Validation of an eight-item resilience scale for inpatients with spinal cord injuries in a rehabilitation hospital: exploratory factor analyses and item response theory.

PURPOSE: People with spinal cord injury (PwSCI) can experience life changes, including impacts on their physical and mental health. PwSCI often report less life satisfaction and lower subjective well-being than peers without SCI. These challenges and adversities increase the demand on them to be more resilient. Healthcare providers need quick and valid instruments to assess adult patients' resilience in clinical settings. We aimed to validate the factor validity and discrimination ability of a resilience scale, CD-RISC-10, for clinical usage in adults with SCI during hospitalization. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 93 adults with SCI responded to the self-reported survey, including CD-RISC-10, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Scale (PHQ-9), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and the Intrinsic Spirituality Scale. We conducted descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and item response theory (IRT). RESULTS: Two items were deleted from CD-RISC-10 after EFA, forming CD-RISC-8. The item discriminations of the remaining eight items from the unconstrained IRT model ranged from a high of 3.071 to a relatively low 1.433. CD-RISC-8 is significantly related to PHQ-9 and SWLS. CONCLUSIONS: The factor validity of the CD-RISC-8 was improved. Significantly, the CD-RISC-8 has excellent potential for clinical usage due to its discriminant ability between low and intermediate resilience.

Spinal Cord InjuryPeople with spinal cord injury (PwSCI) experience unique challenges and adversities that can negatively affect physical, mental, social, and financial health and life satisfaction.PwSCI with higher resilience adapt to challenges quicker, and have better mental health outcomes and improved quality of life.The CD-RISC-8 is useful for screening PwSCI who need resilience intervention and it is sensitive enough to evaluate resilience improvement within two minutes.

What cultural values determine student self-efficacy? An empirical study for 42 countries and economies.

Self-efficacy is a vital personal characteristic for student success. However, the challenge of cross-cultural comparisons remains as scalar invariance is hard to be satisfied. Also, it is unclear how to contextually understand student self-efficacy in light of cultural values in different countries. This study implements a novel alignment optimization method to rank the latent means of student self-efficacy of 308,849 students in 11,574 schools across 42 countries and economies that participated in the 2018 Program in International Student Assessment. We then used classification and regression trees to classified countries with differential latent means of student self-efficacy into groups according to Hofstede's six cultural dimensions theory. The results of the alignment method recovered that Albania, Colombia, and Peru had students with the highest mean self-efficacy, while Slovak Republic, Moscow Region (RUS), and Lebanon had the lowest. Moreover, the CART analysis indicated a low student self-efficacy for countries presenting three features: (1) extremely high power distance; (2) restraint; and (3) collectivism. These findings theoretically highlighted the significance of cultural values in shaping student self-efficacy across countries and practically provided concrete suggestions to educators on which countries to emulate such that student self-efficacy could be promoted and informed educators in secondary education institutes on the international expansion of academic exchanges.

Influence of OTC on OLE for college students: mediating effect of academic emotion and moderating effect of gender.

With the impact of the global epidemic, online learning has become an irreplaceable form of learning for students, and has been widely concerned by the education circles. Based on Noddings' caring theory and social role theory, A survey of 1954 college students was conducted to examine students' on-line teacher care (OTC), online academic emotion (OAE) and online learning engagement (OLE). The results of correlation analysis find that: (1) There are significant positive correlations among the three variables: OTC, OAE and OLE; (2) OAE plays a part of mediating role between OTC and OLE; (3) Gender has a significant moderating effect on the first half of the mediation path in the model of "OTC→ OAE→OLE". OTC has a significant positive predictive effect on OAE, and among them, the positive predictive effect of male college students is stronger. The conclusion of this study contributes to reveal the formation mechanism and individual differences of college students' OLE, which has reference value for the intervention of college students' OLE.

How to better balance academic achievement and learning anxiety from time on homework? A multilevel and classification and regression tree analyses.

