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The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

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An Evaluation Of The Right Choices Program To Determine Effectiveness In Delivering Constructive Interventions And Providing An Early Support Program In Order To Modify Behavior Of First-Time Student Offenders Who Commit Drug And Violent Acts, Lisa B. Barnes

Education Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of the study was to perform a program evaluation of the Right Choices Program to determine the program's effectiveness in delivering constructive interventions that modify student behavior once students have left the program and have returned to their regular learning environment. This mixed-method evaluation consisted of an experimental-comparison design approach that included interviews with program participants, completing focus groups, and comparison of the number of out-of-school suspensions that participants received after completing the Right Choices Program.

The researcher and trained interviewers administered a survey to the 16 certified staff members working in the Right Choices Program including the …

Divorce : Supporting Children And Adolescents, Shannon Griffiths

Graduate Research Papers

Divorce impacts millions of families each year. The experience of a divorce is a process rather than a single event. Children and adolescents experience the divorce process differently. Children often go through five grieving stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Divorce can be devastating to adolescents because they have a broader sense of reality and the world as it applies to their life. Older children are often seen as capable of handing the divorce process and asked to make difficult decisions regarding custody. All children and adolescents who experience their parent's divorce should try counseling. The children and adolescents …

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (Ocd), Rhonda Turner, Susan M. Swearer Napolitano

Educational Psychology Papers and Publications

Once thought to be rare, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is currently recognized as the fourth most common psychiatric disorder among adults, following only phobias, substance abuse and major depression. It has been estimated that 1 in 50 adults in the United States currently has OCD.

Covers epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment.

The Future Of Natural Selection Knowledge Measurement: A Reply To Anderson Et Al. (2010), Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

The development of rich, reliable, and robust measures of the composition, structure, and stability of student thinking about core scientific ideas (such as natural selection) remains a complex challenge facing science educators. In their recent article (Nehm & Schonfeld 2008), the authors explored the strengths, weaknesses, and insights provided by a detailed exploration of three commonly used measures of student thinking about natural selection in a large sample of underrepresented minority students. One of their core findings was that all of the tools they studied--including the CINS--have strengths and weaknesses that must be carefully taken into consideration by those …

The Intersection Of Positive Psychology And Teachers' Dispositional Fitness: A Delphi Study, Maria Elizabeth Stimpson

Dissertations

U.S. educators of the 21st century have witnessed renewed attention given to the importance of teacher dispositions as a component of the requisite tripartite of knowledge, skills, and dispositions. In this Delphi study, two previously unaligned constructs, positive psychology and teacher dispositions, were synthesized for the purpose of: a) identifying the most compelling teacher dispositions that infuse positive psychology into positive classroom communities, and b) suggesting observable behaviors that are indicative of teachers' dispositional fitness in positive classroom communities.

Using the Positive Teacher Disposition Index (PTDI), a panel of educators, consisting of classroom teachers, university faculty, and educational administrators selected …

Exploring The Relationship Between Teacher Personality Traits And Teachers' Attitudes And Practices Towards Family-School Partnerships, Anna Rawlings Hamilton

Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study is to determine if there is a relationship between teacher personality traits and teachers' reported attitudes and behaviors towards family-school partnerships. A secondary purpose of this study was to: 1) explore how various teacher demographic impacted attitudes and practices towards partnership, 2) examine if a cultural match between teachers' and students' backgrounds impacts teachers' reported attitudes and practices, and 3) to compare the personality profile of teachers as measured by the Five Factor Model (FFM) to that of the general population.

The participants were 243 practicing teachers in the state of Illinois who completed …

Digital Video Presentation And Student Performance: A Task Technology Fit Perspective, Arjan Raven, Elke M. Leeds, Chongwoo Park

Faculty Publications

The article presents findings of a study regarding the adaptation of the Task Technology Fit (TTF) model in the teaching and learning process in the U.S. It emphasizes the three dimensions of fit, which include the Ease of Learning, Task Match and Ease of Use, which were applied in the context of digital video for oral presentations in the classroom environment. It stresses the importance of the digital technology in education, wherein the results of the study showed significant improvements in the oral presentation skills with the application of digital tools.

The Effect Of Athletic Participation On Academic Achievement For High School Seniors In Eastern Tennessee, David Andrew Gorman

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This causal-comparative study with a narrative component investigated the effect athletic participation on the academic achievement of senior student-athletes and non-athletes who attended three public high schools in Eastern Tennessee. The impetus for the study was the conflicting research as it relates to the impact athletics participation had on academic success at the college and high school levels. Through student athlete and non-athlete comparisons of ACT scores and GPAs, the researcher found athletic participation did not affect academic achievement for high school seniors who graduated in 2009 from the three target high schools when compared to non-athletes. However, statistically significant …

A Delay-Discounting Primer, Gregory J. Madden, Patrick S. Johnson

Psychology Faculty Publications

Given the importance of research findings and the potential of further research to aid in the prediction and control of impulsivity, the primary focus of this chapter (and this book) is on choice and the failure of future events to affect current decisions. In this primer chapter, we consider two types of impulsive choice: (a) preferring a smaller-sooner reward while forgoing a larger-later one and (b) preferring a larger-later aversive outcome over a smaller-sooner one. The first of these is exemplified by the toy-pilfering child with whom we opened this chapter. Taking the toy is immediately rewarded, but it is …

