Educational Psychology Commons^™

Faculty Orientations In Esl Professional Development, Jason T. Jay

Theses and Dissertations

The role of teacher educators is vital to education, but when the population of public-school students shifts, or progress and advances in knowledge of the field or knowledge for teaching emerge, teacher education faces challenges. One such challenge involves a continuing increase in the proportion of second language learners entering primary and secondary schools, English learners (ELs) in this case. In such situations, teacher educators often do not have deep knowledge of second language acquisition or how to integrate attention to ELs within their regular courses. One response to this challenge is to provide professional development (PD) for teacher education …

Disentangling Student Engagement In Afterschool Programs, Ashlee M. Lester

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a line of research exploring the characteristics and role of student engagement in afterschool programs, specifically during early adolescence. The dissertation takes a two-study format, building off of my comprehensive exam Measuring engagement in out-of-school time programs. This first chapter is an introduction in which I will detail the underlying problem that is investigated in the following two manuscripts. Following this introduction, the two separate studies are presented.

An Integrated Exploration Of The Contextual, Relational, And Individual Factors That Impact High School Completion Among African Americans, Lesley B. Winchester

Theses and Dissertations

African American students are consistently reported as having among the lowest high school graduation rates when compared to other races (U.S. Department of Education, 2018). While many studies have sought to explore the potential risks of high school dropout, the intention of this study is to examine the factors that support the exemplary resilience of those students who do complete high school. The present study adopts the framework of García Coll et al.’s, (1996) integrative model of developmental competencies in minority children, as it seeks to identity whether and how contextual (spiritual, educational, cultural); relational (caregiver psychological and physical …

Cyberbullying: School Administrators' Perceptions Of Law And Prevalence, And Their Roles In Prevention, Intervention And Discipline, Suzan Gragg Denby

Theses and Dissertations

This study was aimed at investigating secondary school administrators’ experiences with and their perceptions of cyberbullying, as well as their intervention and prevention procedures. As technology has become ubiquitous in our society, students’ use has increased and impacted the school environment. Given the potential for cyberbullying and the negative effects of such, schools harbor the responsibility to prevent and intervene in such occurrences. This can be a tricky process.

This study included 12 administrators of secondary schools across eight school divisions in Virginia. Through an interview process, administrators spoke of their experiences with technology and cyberbullying incidents, and how they …

Principals' Perceptions Of Brain-Based Learning, Tami Hudson Godman

Theses and Dissertations

The problem addressed by the study was a lack of research on principal’s perceptions of brain-based learning and the potential impact on classroom instruction. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between the principal’s perceptions of brain-based learning and instruction at their schools. The following research has been conducted using a qualitative paradigm. A case study involved a focus group of 12 principals and additional interviews with four of those principals. The qualitative data were thematically coded to provide information on patterns and practices within a variety of schools in the area. The findings offer the educational …

Achievement Motivation In Emerging Adulthood: An Examination Of Overparenting, Need Satisfaction And Frustration, And Goal Complexes, Erin D. Turner Carson

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, helicopter parenting, or overparenting, has become an increasing concern on college campuses. Research has linked overparenting to a variety of maladaptive characteristics and outcomes among emerging adults, but little is known about how overparenting predicts achievement goals. This study used an integrated framework of self-determination theory (SDT) and the hierarchical model of achievement motivation from the achievement goal approach (AGA) to examine how overparenting and the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness predict the endorsement of achievement goal complexes. Participants were 176 emerging adult college students who completed an online survey. Data were analyzed using …

Regression Mixture Models: An Investigation Of The Effects Of Mixing Weights And Predictor Distributions, Phillip Sherlock

Theses and Dissertations

This study focused on understanding how several data characteristics associated with the investigation of effect heterogeneity (i.e., mixing weights, predictor distributions, and the inclusion of covariates) affected enumeration and parameter recovery with regression mixture models. The inclusion of C on X paths, where the latent class, C, is regressed on the predictor, X, allows predictor means to vary across classes, at two points in the model building process—during and after enumeration—was of interest. This main aim was accomplished by comparing the correct enumeration rates and parameter coverage rates with and without freely estimated predictor means across classes for models with …

The Differential Effects Of An Interspersing Procedure Among Students At Different Instructional Levels, Samantha Dehaan Sullivan

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reports the results of a research project that examined the effects of varying rates of reinforcement on students’ math performance and assignment preference. The relationship between students’ instructional level and the rate of reinforcement threshold for influencing assignment preference was also explored. Participants were fourth and fifth grade elementary students who were receiving remedial math services through the school’s Response to Intervention program.

