UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
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Item Literacy and anger regulation among upper elementary students(2022) Weinberg, Hayley Ilana; O'Neal, Colleen; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The contribution of this study is the examination of the relation between literacy and use of anger regulation strategies in upper elementary children. This short-term longitudinal study includes two time points, approximately four months apart. This study examines whether performance on a literacy achievement task predicts later self-reported frequency of anger regulation strategy use. I will also examine the effects of gender on the relation between literacy and anger regulation. Participants included a sample of 253 students between ages 8-11 years old from two Maryland elementary schools (mean age = 9.7; 57% female; 32% dual language learners; 5% Asian, 10% Black, 6% Latinx, 65% White, 12% multiethnic students). Path analyses were conducted to test a model of Time 1 literacy achievement impacting the outcome of later Time 2 anger regulation, controlling for related demographic variables and Time 1 literacy achievement scores. Literacy was not found to be a significant predictor of anger regulation. However, this study provides insight into the relation between literacy achievement and anger regulation and ideas for future directions for research in this area.Item Assessment of Perceived Stress Among School-Age Children: Relations with Emotional Engagement and Literacy Achievement(2020) Meyering, Kristin M; O'Neal, Colleen; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This short-term longitudinal quantitative study is the first to examine the psychometric properties of the PSS-10 among elementary-age students and the impact of stress on school-related outcomes, including emotional engagement and literacy achievement. Participants included upper elementary students (N = 396, Mage = 9.62; 55% female; 56% dual language learners; 6% Asian, 12% Black, 28% Latino/a, and 40% White students). Emotional engagement was assessed using self- and teacher-reported questionnaires. Literacy achievement was assessed using a literacy performance task. A CFA revealed a two-factor structure for the PSS-10, including a coping factor and distress factor. The PSS-10 had adequate internal consistency but did not demonstrate adequate test-retest reliability between time points two to four months apart. Path analyses revealed that the coping factor was a significant predictor of later literacy achievement. The distress factor predicted later emotional engagement when the coping factor was removed from the model.Item PLACE VALUE: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF BEING A BLACK GIRL IN URBAN MATHEMATICS CLASSROOMS(2020) Fair, Camille; Clark, Lawrence M.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This qualitative study documents and examines what it is like being in a Black girl body while learning math in urban schools. The ten participants in this study self- identified as Black and female, and they graduated from three high schools in an urban school district in the Northeast between 2017 and 2019. Despite demonstrating excellence in and out of school, participants’ stories were burdened by experiences of exclusion, marginalization and oppression in their K-12 math learning. Drawing on Critical Race Feminism (CRF), a framework used to theorize interlocking oppressional forces, I designed this qualitative study after conducting a pilot program to improve Black girls’ math experiences. Preliminary findings from the pilot study suggest that Black girls’ math experiences and performance outcomes are largely shaped by the extent to which they are given or denied social place and intellectual value in math classrooms. I appropriate the math concept of place value, and I use it as a metaphor in a framework I developed called Human Place Value. This study examines three questions to understand Black girls’ lived experiences in urban math classrooms: 1) How do Black girls face exclusion, marginalization, and other forms of oppression in math classes? 2) How do Black girls identify and recognize negative attitudes and beliefs about their identity in math classes? 3) How do Black girls respond to and navigate their experiences in math classes? I collected personal data about my participants through background questionnaires and one-on-one semi-structured interviews. I analyzed the data using tenets of CRF and classroom interaction frameworks to distill three themes across social place and intellectual value: visibility, positionality and knowledge production. Key findings from the study suggest that being in a Black girl body renders students particularly vulnerable to math marginalization in the form of hostility, maltreatment and instructional neglect. The data collected from the ten participants tell a collective story that warrant consideration for the role Human Place Value plays in teaching and learning that yields disparate mathematical outcomes. This study concludes with a presentation of counternarratives from two participants and cross-case insights that detail implications for theory and practice.Item VIOLENCE AND DISORDER, SCHOOL CLIMATE, AND PBIS: THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG SCHOOL CLIMATE, STUDENT OUTCOMES, AND THE USE OF POSITIVE BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS AND SUPPORTS.