Self-Assessment and Remediation Using Cognitive Structure Analysis Greatly
Improve Test Performance in Younger and Older Religious Studies Students

Janat Bajwa; John Leddo

doi:10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i10.018

Title: Self-Assessment and Remediation Using Cognitive Structure Analysis Greatly Improve Test Performance in Younger and Older Religious Studies Students
Authors: Janat Bajwa and John Leddo
Journal: International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research (IJSSER) ISSN: 2455-8834 Volume: 11 Issue: 10 Publication Date: October 2026 DOI: 10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i10.018
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Janat Bajwa1 and John Leddo1,2,3 1. MyEdMaster, LLC, Virginia, USA 2. METY Technology, Inc., Virginia, USA 3. METY Foundation, Virginia, USA
MLA 8 Bajwa, Janat, and John Leddo. "Self-Assessment and Remediation Using Cognitive Structure Analysis Greatly Improve Test Performance in Younger and Older Religious Studies Students." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, vol. 11, no. 10, Oct. 2026, pp. 5672-5690, doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i10.018. Accessed Oct. 2026. APA 6 Bajwa, J., & Leddo, J. (2026, October). Self-Assessment and Remediation Using Cognitive Structure Analysis Greatly Improve Test Performance in Younger and Older Religious Studies Students. Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, 11(10), 5672-5690. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i10.018 Chicago Bajwa, Janat, and John Leddo. "Self-Assessment and Remediation Using Cognitive Structure Analysis Greatly Improve Test Performance in Younger and Older Religious Studies Students." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research 11, no. 10 (October 2026), 5672-5690. Accessed October, 2026. https://doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i10.018.
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ABSTRACT: Low student performance continues to plague educational systems around the world. The US, for example, has invested billions of dollars in educational reform over the past 50 years in the hope of dramatically raising student achievement but with little to show for this investment. Our previous research shows that Cognitive Structure Analysis-based assessment greatly improves student performance and can bridge the racial achievement gap between Black/Hispanic and White/Asian students. This study investigated whether Cognitive Structure Analysis (CSA)-based self-assessment and remediation using artificial intelligence-generated templates would improve academic performance among younger and older students studying Islamic religious studies in Spain. Participants were 28 students attending two religious studies classes at separate mosques within the Nasirat ut Ahmaddiya network: 20 students aged 7–9 years and eight students aged 14–16 years. Within each age group, half the students used an age-appropriate, Spanish-language CSA self-assessment template following classroom instruction, while the remaining students studied without self-assessment. Among younger students, the self-assessment group improved by a statistically-significant 19.7 percentage points compared with a non-statistically-significant 1.1 points for the no-self-assessment group; the difference in improvement was significant, Welch’s t(12.36) = 5.57, p < .001, Hedges’ g = 2.38. Among older students, the self-assessment group improved by statistically-significant 29.25 percentage points compared with a non-statistically significant 1.0 point for the no-self-assessment group; this difference in improvement was also significant, Welch’s t(5.74) = 2.71, p < .05, Hedges’ g = 1.66. These findings provide evidence that AI-generated CSA self-assessment and remediation can improve academic performance across substantially different age groups and can be implemented in Spanish within regular religious-studies instruction.

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