Educational Psychology Commons^™

Accreditation Standards And Quality Assurance Among Education Faculties Of The Jordanian Universities, Omar Al-Kharabsheh, Abedullah Al-Habahbah, Asma Al-Jaafrah

Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies

The aim of this study is to identify the required standards from the faculties of education in the Jordanian universities, in addition to the work required in achieving those standards in order to reach both private and general academic accreditation. Outcomes of this accreditation will assure an acceptable quality of graduates’ students which in turns could reflect positively at the work market and quality assurance eventually. The study presented a number of Arabic and international experiences in the field of academic accreditation. As well as it presented the general standards for accreditations for the Jordanian universities, and the private standards …

Culture, Timothy B. Smith, Melanie M. Domenech-Rodriguez, Guillermo Bernal

Psychology Faculty Publications

This article summarizes the definitions, means, and research of adapting psychotherapy to clients' cultural backgrounds. We begin by reviewing the prevailing definitions of cultural adaptation and providing a clinical example. We present an original meta-analysis of 65 experimental and quasi-experimental studies involving 8,620 participants. The omnibus effect size of d = .46 indicates that treatments specifically adapted for clients of color were moderately more effective with that clientele than traditional treatments. The most effective treatments tended to be those with greater numbers of cultural adaptations. Mental health services targeted to a specific cultural group were several times more effective than …

An Evaluation Of The Christa Mcauliffe Space Education Center Programs, Shelley Diane Ellington

Theses and Dissertations

Recent calls for better education have many teachers trying out new ways to engage their students and teach them required content. In the current educational atmosphere of accountability, many people are beginning to question the effectiveness and utility of their educational programs. The Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center (CMSEC) is one such program. Key aspects addressed in this study included better understanding the essence of the CMSEC experience, whether it provides any beneficial impact to visitors, and how the CMSEC programs fit into the educational spectrum. An exploratory mixed-method design (utilizing focus groups, interviews, and surveys) was used to explore …

Perspectives Of Suburban Public School Teachers On The Characteristics Of Students At-Risk For Dropping Out Of School, Michael J. Sollitto, Robert K. Gable

K-12 Education

This study focuses on a major problem facing today’s educators: high school dropouts. Numerous studies have been conducted to identify the reasons that students drop out of school and programs that may address the needs of students at-risk for dropping out of school. Literature in this area was reviewed to identify what can be learned from these studies. Research questions addressed differences in teacher perspectives of the characteristics of elementary, middle, and high school struggling students. Differences in teachers’ perspectives based on tenure and type of teaching assignment were examined. A sequential, mixed methods approach was taken. The researchers began …

Effects Of Relaxation And Deep-Breathing On High School Students: Act Prep, Heidi A. Larson, Angela M. Yoder, Shannon Brucker, Jiwon Lee, Fred Washburn, Danessa Perdieu, Catherine L. Polydore, Jennifer R. Rose

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

The purpose of this study was to relieve test anxiety in high school juniors preparing to take the ACT: a high-stakes, college admissions, standardized test. Participants included 81 eleventh grade students (25 males, 56 females) from a Midwestern public high school. Results demonstrated that relaxation training in the experimental group significantly lowered student’s perceptions of test anxiety from pre-test to post-test. Further research regarding systematic deep breathing and relaxation techniques is needed.

Crisis Preparedness: Do School Administrators And First Responders Feel Ready To Act?, David J. Alba, Robert K. Gable

K-12 Education

A majority of public school districts have developed crisis preparedness plans; however, policy and procedural implementation is inconsistent across schools, districts, and states. Furthermore, while the literature regarding best practice in school safety recommends conducting a variety of drills in conjunction with first responders, there is little research literature that examines the perceptions of the personnel responsible for the planning and implementation of these types of collaborative efforts (Graham, Shirm, Liggin, Aitken, & Dick, 2006; Kano & Bourque, 2007; United States Government Accounting Office, 2007). This study explored the perceptions of 60 Rhode Island school principals, three district-level administrators, and …

Beginning Teachers’ Perceptions Of Preparedness To Differentiate Instruction For Diverse Learners, Michelle K. Casey, Robert K. Gable

