105 research outputs found
Planning for the Future: Future Time Orientation and Life Project Scales
No full textProject files are comprised of 1 page pdf and presentation recording in mp4 format.Planning for the Future: International Future Time Orientation and Life Project Scales Author: Smith, Madeleine, Educational Foundations Major and Vinicius Coscioni, University of Coimbra, Portugal Abstract: Throughout the years, extensive research has been done on what influences people’s decisions. What prompts a student to apply to one school over another? Do future goals really influence a student’s academic performance in a class? Researchers have found that psychological future and personal goals play a vital role in an individual’s present behavior, decision making, and self-concept. More specifically, future time orientation (FTO) is the degree to which people’s thoughts of the future influence their present-day actions (Husman & Lens, 1999). Similarly, the theory of Life Project (LP) refers to a set of short to long-term goals that shape self-concept and identity (Little, Salmela-Aro, & Phillips, 2017). This project will develop an International Future Time Orientation Scale and Life Project Scale working in conjunction with research teams in Portugal, Brazil, Spain, the United States, and Uruguay. FTO and LP constructs have recently been created by Portuguese research teams. The remaining research teams will conduct focus groups for construct evaluation. This evaluation will focus on main constructs such as distance, connectedness, and valence from FTO as well as organization, identification, and involvement from LP. The structures of both scales’ factors will be analyzed quantitatively with exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The development of reliable international FTO and LP scales are a necessary instrument as they could be applicable to larger populations. Overall, this exciting research focuses on what influences an individual’s decisions and can greatly benefit prospective psychological and educational studies
Teaching for Social Justice: Palpating the Tensions between a Royal and Minor Science
No full textIn this study, I develop a formative assessment designed to provide feedback on the use of research supported and locally valued social justice teaching practices. This assessment can provide teacher educators a tool for providing feedback to in-service and pre-service educators to support their motivation for engaging in social justice teaching practices. However, calcifying social justice as a set of discrete practices comes at the expense of other possibilities and, ultimately, at the expense of realizing educations true liberatory potential. In order to attend to these philosophical limitations, I simultaneously map the assessment development project onto the argumentation Deleuze and Guattari use to address the metaphysical presuppositions that differentiate a royal and minor science. I argue that it is only by attending to both these royal and minor tendencies inherent to the development of the Teaching for Social Justice Formative Assessment that we are able to move away from systemic inequities and realize educations’ liberatory potential
Understanding Parent Motivation to Oppose Detracking Middle School Mathematics: Mental Contrasting Triggers White Exemptionism
No full textTracking is the practice of sorting students into courses based on their perceived ability. Middle school mathematics programs commonly track students into leveled courses with differential access to curriculum, instructional practices and future courses. With 40 years of research to draw on, every professional organization of mathematics educators advocates ceasing the practice of tracking. This is in large part due to the racialized and classed outcomes tracking reproduces. Nevertheless, tracking persists in middle school mathematics courses. Research demonstrates that parent opposition to detracking partially explains the persistence of the practice, but this research has not been specific to tracking mathematics courses in particular, nor has it critically examined race within this context. Therefore, my research asked what motivates parents to oppose detracking mathematics courses and, how are elements of Whiteness expressed through their opposition. Via a nested case study, I investigated these questions through in-depth interviews with parents at one middle school and contextualized those with administrator interviews across four school districts. By extending Oettingen’s (2000) concept of mental contrasting with Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) Ecological Systems Theory I found that some of the parents in my study held multiple goals for their students' mathematical experience. Despite the expectation of administrators and the consensus from reviewed literature, the majority of parents in my study did not hold the goal of a procedural mathematics experience for their child. However, I found three goals influenced by mesosystem and macrosystem factors that did contrast with detracking producing the motivation to oppose. Additionally, I found that some parents use Bonilla-Silva’s (2003/2022) colorblind frames to rationalize racial disparities in access to high-tracked mathematics. Extending this theory, I develop the frame White exemptionism and define it as the colorblind move to acknowledge the benefit of equity-initiatives for oppressed and marginalized people only to claim exemption from participating, thereby perpetuating inequity. From my findings, I infer three productive moves for administrators aimed at helping them move their detracking projects forward in the face of parent opposition as well as recommendations for future research regarding my extensions of both mental contrasting and colorblind racism