Using education survey data from 153, 317 Grade 4 students and 150, 040 Grade 8 students in China, this study examined the relationship between time on homework and academic achievement and learning anxiety with hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) and classification and regression tree (CART) approaches. With a classification of time spent on homework into four related variables, this study found that, firstly, time spent on in-school homework during weekdays had positive effects on students' achievement for both grades, and the positive effect was stronger for Grade 8 students than Grade 4 students. Moreover, a maximum of 1 h was recommended for Grade 4 students. Secondly, time spent on out-of-school homework on weekdays was negatively correlated with students' academic achievement and positively with learning anxieties. It had greater detrimental effect on Grade 8 than Grade 4. Thirdly, Grade 8 students were encouraged to have more out-of-school homework on weekend with more than 2.8 h on average recommended. It was expected to complement extant studies and provide the practical findings for teachers, practitioners and school policy makers in making any homework assignment planning or conducting interventions.

The effect of subliminal priming on team trust: The mediating role of perceived trustworthiness.

The present study aimed to explore the effect of subliminal priming on team trust and the mechanism through the mediating role of perceived trustworthiness. A total of 144 participants were asked to complete a lexical decision task that was embedded with the "trust" or "suspicion" Chinese words as the subliminal stimuli. Then, they played a public good game and evaluated the perceived trustworthiness of the team. The results of the study showed that subliminal stimuli had a significant effect on team trust [ß = -0.99, 95% CI = (-1.64, -0.33)]. Perceived trustworthiness was found to have a significant mediating effect between the priming condition and team trust [ß = -0.35, 95% CI = (-0.72, -0.02)]. The current study revealed the underlying mechanism through which subliminal priming techniques influence team trust and informed efforts by altering perceived trustworthiness.

Development and validation of the STEM Teaching Self-efficacy Scale (STSS) for early childhood teachers.

The preparation of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) teachers for early childhood education (ECE) has clearly become an important issue in recent years. Teacher efficacy can lead to changes in professional beliefs toward and teaching practices in STEM. In this study, we developed the STEM Teaching Self-efficacy Scale (STSS) and validated it in a sample of 225 pre-service and 193 in-service early childhood teachers in Zhejiang, China. Results indicated preliminary evidence of reliability and validity of the two factors of STSS: Pedagogy Self-efficacy and Content Self-efficacy. Items were constructed based on literature and selected through factor analysis to cover the scope of self-efficacy on the behaviors of STEM teaching and ensure the content and construct validity of the scale. Scores on the STSS subscales were positively correlated with early childhood teachers' working status, age, occupational commitment, and interest in ECE, showing evidence of its criterion validity. The STSS provides a professionally and psychologically meaningful tool for evaluating early childhood teachers' efficacy beliefs about teaching STEM, which would help obtain evidence for the optimal design of STEM teacher training programs.

School and Teacher Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) readiness across 57 countries: The alignment optimization method.

This study investigated the measurement invariance of school and teacher Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) readiness among 57 countries that participated in the Program in International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 assessment. School and teacher ICT readiness scale is 11-item scale with two subfactors: school ICT readiness and teacher ICT readiness subscales (Bozkus, International Online Journal of Education and Teaching, 8(3), 1560-1579, 2021). With the novel alignment optimization method, we revealed that the school ICT readiness subscale was invariant for unbiased country comparisons but overall noninvariance was identified for the teacher ICT readiness subscale. Additionally, the rank of the school ICT readiness factor means indicated that Singapore, Sweden, B-S-J-Z (regions of China), United Arab Emirates and United States were among the top league, while countries like Indonesia, Poland, Ireland in between, and Japan, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Brazil ranked comparatively the lowest. Measures of school location, school type and class size further confirmed the validity of the school ICT readiness subscale. It was expected that the study would enhance our understanding of school and teacher ICT readiness across countries with the application of an alternative alignment optimization approach in examining ICT related scales.

Cognitive model construction and assessment of data analysis ability based on CDA.

