Six experiments were conducted with graduate students to assess resurgence of compound (i.e., multi-step) academic responding under free operant procedures. Participants learned two different interobserver agreement (IOA) methods -- compound behaviors -- through instructional phases before beginning the experimental phases. Each experiment…

Math anxiety impedes people from working to their fullest potential (Hyman et al., 2015; Retanel et al., 2021) and impacts people of all ages, including both children and adults (Oh et al., 2022; SzczygieL, 2020). The influence parents' math anxiety has on children is also impactful on the children's own development of math anxiety or negative…

Public speaking is a skill used in many professions. This study examined the impact of awareness training (AT) and competing response training (CRT), two components of habit reversal training, on the use of filled pauses during public speaking. Following baseline, these components were administered remotely to reduce the occurrence of filled…

Given the inclusion of sensory reactivity as a diagnostic criterion for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the theorized etiological role of sensory reactivity in the development of autism, adequate sensory measures of sensory reactivity in autism, including measures extending to use in infancy, are needed. Adequate sensory measurement relies on…

Personalized learning, which has the potential to raise student achievement, requires understanding the competencies of students. Visualizations can help provide this understanding. Jeon et al. (2021) presented a latent space model that creates interaction maps visualizing response patterns from item response data. My dissertation proposes…

Binary item response theory (IRT) models are widely used in educational testing data. These models are not perfect because they simplify the individual item responding process, ignore the differences among different response patterns, cannot handle multidimensionality that lay behind options within a single item, and cannot manage missing response…

Deeply embedded in U.S. higher education institutions is a culture of whiteness that benefits white students, staff, faculty, and administrators through racist policies, structures, and cultural norms designed to uphold whiteness. This culture not only minimizes the presence of racism, but also is pervasive on college campuses, where…

The Premack principle states that any Response A can reinforce any other Response B if the independent rate of A is greater than the independent rate of B (Premack, 1959). Applying the Premack principle involves arranging the environment to restrict access to certain responses based on relative probabilities of a set of given responses (Timberlake…

Response processes are an important component of validity to support the use and interpretation of test scores. Response processes information can provide insight into how students engage with assessment tasks and the type of errors made when solving items, as well as allow for the study of cognitive properties in items that may be associated with…

Pandemics have reshaped societies and paved ways for advances in sciences, political systems, technology, medicine, and the economy. However, researchers have not explored how human resources (HR) function changes due to a pandemic in higher education institutions (HEIs) and how managing it contributes to employee performance and employee…

This study of how higher education leaders see the free speech phenomenon, i.e., how they are experiencing and responding to free speech issues, is significant because universities, perhaps more than any other democracy's institutions, are considered to have a special responsibility for safeguarding democratic values, such as free speech. The…

The rise in cyber-related attacks targeting school districts is outpacing cybersecurity readiness, as education institutions in the USA continue to fall victim to online threats (Levin, 2022). The education industry has been slow to react to an increasingly dangerous security landscape, leading many schools to become prime targets and victims of…

This study utilizes an autoethnographic qualitative methodological approach in which I explore the ways in which my personal and professional experiences across my lifetime shaped my responses to COVID-19 as a Black principal in an urban school district in southwest Texas, during the 14-month period between March 16, 2020, and May 28, 2021. I…

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by profound social, emotional, and cognitive growth, in addition to self-discovery, particularly concerning sexuality. However, misinformation or inadequate education can lead to detrimental decision-making, impacting both physical and emotional well-being. Inadequate sexual education contributes…

The challenge of obtaining an education is more difficult for students living in poverty. Given the responsibilities of educators to support these students and their unique needs, it is critical to identify their level of awareness of what they struggle with, and to provide guidance on how to develop strategies to utilize to support these students…