Local Equating Using the Rasch Model,the OPLM,and the 2PL IRT Model—or—What Is It Anyway if the Model Captures Everything There Is to Know About the Test Takers?

Local equating (LE) is based on Lord's criterion of equity. It defines a family of true transformations that aim at the ideal of equitable equating. van der Linden (this issue) offers a detailed discussion of common issues in observed‐score equating relative to this local approach. By assuming an underlying item response theory model, one of the main features of LE is that it adjusts the equated raw scores using conditional distributions of raw scores given an estimate of the ability of interest. In this article, we argue that this feature disappears when using a Rasch model for the estimation of the true transformation, while the one‐parameter logistic model and the two‐parameter logistic model do provide a local adjustment of the equated score.     

Does it Make a Difference? Investigating the Assessment Accuracy of Teacher Tutors and Student Tutors

Tutors often have difficulty with accurately assessing a tutee's understanding. However, little is known about whether the professional expertise of tutors influences their assessment accuracy. In this study, the authors examined the accuracy with which 21 teacher tutors and 25 student tutors assessed a tutee's understanding of the human circulatory system in the course of tutoring. The authors found that the teacher tutors were more accurate than were the student tutors in assessing whether a tutee had a low or high level of knowledge about concepts relevant to the human circulatory system. In addition, in comparison with the student teachers, the teacher tutors more accurately assessed the number of concepts that a tutee would know. However, the teacher tutors and the student tutors did poorly in assessing a tutee's mental model of the human circulatory system even though the teacher tutors were more aware of their assessment difficulties than were the student tutors.     

Do Science Teachers Distinguish Between Their own Learning and the Learning of Their Students?

Learning beliefs influence learning and teaching. For this reason, teachers and teacher educators need to be aware of them. To support students’ knowledge construction, teachers must develop appropriate learning and teaching beliefs. Teachers appear to have difficulties when analysing students’ learning. This seems to be due to the inability to differentiate the beliefs about their students’ learning from those about their own learning. Both types of beliefs seem to be intertwined. This study focuses on whether pre-service teachers’ beliefs about their own learning are identical to those about their students’ learning. Using a sample of pre-service teachers, we measured general beliefs about “constructivist” and “transmissive” learning and science-specific beliefs about “connectivity” and “taking pre-concepts into account”. We also analysed the development of these four beliefs during teacher professionalisation by comparing beginning and advanced pre-service teachers. Our results show that although pre-service teachers make the distinction between their own learning and the learning of their students for the general tenets of constructivist and transmissive learning, there is no significant difference for science-specific beliefs. The beliefs pre-service teachers hold about their students’ science learning remain closely tied to their own.     

School-based bullying experiences as reflected by adults with visual impairments

The purpose of this study was to describe the reflections of adults with visual impairments regarding bullying experiences during their school-based education. An interpretative phenomenological analysis research approach was used and 11 participants (aged 20–35 years; seven women, four men) participated in this study. The sources of data were semi-structured audiotaped telephone interviews and reflective field notes. Thematic development was undertaken utilizing a three-step analytical process guided by the research approach. Based on the data analysis, three interrelated themes were constructed: (a) “It would be when they knew there weren't teachers watching”: bullying experiences in unowned and unstructured spaces; (b) “Going through the motions”: feelings about verbal, social, and physical victimization; and (c) “They had their own insecurities”: understanding the bullies and bystanders. The emerged themes provide a unique insight into the way in which those with visual impairments experienced bullying in schools and the meaning they ascribed to those experiences.     

Testing Measurement Equivalence of Eudaimonic and Hedonic Entertainment Motivations in a Cross-cultural Comparison

Within Hofstede’s framework of individualistic and collectivistic cultures, this contribution examines measurement equivalence of hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment motivations in two different cultures, namely Germany representing a more individualistic culture (N = 180) and Turkey representing a more collectivistic culture (N = 97). By means of a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, we could secure configural invariance for both hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment motivations across the German and Turkish sample. Metric invariance, however, could only be obtained for hedonic, but not for eudaimonic motivations. Scalar invariance was obtained for neither of the two entertainment motivations. The study points to the importance of equivalence testing when conducting cross-cultural research.     

Supporting Students’ Learning and Socioscientific Reasoning About Climate Change—the Effect of Computer-Based Concept Mapping Scaffolds

Climate change is one of the most challenging problems facing today’s global society (e.g., IPCC 2013). While climate change is a widely covered topic in the media, and abundant information is made available through the internet, the causes and consequences of climate change in its full complexity are difficult for individuals, especially non-scientists, to grasp. Science education is a field which can play a crucial role in fostering meaningful education of students to become climate literate citizens (e.g., NOAA 2009; Schreiner et al., 41, 3–50, 2005). If students are, at some point, to participate in societal discussions about the sustainable development of our planet, their learning with respect to such issues needs to be supported. This includes the ability to think critically, to cope with complex scientific evidence, which is often subject to ongoing inquiry, and to reach informed decisions on the basis of factual information as well as values-based considerations. The study presented in this paper focused on efforts to advance students in (1) their conceptual understanding about climate change and (2) their socioscientific reasoning and decision making regarding socioscientific issues in general. Although there is evidence that “knowledge” does not guarantee pro-environmental behavior (e.g. Schreiner et al., 41, 3–50, 2005; Skamp et al., 97(2), 191–217, 2013), conceptual, interdisciplinary understanding of climate change is an important prerequisite to change individuals’ attitudes towards climate change and thus to eventually foster climate literate citizens (e.g., Clark et al. 2013). In order to foster conceptual understanding and socioscientific reasoning, a computer-based learning environment with an embedded concept mapping tool was utilized to support senior high school students’ learning about climate change and possible solution strategies. The evaluation of the effect of different concept mapping scaffolds focused on the quality of student-generated concept maps, as well as on students’ test performance with respect to conceptual knowledge as well as socioscientific reasoning and socioscientific decision making.     

How Movies Can Ease the Fear of Death: The Survival or Death of the Protagonists in Meaningful Movies

Many media entertainment products address the fragility of life by portraying the severe illness or death of the protagonist. According to terror management theory, people need to create meaning in their lives when they are reminded of their own mortality, for instance, by engaging in close relationships with others. Meaningful films may provide recipients with an anxiety buffer that helps them to cope with existential fear. The results of an experimental study (N = 130) demonstrated that participants who had been reminded of their mortality appreciated a meaningful movie more and liked the protagonist better when he survived than when he died. Further, participants who viewed the movie in which the protagonist survived did not activate their self-esteem-based anxiety buffer. The results point toward the potential of entertainment to provide internal anxiety buffers and thereby help in coping with self-threatening situations. The findings are discussed in terms of the connections between meaningful media entertainment, coping mechanisms, and viewers’ terror management.