Educational Psychology Commons^™

The Critical Social Ecology Of Student Success In Higher Education: A Transformative Mixed Methods Study Of Undergraduates' Experiences And Outcomes At The City University Of New York (Cuny), Leigh Shebanie Mccallen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Ensuring success in higher education among historically underserved students is integral to social equity and mobility in the United States today. Scholars have called for research examining the complexity of factors determining educational pathways of students encountering circumstances that hinder progress toward a college degree in the context of broad-access public four-year universities and two-year community colleges, institutions most affected by declining federal and state support for higher education. The current research proposed a multidisciplinary applied model of underserved college student success to examine factors constraining and promoting the educational outcomes and social opportunities of undergraduate low-income, first in family …

Understanding The High School Dropout Process Through Student Engagement And School Processes: Evidence From The Educational Longitudinal Study Of 2002, Tara Marie Mastrorilli

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Dropping out of school has been viewed as a final stage in a cumulative process of disengagement. In recent years, the construct of engagement has received increased attention leading policymakers and scholars to suggest that efforts to increase engagement in school could reduce high school dropout rates. Using data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), this study examined the predictive relationship between tenth-grade students’ engagement and dropping out of high school. Engagement was viewed as a meta-construct comprised of multiple dimensions within three domains: behavioral, emotional, and cognitive. Additionally, this study examined how school processes, specifically administrator control …

The Relationship Between Fragile Self-Esteem, Mindfulness, And Hostile Attribution Style, Robyn L. Haertel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study aimed to expand upon existing literature pertaining to self-perception, awareness towards the environment, and related attributions. Specifically, mindfulness and self-esteem, as well as the subset of fragile self-esteem, were examined as predictors of a hostile attribution style (HAS). Additionally, self-esteem and fragile self-esteem were investigated as correlates of mindfulness. Undergraduate students from across the country were invited via social media to participate in this online study. A total of 190 students completed four surveys used for data analyses: the Mindful-Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS; Brown & Ryan, 2003), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RES; Rosenberg 1965), Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale (CSWS; …

Effects Of Two Prereading Activities On Comprehending Science Text: Reading Abridged Text And Learning Vocabulary Words, Audrey J. Fowler

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study examined the effects of two prereading activities designed to improve fifth-grade students’ vocabulary learning and comprehension of science textbook content containing those words. Ninety-three fifth grade students participated in this study. The prereading activities consisted of students reading an abridged version of the text or receiving instruction on vocabulary words drawn from the text before reading the full text once. Students receiving these treatments were compared to a control condition in which students reread the full text passage twice but did not receive any prereading treatment. Students were grouped by reading ability levels into above average, average, …

Examination Of The Impact Of Students' Skill Levels On The Effectiveness Of Evidence-Based Interventions For Improving Mathematics Fluency, Erica Fanning

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent years, many schools have attempted to address the academic difficulties of students with the use of response to intervention (RTI). RTI is a framework for matching instructional interventions with students’ academic skills in order to inform high-quality, evidence-based instruction. Numerous interventions, which have been derived from the acquisition and fluency stages of the instructional hierarchy, have been found to be effective. The present study employed a single-case multiple baseline across subjects design with an embedded alternating treatments design to examine the impact of students’ instructional level on the effectiveness of various interventions (fluency, peer tutoring, and combined, which …

Preparing Teachers To Work With Students With Emotional Regulation Difficulties, Dana E. Gottesman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Difficulty with emotional regulation is a symptom common to many child psychological disorders and classroom-related problems. However, many children with emotional regulation difficulties do not receive adequate support in their classrooms. Although a variety of procedures have been used to help students improve their emotional regulation, there are very few studies that focus on training teachers to deliver classroom-based interventions that are designed to target a broad range of children with difficulties in emotional regulation. This current investigation measured the impact of a professional development program on emotional regulation on teachers’ responses to students with emotional regulation difficulties and their …

