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Online peer assessment (OPA) has been increasingly adopted to develop students' higher-order thinking (HOT). However, there has not been a synthesis of research findings on its effects. To fill this gap, 17 papers (published from 2000 to 2022) that reported either a comparison between a group using OPA (n = 7; k = 22) and a control group or a pre-post comparison (n = 10; k = 17) were reviewed in this meta-analysis. The overall effect of OPA on HOT was significant (g = 0.76). Furthermore, OPA exerted more significant effects on convergent HOT (eg, critical thinking, reasoning and reflective thinking; g = 0.97) than on divergent HOT (eg, creativity and problem-solving; g = 0.38). Reciprocal roles and anonymity were found to positively moderate the impacts of OPA on HOT, although their moderating effects were not statistically significant because of small sample size of studies in the analysis. The results of the meta-analysis reinforce the arguments for regarding OPA as a powerful learning tool to facilitate students' HOT development and reveal important factors that should be considered when adopting OPA to enhance students' HOT.

The self-system model of motivational development was used in this study to examine whether and how student motivation and self-assessment practices--as psychological and behavioural mechanisms, respectively--link need-supportive teaching to students' objective achievement scores in English language learning. We applied a multilevel mediation analysis on Rasch-calibrated data from 796 students (53% females; mean age = 14.12, SD = 1.51) nested within 30 classes (mean class size = 26.53) in a secondary school in the Philippines. We collected all predictor variables (i.e. need-supportive teaching, motivation, self-assessment practice) in time 1, while achievement scores were collected eight weeks later (time 2). Lower-level mediation results show that students' perceptions of involved teaching and structured teaching are associated with higher controlled motivation and autonomous motivation. Furthermore, only autonomous motivation was associated with higher achievement in time 2. Self-assessment practice significantly mediated the link between both controlled and autonomous motivation to achievement. These results held while controlling for age, gender, and socioeconomic status. Hence, involved teaching and structured teaching correlated with higher motivation and increased self-assessment practice, which, in turn, leads to higher achievement in English language learning. The findings highlight that motivation and self-assessment practices are psychological and behavioural pathways that can theoretically and empirically explain how need-supportive teaching practices impact student achievement in a specific subject. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Despite the general consensus on the positive impact of formative assessment on student learning, researchers have not shown the underlying mechanisms between specific formative assessment strategies and academic performance on an international sample. This study examines the link between student and teacher reports of teachers' formative assessment strategies (i.e. clarifying goals and monitoring progress, providing feedback, and instructional adjustments) and students' reading achievement, based on data from 151,969 fifteen-year-olds in 5,225 schools in 19 countries/regions in PISA 2018 via multilevel analysis of plausible values. The results show that clarifying goals and monitoring progress, and instruction adjustments are positively linked to reading achievement, but providing feedback alone has no significant impact. These findings highlight the complexity of formative assessment as a multifaceted concept and the different impacts of formative assessment strategies on student learning. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

Abstract Intratumoral immune status influences tumor therapeutic response, but it remains largely unclear how the status determines therapies for patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Here, we examine the single-cell transcriptional and TCR profiles of 18 tumor tissues pre- and post- therapy of gemcitabine plus oxaliplatin, in combination with lenvatinib and anti-PD1 antibody for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. We find that high CD8 GZMB+ and CD8 proliferating proportions and a low Macro CD5L+ proportion predict good response to the therapy. In patients with a poor response, the CD8 GZMB+ and CD8 proliferating proportions are increased, but the CD8 GZMK+ proportion is decreased after the therapy. Transition of CD8 proliferating and CD8 GZMB+ to CD8 GZMK+ facilitates good response to the therapy, while Macro CD5L+–CD8 GZMB+ crosstalk impairs the response by increasing CTLA4 in CD8 GZMB+. Anti-CTLA4 antibody reverses resistance of the therapy in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Our data provide a resource for predicting response of the combination therapy and highlight the importance of CD8+T-cell status conversion and exhaustion induced by Macro CD5L+ in influencing the response, suggesting future avenues for cancer treatment optimization.