Discounting And Pathological Gambling, Nancy M. Petry, Gregory J. Madden

Psychology Faculty Publications

Pathological gambling is a disorder characterized by excessive gambling. It often occurs in conjunction with substance use disorders, and research is beginning to examine the association between these disorders, especially with regard to impulsivity and discounting. In this chapter, we initially review the diagnosis and prevalence rates of pathological gambling, including its comorbidity with substance use disorders. We then describe relations between personality measures of impulsivity and pathological gambling. Gamblers' patterns of choices on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and measures of delay and probability discounting are covered in depth, and we discuss the degree to which these choices are …

Implicit Theories Of Ability Of Grade 6 Science Students: Relation To Epistemological Beliefs And Academic Motivation And Achievement In Science, Jason Chen, Frank Pajares

Articles

We investigated (a) the associations of implicit theories and epistemological beliefs and their effects on the academic motivation and achievement of students in Grade 6 science and (b) the mean differences of implicit theories, epistemological beliefs, and academic motivation and achievement as a function of gender and race/ethnicity (N = 508). Path analysis revealed that an incremental view of ability had direct and indirect effects on adaptive motivational factors, whereas fixed entity views had direct and indirect effects on maladaptive factors. Epistemological beliefs mediated the influence of implicit theories of ability on achievement goal orientations, self-efficacy, and science achievement. Results …

Comprehensive Validation Of A Measure Of Student School Engagement: A Pilot Study Of Middle School Students, Emma Vazirabadi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although it may sound reasonable that American education continues to be more effective at sending high school students to college, in a study conducted in 2009, The Council of the Great City Schools states that "slightly more than half of entering ninth grade students arrive performing below grade level in reading and math, while one in five entering ninth grade students is more than two years behind grade level...[and] 25% received support in the form of remedial literacy instruction or interventions" (Council of the Great City Schools, 2009). Students are distracted with technology (Lei & Zhao, 2005), family (Xu & …

The Perceptions Of Developmental Therapists About The Influence Of Inner-City Home Environments On Service Delivery, Tywanda Jiles

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Act required that early intervention services for young children from birth to age 3 take place in their natural environment. However, limited research has been conducted on the impact of this requirement on the actual service providers who work within the home environments. Lewin's field theory on behavior, individual person, and the environment formed the theoretical framework for this descriptive case study, which examined the perceptions of developmental therapists on how their service is influenced by the inner-city home environment. Ten developmental therapists in a midwestern metropolitan city were interviewed about their beliefs …

Reflective Thinking And Emotional Intelligence As Predictive Performance Factors In Problem-Based Learning Situations, Kathleen Mitchell-White

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Continued improvement of the training and preparation of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agents is critical to the organization's ability to protect the national security of the United States. Too little attention has been paid to the factors that improve new agent trainees' (NATs) ability to learn and succeed in their training programs. Based on the theories of reflective thinking and emotional intelligence, this nonexperimental, correlational study explored predictors of NATs' (N = 183) performance in problem-based exercises as part of the 20-week training program. Self-report instruments measured levels of critical reflection (CR), emotional intelligence (EQ), and perceived ability …

Implementation Of Response To Intervention Models And Job Satisfaction Of School Psychologists, Stephanie Lois Hill

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Previous research has indicated that school psychologists have greater job satisfaction when they engage in more intervention and consultation activities and fewer assessment activities. The use of response to intervention (RTI) as a way to identify specific learning disabilities is a recent development in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that involves more intervention activities for school psychologists and provides earlier interventions for students. The way that RTI is implemented may affect job satisfaction of school psychologists. Grounded in the theory of work adjustment, this study used a causal comparative design to examine if there is a significant difference between …

A Comparative Study Of Year-Round And Traditional Calendar Schools In Chicago, Andrea Therese Winkelmann

Dissertations

Restructuring the school calendar has been investigated by school districts as a possible way to increase student achievement in order to meet the standards of higher accountability. In order for districts to make sound and informed decisions about year-round schools and to evaluate the effectiveness of calendar differences; educators and administrators need to review the research on this subject. However, the research on year-round schools (YRS) can be misleading, biased, and inconclusive. While increased student achievement would arguably be of importance when researching YRS; demonstrating and reporting student achievement can be challenging.

This study will investigate the academic achievement in …

Home-School Collaboration And Children With Emotional And Behavioral Disorders: An Examination Of School Services, Laura Jean Swanlund

Dissertations

The treatment for childhood emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) is of significant concern within society. The research literature has frequently noted that parental involvement in the treatment of childhood EBD has a positive impact on outcomes in both school and community-based supports. The current study examined the relationship between parent involvement and school services received for children with emotional and behavioral needs. Parents of children with EBD were recruited from one large and two small on-line support groups. Results suggest that parents who reported satisfaction with school teams were more likely to receive research-based services and had a higher rate …

Project Study: An Action Plan For Implementing Response To Intervention, Leah W. Hamilton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 allows schools to utilize response to intervention (RtI) as early intervention to prevent at-risk students from becoming labeled as learning disabled. Using action research methodology and school change theory, the purpose of this project study was to determine the RtI implementation needs of a rural elementary school (LE). The guiding research question was to identify the components of an RtI framework currently being utilized during the pre-referral process at LE. This study employed a qualitative method triangulation design to analyze data from key stakeholders including questionnaires; individual interviews from six reading …

The Role Of The Socio-Cultural And Developmental Context On Special Education, Amanda Lam

CMC Senior Theses

Existing research on inclusive education deals primarily with the effectiveness of inclusion programs and the theoretical frameworks behind their limitation. However, no extensive research has been conducted that explores the role of the socio-cultural context and the development level in determining the best way in which the educational needs of children with special needs can be met. Recognizing that the effectiveness of different special education services may depend on the socio-cultural context as well as the development level, this literature review seeks to identify the ideal method of treating children with disabilities in developed and developing countries. By assessing the …