Alien, Illegal, Undocumented: Labeling, Context, And Worldview In The Immigration Debate And In The Lives Of Undocumented Youth, David A. Caicedo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A key element of investigating attitudes towards unauthorized immigrants in the United States has been political orientation, yet few studies have examined the influence of such orientation on labels relevant to the immigration debate. The current dissertation project examined these attitudes among young adults using survey, focus group, and interview methodologies. Level of agreement on various statements regarding unauthorized immigrants was examined in Study I, definitions given for the labels ‘illegal’ and ‘undocumented’ were explored in Study II, and the lived experience of undocumented youth in two community colleges was investigated in Study III. It was hypothesized that: I) attitudes …

Effectiveness Of A Partial Read-Aloud Test Accommodation To Assess Reading Comprehension In Students With A Reading Disability, Michelle Marie Giusto

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study explored the potential effectiveness of a partial read-aloud accommodation on the reading comprehension scores of third grade students classified as poor decoders. Past research has explored the use of an accommodation in which the test items are read aloud to students. These studies have demonstrated that reading an entire test aloud results in gains for both students with reading disabilities and their peers reading on grade level, thus invalidating this procedure as an appropriate test accommodation. To be appropriate, a test accommodation must benefit only the students with reading disabilities, not their grade level peers. Previous research has …

Policy Implications Of A Predictive Validity Study Of The Specialized High School Admissions Test At Three Elite New York City High Schools, Jonathan James Taylor

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although admission to New York City's elite public high schools has been controversial because of the disproportionate representation by ethnicity and gender of students admitted, there has been no research on the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT), the sole admissions criterion. This dissertation had four primary questions: (1) What is the predictive validity of the SHSAT? (2) Would the use of NYC achievement test scores improve prediction? (3) Does the SHSAT exhibit equal predictive validity across gender? and (4) Do disadvantaged students admitted to the Discovery Program with test scores below the cutoff earn grades comparable to regularly admitted …

The Relationship Between A Norm Referenced Measure Of Theory Of Mind And Preschoolers' Social Skills In The Classroom, Sarah Ellen Birch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study sought to examine the effect of Theory of Mind (ToM) performance as measured by a norm-referenced assessment on the social skills of a multicultural group of preschool students. This study extends the current research in this area. Most previous studies examined the relationship among ToM, other social cognitive skills and social skills using participants from predominately Caucasian middle class families (Slaughter et al., 2015). Additionally, earlier research relied primarily on homemade measures of such skills (Cassidy et al., 2003; Disendruck & Ben-Eliyahu, 2006; McAlister & Peterson, 2013; Watson et al., 1999; Walker, 2005).

Participants included 67 children between …

Using A Multisystemic Approach To Examine Youth Risky Sexual Attitudes And Behavior, Chamane Melissa Simpson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The current investigation examined the relationship between the risky sexual attitudes/behavior of 18 to 24 year old college students (N = 250) and variables from the self-, family, and peer systems. The variables that were used to predict participants' risky sexual attitudes and behavior included gender, three self-esteem constructs (i.e., global self-esteem level and parental/peer approval contingent self-esteem), and participants' perceptions of their parent/caregiver and peer's attitudes toward risky sex. Lastly, social desirability was used as a control variable.

Taken together, the goals of the study were to: (a) determine whether global self-esteem level or parental/peer approval contingent self-esteem would …

A Spelling Pronunciation Strategy Helps College Students Remember How To Spell Difficult Words, Turkan Ocal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Drake and Ehri (1984) showed that children could utilize a spelling pronunciation strategy in order to remember spellings of words. One purpose of the current study was to determine whether college students could also benefit from a spelling pronunciation strategy in remembering spellings of 20 commonly misspelled words. The second aim of the study was to examine the contribution of decoding skill, exposure to print and vocabulary knowledge in explaining variance in general spelling ability of college students. Based on Share's (1995) self-teaching hypothesis, each of these predictors was expected to explain unique variance in the ability to remember the …

Identifying Risk And Protective Factors Associated With The Relationship Between Developmental Delays And Behavior Problems In An Urban Sample Of Preschool Children, Jaclyn Weber Babcock

