Professor of Educational Psychology. Doc program coordinator@UCF. I focus on helping teachers, school leaders, and parents foster kids' optimal development.
Theory on parenting styles was used as a theoretical framework to examine the relationship of asp... more Theory on parenting styles was used as a theoretical framework to examine the relationship of aspects of school climate to the mathematics achievement, academic engagement, and locus of control orientation of eighth graders. Student and school data were drawn from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 for 19,435 students and 997 schools. Hierarchical linear modeling techniques were used to examine the relationship between students' and administrators' perceptions of school climate and students' achievement, engagement, and control orientation. With students' individual background characteristics as well as aggregated socioeconomic status of the schools controlled, authoritarian school climates were associated with lower academic engagement and control perceptions for eighth graders, as well as more differentiating effects of prior grades on their mathematics achievement, a greater gender gap in academic engagement, and increased differentiating of stude...
Abstract: Goal theory has become one of the most prominent perspectives in the study of academic ... more Abstract: Goal theory has become one of the most prominent perspectives in the study of academic motivation. Prior studies have found conflicting results regarding the relationship of goal orientation to cognitive engagement, academic achievement, and ability perceptions. Two hundred thirty-nine students from a large state university participated in this study.
Abstract: Researchers designed and piloted a questionnaire that measures the level of implementat... more Abstract: Researchers designed and piloted a questionnaire that measures the level of implementation of exemplary middle school practices (based on the work of P. George and W. Alexander, 1993) using Rasch measurement theory. Assistant principals (n= 26) participated in telephone interviews by responding to a 27-item questionnaire that contains items reflecting school scheduling practices, team teaching, teacher planning, school philosophy, tracking, and other exemplary middle school practices.
Abstract: Theory on parenting styles was used as a theoretical framework to examine the relations... more Abstract: Theory on parenting styles was used as a theoretical framework to examine the relationship of aspects of school climate to the mathematics achievement, academic engagement, and locus of control orientation of eighth graders. Student and school data were drawn from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 for 19,435 students and 997 schools.
Background/Context: Despite the tremendous amount of effort devoted by many mathematics educators... more Background/Context: Despite the tremendous amount of effort devoted by many mathematics educators to promote, defend, and implement reform-based mathematics education, procedural mathematics, which locates mathematical correctness in the procedures learned from textbooks and teachers, persists. Many researchers have identified school and classroom culture as the source of the problem; however, the exact meaning of school culture and its influence on teachers' practices remains unclear.
Abstract: Evidence is presented from an ethnographic study of an eighth grade pre-algebra teacher... more Abstract: Evidence is presented from an ethnographic study of an eighth grade pre-algebra teacher's classroom in support of the idea that teachers' beliefs about the ontology and epistemology of math profoundly influence how they teach and thus what students learn. Specifically, beliefs based on a traditional view of mathematics as procedurally-based are explored. Classroom observations and teacher interviews provide evidence that expert, rule-based instruction may be beneficial in providing strong foundations for teacher and ...
" Emotions are ways with which we know the world around us.... Emotions inform you w... more " Emotions are ways with which we know the world around us.... Emotions inform you whether something needs to change"(Zembylas, 2002, pp. 92, 94)." IThese quotes from Catherine, an elementary-school teacher who was the subject of a 3-year ethnographic study of the impact of emotions on teaching, reveal an important insight that has eluded educational researchers seeking to explain why it is so difficult to change teachers' beliefs and teaching practices. That is, emotions play a crucial role in motivating change in beliefs ...
Background/Context: Although teachers' core instructional belief... more Background/Context: Although teachers' core instructional beliefs are difficult to accurately measure, they provide a framework for understanding the thinking that underlies important curricular and pedagogical decisions made in the classroom. Previous research has primarily used self-report to study teacher beliefs, but self-report is better for reporting explicit cognitions rather than implicit ones, such as beliefs. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The purpose of our study was to investigate teacher talk during ...
Journal of Interactive Learning Research, Jan 1, 2010
Abstract The impact of hypertext presentation formats on learner control and cognitive load was e... more Abstract The impact of hypertext presentation formats on learner control and cognitive load was examined in this study using Campbell and Stanley's (1963) Posttest Only Control Group design. One hundred eighty-six undergraduate students were randomly assigned to read a web-based text with no annotations, online glossary annotations, embedded annotations, rollover annotations, or annotations with multiple formats. One of the findings from this study is that the embedded annotation presentation format was ranked the lowest ...
