory factor; SEM linear regression analysis to test the hypotheses. The results of the SEM model study show that there are six factors affecting student satisfaction with the quality of higher education services in Vietnam, including teaching staff; facilities and teaching facilities; ability to serve; educational activities; student support activities; education programs. From the research results, discussions on educational administration are proposed to improve student satisfaction with the quality of higher education services in Vietnam.

The study objectives were (1) developing a valid and reliable Affective Self-assessment Instrument of Chemistry for High School Student and (2) discovering the chemistry affective domain ability trend of high school students based on gender. The current development study utilized 10 non-test instrument development procedures from Mardapi. The study population was all high school students in Yogyakarta Special Region. The sample size was 405 students categorized into two stages and sampling techniques, i.e., the trial stage using cluster random sampling and the measurement stage using simple random sampling. The data analysis techniques were validity test using the Aiken index and construct validity and reliability using the second-order Confirmatory Factor Analysis model. The study findings were (1) the Affective Self-assessment Instrument of Chemistry for High School Student had 15 valid and reliable items and 15 available items to be utilized by teachers to measure students’ affective in the learning process and (2) the chemistry affective domain ability trend of male high school students was dominated by the “good” category and “very good” category for female students.

This research aimed to develop a historical thinking assessment for students' skills in analyzing the causality of historical events. The development process of Gall and colleagues and Rasch analysis models were used to develop an assessment instrument consisting of two processes, including the analysis of the framework of cause and consequence, the validity, reliability, and difficultness test. This research involved 150 senior high school students, with data collected using the validation sheet, tests, and scoring rubric. The results were in the form of an essay test consisting of six indicators of analyzing cause and consequence. The instruments were valid, reliable, and suitable for assessing students’ skills in analyzing the causality of historical events. The developed instruments were paired with a historical thinking skills assessment to improve the accuracy of the information about students' level of historical thinking skills in the learning history.

Computational thinking (CT) is a method for solving complex problems, but also gives people an inventive inspiration to adapt to our smart and changing society. Globally it has been considered as vital abilities for solving genuine issues successfully and efficiently in the 21st century. Recent studies have revealed that the nurture of CT mainly centered on measuring the technical skill. There is a lack of conceptualization and instruments that cogitate on CT disposition and attitudes. This study attends to these limitations by developing an instrument to measure CT concerning dispositions and attitudes. The instruments' validity and reliability testing were performed with the participation from secondary school students in Malaysia. The internal consistency reliability, standardized residual variance, construct validity and composite reliability were examined. The result revealed that the instrument validity was confirmed after removing items. The reliability and validity of the instrument have been verified. The findings established that all constructs are useful for assessing the disposition of computer science students. The implications for psychometric assessment were evident in terms of giving empirical evidence to corroborate theory-based constructs and also validating items' quality to appropriately represent the measurement.

The positive effect of peer assessment and self-assessment strategies on learners' performance has been widely confirmed in experimental or quasi-experimental studies. However, whether peer and self-assessment within everyday mathematics teaching affect student learning and achievement, has rarely been studied. This study aimed to determine with what quality peer and self-assessment occur in everyday mathematics instruction and whether and which students benefit from it in terms of achievement and the learning process. Two lessons on division were video-recorded and rated to determine the quality of peer and self-assessment. Six hundred thirty-four students of fourth-grade primary school classes in German-speaking Switzerland participated in the study and completed a performance test on division. Multilevel analyses showed no general effect of the quality of peer or self-assessment on performance. However, high-quality self-assessment was beneficial for lower-performing students, who used a larger repertoire of calculation strategies, which helped them perform better. In conclusion, peer and self-assessment in real-life settings only have a small effect on the student performance in this Swiss study.

