College of Education
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item Understanding Teacher Stress: Relations of Implicit and Explicit Coping Processes with Teaching Outcomes(2017) Kim, Margaret Jordan; Teglasi, Hedwig; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Teacher attrition within the first three years is a growing problem in the US. The current study focuses on teacher stress from a novel perspective by assessing how teachers cope with stresses of the profession at the earliest point in their careers – during their training. Coping is defined as a transaction between a person and their environment, influenced by conscious choices and automatic processes. Research relies on explicit measures (self-report on Likert scales) to assess coping, but critics note this approach is limited and does not assess the whole process. In addition to Likert scales, this study incorporates implicit measures (narratives, the Thematic Apperception Test), to examine the implicit processes of coping. As predicted, significant correlations were identified within, but not across methods of measurement. Implicit but not explicit measures were significantly correlated with external evaluations of teacher effectiveness. Implications for coping theory and measurement are discussed.Item THE USE OF SEGMENTATION CUES IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH(2013) Lin, Candise Yue; Wang, Min; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation project examined the influence of language typology on the use of segmentation cues by second language (L2) learners of English. Previous research has shown that native English speakers rely more on sentence context and lexical knowledge than segmental (i.e. phonotactics or acoustic-phonetics) or prosodic cues (e.g., word stresss) in native language (L1) segmentation. However, L2 learners may rely more on segmental and prosodic cues to identify word boundaries in L2 speech since it may require high lexical and syntactic proficiency in order to use lexical cues efficiently. The goal of this dissertation was to provide empirical evidence for the Revised Framework for L2 Segmentation (RFL2) which describes the relative importance of different levels of segmentation cues. Four experiments were carried out to test the hypotheses made by RFL2. Participants consisted of four language groups including native English speakers and L2 learners of English with Mandarin, Korean, or Spanish L1s. Experiment 1 compared the use of stress cues and lexical knowledge while Experiment 2 compared the use of phonotactic cues and lexical knowledge. Experiment 3 compared the use of phonotactic cues and semantic cues while Experiment 4 compared the use of stress cues and sentence context. Results showed that L2 learners rely more on segmental cues than lexical knowledge or semantic cues. L2 learners showed cue interaction in both lexical and sublexical levels whereas native speakers appeared to use the cues independently. In general, L2 learners appeared to have acquired sensitivity to the segmentation cues used in L2, although they still showed difficulty with specific aspects in each cue based on L1 characteristics. The results provided partial support for RFL2 in which L2 learners' use of sublexical cues was influenced by L1 typology. The current dissertation has important pedagogical implication as findings may help identify cues that can facilitate L2 speech segmentation and comprehension.Item Supports from friends as predictors of stress and school outcomes during the transition to college: A longitudinal study(2013) Donlan, Alice Elizabeth; Wentzel, Kathryn R; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigated relations among support from friends, stress, friendship goals, and school-related outcomes during the transition from high school to college. A conceptual framework was developed to examine a) the extent to which the degree of context change during the transition predicts levels of school belongingness and GPA; b) the extent to which stress mediates the potential relation between context change and school-related outcomes; c) the extent to which social supports from high school friends and college friends moderate the relation between stress and school related outcomes; and d) the extent to which precollege friendship formation and maintenance goals predict future levels of support from high school friends and college friends. Data were collected at four time points that represent major milestones in the transition process: (T1) precollege, (T2) the beginning of the first semester, (T3) the end of the first semester, and (T4) the beginning of the second semester. Psychometric properties of the support scales were investigated through confirmatory factor analysis. Descriptive statistics and results regarding mean variable change over time are provided. Multiple regression analyses replicated previous findings that stress negatively predicts school belongingness over time. Furthermore, perceived supports from college friends predicted increased college belonging over time, while perceived supports from high school friends did not. None of the support by stress interaction terms significantly predicted school outcomes, indicating that evidence for a moderation pathway was not found. Results from a latent variable path analysis did not provide evidence that a precollege goal to form friendships predicts future support from college friends, nor that a precollege goal to maintain friendships positively predicts future support from high school friends; models had only borderline fit. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.