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine how child-specific variables, such as the type and/or level of developmental delay, and family variables, such as family functioning, parenting stress, and parenting self-esteem, relate to the behavior problems in an urban sample of minority preschool children with developmental delays. Participants were 72 parents of preschool children between the ages of 3 - 5 years currently living in Brooklyn, NY, Queens, NY or Jersey City, NJ. Parents in the sample were classified into two groups, parents of "Typically Developing" preschoolers (n = 20) and parents of preschoolers who were considered to have …

The Relationship Between Teacher Training, Perceptions Of School Violence, And Burnout., Kristi Lynn Geissler

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study seeks to contribute to the limited body of literature addressing teachers and school violence (SV). The development of SV is analyzed through an ecological perspective (i.e., Bronfenbrenner, 1979), that allows consideration of how SV is influenced by individual, classroom, school, and community factors. Literature suggests that few teachers report feeling prepared to respond to instances of violence prior to entering the field (Kandakai & King, 2002) and that it is not clear if teachers are receiving adequate training to equip them with strategies and coping skills for dealing with SV (Espelage et al., 2013; Sela-Shayovitz, 2009). The …

Designing Instruction For Recovering Alcoholics: The Role Of Executive Function And Levels Of Guidance In Learning From Visually Complex Simulations, Jeffrey Gutkin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study examines the design of visually complex science simulations. Building upon an earlier study by Homer and Plass (2014), the current research determines under which circumstances adult learners, and alcoholics in recovery, would perform better from while learning with different levels of guidance. It was predicted that alcoholic adults in recovery would have impaired Executive Function (EF) as compared to controls selected from the general population and that EF would affect learning. An experiment investigated whether levels of EF predict learning from simulations that offered higher or lower levels of instructional guidance. Participants were 76 adults, half of …

The Effect Of Orthographic Mapping, Context, And Word Class On Sight Word Learning For Native And Nonnative English-Speakers, Katharine Pace Miles

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study investigated three questions: 1.) Does training in orthographic mapping better support flashcard reading over a control group, 2.) Does providing meaning clarifications during flashcard reading better support learning over not providing meanings, 3.) Does grammatical word class affect word learning, and 4.) Do these manipulations affect word learning differently in native and nonnative speakers? Additionally, this study investigated whether literacy and language skills predict the reading of words presented in isolation. Native (n = 40) and nonnative (n = 41) English-speaking kindergarten students' were randomly assigned to either the orthographic mapping or control condition prior to flashcard word …

The Effects Of School Autonomy On Students' Reading Achievement In Early Grades: A Dose-Response Treatment Approach, Esther Ferreira Dos Santos Carvalhaes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

School autonomy is at the core of influential educational policies aimed at improving school effectiveness and students' academic performance both in the United States and abroad. Initiatives that promote a transfer of authority from higher levels of the school system to local schools, such as the charter school movement and School-Based Management (SBM), have become increasingly popular in the last two decades. These initiatives operate under the premise that local stakeholders (principals, teachers, and parents) understand their students' needs better than higher-level administrators, which enables them to make better educational decisions regarding students' academic success. However, despite the prominence of …

Study To Investigate Self-Reported Teacher Absenteeism And Desire To Leave Teaching As They Relate To Teacher-Reported Teaching Satisfaction, Job-Related Stress, Symptoms Of Depression, Irrational Beliefs, And Self- Efficacy, Georgina Ruth Green

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study aimed to examine teacher-reported absenteeism and intention to leave the profession by investigating the relationships between teachers' demographic characteristics, self-rated teaching-related stress, job satisfaction, symptoms of depression, irrational beliefs, and self-efficacy. According to Steers and Rhodes' (1978; Rhodes & Steers, 1990) theory of employee absenteeism, employees are absent from or leave their jobs because of personal factors that influence or are associated with their ability to attend work, and motivational factors that relate to job satisfaction. Teacher characteristics such as age, gender, number of children, ethnicity, education level, and years of teaching experience frequently relate to absenteeism and …