Research on instructional quality has been of great interest for several decades, leading to an immense and diverse body of literature. However, due to different definitions and operationalisations, the picture of what characteristics are important for instructional quality is not entirely clear. Therefore, in this paper, a scoping review was performed to provide an overview of existing evidence of both generic and subject-didactic characteristics with regard to student performance. More precisely, this paper aims to (a) identify both generic and subject-didactic characteristics affecting student performance in mathematics in secondary school, (b) cluster these characteristics into categories to show areas for quality teaching, and (c) analyse and assess the effects of these characteristics on student performance to rate the scientific evidence in the context of the articles considered. The results reveal that teaching characteristics, and not just the instruments for recording the quality of teaching as described in previous research, can be placed on a continuum ranging from generic to subject-didactic. Moreover, on account of the inconsistent definition of subject-didactic characteristics, the category of ‘subject-didactic specifics’ needs further development to establish it as a separate category in empirical research. Finally, this study represents a further step toward understanding the effects of teaching characteristics on student performance by providing an overview of teaching characteristics and their effects and evidence.

In this research, the influence of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on 9th grade students’ mathematics achievement is analyzed through quantitative and qualitative methods. A posttest only with control group design was used to compare the mathematics marks of 9th grade students from the previous school year (before the pandemic, control group) and the current school year (during the pandemic, experimental group). Seventy-three students from a public high school in Spain attending class on alternate days participated in the study. Three focus group sessions were held with students, and five semi-structured interviews were conducted—two with teachers and three with students’ families. Results show statistically significant differences in students’ mathematics achievement, with students enrolled in 9th grade the previous (pre-pandemic) year outscoring their peers currently enrolled in 9th grade (during the pandemic) by 22.17%. An overall negative effect size of Hedge’s g = -1.11 was reported. Although significant statistical differences between groups were reported for both male and female students, the effect was 42.31% larger for male students (Hedge’s g = -1.11) than for females (Hedge’s g = -0.78). The qualitative information supported the quantitative results. Changes in educational settings, students’ lack of motivation, monotony, and students’ level of responsibility were qualitatively reported as factors that may explain this phenomenon. The main conclusion of this study is that the COVID-19 pandemic may be significantly and negatively affecting 9th grade students’ mathematics achievement.

The study of character becomes a very important discussion in the 21st century. So that the integration of character values is very important both in the process and in educational assessment. The purpose of this study was to test the validity and reliability of the character assessment instrument for 21st-century high school students. The research approach used was quantitative with a sample of 200 high school students. Data analysis carried out includes validity and reliability tests. The test results of the instrument showed that the construct of the student character assessment instrument was declared valid and reliable. The content validity test shows the value of Aiken's > .80 in the high category. In the construct validation test with EFA, all variables have a loading factor > .5. In the CFA test, the model is declared fit with the estimated standard loading value of .40 and the t-count value > 1.96. Meanwhile, while in testing the reliability of the instrument obtained composite > .70 Cronbach's Alpha reliability > .70 which means reliable. So that this instrument is declared valid and reliable to measure the character of students in high school.

Regardless of varied lingua-cultural ideologies enriching the theories of communicative competence (CC), the four CC dimensions (e.g., linguistics, sociolinguistics, discourse, and communication strategies (CSs)) still become the main cores of English speaking (ES) classrooms. Of the four dimensions, CSs seem to be the most technical which deserve to be persistently studied. Hence, this study aimed to probe into ES lecturers’ performances of CSs, their efforts to improve students’ CC, and the impacts of their efforts on students’ learning according to students’ perspectives. Two ES lecturers and 10 students at a university in Indonesia were purposively selected to be the participants. They were observed and interviewed according to the study’s purposes. This study uncovered various CSs performed by ES lecturers according to several contexts, such as to understand spoken texts, to understand spoken recorded texts, and to overcome temporary communication difficulties. Various ES lecturers’ efforts were also revealed according to their functions to improve each dimension of CC. Most students perceived the lecturers’ efforts positively due to the impacts on their motivation, self-efficacy, collaborative skills, and metacognition. However, few students echoed negative perceptions about a lecturer’s native-speakerism-endorsed effort due to lingua-cultural issues. Implication, limitation, and recommendation are discussed.