Educational Psychology Commons^™

Where Do You Want To Get To? Effective Professional Learning Begins With A Clear Destination In Mind, Thomas R. Guskey

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

Educators often shy away from evaluating professional learning experiences because they believe the process requires knowledge and skills they don’t possess. In truth, evaluation is a relatively simple process that begins by answering three essential questions.

Assessing Stem Literacy In An Informal Learning Environment, Maureen Ann Lafemina Cavalcanti

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This mixed methods study investigated methods for assessing STEM literacy amongst middle grades students participating in an informal learning environment, specifically, a summer STEM camp. Adopting a situated perspective on STEM literacy, this dissertation employed psychometric techniques and discourse analysis to answer the overarching research question: How can STEM literacy amongst middle school students be assessed in the context of a summer STEM camp? An integrated review of literacy within and across STEM disciplines first offered a new direction for conceptualizing STEM literacy. With this understanding, subsequent research methods applied novel approaches for investigating STEM literacy in the context of …

The Exploration Of Teacher Efficacy And Influences Of Context At Two Rural Appalachian High Schools, Justin Aaron Blevins

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

This study examines teachers’ sense of personal and collective efficacy in two similar schools in Appalachian communities that achieved different results regarding students’ accountability test scores. Prior work in teacher efficacy, which is predominantly quantitative, is extended by the addition of teacher interviews that explore how teachers define the problems they face regarding student performance and how they work individually and collectively on strategies to support students’ success. The findings support that teachers with higher levels of efficacy in their work are associated with higher levels of student success. Further, the study offers insights into how teachers perceive problems and …

What Do Teachers Think About Educational Psychology? Developing And Validating The Educational Psychology Practitioner Scale, Lauren D. Hargrave

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the Educational Psychology Practitioner Scale (EPPS), which was designed to (a) assess the practices, training, and skills of educational psychologists and (b) determine their utility among K-12 schools classroom teachers. Study participants included 161 K-12 teachers across 21 states within the United States. An exploratory factor analysis yielded a 25-item, unidimensional scale. Correlating the EPPS with the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001) and the Job Satisfaction Scale (Warner, 1973) provided discriminant validity for the scale. Study limitations and future research directions are discussed.

Teaching Social Skills To Individuals With Comorbid Down Syndrome And Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Single-Subject Design Study, Matthew A. Cody Davis

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Social skills are important for building and maintaining relationships, effective communication, and providing appropriate responses within social contexts. Deficits in social skills are often exhibited in individuals with comorbid Down syndrome (DS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Peer-delivered interventions and other behavioral techniques for teaching specific social skills show effectiveness; however, the paucity of intervention research including individuals with DS-ASD has resulted in little guidance for how best to teach social skills and ensure generalization and maintenance. In the present study, a multiple probe study across behaviors, replicated across participants, assessed the effectiveness of peer-delivered simultaneous prompting in teaching socials …

Learning Spaces And Self-Efficacy In Undergraduate Statistics, Renae Mantooth

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Learning environment research has typically focused on factors other than the physical environment (e.g., student/teacher relationships, organizational structure). This study investigated the relationship between the physical classroom environment and entry-level undergraduate statistics students’ (N = 844) academic beliefs and performance. Students were taught in either a technology-enhanced active learning classroom or a traditional lecture hall. This study investigated how undergraduate students in an entry level statistics course a) perceived the importance of the physical learning environment, b) conveyed expectations for and experiences of active engagement within that environment, and c) self-reported their personal capability judgments. Data were analyzed by …

“I Wonder What You Think Of Me”: A Qualitative Approach To Examining Stereotype Awareness In Appalachian Students, Chelsea G. Adams

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Historically, Appalachia has been stereotyped as being a culture bred in poverty and ignorance. Much research has shown that stereotyping reveals a pattern of behavioral change and an impact on psychological well-being for the stereotyped (e.g., Pinel, 1999; Woodcock, Jernandez, Estrada, & Schultz, 2012), and has largely been centered on race and gender (e.g., Byrnes, 2008; Tuckman & Monetti, 2011). Less is known about the development of culture-specific stereotypes such as those related to Appalachians – a highly stigmatized group (Daniels, 2014; Otto, 2002). The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of how adolescents in rural Appalachia …

What Can Parents Do? Examining The Role Of Parental Support On The Negative Relationship Between Racial Discrimination, Depression, And Drug Use Among African American Youth, Tamika C. B. Zapolski, Sycarah Fisher, Wei-Wen Hsu, Jessica Barnes