Ability of data analysis, as one of the essential core qualities of modern citizens, has received widespread attention from the international education community. How to evaluate students' data analysis ability and obtain the detailed diagnosis information is one of the key issues for schools to improve education quality. With an employment of cognitive diagnostic assessment (CDA) as the basic theoretical framework, this study constructed the cognitive model of data analysis ability for 503 Grade 9 students in China. The follow-up analyses including the learning path, learning progression and corresponding personalized assessment were also provided. The result indicated that first, almost all the students had the data awareness. Furthermore, the probability of mastering the attribute Interpretation and inference of data was relatively low with only 60% or so. Also, the probabilities of mastering the rest of attributes were about 70% on average. It was expected that this study would provide a new cognitive diagnostic perspective on the assessment of students' essential data analysis abilities.

How does teacher-perceived principal leadership affect teacher self-efficacy between different teaching experiences through collaboration in China? A multilevel structural equation model analysis based on threshold.

Teacher self-efficacy is one of the most critical factors influencing Students' learning outcomes. Studies have shown that teacher-perceived principal leadership, teacher collaboration, and teaching experience are the critical factor that affects teacher self-efficacy. However, little is known about the mechanisms behind this relationship. This study examined whether teacher collaboration would mediate the relationship between teacher-perceived principal leadership and teacher self-efficacy, and the moderating role of teaching experience in the mediating process. With an analysis of a dataset from 14,121 middle school teachers in China, this study first testified to the positive role that teacher-perceived principal leadership played in teacher self-efficacy. Furthermore, it revealed that teacher collaboration mediates this relationship and the mediated path was moderated by teaching experience. Finally, it also indicated that the threshold of teaching experience linking the teacher-perceived leadership with teacher self-efficacy was approximately in the third year, and their relationship was stronger when teaching experience was below the threshold. This study highlighted the mediating and moderating mechanisms linking the teacher-perceived principal leadership and teacher self-efficacy, which has important theoretical and practical implications for intervention and enhancement of teacher self-efficacy.

The effectiveness of telepsychology with veterans: A meta-analysis of services delivered by videoconference and phone.

Veterans face a variety of stressors due to their military service and are more likely to develop psychological problems as a result. Research suggests that as many as half of veterans with mental health conditions go untreated due to barriers including lack of accessibility to services and stigma. The present study builds on previous research by using meta-analytic techniques to determine the effectiveness of telepsychology-delivered therapy with veterans. Empirical studies were included if they reported veteran-related outcome data on a psychological intervention used to treat a mental health condition remotely using either videoconferencing or telephone. Twenty-seven studies including 2,648 total participants (1,667 in treatment conditions and 981 in control conditions) met our inclusion criteria and were incorporated into our analysis. Twenty-five studies provided pre-post data to evaluate various therapy outcomes, and 18 studies used a randomized clinical trials (RCTs) design that allowed a comparison between telehealth and traditional in-person therapy. Publication bias was evaluated using correlations between sample and effect sizes for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression for pretest-posttest and RCT designs; risk was determined to be minimal. Weighted average pre-post effect sizes were moderate-to-strong for depression and trauma, and videoconferencing was more effective than telephone for depression (d = 0.86 and 0.46, respectively) and trauma (d = 1.00 and 0.51, respectively). Weighted average effect sizes computed from RCT studies suggest telepsychology is similarly effective as services provided face-to-face. More research is needed for telepsychology-delivered treatments for other mental health conditions faced by veterans. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

To Reverse Item Orientation or Not to Reverse Item Orientation, That Is the Question.