Connecting to the Future: A Revised Measure of Exogenous Perceptions of Instrumentality
No full textabstract: The primary objective of this study was to revise a measure of exogenous instrumentality, part of a larger scale known as the Perceptions of Instrumentality Scale (Husman, Derryberry, Crowson, & Lomax, 2004) used to measure future oriented student value for course content. Study 1 piloted the revised items, explored the factor structure, and provided initial evidence for the reliability and validity of the revised scale. Study 2 provided additional reliability evidence but a factor analysis with the original and revised scale items revealed that the revised scale was measuring a distinct and separate construct that was not exogenous instrumentality. Here this new construct is called extrinsic instrumentality for grade. This study revealed that those that endorse a high utility value for grade report lower levels of connectedness (Husman & Shell, 2008) and significantly less use of knowledge building strategies (Shell, et al., 2005). These findings suggest that there are additional types of future oriented extrinsic motivation that should be considered when constructing interventions for students, specifically non-major students. This study also provided additional evidence that there are types of extrinsic motivation that are adaptive and have positive relationships with knowledge building strategies and connectedness to the future. Implications for the measurement of future time perspective (FTP) and its relationship to these three proximal, future oriented, course specific measures of value are also discussed.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Family and Human Development 201
Thinking About My Future While Sitting in Science Class: Future Thinking and Motivation to Learn
No full text1 page.What makes a successful student in a college science class? Do the goals students' have and their confidence influence student motivation to be self-regulated learners? Research has demonstrated that when students are focused on learning goals (rather than performance goals), understand how the course is essential in achieving their future goals, or are confident; they are more self-regulated learners. Prior research has focused on which of these factors have the strongest relation to self-regulated learning. However, it may be more accurate to consider how these aspects of motivation (valuing of the course, confidence, and types of goals) work in consort, rather than individually, to influence students' motivation for self-regulated learning. The present study will use a profiling approach to identify and find the relation between patterns in students' motivation and self-regulated learning and performance in a science course. Participants were 385 students enrolled in an introductory science course at a large Northwest state university. Participants completed a self-report questionnaire on their future thinking, goals, confidence, self-regulation, and knowledge-building strategies. Preliminary analysis with bivariate correlations showed a strong to moderate correlation between motivation, self-regulation, and student performance ranging from r = .49 to r = .10, p < .05. Cluster analysis will be used to create profiles based on multiple aspects of students' motivation and how different profiles relate to students' self-regulation and performance. Understanding different profiles based on patterns of motivation is essential to constructing targeted interventions to support students' success in science and other STEM fields
What Motivates Science Teachers to Teach in Urban Settings A Mixed Method Approach
No full textabstract: The high rate of teacher turnover in the United States has prompted a number of studies into why teachers leave as well as why they stay. The present study aims to add to that knowledge specifically regarding why teachers choose to stay at urban schools. Several reasons teachers in general choose to stay have been identified in previous studies including faith in their students, continuing hope and sense of responsibility, and love among others. The importance of such a study is the possibility of designing programs that reinforce teacher success through understanding the personal and professional reasons teachers choose to stay. Getting teachers to stay is important to the nation's goal of providing equity in science education to all children. Important to this research is an understanding of motivational theories. Already a challenge in the over-busy modern world, the ability to self-motivate and motivate others is of particular importance to teachers in urban schools as well as teachers struggling against restrictive budgets. Studies have shown teachers extrinsically motivated will need external rewards to encourage them while teachers who are intrinsically motivated will have their own internal reasons such as satisfaction in contributing to the future, self-actualization, or the joy of accomplishment. Some studies have suggested that teachers who decide to remain teaching tend to be intrinsic motivators. Unfortunately, the environment in most Western country educational systems presents a challenge to achieving these intrinsic goals. As a result, self-determination theory should play a significant role in shaping educational programs. The following