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

African American youth who experience racial discrimination are at heightened risk to use drugs as a coping response to distress. Based on the buffer-stress hypothesis, we proposed that parental support would attenuate this effect. Participants were 1,521 African American youth between 4th and 12th grade. As hypothesized, a mediation pathway was observed among racial discrimination, depression symptoms, and drug use. This effect was observed for both genders, although the pathway was partially mediated for males. In addition, as hypothesized, parental support buffered the negative effect of depression symptomatology on drug use as a consequence of discrimination. Our findings highlight the …

Guage Impact With Five Levels Of Data, Thomas R. Guskey

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

Effective professional learning evaluation requires consideration of five critical stages or levels of information (Guskey, 2000a, 2002a, 2005). These five levels represent an adaptation of an evaluation model developed by Kirkpatrick (1959, 1998) for judging the value of supervisory training programs in business and industry. The five levels in this model are hierarchically arranged, from simple to more complex. With each succeeding level, the process of gathering evaluation data requires more time and resources. And because each level builds on those that come before, success at one level is usually necessary for success at higher levels.

Development Of A Self-Efficacy Scale For Teachers Who Teach Kids With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Abigail M. A. Love

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

This study aimed to measure teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Teacher self-efficacy refers to the belief teachers hold about their ability to affect student learning and has been shown to change teachers’ motivation, stress levels, and amount of given effort (Klassen, Tze, Betts, & Gordon, 2011). Numerous studies have dealt with the measurement of this construct and developed measures that assess teachers in different domains and populations; however, only one study (Ruble, Toland, Birdwhistell, McGrew, & Usher, 2013) has attempted to measure within the population of students with ASD. The purpose of the current study …

Am I Able To Predict How I Will Do? Examining Calibration In An Undergraduate Biology Course, Trisha A. Turner

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Students who are self-regulated are more likely to succeed academically, whereas students who have deficiencies in their learning have been recognized as having a lack of metacognitive awareness (Valdez, 2013; Zimmerman, 2002). If students are metacognitively unaware in large introductory courses, they may have difficulty knowing when to self-regulate and modify their learning (Lin & Zabrucky, 1998; Stone, 2000). One manner in which researchers have assessed students’ metacognitive awareness is by asking students to estimate how they think they will do on tasks compared to their actual performance, known as calibration. The purpose of this study was to examine students’ …

Aspects Of Science Engagement, Student Background, And School Characteristics: Impact On Science Achievement Of U.S. Students, Larry J. Grabau

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Science achievement of U.S. students has lagged significantly behind other nations; educational reformers have suggested science engagement may enhance this critical measure. The 2006 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) was science-focused and measured science achievement along with nine aspects of science engagement: science self-efficacy, science self-concept, enjoyment of science, general interest in learning science, instrumental motivation for science, future-oriented science motivation, general value of science, personal value of science, and science-related activities.

I used multilevel modeling techniques to address both aspects of science engagement and science achievement as outcome variables in the context of student background and school characteristics. …

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between The Teachers' Sense Of Efficacy Scale And Preschool Children's Literacy Outcomes: Multilevel Longitudinal Modeling And Longitudinal Measurement Invariance, Caroline J. Gooden

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

The current study examined associations between teacher characteristics and child literacy outcomes in a Kentucky preschool sample. The study also examined the psychometric properties of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES; Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001), a frequently used measure of teacher self-efficacy. A widely used preschool assessment instrument, Teaching Strategies GOLD^® (GOLD; Heroman, Burts, Berke, & Bickart, 2010), measured child literacy progress. Psychometric examination included confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) and longitudinal measurement invariance (LMI) of TSES scores. Statistical analyses included longitudinal growth modeling of TSES scores and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) of TSES and child GOLD literacy …

Longitudinal Analysis For Ordinal Data Through Multilevel And Item Response Modeling: Applications To Child Observation Record (Cor), Zijia Li

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

The large proportion of children from low SES backgrounds and the increasing achievement gap between disadvantaged children and their more advantaged peers are beckoning national attention to investment in early childhood education (Reid, Kagan, Hilton, & Potter, 2015). As evidenced in many research studies (e.g., Heckman & Masterov, 2007), early childhood experiences are critical to the development of children. High-quality early learning is necessary for children, especially disadvantaged children, to narrow the school readiness gap and to build a foundation for more advanced academic, social, and cognitive skills. Importantly, high quality assessment tools (i.e., reliability and validity evidence supporting the …

Then And Now: An Analysis Of Broad-Based Merit Aid Initial Eligibility Policies After Twenty Years, William K. Ingle, Jason R. Ratliff

Kentucky Journal of Higher Education Policy and Practice

Using Hall’s framework of policy changes, we sought to document and classify changes in initial eligibility and award provisions of broad-based merit aid scholarship programs at inception and present day. Our analysis revealed five first-order changes, two second-order changes, and only one third order change. Although the policy settings, instruments, and goals remained static in five states, the scholarship dollars in four of them have not kept up with increases in overall cost of attendance.