To investigate the effect of using negatively oriented items, we wrote semantic reversals of the items in the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale, UCLA Loneliness Scale, and the General Belongingness Scale and used them to create four experimental conditions. Participants (N = 2,019) were recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Data were assessed for dimensionality, item functioning, instrument properties, and associations with other variables. Regarding dimensionality, although a two-factor model (positively vs. negatively oriented factors) exhibits better fit than a unidimensional model across all conditions, bifactor indices were used to argue that a unidimensional interpretation of the data can be employed. With respect to item functioning, factor loadings were found to be nearly invariant across conditions, but thresholds were not. Concerning instrument properties, inclusion of negatively oriented items results in lower mean scores and higher score variances. Instruments with both positively and negatively oriented items demonstrated lower reliability estimates than those with only one orientation. For associations with other variables, path coefficients in a model where loneliness mediates the effects of belongingness on life satisfaction and self-esteem were found to vary across conditions. Findings suggest that negatively oriented items have minor impact on instrument quality, but influence measurement model and path coefficients.

An International Comparative Study of Students' Scientific Explanation Based on Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment.

Scientific explanation is one of the most core concepts in science education, and its mastery level is crucial for a deep understanding of the nature of science. As a new generation of assessment theory, cognitive diagnostic assessment (CDA) can get the knowledge of students' mastery of fine-grained knowledge. Based on the extant research, this research has formed eight attributes of scientific explanation concepts. By coding the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) test items, a CAD tool was formed. Data collected from 574 Grade 4 students in Hangzhou, China, combined with the data of the United States, Singapore, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Russia, were used in our study. The Deterministic Inputs, Noisy "And" gate (DINA) model was used to analyze the results from three aspects: the probability of mastery of attributes, the international comparison of knowledge states, and the analysis of learning paths. This study provided a new perspective from a CDA approach on the assessment of scientific explanation.

International Comparative Study on PISA Mathematics Achievement Test Based on Cognitive Diagnostic Models.

As one of the most influential international large-scale educational assessments, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) provides a valuable platform for the horizontal comparisons and references of international education. The cognitive diagnostic model, a newly generated evaluation theory, can integrate measurement goals into the cognitive process model through cognitive analysis, which provides a better understanding of the mastery of students of fine-grained knowledge points. On the basis of the mathematical measurement framework of PISA 2012, 11 attributes have been formed from three dimensions in this study. Twelve test items with item responses from 24,512 students from 10 countries participated in answering were selected, and the analyses were divided into several steps. First, the relationships between the 11 attributes and the 12 test items were classified to form a Q matrix. Second, the cognitive model of the PISA mathematics test was established. The liner logistic model (LLM) with better model fit was selected as the parameter evaluation model through model comparisons. By analyzing the knowledge states of these countries and the prerequisite relations among the attributes, this study explored the different learning trajectories of students in the content field. The result showed that students from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Russia shared similar main learning trajectories, while Finland and Japan were consistent with their main learning trajectories. The primary learning trajectories of the United States and China were the same. Furthermore, the learning trajectory for Singapore was the most complicated, as it showed a diverse learning process, whereas the trajectory in the United States and Saudi Arabia was relatively simple. This study concluded the differences of the mastery of students of the 11 cognitive attributes from the three dimensions of content, process, and context across the 10 countries, which provided a reference for further understanding of the PISA test results in other countries and shed some evidence for a deeper understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of mathematics education in various countries.

Rethinking Educational Space(s): Exploring the Impact of Co-Curricular Programming on Undergraduate Belonging, Career Exploration, and Interprofessional Education.

This mixed-methods study examined the impact of educational space on undergraduate belonging and learning by analyzing the post-event evaluations of 259 healthcare living-learning program (LLP) students who attended co-curricular programming designed to enhance belonging, career exploration, and interprofessional awareness. Students were broken into two groups based on program location. Post-event evaluations were analyzed using a Mann Whitney U-test and thematic analysis. Themes of career exploration and interprofessional awareness/identity formation emerged in the open-ended responses of both groups. Belonging was enhanced/muted by program location. Seemingly superficial, this variable actually reflects the institution's performance of educational space. The study includes a short discussion regarding the goal of constructing more inclusive educational spaces that support student belonging and success for all students.