study examined the perspectives of secondary school science teachers, specifically regarding why they opted to remain within the classroom in urban districts. It was conducted utilizing interviews and surveys of teachers working within urban school districts in Arizona and California. The sample consisted of 94 science teachers. More than half of the participants were White females and 36 percent of them had been teaching for more than 15 years. Participation in the study was based on self-selected volunteerism. Survey questions were based on self-determination theory and used Likert scale responses. Follow-up audiotaped interview requested information regarding identity and their social interaction within the urban settings. The survey responses were analyzed using SPSS for descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, and linear regression. The results of this study provide insight on what works to motivate science teachers to continue teaching in less than ideal school settings and with such high bureaucratic impediments as standardized testing and school rating systems. It demonstrates that science teachers do seem to be intrinsically motivated and suggests some areas in which this motivation can be fostered. Such results could help in the development of teacher support groups, professional development programs, or other programs designed to assist teachers struggling to deal with the specific problems and needs of inner city school students.Dissertation/ThesisPh.D. Curriculum and Instruction 201
Screening in School-Wide Positive Behavior Supports: Methodogical Comparisons
No full textabstract: Many schools have adopted programming designed to promote students' behavioral aptitude. A specific type of programming with this focus is School Wide Positive Behavior Supports (SWPBS), which combines positive behavior techniques with a system wide problem solving model. Aspects of this model are still being developed in the research community, including assessment techniques which aid the decision making process. Tools for screening entire student populations are examples of such assessment interests. Although screening tools which have been described as "empirically validated" and "cost effective" have been around since at least 1991, they have yet to become standard practice (Lane, Gresham, & O'Shaughnessy 2002). The lack of widespread implementation to date raises questions regarding their ecological validity and actual cost-effectiveness, leaving the development of useful tools for screening an ongoing project for many researchers. It may be beneficial for educators to expand the range of measurement to include tools which measure the symptoms at the root of the problematic behaviors. Lane, Grasham, and O'Shaughnessy (2002) note the possibility that factors from within a student, including those that are cognitive in nature, may influence not only his or her academic performance, but also aspects of behavior. A line of logic follows wherein measurement of those factors may aid the early identification of students at risk for developing disorders with related symptoms. The validity and practicality of various tools available for screening in SWPBS were investigated, including brief behavior rating scales completed by parents and teachers, as well as performance tasks borrowed from the field of neuropsychology. All instruments showed an ability to predict children's behavior, although not to equal extents. A discussion of practicality and predictive utility of each instrument follows.Dissertation/ThesisPh.D. Educational Psychology 201
The Possibility and Peril of using multimodal physiological approaches to measure Academic Emotion, Race and Gender Bias, and Motivation.
No full textIn 2017, our research team presented a workshop at SCIPIE that introduced physiological research tools and techniques, affording researchers additional methods to study existing models of emotion. After two years of utilizing these tools, we aim to update some of the practical and theoretical issues we have encountered and overcome (Villanueva et al., In Press, Husman et al., 2019)
Perceived Control of the Attribution Process: Measurement and Theory
No full textabstract: The primary objective of this study was to develop the Perceived Control of the Attribution Process Scale (PCAPS), a measure of metacognitive beliefs of causality, or a perceived control of the attribution process. The PCAPS included two subscales: perceived control of attributions (PCA), and awareness of the motivational consequences of attributions (AMC). Study 1 (a pilot study) generated scale items, explored suitable measurement formats, and provided initial evidence for the validity of an event-specific version of the scale. Study 2 achieved several outcomes; Study 2a provided strong evidence for the validity and reliability of the PCA and AMC subscales, and showed that they represent separate constructs. Study 2b demonstrated the predictive validity of the scale and provided support for the perceived control of the attribution process model. This study revealed that those who adopt these beliefs are significantly more likely to experience autonomy and well-being. Study 2c revealed that these constructs are influenced by context, yet they lead to adaptive outcomes regardless of this contextual-specificity. These findings suggest that there are individual differences in metacognitive beliefs of causality and that these differences have measurable motivational implications.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Educational Psychology 201
- …