Twenty elementary students (12 females, 8 males) completed all parts of the study and were included in the analyses. All participants completed a series of control-experimental assignment pairs with varying rates of interspersing at each …

Exploring The Influence Of Relational Frame Theory On The Treatment Acceptability Of Noncontingent Reinforcement, Amanda R. Rohan

Theses and Dissertations

Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR), delivered on a fixed-time schedule, is a behavioral and evidence-based intervention recommended by school psychologists that may be underutilized due to resistance to behaviorally-orientated strategies, which often conflict with the child-centered training philosophies of teachers (Bear, 2013). Due to training rooted different learning philosophies, the language and verbal repertoires amongst these professionals may not always be consistent, presenting a barrier to effective communication. Relational Frame Theory (RFT) holds that the core of human language and cognition is the ability to learn to relate terms and ideas and has been effectively used to alleviate communication barriers by expanding …

Teacher Attunement To Bullies And Victims: Effects On Percpetion Of Bullying, Social-Emotional Well-Being And Academic Outcomes, Lauren Elaine Mcguire

Theses and Dissertations

With students spending so much of their time in schools, and bullying negatively affecting many students in a multitude of ways, this study examined the relationship between teacher attunement during the fall term of the students sixth-grade year, to academic competence through the way students perceive the bullying ecology within their school, and how the students report their social-emotional well-being. This study used structural equation modeling in order to assess the relationship between these variables with a subsample of student and school data from twenty schools that participated in the Rural Early Adolescent Learning (REAL) project. The results demonstrated how …

Social Emotional Learning Through Depression Education In A High School Setting, Antonette Minniti

Theses and Dissertations

Education on depression is an important part of social emotional learning. Lacking emotion regulation skills tend to lead to larger problems, such as academic struggles, disconnect from peers, strife at home and trouble in interpersonal relationships. Research in depression education or educational programs connected to mental health literacy are minimal, especially at the high school level. The purpose of this research will focus on examining the impact of one depression education program, John Hopkins Hospital’s Adolescent Depression Awareness Program (ADAP). ADAP is a three-day program that informs students about the facts of depression, how it is treated, and what to …

Why They Stay: Factors Contributing To Second Stage Teachers' Decisions To Remain In Teaching Profession, Samantha Hope

Theses and Dissertations

Teacher attrition, particularly in hard-to-staff urban schools, is a problem addressed by many researchers. Although this research often focuses on novice teachers, those with three or fewer years of experience, there is a growing body of literature that examines second stage teachers, those with between four and 20 years of experience. Like their novice colleagues, these second stage teachers are also at risk of leaving the profession, which can have negative consequences for students. While much of the research focuses on reasons why teachers leave the profession, there is a growing interest in understanding how teachers reach the decision to …

Variable- And Person-Centered Approaches To Examining Construct-Relevant Multidimensionality In Writing Self-Efficacy, Morgan Debusk-Lane

Theses and Dissertations

Writing self-efficacy is a vital component to a students’ motivation and will to succeed towards writing. The measurement of writing self-efficacy over the past 40 years, despite its development, continues to largely be represented by Confirmatory Factor Analysis models that are limited due to their restricted item to factor constraints. These constraints, given prior literature and the theoretical understanding of self-efficacy, do not adequately model construct- relevant psychometric multidimensionality as a product of conceptual overlap or a hierarchical or general factor. Given this, the present study’s purpose was to examine the adapted Self-efficacy for Writing Scale (SEWS) for the presence …

An Adaptation And Psychometric Evaluation Of The Teacher Attribution Measure For Early Elementary (Tam-Ee), Shannon L. Nemer

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the reliability and validity of the Teacher Attribution Measure for Early Elementary (TAM-EE), a measure adapted from the Preschool Teaching Attributions (PTA) measure, to assess the challenging behavior attributions of early elementary teachers. Like the PTA, the TAM-EE uses a series of student-specific behavior scenarios as prompts for teachers who then rate statements aligned with dimensions of attribution theory on a 6-point scale. A sample of 41 teachers completed the TAM-EE on 79 students in grades K-3 screened for risk of emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Teachers also completed reports of student behavior, self-efficacy, and perceptions of …

Investigating Daily Writing Emotions, Attention Regulation, And Productivity: An Intensive Longitudinal Study, Eric Ekholm

Theses and Dissertations

Emotions pervade academic situations and influence the ways that learners think, behave, and achieve (Pekrun, 2006; Schutz & Lanehart, 2002). Writing may be a particularly emotion-laden activity, and especially so for students concentrating in fields that value writing production. However, very few studies have quantitatively investigated writers’ emotional experiences. The goal of the current study was to examine the writing-related emotions of graduate students enrolled in writing-intensive disciplines as well as how these emotions related to writers’ daily productivity and attention-regulation behaviors. To do so, the study employed a daily diary design (Gunthert & Wenze, 2012) in which participants completed …

Interaction, Student Satisfaction, And Teacher Time Investment In Online High School Courses, Chad A. Turley