K-12 Education

A two-phase, sequential mixed-methods design was used to assess perceptions of Preparedness (28 items, alpha = .96) to differentiate instruction for N = 36 graduates from one MAT teacher preparation program. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA and t-test procedures. A focus group with N = 10 purposively selected 2010 graduates and interviews with N = 2 graduates each from the 2008 and 2009 classes, and N = 2 faculty were conducted. The following areas presented challenges to teachers when attempting differentiation: pre-existing ideas of how to teach which contradict differentiation, misinformation regarding differentiation, and classroom management skills. …

Identifying The Knowledge, Skills And Competences For Nanoscience And Nanotechnology Research, Deepa Nathamuni Chari, Robert Howard, Brian Bowe

Articles

Nanoscience and nanotechnology research has influenced the research activities in various scientific disciplines such as physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, molecular biology and biotechnology. The postgraduate researchers working on nanoscience and nanotechnology related research projects in any of these scientific disciplines experience the world of nanoscience and nanotechnology research closely. The examinations of the postgraduate researchers’ lived experiences can certainly unfold the characteristics of nanoscience research as experienced by the researchers themselves and can further illuminate the knowledge, skills and competences required to successfully undertake this research.

An Investigation Of Brain Games As A Potential Non-Pharmaceutical Alternative For The Treatment Of Adhd, Stacy C. Wegrzyn

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

This study sought to determine if the daily use of brain games such as Nintendo DS Brain Age could increase the engagement of students with ADHD. The findings bridge the gap between prior research on the frontal lobe’s connection to ADHD and the studies that have indicated brain games can stimulate this area of the brain. Based on the compilation of data, there is hope for ADHD patients searching for an alternative to medication. Data from seven of the nine instruments utilized in this study support the overarching hypothesis that the daily use of brain games can help decrease the …

Psi Chi Journal Now Serves All Psi Chi Members, Melanie M. Domenech-Rodriguez

Psychology Faculty Publications

The Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research has undergone an exciting transformation into the Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research, a peer-reviewed, indexed journal, that now accepts manuscripts from all Psi Chi members. This change provides an excellent opportunity to review the evolution of the Journal and submission criteria as well as the twists and turns that the life of a submitted manuscript takes potential authors through once manuscripts are entrusted to the Psi Chi Journal team.

High School Dropouts Returning To Study: The Influence Of The Teacher And Family During Secondary School, Robert Whannell, William Allen

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This study investigated the influence of the teacher and family relationships during secondary school for 18 to 22 year old students who had dropped out of secondary school and were attempting to gain access to tertiary study through a tertiary bridging program at a regional university. 144 students from two student cohorts completed a questionnaire intended to facilitate an understanding of how social context influenced secondary school attrition. It was identified that students who had not completed secondary school reported significantly lower levels of emotional engagement with school and poorer relationships with teachers. The study concluded that the residential situation …

Behind Cultural Competence: The Role Of Causal Attribution In Multicultural Teacher Education, Yan Yang, Diane Montgomery

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In an attempt to bridge the gap between achievement motivation and multicultural teacher education, this study explored the relationship between causal attribution of cultural awareness and cultural competence among preservice teachers. Participants were 793 preservice teachers from two large public universities who reported their causal attributions of cultural awareness and their cultural competence. Canonical correlation analysis results showed two significant relationships between causal attribution and cultural competence. Personal control over the causes of cultural awareness was found to be positively related to praxis, i.e., behavioral outcome; whereas attributions to internal and stable causes were positively associated with knowledge as major …

Contentious Conversations, Leah A. Zuidema

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The idea of joining a conversation through reading and writing is not new; in his 1941 book "The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action," Kenneth Burke suggests that the acts of reading and writing are like entering a parlor where others are already conversing. The author explores the place of professional debate within NCTE and in the pages of "English Journal". Regardless, by reading these pages, one is entering into a conversation that is already underway.

