Educational Psychology Commons^™

Relative Importance Of Anxiety And Motivational Variables In Predicting Language Achievement For College Learners Of Chinese, Qi Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

The growing worldwide enthusiasm in learning Chinese calls for more research on learner characteristics in Chinese classrooms to better inform teaching practice. Language anxiety, which falls under the umbrella of learner’s affect, is considered an important affective aspect that negatively influences language learning and acquisition. As research on language anxiety mainly focused on the learning of Western languages, this study constitutes an initial attempt to investigate anxiety in the learning of Chinese through the testing of a structural model. The purpose of the study was to examine the relative importance of language anxiety in predicting Chinese achievement when motivation, integrativeness, …

The Coping Strategies Of Nontraditional Female Students In Southwest Michigan And Northern Indiana, Desiree Davis

Dissertations

Problem

The purpose of this research study was to examine the coping strategies of nontraditional female students in a private university in Southwest Michigan, and a public university in Northern Indiana. According to Carney-Compton & Tan (2002), nontraditional female students characterize the leading emergent set of students beginning college. This study examined the reasons why they are in college, the problems they face while there, and the coping strategies they used to make the adjustment to school life.

Method

The Coping Scale for Adults survey was used to determine what coping strategies are utilized by nontraditional female students. The factor …

Effects Of Role-Goal Methods On Student Engagement: A Case Study, Zachariah John Lillquist

Honors Program Theses

As a pre-service teacher, areas of focus that I have found to be incredibly intriguing are student motivation and student engagement. How educators motivate their students in their respective classrooms is something that has always been of interest to me. Many topics, including science – my field of teaching – are often remembered by students as the class they disliked the most or the one with the poor teacher. This could be due to a number of factors; it may be the style of teaching, the methodology of teaching, the age of the teacher, the curriculum itself, etc. The list …

The Frequency Of Texting On Middle School Students' Writing Achievement, Jennifer French

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this correlational study was to discover the impact of texting on writing achievement for middle school students. The theory guiding this study is Vygotsky’s Social Cognitive Theory (Newman & Holzman, 2013) as it explains that learning is influenced by one’s social environment. The data that will be collected consists of the scores of the writing portion of the 2014-2015 state standardized test (ISTEP), a student survey answering questions about texting practices, and student status information on Free and Reduced Meals. The multiple regression analysis will be used to analyze this data because as inferential statistics it can …

Investigating Student Engagement In Blended Learning Settings Using Experience Sampling And Structural Equation Modeling, Kristine C. Manwaring, Ross Larsen, Charles R. Graham, Curtis R. Henrie, Lisa R. Halverson

Faculty Publications

We investigated activity-level student engagement in blended learning classes at the university level. We used intensive longitudinal methodology to collect activity level engagement data throughout a semester for 68 students enrolled in six blended courses across two universities. We used structural equation modeling to gain a holistic understanding of learning environments, including the influence of personal characteristics, course design, and student perceptions of the learning experience on in-the-moment cognitive and emotional engagement. To investigate longitudinal relationships between emotional and cognitive engagement, we employed cross-lagged modeling techniques. Findings showed that course design and student perception variables had a greater influence on …

An Examination Into The Instruction Of The Alphabet During Preschool Years, Amanda Titus

Masters Theses

Instruction of the letters of the alphabet is a controversial topic among early childhood educators. Not only is it debated whether letter instruction is developmentally appropriate but there is then the discussion concerning how the letters are best taught once a program deems it is developmentally appropriate. In this study, 87 children were assessed at two separate times during the school year to determine a method of instruction that proved most effective. The study took place over three consecutive school years. The first year, 27 students were exposed to alphabetic instruction through a combination of music and mnemonic device assisted …

Online Learner Engagement: Opportunities And Challenges With Using Data Analytics, Robert Bodily, Charles R. Graham, Michael D. Bush

Faculty Publications

This article describes the crossroads between learning analytics and learner engagement. The authors do this by describing specific challenges of using analytics to support student engagement from three distinct perspectives: pedagogical considerations, technological issues, and interface design concerns. While engaging online learners presents a major challenge to the educational community, the affordances of online learning environments and new advances in data analytics present many opportunities that can lead to improvements in our ability to fully engage students. The authors' work specifically underscores the fact that no single tool or system will be able to address all of the challenges involved. …

Metacognitive Reading And Study Strategies And Academic Achievement Of University Students With And Without A History Of Reading Difficulties, Bradley W. Bergey

Publications and Research

University students who report a history of reading difficulties have been demonstrated to have poorer word reading and reading comprehension skills than their peers; yet, without a diagnosed learning disability, these students do not have access to the same support services, potentially placing them at academic risk. This study provides a comprehensive investigation of first-year academic achievement for students with a history of reading difficulties (n = 244) compared to students with no such history (n = 603). We also examine reported use of metacognitive reading and study strategies and their relations with GPA. Results indicate that students with a …

The Role Of Metalinguistic And Socio-Cognitive Factors In Reading Skill, Hélène Deacon, Rebecca Tucker, Bradley W. Bergey

Publications and Research

We present here a review of recent research on the role of metalinguistic and socio-cognitive factors in reading skill. We first review research how morphological awareness and orthographic processing impact the acquisition of reading skill. We show that the first might account for change over time, and the second may not. We then turn to our new studies examining the interplay between these two factors in reading development. In each of these domains, we test predictions of theories of reading development. Finally, we turn to research on a very different set of variables, which we term socio-cognitive. We explore the …

The Decision To Pursue Pharmacy Residency Training: Motivators, Barriers, And The Fear Of Missing Out (Fomo), Ashley Stubblefield Crumby

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To examine the influence of Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) on student pharmacists when making postgraduate career decisions, including whether to pursue a residency. Data collection involved survey self-report (mixed mode approach) among student pharmacists (P2-P4) at four participating universities, to identify postgraduate residency intentions as well as the motivators and barriers associated with this choice. The survey included a 14-item FoMO scale designed to examine the influence of this factor in the residency decision. 42% indicated an intention to pursue residency training; the desire to gain experience was identified as the main motivating factor driving this decision. Other important …