Education Commons^™

Development And Initial Validation Of The Mindful Self-Regulated Learning Scale (M-Srls), Sarah Wolff

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Modern mindfulness is a catch-all term. Just exactly what it looks like within the context of education and how it is taught vastly varies. As such, program fidelity and integrity is questioned. Here a definition of mindful self-regulated learning is proposed and the Mindful Self-Regulated Learning Scale (m-SRLS) is developed. This includes item generation and development, systematic testing of item performance, scale dimensionality, convergent and divergent validity, measurement invariance across groups and subgroups, and scale reliability over a series of five pilot studies and five primary studies using independent samples. The resulting m-SRLS is a context specific measurement tool that …

Gambling Education Programs For Adolescents: A Systematic Review, Brittany Keen, Alex Blaszczynski, Fadi Anjoul

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Around two thirds of Australian adolescents aged 10-14 years old have gambled in the last year, and rates of problem gambling are up to four times higher among adolescents than in the adult population. Schools provide a unique opportunity to intervene in cognitive and behavioural development, and while several gambling education programs exist in schools across Australia and internationally, few have been empirically evaluated. The purpose of this review was to provide a systematic appraisal of the published research on gambling education programs for adolescents. The review aimed to identify the number and quality of studies that have evaluated gambling …

Reducing Court-Related Stress Through Court Education: Examining Child Witnesses, Attorneys And Parents, Brittnie Turquoise Watkins

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Court education presents a useful approach to addressing children's stress, anxiety or fear related to testifying. The current study uses a pretest-posttest design to evaluate whether Kids' Court School (KCS), a court education program in Clark County, Nevada, reduces court-related stress in child witnesses. In addition, attorneys' and parents' concerns related to various elements of the child's impending testimony, are evaluated. The measure used to assess stress was the Court-Related Stress Scale (CRSS), a 10-item Likert scale adapted from the Stressfulness of Life Scale. In addition, open-ended questions were posed at the time of posttest. The CRSS was administered to …

Cyberbullying Policy In Public Schools, Alison Humphries

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Many schools and school districts have had direct experience with the negative psychological effects of cyberbullying in their schools, ranging from high profile suicides to lower profile incidents that affect the ability of students to receive an education. Federal, state, and local regulations, as well as mandates from state educational agencies, require schools and school districts to address cyberbullying. Experts advocate that schools play a major role in addressing cyberbullying with anti-bullying policies in general and anti-cyberbullying policies in particular. This study presents case study portraits of two exemplary school districts, with a comparison to similar school districts, suggesting that …

Enhancing The Calibration Accuracy Of Adult Learners: A Multifaceted Intervention, Antonio P. Gutierrez

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The present study employs the Nelson and Narens Model of Metacognition (NNMM) to examine the influence of metacognitive strategy training and extrinsic incentives on performance, level of confidence, and the calibration accuracy of undergraduate students' metacognitive judgments within a pretest/posttest experimental design. Calibration of performance is crucial because it allows learners to engage in appropriate comprehension monitoring during a learning episode. As metacognition implies, those individuals who are better calibrators can more adequately adapt to the demands of the situation (monitoring), and thereby better prepare for learning episodes that are similar in format or content (control). Consequently, this aids in …

The Effect Of Pre-Collaborative Activity Instruction On Self-Efficacy, Robert Ray Mattson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Collaborative learning is increasing in popularity in education. This collaborative pedagogy is based on a significant body of research that shows positive learning gains. Additionally, given the nature of much of the information-age work, it is thought that such collaborative activity in school helps develop knowledge, skills and attitudes that will be beneficial to students in their post-college lives.

In spite of collaborative learning's increasing use and popularity, there is only limited research on how students feel about such methods and their level of confidence in their collaborative knowledge, skills and attitudes. Based on the current theories about self-efficacy, delineated …

Change Is Learning: Metacognition To Resolve Concerns During The Third Year Of The Implementation Of A Technological Innovation, Nola Allen-Raffail

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

"We are living in a time of change. Rather than viewing change as a painful course of action, let's develop an understanding of how it works, how to facilitate the process, and how to learn from our experiences" (Hall & Hord, 2011, p. 18).

This study used a snapshot of a private Kindergarten-12^th grade school during the third year of the implementation of a technological innovation (RenWeb) to investigate teacher concerns during the process of change and gain insights into individuals' use of metacognition to resolve those concerns. Two primary research instruments were used, the Stages of Concern Questionnaire …

Being Outside Learning About Science Is Amazing: A Mixed Methods Study, Michelle L. Weibel

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study used a convergent parallel mixed methods design to examine teachers' environmental attitudes and concerns about an outdoor educational field trip. Converging both quantitative data (Environmental Attitudes Scale and teacher demographics) and qualitative data (Open-Ended Statements of Concern and interviews) facilitated interpretation. Research has shown that adults' attitudes toward the environment strongly influence children's attitudes regarding the environment. Science teachers' attitudes toward nature and attitudes toward children's field experiences influence the number and types of field trips teachers take. Measuring teacher attitudes is a way to assess teacher beliefs.

The one day outdoor field trip had significant outcomes for …

The Relationship Between The Functions Of School Refusal Behavior And Family Environment, Rachel Marie Schafer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The current study examined the relationship between the functions of school refusal behavior and family environment characteristics in a community sample of youth. The primary aim was to determine the family environments most strongly associated with each function of school refusal behavior in an ethnically diverse, community-based sample of youths referred to the legal process for absenteeism. Hypotheses for the current study were based on the premise that family environment characteristics of the community sample of youths with problematic absenteeism would generally resemble those identified in previous clinical samples. The first hypothesis was that youth who refuse school primarily to …

The Relationship Between Participation In Extracurricular Activities And Utah's Proficiency Assessments Of Students In A Suburban School District, Everett N. Kelepolo

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to discover whether a relationship exists between participation in extracurricular activities and meeting Utah proficiency assessment standards. This study took place in a suburban school district in the state of Utah.

Throughout the history of public education, economic hardships have wreaked havoc on school systems that depend on public sources of income. Schools today are managing these budget restraints by reducing or eliminating extracurricular programs.

The relationship between academic success and participating in extracurricular activities is found concretely in the research data. However, schools must make budget decisions which place activities and academics in …

Resilient Leadership In High Poverty Schools, Edward P. San Nicolas

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Children in high poverty schools often receive inadequate services in dilapidated facilities while enduring inexperienced and unprepared educators (Darling-Hammond, 2004). Communities with a dense impoverished population in turn create school wide poverty, which is ultimately more detrimental than individual family poverty (Books, 2004). With most teachers leaving impoverished urban schools within the first five years, it is no surprise of the difficulty to retain qualified and professional school leaders. As suggested by Haberman (2005), attracting educators with specific qualities to fill these critical roles may be the best route to lasting success. Equally important is the possibility to transform existing …