Embodied cognition posits that physical interactions with the environment play a crucial role in learning, including complex, abstract concepts in STEM disciplines. This is relevant for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) learners who often utilize sign language, which is a naturally embodied, visuospatial mode of communication. My dissertation…

Reading disabilities are the most common type of referral in schools. In non-RTI settings, evaluation of reading disabilities requires comprehensive individual evaluation of cognitive abilities and reading achievement (basic reading, reading fluency, and reading comprehension). The current study focuses on the measurement of reading comprehension…

This study examined online graduate students' perceived learning styles and perceptions of factors that influenced their overall academic achievement in online courses. The study explored relationships between the learning styles and the factors identified as influencing achievement. Previous research produced mixed results when evaluating the…

The study was conducted to understand teacher's experience of burnout and its course, in addition to how burnout is related to classroom factors and student experiences. I used a person-centered approach, which accounted for all three burnout dimensions (i.e., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and low perceived accomplishment), to…

This phenomenological study provides insight into the experiences of public-school board directors as they experience, cognitively process, and respond to religious-based reasoning during deliberations on controversial issues while serving in their elected role at school board meetings. Understanding how elected public-school district directors…

Extant literature lacks an explanation of the thought processes used by secondary school science teachers to interpret students' scientific models that are comprised of drawing activities. In this exploratory study, a constructivist grounded theory (CGT) was developed to generate an interpretive understanding. The CGT was generated from…

The problem that this action research study addressed was the ineffective facilitation strategies used in professional development for teachers. The purpose of the study was to determine whether reflective practices impact teachers' instructional decisions. The study used Cognitive Coaching, a reflective coaching model, as its intervention. To…

Due in part to its complex nature, there is still much to uncover in the investigation of the neural processes that contribute to synchronization between speakers and listeners during communication in the context of social cognition, specifically between native and nonnative English speakers and listeners. This study used a novel method of…

Conspiracy thinking among college students is an under-investigated phenomenon. People who work with college students may seek to reduce conspiracy thinking among students or consider ways to work with those students better. This study provides insight into how well various personality factors predict conspiracy thinking among college students.…

Epistemic beliefs, epistemic cognitions, and self-regulation processes have a significant role in students' learning. Through this study, I investigated the role of mechanical engineering students' epistemic beliefs and epistemic cognitions involved in self-regulation processes while working on tasks with different difficulty levels. In this…

The rates of autism diagnoses are increasing, as is the use of technology and online interactions, both inside and outside of the classroom. These online interactions frequently include a digital representation of the individual or avatar. Avatars can take a variety of forms and they can influence an individual's perception of the source as well…

School psychologists' training, knowledge, and skillsets in school-based consultation can play a key role in supporting beginning teachers, but the consultation research base provides limited information about how beginning teachers' concerns and characteristics relate to consultative practice (Babinski & Rogers 1998; DeForest & Hughes,…

Registers are culturally recognized varieties of language that are associated with situations of use (Biber, Egbert, & Keller, 2020). Variation in frequencies of linguistic forms across registers is thought to be functional for the situations they are associated with; that is, certain language features are more common in one register than…

This dissertation develops a cognitive model describing when children learn to group distinct sound segments (allophones) into abstract equivalence classes (phonemes). The allophones an individual acquires are arbitrary and determined by their particular input, yet are intricately involved in language cognition once learned. The proposed…

The purpose of this comparative, longitudinal case study was to explore the distance operations system implemented in U.S. colleges and universities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Embedded in a larger two-year study of distance education in the U.S. before and after the health crisis, this study combined a grounded theory methodology with a…