UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item Individual- and Classroom-Level Social Support and Classroom Behavior in Middle School(2012) Russell, Shannon Lea; Wentzel, Kathryn R; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigated relations between middle school students' perceptions of social support from their teachers and peers, the social climate of the classroom, and students' social goal pursuit and prosocial and socially responsible behavior. A multilevel framework was utilized in order to examine a) how perceptions of social support in the forms of emotional support and expectations for social behavior are related to outcomes, b) how characteristics of the classroom climate in terms of cohesion and structure are related to outcomes, c) how classroom climate might moderate the relations between perceptions of social support and student outcomes and d) whether or not contextual effects due to classroom climate exist. Existing survey data collected from 6th-8th grade students and their respective classroom teachers from multiple classrooms was used. Psychometric properties of the data were investigated through confirmatory factor analysis, examination of scale properties, and by gathering evidence regarding the nested nature of the data; intraclass correlation coefficients and design effects supported the use of multilevel modeling. In addition, qualities of the classroom climate were measured through the coefficient of variation (CV) which was derived from student reports of perceived social support. Individual-level models confirmed the well-established positive relations between perceived social support and social pursuit and classroom behavior and highlighted the differential roles peer and teacher effects have on these outcomes. Classroom-level models indicated classroom characteristics in the forms of cohesion and structure from teachers and peers were directly related to social goal pursuit and classroom behaviors. Results suggested that structure from peers was positively related to classroom behavior while structure from teachers worked in the opposite direction. Also, peer structure and peer cohesion were significant predictors of socially responsibility goal pursuit, but only when considered independently. Classroom characteristics were also found to moderate the relations (i.e., slopes) between perceptions of emotional support from teachers or peers and student outcomes, working in both additive and compensatory fashions. Finally, some contextual effects were found, most often in terms of peer social support as compared to teacher social support. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.Item THE LONGITUDINAL EFFECTS OF BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE(2012) Vu, Anna Phuong; Strein, William; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Students' behavior and emotional well being are instrumental for their success in the school setting. The present study examined the effects of behavioral problems on the academic performance of students three years later. The behavioral problems consisted of individual externalizing, internalizing, and inattentive behaviors. Next, this study examined the classroom-level of externalizing behaviors and the cross-level interaction between individual-level behavioral problems and classroom-level externalizing behaviors on the academic performance of students. Further, the moderating effects of sex and FARM on the associations between behavioral problems and academic performance were studied. The academic performance of students was measured by teacher reported grades and standardized achievement assessment scores. The participants were fifth grade students (N = 2,677) in 193 classrooms from 45 public schools in the mid-Atlantic region. Results indicated that individual inattentive behaviors and classroom-level of externalizing behaviors negatively and significantly predicted academic performance three years later. Although it was hypothesized that the negative effects of behavioral problems on the academic performance of students would be greater being in classrooms with higher average levels of externalizing behaviors, the opposite was found. The negative effects of behavioral problems on academic performance were greater for students who were in classrooms with lower average levels of externalizing behaviors. Overall, results here confirmed the previous literature supporting the negative effects of inattentive behaviors and classroom-level externalizing behaviors on the students' academic grades and achievement test scores.Item An Experimental Evaluation of the Effect of Instructional Consultation Teams on Teacher Efficacy: A Multivariate, Multilevel Examination(2009) Koehler, Jessica Robyn; Gottfredson, Gary; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Teacher efficacy, the extent to which teachers feel they can influence student learning (Berman, McLaughlin, Bass, Pauly, & Zellman, 1977), has been repeatedly linked to important student and teacher outcomes (Gibson & Dembo, 1984). Although the results of many studies support the claim that teacher efficacy is an important educational construct, few studies have investigated interventions to influence these teacher beliefs. The current study evaluated whether a specific teacher intervention, Instructional Consultation Teams (IC Teams), positively affected teachers' sense of self-efficacy as measured by two efficacy instruments. Participants included 1203 in-service elementary school teachers in 34 elementary schools within a large suburban school district--17 randomly assigned to the IC Team intervention and 17 assigned to the control condition. Because teachers are nested within schools, hierarchical linear modeling was utilized to evaluate whether scores on measures of teacher self-efficacy were influenced by IC Teams. A multivariate model was also used to evaluate the effects of IC Teams on both measures, simultaneously. The results imply that IC Teams significantly increased teachers' scores on the efficacy scales. The current study provides one of a few attempts to evaluate the effects of a specific school intervention on teacher efficacy within an experimental framework.Item The Relationship between Teacher Unions and Teacher Quality in Large Urban and Suburban School Districts(2009) Zhang, Jijun; Rice, Jennifer King; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study utilizes the binomial hierarchical generalized linear modeling (HGLM) technique and nationally representative data (SASS 2003-2004) to examine the relationship between teacher unions and teacher quality in America's large urban and suburban districts and the effect of teacher unions on the intra-district distribution of teacher quality across schools with varying poverty and minority student concentration in the largest districts. Results reveal that compared with non-unionized districts, strongly unionized districts tend to have higher proportions of NCLB defined highly qualified teachers, teachers with at least five years of experience, teachers with subject-area degrees, and teachers with subject-area certifications in the large urban and suburban districts. But, strongly unionized and non-unionized districts have comparable proportions of empirically-defined high quality teachers and teachers who graduated from selective colleges. Weakly unionized districts are less likely to attract and retain experienced teachers than non-unionized ones. This study also finds that in the largest districts school poverty/minority level has a stronger (and negative) effect on the distribution of experienced teachers in strongly unionized districts than in non-unionized districts, which suggests that in strongly unionized districts the teacher quality gap is much wider across high and low poverty/minority schools in terms of employing experienced teachers.