(2013) Eacho, Thomas Christopher; Leone, Peter E; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between school climate and student outcome variables. The secondary purpose was to examine the relationship between the use of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and the same student outcome variables. Variables depicting student perceptions of school climate, self-reported student academic achievement, student perceptions of physical safety in school, and school use of PBIS were drawn from the baseline data collection of the Maryland Safe and Supportive Schools (MDS3) Initiative. Descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, and multilevel modeling were used to analyze the MDS3 data and to answer four research questions. Descriptive results showed that greater risk factors including feelings of being unsafe, involvement in violence, and poor academic achievement were associated with being male, nonwhite, and in the ninth grade. Bivariate correlations showed statistically significant relationships between student academic achievement and perceptions of school climate, race, gender, and grade level. Average academic achievement at the school level was statistically significantly associated with average school climate, school minority rate, high free and reduced meals (FARM) rate, and use of PBIS. Student perceived physical safety had statistically significant associations with perceptions of school climate, race, gender, and grade level. Average physical safety at the school level was statistically significantly associated with average school climate, school minority rate, high FARM rate, and use of PBIS. Multilevel models of academic achievement showed disparities based on race, gender, grade level, perceptions of school climate, and enrollment in schools with high FARM rate. Multilevel models of physical safety showed disparities based on gender, grade level, perceptions of school climate, enrollment in schools with high FARM rate, and average school level perceptions of school climate. The use of PBIS in schools had little impact on either multilevel model. Recommendations include examining school climate carefully and implementing practices that aim to improve school climate, particularly for those students with the most risk factors.Item WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL SUPPORT AND ACHIEVEMENT FOR STUDENTS WITH AND WITHOUTHOUT LEARNING DISABILITIES FROM BLACK AND LATINO BACKGROUNDS?(2011) Jacobs, Dawn Marie; Silverman, Rebecca; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between social support sources (i.e., Parents, Teachers, Classmates, and A Close Friend) and subtypes (i.e. Emotional, Instrumental, Appraisal, and Informational) on academic success. Specifically, social support perceptions and achievement outcomes of adolescents with and without learning disabilities were examined. Adolescents in 6th through 8th grade participated by completing a survey, the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (CASSS; Malecki, Demaray, & Elliott, 2000). Moreover, following survey administration student achievement was assessed through mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA) scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS). The results from the investigation suggest that students with and without learning disabilities are similar in the area of support and achievement. Furthermore, negative and positive effects resulted in the areas of classmate and parent support. Based on these findings, implications and future directions for research are discussed.Item EXAMINING THE RELATION BETWEEN STUDENT EXPECTANCY-VALUE MOTIVATION, ACHIEVEMENT IN MIDDLE-SCHOOL PHYSICAL EDUCATION, AND AFTER-SCHOOL PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PARTICIPATION(2009) Zhu, Xihe; Chen, Ang; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The expectancy-value theory (Eccles et al., 1983) explains that student motivation is primarily determined by one's expectancy-beliefs, task values, and perception of the task, and that these factors directly influence student achievements and behavior choices. Based on the expectancy-value theory, the purpose of this study sought to unravel the relation among middle-school students' expectancy-value motivation, achievement in physical education, and after-school physical activity participation. Participants consisted of 854 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students in 13 schools from a large metropolitan school district. Students' expectancy-value motivation was measured using the expectancy-value questionnaire; achievements in physical education was measuring using pre-posttest on psychomotor skill (including badminton striking and basketball dribbling skills) and fitness knowledge; after-school physical activity participation data were collected using three-day Physical Activity Recall. Data were analyzed both quantitatively using inferential statistics and structural equation modeling, and qualitatively using open coding approach. The results of the study suggested that middle-school students' expectancy beliefs and task values were relatively high (~4 on a 5-point scale) and their psychomotor skill (i.e., badminton striking skill) and fitness knowledge significantly improved in physical education over the academic year. Further analyses using structural equation modeling revealed that students' expectancy beliefs significantly predicted their psychomotor achievement, which in turn predicted their after-school physical activity participation. The model explained about 14.6% of variance in psychomotor achievement and 3.3% in students' after-school physical activity participation. Cost is a critical component in the expectancy-value theory. All three dimensions of cost conceptualized by Eccles et al. (1983) were identified in the data. Students' cost conceptions were found associated with task values, not with expectancy beliefs and achievements. Despite the cost, most of the students expressed high willingness to attend physical education for motivational purposes and health benefits from physical activities. The findings of this study imply that students tend to have high expectancy-value motivation in physical education. The motivation is likely to have small but significant predication of psychomotor skill improvement; which, in turn, related with after-school physical activity participation.