Results of the TIMSS 2019 reveal that Kosovar students have lower achievement levels in both mathematics and science. In understanding this gap in achievement, it is of value to take a closer look at factors that may influence student learning. Results of this analysis reveal that factors such as home and school resources influence achievement…

Resilience is related to students' well-being and academic success. While challenges associated with students who are from historically underrepresented backgrounds (i.e. "non-traditional students") have been frequently reported, their resilience has received lesser attention. The primary purpose of this study was to compare levels of…

This study compared sexual orientation and romantic relationship experience in a large sample of adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (n = 675) and general population peers (n = 8064). Gender identity was explored in the ASD group in relation to assigned gender at birth. Compared to general population peers, more people with…

Among all children under 18 years in the U.S., 43 percent live in low-income families and 21 percent--approximately one in five--lives in a poor family. This means that children are overrepresented among our nation's poor; they represent 23 percent of the population but comprise 33 percent of all people in poverty. Many more children live in…

Purpose: The purpose of the first study within this journal-ready dissertation was to determine the extent to which ethnicity/race-based differences were present in Texas community college completion rates specifically within workforce certificate programs. Regarding the second study, the purpose was to determine the extent to which gender…

A comparative study was conducted to explore faculty perceptions regarding the infusion of global perspectives into the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) curriculum at Iowa State University. King (1991) provided the original base for the study which enabled a comparison with data recently collected. This study may fill a void in the…

The phonological awareness skills of 7- to 8-year-old children with intellectual disability (ID) were compared to those of 4- to 5-year-old typically developing children who were matched for early reading skills, vocabulary, and gender. Globally, children with ID displayed a marked weakness in phonological awareness. Syllable blending, syllable…

The advent of Internet-enabled mobile digital devices has transformed U.S. adolescent technology use over the last decade, yet little is known about how these changes map onto other health-related behaviors. We provide a national profile of how contemporary technology use fits into adolescents' daily health lifestyles compared with the previous…

Purpose: Most acoustic and articulatory studies on /l/ have focused on either duration, formant frequencies, or tongue shape during the constriction interval. Only a limited set of data exists for the transition characteristics of /l/ to and from surrounding vowels. The aim of this study was to examine second formant (F2) transition…

Most private sector employees have access to defined contribution retirement plans while public sector employees often may choose defined benefit or defined contribution plans. This research utilized a survey of faculty to analyze retirement plan satisfaction. Advice from a financial planner was positively associated with satisfaction with…

Previous research has shown that female doctoral graduates earn less than male doctoral graduates; however, there has been little research on the determinants of this gender pay gap. This paper investigates the determinants of the gender pay gap among doctoral graduates in Germany. By relying on human capital theory, traditional gender roles and…

Traditional approaches to intercultural competence (IC) in language learning have been criticised for reproducing cultural differentialism, a theoretical perspective which emphasises that people are different due to essential distinctions between their ethnic or national cultural background. While differentialist views have been recognised as…

This study investigates motivation types of Saudi and Chines EFL learners and gender role differences. I selected these two groups because they constituted the most dominant groups that study English abroad. The descriptive and correlational approaches were used to examine the participants' motivation by collecting the data through questionnaire…

This paper explores the experience of how Chinese international doctoral students develop critical thinking. Narrative interviews are conducted. Narrative thematic analysis is adopted. Four big themes are generated, which are understanding of critical thinking, comparison and contrasts, factors contributing to development of critical thinking and…

The growing number of elderly multilingual speakers suffering from strokes and aphasia requires a change in the services of speech and language pathologists (SLPs), who will be serving culturally and linguistically diverse individuals to an increasing extent. Two American studies have shown that a majority of SLPs who work with multilingual adults…