Participational Agency, Stephen C. Yanchar

Faculty Publications

Participational agency is presented as a conceptual account of human action, volition, and possibility. Rooted in hermeneutic and narrative traditions, this view differs from other theorizing about agency (and most psychological theorizing in general) in that it makes no effort to explain human action by virtue of reified constructs. As an alternative to traditional theorizing in this area, participational agency is defined as meaningful engagement in the world and treats the experienced meaningfulness of practical human activity as its central feature. The concept of meaningful engagement is clarified through the presentation of four related themes—situated participation, existential concern, dispositional action, …

Writing From Sources And Learners Of English For Academic Purposes: Insights From The Perspectives Of The Applied Linguistics Researcher, The Program Coordinator, And The Classroom Teacher, Robb Mark Mccollum

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the challenges faced by learners of English for academic purposes (EAP) when required to complete writing assignments that use source texts. In order to address this problem, I explore the issue from the perspectives of applied linguistic researchers, writing program administrators, and classroom composition instructors. These three perspectives are highlighted in distinct articles that build on one another to create a more complete understanding of the challenges that EAP students face when writing from sources. The first article contains a literature review of relevant studies that explore the reading-to-write construct. Experts suggest that unintentional plagiarism, or patchwriting, …

The Relationship Between Graduate Counseling Students’ Meaning In Life And Their Crisis, Lorraine M. Dinkel

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Viktor Frankl published Man’s Search for Meaning in 1946, documenting the horrors of the concentration camps. Based on his prison experience in the camps, Frankl (1984) believed that meaning in life could be found in suffering. The theoretical framework for this research study was based on Frankl’s theory of logotherapy, an extension of existentialism. In today’s society, we can find many parallels to Frankl’s descriptions of suffering in the natural and human-made disasters that have occurred such as the 1999 shooting at Columbine, the levee failure in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina, the floods in the spring of 2011 in the …

Creative Learning For Challenging Times: The Promise And Peril Of Risk, Michele M. Welkener

Counselor Education and Human Services Faculty Publications

We are in an unprecedented time when it comes to the world’s complexity—never has the need been greater for students to be prepared to think for themselves and act creatively to solve perplexing problems. As an artist, faculty member and administrator in higher education, faculty developer, and researcher of creativity in college students, I am passionate about creating environments where students can exercise such skills. In the art culture, risk, experimentation, exploration, and even failure are expected routes that lead to finding one’s own style, voice, and signature statement. My awareness of these expectations first began to intensify as I …

Examining The Relationship Between Fact Learning And Higher Order Learning Via Retrieval Practice, Pooja Kay Agarwal '01

Doctoral Dissertations

The development of higher order skills is a desired outcome of education. Some believe that higher order learning can be improved directly, whereas others argue that higher order learning can be improved via the enhancement of factual or conceptual knowledge. The relationship between fact and higher order learning is often speculated, but empirically unknown.

This project examines whether retrieval practice via quizzing, a strategy typically used to enhance fact learning, can be used as a strategy to improve higher order skills in both laboratory and applied settings. In the current study, higher order skills were considered to comprise the understand, …

Prosocial Behavior As A Protective Factor For Children's Peer Victimization, Emily R. Griese

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to investigate the protective role prosocial behaviors may serve for victimized children. Although a significant portion of the victimization literature focuses on the association of victimization with negative outcomes, research findings suggest a need to examine the heterogeneity also apparent in children’s responses to victimization. By beginning to examine the variability in children’s responses to peer victimization, researchers can gain insight into the dynamic process of peer victimization and begin to define what factors might distinguish children who show resiliency to negative effects from victimization from those who do not. Research examining the protective …

Implicit Beliefs About Writing: A Task-Specific Study Of Implicit Beliefs, Kyle R. Perry

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study investigated students’ implicit beliefs about a writing task. Implicit beliefs are defined as the unconscious cognitive constructs that influence motivation, behavior, and affect (Bruning, Dempsey, Kauffman, & Zumbrunn, 2011). Studies regarding implicit beliefs are applied to many constructs, ranging in specificity from domain-general beliefs such as epistemological beliefs (Schommer, 1990) to domain-specific beliefs such as reading (Schraw & Bruning, 1999). In the present study, implicit beliefs about a specific writing task are compared to implicit beliefs about intelligence, demographic information, and participants’ educational background experiences. Research is reviewed pertaining to a variety of studies of implicit beliefs. One …