Reexamining Linguistic Relativity: What Adult Bilinguals Can Teach Us About Culture, Language, And Cognition, Natalya Petroff

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Extending Whorf's popular notion of linguistic relativity (LR) to bilingual contexts, one would argue that a speaker's first language (L1) influences her thinking and behavior under second language (L2) conditions. According to one interpretation of LR, inter-language relativity, L1 instills in its speakers habitual ways of thinking and thus influences their perception and categorization in L2 contexts. Under intra-speaker relativity, bilinguals follow either L1 or L2 patterns of performance, depending on L2 proficiency. Finally, according to usage-based accounts of language, there is no qualitative difference between mono- and bilingual speakers, and a bilingual's performance under L2 conditions is best viewed …

Enhancing Self-Monitoring And Self-Reflection Through A Self-Regulatory Skills Intervention Embedded In A Middle School Mathematics Curriculum, Gregory Digiacomo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a self-regulatory strategy intervention designed to improve participants' calibration accuracy, self-regulatory skills, and math achievement. Monitoring and self-reflection processes were the main focus of this intervention as they are key processes in many well-validated models of self-regulated learning and have been found to impact academic achievement and overall self-regulatory skill (Bol et al., 2010; Dunlosky & Rawson, 2011; Hacker et al., 2008; Nietfeld et al., 2005). The participants were 30 sixth and seventh grade students who were learning about probability as part of their normal math curriculum during the …

Internalizing Disorders In Early Childhood: Professional Development Framework For Teachers, Danielle Guttman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Recent research indicates that internalizing disorders such as depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) manifest in young children. Since early childhood teachers spend a substantial portion of their day with young children, it is important to examine their beliefs and behaviors surrounding these disorders. The role of the school psychologist has come to include providing support for educators such as presenting up-to-date research through professional development (PD). The current investigation implemented an intervention designed to compare different forms of PD seminars ("Information" and "Strategies") designed to increase teachers' awareness of internalizing disorders in early childhood. Ninety-nine participants comprised the …

Use Of An Interdependent Group Contingency To Improve Homework Completion, Homework Accuracy, And Achievement Of High School Students With Disabilities, Maria Carrino Kennedy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Homework is a frequently utilized teaching strategy in elementary and secondary classrooms. The completion of homework has been shown to have a strong positive effect on students' academic achievement across content and ability levels. Moreover, research suggests a stronger positive relationship between homework and achievement at the upper grade levels. Numerous interventions, both at home and at school, have been employed to increase students' level of homework completion and/or accuracy. The present investigation employed a single-subject reversal design to examine the effectiveness of an interdependent group contingency, with randomized components, on the homework completion, homework accuracy, and the academic achievement …

Formative Assessment Through Written Feedback: Examining Elementary School Teachers' Written Feedback Beliefs And Practices, And The Effect Of Models On Written Feedback, Caterina Almendral

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The current study explored three main aspects relating to the use of written feedback as a formative assessment tool: the types (form or content) of written feedback provided by elementary school teachers and the levels (task, process-Self-Regulation) at which those types of feedback are provided; whether elementary school teacher beliefs about written feedback principles and their own written feedback practice correspond to the actual written feedback they provide; and whether exposure to a model of written feedback influences teacher written feedback practice.

Data were collected from 188 elementary school teachers spirally assigned to five groups (four treatment, one control). Treatment …

How Much Value Is Added By Value Added Models? An Analysis Of Teachers’ Performance Over Time Using New York State Assessment Data, Mariana Ristea

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There is a strong movement to evaluate teachers on the basis of students’ performance. To compare teachers fairly, as each may have a mixture of students with different abilities in a given subject area, one should account for variables reflective of students’ subject knowledge and background when entering a course. Most methods of control consist of highly sophisticated statistical models mostly difficult to explain to educators who are being evaluated using such methods. This research presents two value-added methods that could be replicated by using in-house resources and standardized student assessment data which are either continuous or ordinal. One method …