Cardiomyocyte apoptosis is an important cause of trauma-induced secondary cardiac injury (TISCI), in which the endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS)-mediated apoptosis signaling pathway is known to be first activated, but the mechanism remains unclear. In this study, rat models of traumatic injury are established by using the Noble-Collip trauma device. The expression of glucose-regulating protein 78 (GRP78, a molecular chaperone of the cardiomyocyte ER), acetylation modification of GRP78 and apoptosis of cardiomyocytes are determined. The results show that ERS-induced GRP78 elevation does not induce cardiomyocyte apoptosis in the early stage of trauma. However, with prolonged ERS, the GRP78 acetylation level is elevated, and the apoptosis of cardiomyocytes also increases significantly. In addition, in the early stage of trauma, the expression of histone acetyl-transferase (HAT) P300 is increased and that of histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) is decreased in cardiomyocytes. Inhibition of HDAC function could induce the apoptosis of traumatic cardiomyocytes by increasing the acetylation level of GRP78. Our present study demonstrates for the first time that post-traumatic protracted ERS can promote cardiomyocyte apoptosis by increasing the acetylation level of GRP78, which may provide an experimental basis for seeking early molecular events of TISCI.

Social contagion has been documented across various domains. However, this phenomenon has not been explored in relation to formative assessment in schools. This study examines the social contagion of school teachers' formative assessment practices and self-efficacy. A sample of 296 teachers from 12 Hong Kong primary and secondary schools participated in this study. All participants completed the same questionnaire twice, one year apart. The longitudinal results showed that formative assessment practices and self-efficacy were socially contagious. When teachers had colleagues who engaged in formative assessment practices and had high self-efficacy, they were more likely to engage in formative assessment and become more efficacious themselves. Also, school-level formative assessment self-efficacy predicted individual-level formative assessment practices demonstrating the importance of collective efficacy. The findings can inform the provision of school support and the design of teacher professional development programmes for promoting formative assessment in schools.

Based on the self-system processes model of motivation, we explored the mediating role of academic self-concept in the relationship between perseverance of effort and self-assessment. The results showed that perseverance of effort has a positive but not statistically significant association with self-assessment when controlling academic self-concept. The results supported our hypotheses that academic self-concept, whether at the domain-specific or component-specific level, significantly mediated the effect of the perseverance of effort on self-assessment, lending empirical support to the closer conceptual link between self-perceptions and self-assessment practices in learning. The results contribute to the literature of the three research lines (grit, academic self-concept and self-assessment) and suggest that academic self-concept enhancement interventions are beneficial not only to academic achievement based on the reciprocal relationship that has been well documented in the self-concept literature but also to self-assessment in the light of the self-system processes model of motivation.

Developing students' self-regulated learning (SRL) is crucial for nurturing the life-long learners needed in modern and future society. This study adopted structural equation modelling to explore the relationships among self-regulatory climate, group regulation in project-based learning (PBL) and individual regulatory ability. The results indicate that (i) group regulation has a significant positive effect on SRL ability; (ii) self-regulatory climate (i.e. academic emphasis and teacher trust in students) have significant positive effects on both group regulation and SRL ability; and (iii) student trust in teachers has a negative effect on group regulation and a positive effect on SRL ability. A combination of three approaches (i.e., the explicit, implicit and immersion) is recommended to generate convergent forces to efficiently cultivate self-regulatory learners.

Successful implementation of formative assessment in classrooms relies on teachers' formative assessment literacy, which is typically supported by professional development programs. This study reports on the impact of a professional development program on a group of in-service primary teachers in Hong Kong. The authors investigated the effectiveness of the program in developing teachers' formative assessment literacy and how far the program assisted them in addressing the challenges they faced when implementing formative assessment in classrooms. With a mixed-method design, quantitative data were collected with a pre- and post-program survey (N = 27); qualitative data were collected with open-ended survey questions and a focus group with six participating teachers. The results provide evidence of the program's success in developing teachers' formative assessment literacy and equipping them with the necessary skills to address the challenges in implementation. The features of professional learning communities embedded in the program contributed to the positive impact of the program.

It has been suggested for many years that students who are able to judge their own performance should do well in academic assessments. Despite the increasing number of empirical studies investigating the effect of self-assessment on academic performance, there has not been a recent synthesis of findings in the higher education context. The current meta-analysis aims to synthesise the effects of self-assessment on academic performance. In particular, it examines the difference between situations in which the process of self-assessment is revealed or observable (explicit) or not revealed or unobservable (implicit). A total of 98 effect sizes from 26 studies either reported a comparison between a group with self-assessment interventions and a control group (n = 20, k = 88) or a pre-post comparison (n = 6, k = 10). The overall effect of such interventions was significant (g = 0.455). Self-assessment interventions involving explicit feedback from others on students' performance had a significantly larger effect size (g = 0.664) than those without explicit feedback (g = 0.213). There were no other significant moderators identified for either the overall effect or the effect of interventions involving explicit feedback.