Theses and Dissertations

This case study explores what differences exist between two online course models by investigating the results of a student end-of-course evaluation survey and teacher communication logs in two online high school courses. The two course models were designed with different types and levels of interaction, one with high levels of student content interaction, the second with high levels of student-content and student-teacher interaction. The majority of research on interaction in online learning has been conducted with adult learners at the university level. There is far less literature focusing on K-12 online learning while investigating interaction, student satisfaction, and teacher time …

Promoting Second Language Learning Through Oral Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication, Eric H. Young

Theses and Dissertations

Learning to speak a foreign language (L2) can be a challenging feat, made all the more challenging when done in only 50 minute, daily increments in class. Oral asynchronous computer-mediated communication (ACMC) provides learners with opportunities to practice spoken communication and evaluate their practice outside the classroom. In this dissertation, I explore methods for classroom integration of oral ACMC, linguistic traits developed in previous oral ACMC studies, methods for determining the effectiveness of oral ACMC, learner beliefs about the effectiveness of oral ACMC activities, and the effects of learners' deliberate practice in a series of oral ACMC activities on 3 …

The Effects Of Noncontingent Praise ( Ncp ) On Classroom Behavior, Kelly Poirot

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reports on the effects of noncontingent praise (NCP) as a classroom behavioral intervention. Six teacher participants were trained to provide NCP to the classroom at their free operant level of praises and reprimands directed towards the classroom, either at fixed (NCPf) or variable (NCPv) rates. Class-wide rates of academic engaged time and inappropriate behaviors were collected to examine the student effects of the intervention. In addition, teacher perceptions of their relationships with their students, stress, and job satisfaction were measured both pre- and post- intervention. Treatment fidelity and intervention acceptability data were also examined.

Upon implementation of the …

Faculty Members' Lived Experiences With Open Educational Resources, M. Troy Martin

Theses and Dissertations

The cost of textbooks has continued to increase, and the financial effect on students in higher education is significant. Numerous studies have been done to learn more about student and faculty perceptions toward Open Educational Resources (OER) use. Recent studies confirm that most instructors would use OER in order to alleviate the financial burden placed on students; however, OER adoption rates do not reflect this belief. In my study I sought to better understand what instructors experience when they search for OER. In this phenomenological study, I interviewed faculty who expressed a desire to use OER and to capture their …

Current State Of Online Teaching Evaluation Processes In Post-Secondary Institutions, Jon E. Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

This is a multi-article dissertation that seeks to address the current state of online teaching evaluation processes in post-secondary institutions. The last two decades have seen a dramatic increase in enrollment in online courses at post-secondary institutions. Unfortunately, evaluating online instructors has been a neglected field of research leaving many post-secondary institutions to develop their own evaluation systems. A deeper analysis of the current practices of online instructor evaluation will help administrators to strengthen their evaluation processes, thereby providing more effective online teaching. The first article is a literature review that explores common practices of post-secondary institutions. By performing an …

The Moral Realism Of Student Question-Asking In Classroom Practice, Susan Peterson Gong

Theses and Dissertations

Question-asking has long been an integral part of human learning. In scholarly investigations over the past several decades, questions have been studied in terms of the answers they generate, their grammatical structure, their cognitive functions, their logical content, and their social dynamics. Studies of student classroom questioning have focused on science education and reading instruction particularly; they detail the reasons why students don't ask questions and explore a plethora of recommendations about teaching students how to question. This qualitative study addressed question-asking from a hermeneutic moral realist perspective, studying question-asking as it unfolded in the everyday practice of learning in …

Agile Development In Instructional Design: A Case Study At Byu Independent Study, Alyssa Jean Erickson

Theses and Dissertations

Agile development is a software development methodology that originated in 2001 (Beck, et al.). It has since gained wide recognition and use in the software industry, and is characterized by iterative development cycles. Organizations outside of the software industry are also finding ways to adapt Agile development to their contexts. BYU Independent Study (BYUIS) is an online education program at Brigham Young University that provides online courses at the high school and university levels. In April 2016, BYUIS implemented the Agile development process to the design and development of online courses. This thesis is a case study that looks specifically …

Authentic Purposeful Design Within Moral Spaces Of Teaching At Byu, Thomas Lane Ferrin

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an exploration of the role of a new course design method in the teaching practice of faculty at Brigham Young University (BYU). This method, used by teaching and learning consultants at BYU, is termed authentic purposeful design. It encourages faculty to succinctly define what their course will help students become, use principles of backward design to align all course elements to that purpose, and teach the course with its core purpose in mind. The course design and teaching methods of 3 faculty members who used authentic purposeful design were studied using a qualitative research approach. Themes emerged …

Keystroke Dynamics: Utilizing Keyprint Biometrics To Identify Users In Online Courses, Jay Richards Young