A Comparison Of Vocabulary Learning From Joint Reading Of Narrative And Informational Books With Dual Language Learner Children, Deborah Bergman Deitcher

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A Comparison of Vocabulary Learning From Joint Reading of

Narrative and Informational Books With Dual Language Learner Children

By: Deborah Bergman Deitcher

Advisor: Professor Helen L. Johnson

This study examined joint reading of narrative and informational texts in the home setting, between parents and their English-Hebrew dual language learning preschool children. Parent-child dyads were video-recorded while reading two sets of books; each set contained one narrative and one informational text on the same theme. Children's target word learning of 48 target words (12 words per book) of varying difficulty levels was measured from pretest to posttest. Results showed that children …

Principals' Perceptions Of Teacher Ineffectiveness In Elementary Classrooms And How They Relate To Specific Content Areas, Steven Franklin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The current dissertation was effected to contribute to the existing literature on teacher evaluation. More specifically, the study utilized principals' perceptions to identify what principals, who often evaluate teachers, believe are the most frequent causes of teacher ineffectiveness. For this dissertation, the researcher extended a study by Torff and Sessions (2005). In that study, the authors measured principals' perceptions of the causes of teacher ineffectiveness within high school classrooms. This study extended Torff and Sessions' (2005) research by including elementary school principal perceptions, investigating whether differences exist in elementary school principals' perceptions when asked to rate teacher ineffectiveness across specific …

Ideology And Decision Making In School-Based Counseling, Michelle Klein Brenner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study built on the design and results from the pilot study in an attempt to explore the relationship between psychologists' personal ideologies and the decisions they make in school-based counseling. Of particular interest was whether higher levels of self-reported ideology were related to support of relevant school policies. Participants included 166 psychologists who responded to an online survey that included questions related to personal and professional ideologies, attitudes toward school policies, training and preparedness in four areas of interest, and hypothetical scenarios. Consistency among responses in areas including theoretical orientation, political party, and training and preparedness in ethics …

Health Habits, Wellness, And Behavior Of Male Student Athletes Participating In High School Sports, Michelle D. Lividini

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Muscle Dysmorphia (MD) is a pathological preoccupation with muscularity, more common in men than in women. MD is estimated to affect several hundreds of thousands of individuals. There has been little research related to MD in the male adolescent population and the prevalence is unknown. The mean age of onset of MD is estimated to be 19 years, and sports participation increases the risk for developing MD as well as other psychological difficulties. The pilot study revealed a potential relationship between MD symptoms and athletic and academic performance, low levels of self-esteem, high levels of perfectionist qualities, and use of …

Effects Of Video-Based Peer Modeling On The Question Asking, Reading Motivation And Text Comprehension Of Struggling Adolescent Readers, Kallen E. Tsikalas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Struggling adolescent readers are distinct from others in two important ways: (1) They are adolescents; and (2) they have a history of struggle with reading.

Good pedagogy prescribes that effective programs "meet students where they are." For middle-school students, this means meeting them in adolescence. Adolescents are more concerned with social norms and more susceptible to peer influence than younger children. Additionally, the fact that these youth are still struggling after years of reading instruction suggests that their motivation to persist at reading is likely to have suffered. To fully support and engage such adolescents, reading programs must leverage social …

The Influence Of Cross-Linguistic Input And L2 Proficiency On L2 Reading Comprehension Among Spanish-Speaking Adults Learning English As A Second Language, Astrid Sussette Rodríguez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Developing literacy and language proficiency in English is essential to thrive in school and in the workforce in American society. Research on cross-linguistic influences on text-level skills is scant, especially studies investigating reading comprehension among language-minority adults. The present study investigated the effects of cross-linguistic input and second language proficiency on second language reading comprehension among Spanish-speaking adults enrolled in English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at a community college in New York City. The main research question was whether language-minority adults would comprehend printed text better if they read it in Spanish (L1) followed by English (L2) than …