Theory on parenting styles was used as a theoretical framework to examine the relationship of asp... more Theory on parenting styles was used as a theoretical framework to examine the relationship of aspects of school climate to the mathematics achievement, academic engagement, and locus of control orientation of eighth graders. Student and school data were drawn from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 for 19,435 students and 997 schools. Hierarchical linear modeling techniques were used to examine the relationship between students' and administrators' perceptions of school climate and students' achievement, engagement, and control orientation. With students' individual background characteristics as well as aggregated socioeconomic status of the schools controlled, authoritarian school climates were associated with lower academic engagement and control perceptions for eighth graders, as well as more differentiating effects of prior grades on their mathematics achievement, a greater gender gap in academic engagement, and increased differentiating of stude...
Abstract: Goal theory has become one of the most prominent perspectives in the study of academic ... more Abstract: Goal theory has become one of the most prominent perspectives in the study of academic motivation. Prior studies have found conflicting results regarding the relationship of goal orientation to cognitive engagement, academic achievement, and ability perceptions. Two hundred thirty-nine students from a large state university participated in this study.
Abstract: Researchers designed and piloted a questionnaire that measures the level of implementat... more Abstract: Researchers designed and piloted a questionnaire that measures the level of implementation of exemplary middle school practices (based on the work of P. George and W. Alexander, 1993) using Rasch measurement theory. Assistant principals (n= 26) participated in telephone interviews by responding to a 27-item questionnaire that contains items reflecting school scheduling practices, team teaching, teacher planning, school philosophy, tracking, and other exemplary middle school practices.
Abstract: Theory on parenting styles was used as a theoretical framework to examine the relations... more Abstract: Theory on parenting styles was used as a theoretical framework to examine the relationship of aspects of school climate to the mathematics achievement, academic engagement, and locus of control orientation of eighth graders. Student and school data were drawn from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 for 19,435 students and 997 schools.
Background/Context: Despite the tremendous amount of effort devoted by many mathematics educators... more Background/Context: Despite the tremendous amount of effort devoted by many mathematics educators to promote, defend, and implement reform-based mathematics education, procedural mathematics, which locates mathematical correctness in the procedures learned from textbooks and teachers, persists. Many researchers have identified school and classroom culture as the source of the problem; however, the exact meaning of school culture and its influence on teachers' practices remains unclear.
Abstract: Evidence is presented from an ethnographic study of an eighth grade pre-algebra teacher... more Abstract: Evidence is presented from an ethnographic study of an eighth grade pre-algebra teacher's classroom in support of the idea that teachers' beliefs about the ontology and epistemology of math profoundly influence how they teach and thus what students learn. Specifically, beliefs based on a traditional view of mathematics as procedurally-based are explored. Classroom observations and teacher interviews provide evidence that expert, rule-based instruction may be beneficial in providing strong foundations for teacher and ...
" Emotions are ways with which we know the world around us.... Emotions inform you w... more " Emotions are ways with which we know the world around us.... Emotions inform you whether something needs to change"(Zembylas, 2002, pp. 92, 94)." IThese quotes from Catherine, an elementary-school teacher who was the subject of a 3-year ethnographic study of the impact of emotions on teaching, reveal an important insight that has eluded educational researchers seeking to explain why it is so difficult to change teachers' beliefs and teaching practices. That is, emotions play a crucial role in motivating change in beliefs ...
Background/Context: Although teachers' core instructional belief... more Background/Context: Although teachers' core instructional beliefs are difficult to accurately measure, they provide a framework for understanding the thinking that underlies important curricular and pedagogical decisions made in the classroom. Previous research has primarily used self-report to study teacher beliefs, but self-report is better for reporting explicit cognitions rather than implicit ones, such as beliefs. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The purpose of our study was to investigate teacher talk during ...
Journal of Interactive Learning Research, Jan 1, 2010
Abstract The impact of hypertext presentation formats on learner control and cognitive load was e... more Abstract The impact of hypertext presentation formats on learner control and cognitive load was examined in this study using Campbell and Stanley's (1963) Posttest Only Control Group design. One hundred eighty-six undergraduate students were randomly assigned to read a web-based text with no annotations, online glossary annotations, embedded annotations, rollover annotations, or annotations with multiple formats. One of the findings from this study is that the embedded annotation presentation format was ranked the lowest ...
Uploads