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the potential use of keystroke dynamics to create keyprints (typing fingerprints) to authenticate individuals in online assessment situations. The implications of this study are best understood in terms of the keystroke behavioral biometric. While previous studies considered the degree to which keystroke typing patterns are unique, this study was set up to determine how well keyprints are able to identify individuals when typing under various treatment conditions (copy typing, free typing, and typing with mild or moderate impediments). While authentication can be difficult when attempting to correctly identify individual users, the results of this study indicate that …

The Effects Of Incomplete Rating Designs On Results From Many-Facets-Rasch Model Analyses, Mary R. Mcewen

Theses and Dissertations

A rating design is a pre-specified plan for collecting ratings. The best design for a rater-mediated assessment both psychometrically and from the perspective of fairness is a fully-crossed design in which all objects are rated by all raters. An incomplete rating design is one in which all objects are not rated by all raters, instead each object is rated by an assigned subset of raters usually to reduce the time and/or cost of the assessment. Human raters have varying propensities to rate severely or leniently. One method of compensating for rater severity is the many-facets Rasch model (MFRM). However, unless …

Academic Self-Concept And Master Adaptive Learning In First Year Medical Students: A Validation And Scale Construction Study, Jk Stringer Iv

Theses and Dissertations

Students’ academic self-concepts (ASC) and their orientation towards self-regulated learning are important elements of success. Despite this fact, little work has been conducted exploring these areas medical students. Given the shifting priorities of medical education toward competency-based education and self-directed learning, the goals of this study were to validate an existing measure of ASC and to improve our measurement capabilities for understanding the Master Adaptive Learner (MAL). Evidence for validity and scale reliability was collected for the ASCS with this novel population and a range of motivational and self-regulative variables (Goal orientation, academic emotion regulation, and lifelong learning) were analyzed …

Integrating Self-Determination And Expectancy-Value Theories In Examining The Achievement Of First-Generation College Students: A Latent Profile Analysis Examining Relations Between Perceived Choice, School Valuing, And Perceived Competence And Academic Achievement, Angela Starrett

Theses and Dissertations

First-generation students, who represent more than 40% of entering college freshmen, have lower academic achievement and struggle to persist compared to their continuing-generation peers. Although previous studies have repeatedly shown a deficit model for first-generation students, there is still a lack of clear understanding about the heterogeneity that exists among these college students. While some do struggle to persist, others show marked resilience. Thus, drawing on Self-Determination Theory and Expectancy-Value Theory, this short-term longitudinal study examined whether perceived competence, perceived choice, and positive school value could moderate the risk of being a first-generation college student. A latent profile analysis on …

Secondary Student Information Literacy Self-Efficacy Vs. Performance, Jen Spisak

Theses and Dissertations

The amount of information in the world has grown exponentially in the last generation. Students often believe that growing up as digital natives means they have advanced information literacy skills. However, school librarians are not seeing evidence of this in their schools. The purpose of this study was to determine if secondary students overestimate their information literacy (IL) abilities, if relationships exist between IL self-efficacy and performance, and if grade level or self-efficacy level changes those relationships. To accomplish this, data were collected from two middle schools and three high schools from a total of 397 students in grades 6, …

Academic Motivation Profiles Of 10th Grade Students: Exploring A Relationship With Socioeconomic Level Using A Person Oriented Approach, Sandra Lynn Rogelberg

Theses and Dissertations

Motivation is an important predictor of educational success, as is socioeconomic status. This study used Expectancy Value Theory (EVT) and a person oriented approach as the framework to explore how motivation profiles may be related to context, namely socioeconomic status (SES), and the roles these profiles have in predicting education outcomes. Five motivation variables: math self-efficacy, reading self-efficacy, control expectation, action control, and utility value (instrumentation motivation) were used in latent profile analysis to determine four latent motivation profiles from a national sample of 10,981 10th grade students using ELS:2002 data. Family income and education level (SES) were considered a …

Differences In Spatial Visualization Ability And Vividness Of Spatial Imagery Between People With And Without Aphantasia, Anita Crowder

Theses and Dissertations

Mathematics education researchers have examined the relationship between visualization and mathematics for decades (e.g., Arcavi, 2003; Bishop, 1991; Duval, 1999; Fennema & Tartre, 1985; Presmeg, 1986). Studies have linked spatial visualization ability, such as measured in mental rotation tasks, directly to mathematics self-efficacy (Pajares & Kranzler, 1995; Weckbacher & Okamoto, 2014), which in turn influences mathematics achievement (Casey, Nuttall, & Pezaris, 1997). With the important role that spatial visualization plays in learning mathematics, the recent identification of congenital aphantasia (Zeman, Dewar, & Della Sala, 2015), which is the lack of mental imagery ability, has raised new questions for mathematics education …