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Spatial ability, an essential skill in modern education, is on par with language and computing abilities. However, the definition and categorization of spatial ability are still unclear, requiring further development in assessment practices and research. The factors influencing spatial ability are still being explored, and assessments across different cultures and backgrounds need refinement. Results show a significant correlation between spatial visualization ability, gender, and major, with males and STEM majors scoring higher. Other factors, like students' prior spatial experience, did not show a significant correlation. These findings help identify and evaluate students' spatial visualization ability levels, guiding the design of spatial thinking courses and supporting differentiated teaching. The assessment also serves as a measure to track changes in students' spatial visualization ability before and after the course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the joint effects of social comparisons (comparisons of one's own achievements with those of others), dimensional comparisons (comparisons of one's own achievements in different domains), and temporal comparisons (comparisons of one's own achievements across time) on students' ability assessments. For the first time a longitudinal experiment, using N = 411 students from German universities, was conducted to examine these comparison effects on students' own self-concepts, their inferred self-concepts of a peer, and their own assessments of a peer's abilities in the figural and verbal domains. As expected, significant social and dimensional comparison effects on the different kinds of ability ratings were found. However, contrary to assumptions, most temporal comparison effects were nonsignificant. The social comparison effects were stronger than the dimensional and temporal comparison effects. Moreover, the social comparison effects were stronger, while one dimensional comparison effect was weaker, when students assessed their peers' abilities, rather than inferring the self-concepts of their peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The labor markets of the information age have an urgent demand for engineering and technical workers. STEM education has evolved into a metadiscipline, which involves an integrated effort to eliminate the traditional barriers between different subjects. Recent studies have reported increased levels of STEM education in international science education at the preliminary education stage worldwide. However, STEM assessment studies have lacked systematic and comprehensive assessment standards. Therefore, this study included a series of pretest and posttest evaluation questionnaires. With multiple evaluation methods, this study analyzed the effects of the STEM courses. This paper assesses the effect of the STEM courses on a total of 693 students of a primary school in Beijing. The results can be used to establish a more systematic and perfect evaluation system for students' interdisciplinary learning ability. STEM courses have achieved certain positive effects on emotional attitudes toward STEM, subject cognition, engineering professional cognition and engineering design ability among the three grade students, particularly for middle-school students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although humans have been exploring the mysteries of anxiety, relatively few specific cognitive pathways for generation of anxiety have been explored. We integrated many existing theories and experiences in clinical counseling to propose a new anxiety cognitive domino model of anxiety. The model suggests that there are six ordered cognitive factors that affect anxiety, which act like a domino effect, leading to the development and circulation of anxiety. On the one hand, this model provides a more comprehensive framework for understanding anxiety from the perspective of assessing abilities at different psychological stages. On the other hand, this model explores methods for pre managing anxiety before stressful events occur, which has practical significance for both individuals and organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The labor markets of the information age have an urgent demand for engineering and technical workers. STEM education has evolved into a metadiscipline, which involves an integrated effort to eliminate the traditional barriers between different subjects. Recent studies have reported increased levels of STEM education in international science education at the preliminary education stage worldwide. However, STEM assessment studies have lacked systematic and comprehensive assessment standards. Therefore, this study included a series of pretest and posttest evaluation questionnaires. With multiple evaluation methods, this study analyzed the effects of the STEM courses. This paper assesses the effect of the STEM courses on a total of 693 students of a primary school in Beijing. The results can be used to establish a more systematic and perfect evaluation system for students' interdisciplinary learning ability. STEM courses have achieved certain positive effects on emotional attitudes toward STEM, subject cognition, engineering professional cognition and engineering design ability among the three grade students, particularly for middle-school students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This manuscript proposes a theory of why and when organizations 'support' their employees with resources, time, and freedom beyond what seems economically optimal. The idea is that support plays an information-generating role in that it renders output more informative about employees' abilities. This effect reduces the need to gather additional information about ability via costly monitoring and commits the firm to make replacement/promotion decisions that are more sensitive to performance. Consequently, support indirectly strengthens employees' career concern incentives and reduces the pressure on costly bonus payments. I apply the model to tech companies, academia, and capital budgeting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: China is facing a rapidly expanding aging population. Insights into the health status of older adults are of great significance for health resource allocation and health care provision to this population., Objective: With the goal of providing a comprehensive understanding of the health status of older adults and to inform potential interventions, we investigated the level of disability and identified risk factors associated with disability among the older population (aged ≥60 years) living in China., Methods: A total of 8467 older adults living in the Chinese city of Shenzhen were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. We used a multidimensional ability assessment survey, which assessed their activities of daily living (ADL; including eating, bathing, grooming, dressing, defecation control, urination control, using a toilet unaided, transfer, flat-ground walking, stair activity), mental status (including cognitive function, aggressive behavior, depression symptoms), sensory and communication (including consciousness level, vision, hearing, communication), and social participation (including living, working, time/space orientation, distinguish persons, social communication) abilities. The impact of demographic risk factors on ability levels was analyzed using ordinal logistic regression. The correlations between the four dimensions of ability mentioned above were analyzed using Spearman correlation analysis., Results: A total of 7766 participants were effectively assessed. The participants' average age was 70.64 (SD 8.46) years comprising 56.53% females. The overall ability level was classified as mildly, moderately, and severely impaired for 27.57% (n=2141), 2.83% (n=220), and 4.28% (n=332) of the 7766 participants, respectively. With increasing age, the proportion of impaired participants increased from 17.62% (365/2071) in the age group 60-64 years to 91.3% (253/277) in the age group above 90 years (P<.001), corresponding to an approximate 10% rise for every 5-year age increment. The odds of having more severe overall ability impairment in females was 1.15 times that in males (odds ratio [OR] 1.15, 95% CI 1.04-1.28). Participants who were divorced or widowed had a higher risk of more severe overall ability impairment than those currently married (OR 1.98, 95% CI 1.68-2.33). Participants living with nonrelatives had an increased risk of more severe overall ability impairment than those living alone (OR 2.38, 95% CI 1.46-3.91). Higher education level was a protective factor of overall ability impairment (college degree or above: OR 0.32, 95% CI 0.24-0.42). The four dimensions of ability assessed were significantly correlated; a low score for ADL was significantly correlated with poorer mental status, sensory and communication, and social participation (all P<.001)., Conclusions: The proportion of disability among Chinese older adults increases with age, being female, having lower education levels, being divorced or widowed, and living with nonrelatives. Impairment in ADL ability is significantly correlated with poor mental status, social participation, and sensory and communication abilities. A holistic approach to improving the health of the older population is recommended in China., (©Jing Wang, Patrick Kwan, Gong Zhang, Mingwang Shen, Loretta Piccenna, Terence J O’Brien, Lei Zhang. Originally published in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (https://publichealth.jmir.org), 10.08.2023.)