“Warming Up” In The Developmental Sequence? Upward Transfer Conditional On Dependency Status, Cody Davidson, Kristin B. Wilson

Kentucky Journal of Higher Education Policy and Practice

The purpose of this study was to determine predictor factors of upward transfer for Kentucky community college students enrolled in a developmental algebra course. For independent students, a mother with a college degree, a declared major, a federal work-study position, greater adjusted gross income, and a higher grade point average was positively correlated with upward transfer. For dependent students, a father with a college degree, a declared major, and a higher grade point average was positively correlated with upward transfer.

An Examination Of The Association Between Student-Teacher Interactions And Academic Self-Concept Among African American Male High School Students, Lauren D. Hargrave

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Students generally spend more than ten years interacting with teachers in a classroom and thus, such interactions can have a positive or negative impact on students’ academic self-concept and educational goals (Rosenthal, Folse, Allerman, Boudreaux, Soper, & Von Bergen, 2000). The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a significant relationship between student-teacher interactions and academic self-concept. Participants in the study include African American male high school students in an urban school district. The independent variable is the student-teacher interactions, as measured by the Student-Professor Interaction Scale (Cokley et al., 2004). The dependent variable is the students’ …

Connecting The Dots: Social Capital And The College-Going Beliefs Of Rural Appalachian Students, Amanda R. Butz

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

First-generation students and students of lower socioeconomic status often prepare for postsecondary education without the benefit of information provided by their families, resulting in lower levels of college access (Lundberg, 2007). Few researchers have sought to understand how potential first-generation college students might go about obtaining the necessary information for a successful transition to college. The purpose of this dissertation was to determine to whom students talk about college and to explore the potential reciprocal relationship between resources for and information about college provided by others and students’ educational beliefs.

This dissertation consisted of two empirical studies. In the first …

Effects Of Headings On Processing Of Audio Texts, Hung-Tao Chen

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Text-to-speech devices often do a poor job of translating signals such as headings from visual into audio mode. Previous research studies have attempted to address this problem but these studies have mainly used heading detection tasks. The current study seeks to investigate 1) whether listeners find the presence of audio headings useful in natural learning tasks, and 2) the type of heading rendering that is most useful in natural learning tasks. The three learning tasks in this study include note-taking, cued recall, and knowledge transfer. Results from this study reveal that listeners find audio headings useful in the note-taking task. …

Exploring The Significance Of Social Influences On Epistemic Beliefs, David D. Gatsos

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

This document proceeds from an interest in applying theories of student development to higher education policy. The process sobered me from idealistic expectations of profundity to focus on adding relevant building blocks to the established foundation of epistemological development. Progress was found in moving toward clarifying what happens during the change process as a student moves from naïve to mature beliefs. Lead forth out of this ambiguity, unearthing the nature of social influences as a player in the developmental process became a target of this work.

Moving toward a deeper understanding of how concepts of attachment, naiveté, authority, and potential …

An Examination Of The Psychometric Properties Of The Working Model Of The Child Interview Coding Scheme With Biological Mothers Who Have Maltreated, Brian D. Gustman

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

There are hundreds of thousands of children living in foster care in the United States on any given day. Mental health professionals may be called upon to assist with evaluating the parental capacity of these children’s parents in order to inform reunification decisions. One of the key parental capacity domains to be evaluated is the relationship between parent and child (Schmidt et al., 2007). The Working Model of the Child Interview coding scheme (WMCI; Zeanah et al., 1996) is one tool for evaluating this relationship. There is a significant practice-to-research gap with this measure. To date, no peer-reviewed studies have …

The Short Grit Scale: A Dimensionality Analysis, Caihong Li

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

This study aimed to examine the internal structure, score reliability, scoring, and interpretation of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S; Duckworth & Quinn, 2009) using a sample of engineering students (N = 610) from one large southeastern university located in the United States. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare four competing theoretical models: (a) a unidimensional model, (b) a two-factor model, (c) a second-order model, and (d) a bi-factor model. Given that researchers have used Grit-S as a single factor, a unidimensional model was examined. Two-factor and second-order models were considered based upon the work done by Duckworth, Peterson, …

The Relationships Among Creativity, Grit, Academic Motivation, And Academic Success In College Students, Joanne P. Rojas