We investigated the relationship between the scores assigned by an Automated Essay Scoring (AES) system, the Intelligent Essay Assessor (IEA), and grades allocated by trained, professional human raters to English essay writing by instigating two procedures novel to written-language assessment: the logistic transformation of AES raw scores into hierarchically ordered grades, and the co-calibration of all essay scoring data in a single Rasch measurement framework. A total of 3453 essays were written by 589 US students (in Grades 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12), in response to 18 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) writing prompts at three grade levels (4, 8, & 12). We randomly assigned one of two versions of the assessment, A or B, to each student. Each version comprised a narrative (N), an informative (I), and a persuasive (P) prompt. Nineteen experienced assessors graded the essays holistically using NAEP scoring guidelines, using a rotating plan in which each essay was rated by four raters. Each essay was additionally scored using the IEA. We estimated the effects of rater, prompt, student, and rubric by using a Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (MFRM) model. Last, within a single Rasch measurement scale, we co-calibrated the students' grades from human raters and their grades from the IEA to compare them. The AES machine maintained equivalence with human scored ratings and were more consistent than those from human raters.

Background: As health coaching is becoming more popular as a health promotion intervention tool, there is a lack of empirical evidence to understand the clients' experience in the peer health coaching program among college students. Purpose: This qualitative study explored the experiences and perceptions of the health coaching clients following an 8-week peer health coaching intervention in college. Method: A total of 14 student clients (female, n = 9, 57% White) from the health coaching program participated in the focus group, following an 8-week peer health coaching program. The semistructured focus group guide was developed to understand their experience. Results: Clients' positive experience in the health coaching program contributed to transformative outcomes, including behavioral outcomes and goal achievement, well-being and personal growth, and self-empowerment, with the coaching relationship mediating the relationship and the coaching modality moderating the relationship. Discussion: The health coaching experience facilitated lifestyle changes, helped clients gain self-efficacy and confidence to manage their health and wellbeing and provided an overall caring, enjoyable, supportive experience. The bonding with the peer health coaches provided important social support for the student clients. Translation to Health Education Practice: A peer health coaching program can be a cost-effective option for health promotion on college campuses.

Abstract Background Cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury (CIRI) is the main cause leading to high mortality and neurological disability in patients with cardiac arrest/cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CA/CPR). Our previous study found that extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) activation, dynamin-related protein1 (Drp1)/Mitofusin2 (Mfn2)-dependent mitochondrial dynamics imbalance, and excessive autophagy were involved in the mechanism of nerve injury after CA/CPR. However, the specific pathological signaling pathway is still unknown. This study aimed to explore the molecular function changes of ERK-Drp1/Mfn2-autophagy signaling pathway in SH-SY5Y cell oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) model, to further clarify the pathophysiological mechanism of CIRI, and to provide a new strategy for cerebral protection after CIRI. Methods SH-SY5Y cells were pretreated with drugs 24 h before OGD/R. The Drp1 and Mfn2 knockdown were adopted small interfering RNAs. The overexpression of p-Drp1S616 and Mfn2 were used recombinant plasmids. The expression levels of mitochondrial dynamics proteins (p-Drp1, Drp1, Mfn2, Mfn1 and Opa1) and autophagy markers (LC3, Beclin1 and p62) were measured with the Western blotting. The mRNA levels after transfection were determined by PCR. Cell injury and viability were evaluated with released LDH activity and CCK8 assay kits. Mitochondria morphology and autophagosome were observed under transmission electron microscopy. Mitochondrial function was detected by the mitochondrial permeability transition pore assay kit. The co-expression of p-ERK, p-Drp1 and LC3 was assessed with multiple immunofluorescences. One-way analysis of variance followed by least significance difference post hoc analysis (for equal homogeneity) or Dunnett’s T3 test (for unequal homogeneity) were used for statistical tests. Results ERK inhibitor-PD98059 (PD) protects SH-SY5Y cells from OGD/R-induced injury; while ERK activator-TPA had the opposite effect. Similar to autophagy inhibitor 3-MA, PD downregulated autophagy to improve cell viability; while autophagy activator-rapamycin further aggravated cell death. PD and Drp1-knockdown synergistically attenuated OGD/R-induced Drp1 activation, mPTP opening and cell injury; overexpression of Drp1S616E or ablating Mfn2 partly abolished the protective effects of PD. Multiple immunofluorescences showed that p-ERK, p-Drp1 and LC3 were co-expressed. Conclusion Inhibition of ERK downregulates autophagy via reducing Drp1/Mfn2-dependent mitochondrial fragmentation to antagonize mitochondrial dysfunction and promotes cell survival in the SH-SY5Y cells OGD/R model. Video Abstract