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Creativity research is an underdeveloped area of educational psychology. For example, studies of students’ creativity as a predictor of academic achievement are uncommon in the field. Moreover, perseverance—which is an integral part of the definition of creativity (Sternberg, 2012)—is not typically measured in creativity research. To address these issues, the current study sought to discern within an academic context whether perseverance serves as a mediating factor between creativity and academic achievement. Two undergraduate student samples (N = 817; N = 187) participated in a survey measuring their creativity and perseverance. This multiple manuscript dissertation sought to examine the psychometric …

Examining The Associations Of Racism, Sexism, And Stressful Life Events On Psychological Distress Among African-American Women, Danelle Stevens-Watkins, Brea Perry, Erin L. Pullen, Jennifer Jewell, Carrie B. Oser

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

African-American women may be susceptible to stressful events and adverse health outcomes as a result of their distinct social location at the intersection of gender and race. Here, racism and sexism are examined concurrently using survey data from 204 African-American women residing in a southeastern U.S. urban city. Associations among racism, sexism, and stressful events across social roles and contexts (i.e., social network loss, motherhood and childbirth, employment and finances, personal illness and injury, and victimization) are investigated. Then, the relationships among these stressors on psychological distress are compared, and a moderation model is explored. Findings suggest that racism and …

Parenting Styles And Adjustment Outcomes Among College Students, Keisha M. Love, Deneia M. Thomas

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

Research has demonstrated that parenting styles partially explain college students’ academic adjustment. However, to account for academic adjustment more fully, additional contributors should be identified and tested. We examined the fit of a hypothesized model consisting of parenting styles, indicators of well-being, and academic adjustment among 315 college students. The model demonstrated a close fit to the data and contained several significant paths.

Measuring Undergraduate Students’ Engineering Self-Efficacy: A Scale Validation Study, Natasha Johanna A. Mamaril

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate engineering self-efficacy measures for undergraduate students (N = 321) and to examine whether students' engineering self-efficacy differed by gender, year level, and major. The relationships between engineering self-efficacy and academic achievement and intent to persist in engineering were also investigated. Data from engineering students from two southeastern universities were collected in spring 2013. Exploratory factor analyses resulted in a unidimensional general engineering self-efficacy scale and a three-factor (i.e., research skills, tinkering skills, and engineering design) engineering skills self-efficacy scale. Multivariate analyses of variance revealed that self-efficacy did not differ by …

Long-Term Trends Of Participation In Physical Activity During Adolescence With Educational Ambition And Attainment, Frances Jillian Priesmeyer

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Insufficient physical activity is a serious concern for the youth of this nation. In 2008, more than one third of children and adolescents could be classified as either obese or overweight (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). Poor nutrition and lack of physical activity are two major factors contributing to this epidemic. A physically active lifestyle during youth not only improves physical health, but has also been shown to improve emotional health, behavior, and academic performance. It is important that this area of research is continued and expanded so appropriate educational policies that support the health and well-being of …

Predictors Of Academic Success Among African American College Students, La Toya Bianca Smith

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

African American students are graduating from high school and enrolling in higher educational institutions at greater rates than in previous years (U.S. Department of Education, 2009). Yet, they have not achieved the same level of academic success as their racial counterparts (American Council on Education, 2010; Ross, 2012). Ultimately, this disparity has resulted in only 17.7% of the African American population 25 years of age and older having at least a Bachelor’s degree (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2012). Many researchers have employed comparative study designs to explore this disparity. Additionally, researchers commonly study academic success through the exploration of intrapsychic …

Investigating Ability Grouping And Self-Efficacy In Middle Grade Mathematics, Ashley G. Hall

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Ability grouping has been prevalent in American schools for over a century (Burris & Welner, 2005; Museus, Palmer, Davis & Maramba, 2011; Slavin, 1990). Although ability grouping has been studied in terms of student performance, little research has examined the relationship between this practice and student motivation. The purpose of this study was to examine middle school students’ (N = 2,279) mathematics self-efficacy and its sources in ability grouped mathematics courses in the Southeastern U.S. The study also examined whether students in each ability group were represented proportionately by gender, ethnicity, and SES when compared to the full sample. …

Examining The Influence Of Parents, Teachers, And Neighborhood Safety On African American Adolescents’ Motivation And Achievement, Clarissa R. Roan-Belle

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Guided by the theoretical frameworks of Baumrind’s parenting style theory, interpersonal expectations, Self Determination Theory, and self-efficacy, this study examines factors that influence African American students’ GPA and motivation, specifically associations between parents’ and teachers’ control, warmth, and educational expectations and African American adolescents’ GPA, self-efficacy, and intrinsic motivation were examined. The moderating effects of neighborhood safety on the aforementioned associations were also assessed. Using data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, this study found that parents’ warmth and expectations were positive predictors of all educational variables, while parents control was a negative predictor of GPA and intrinsic motivation. …