Empirical evidence suggests children's socio-emotional skills--an important determinant of school achievement--vary according to socioeconomic family background. This study assesses the degree to which differences in socio-emotional skills contribute to the achievement gap between socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged children. We used…

This dissertation describes a qualitative research study that grows our understanding of the career development experiences, supports, and barriers of social entrepreneurs who are gifted adults (SEGA) so that we may nurture the career development of future SEGA. Research questions for this study probed the career development experiences, supports,…

The literature widely reports that pre-service teachers repeatedly demonstrate inadequate argumentation skills. Through a mixed-methods research approach, this study investigated the effectiveness of a holistic online scaffolding design for guiding the development of pre-service teachers' argumentation skills. Participants were randomly assigned…

This study explored the predictability of motivation by analyzing effects of five elementary principal traits on teacher perceptions of competence, relatedness, and autonomy. My focus on this topic evolved from mounting teacher shortages across the United States. Through quantitative methods, I developed a factorial survey experiment. Using…

The catalyst for this self-study research was the performance of a sequence of poems at a colloquium for South African deans of education. The poems portray my interpretation of my students' stories of physically and emotionally painful experiences at the hands of their former teachers. My intention was to show how the creative possibilities of…

Educators need actionable information about student progress during the school year. This paper explores an approach to this problem in the writing domain that combines three measurement approaches intended for use in interim-assessment fashion: scenario-based assessments (SBAs), to simulate authentic classroom tasks, automated writing evaluation…

This paper delves into the underlying phases involved in designing, developing, and deploying Augmented Reality (AR) applications and game-based scenarios that will be implemented during intercultural exchanges among students in two different academic institutions in Sweden and Cyprus. Building on principles of design-based research (Barab &…

This autoethnographic study explores disruptive moments in a multiliteracies English-as-an-Additional Language (EAL) classroom with young adult students. Using a lens of affect theory, the study presents three strategic sketches (vignettes) to shine a light on unexpected intensities in the learning assemblage, initially assumed to be learner…

Teaching introductory statistics to postgraduate students from multidisciplinary background and with diverse mathematics ability is a huge challenge that many statistics lecturers do not deny. The large ability range can make it very difficult for lecturers to fine tune the right level for effective course delivery. Even though an introductory…

This study aims to categorize the scenarios designed on socio-scientific issues (SSIs) by prospective teachers who participated in an SSI-based instructional practice and to analyze these scenarios in terms of representing the nature of science (NOS) components. Sample of the study comprised SSI scenarios written by 30 third-year prospective…

Teachers often face situations that require them to apply knowledge about the mind and brain to education. Past studies have indicated that even if teachers show interest in cognitive neuroscience, they show high rates of adhesion to neuromyths. In the most commonly used questionnaire, however, respondents do not compare neuromyths and correct…

This study examined the perception of an ASD label compared to Asperger's syndrome or no diagnosis. Seventy-one undergraduates read an adapted vignette (Ohan et al. J Autism Dev Disord 45:3384-3389, 2015) about an undergraduate with ASD, Asperger's Syndrome, or No Diagnosis. Participants also completed questionnaires. More positive ratings emerged…

This article explores the affective dimensions of comedy education and performance through workshops with undergraduate acting students in Manchester, UK. Drawing on Suzanne Langer's process philosophy and recent research in affect studies, the authors compose complex mappings of affective intensity as it circulates through stand-up comedic…

This study aimed to determine for continuous outcomes dependent on baseline risk, whether funnel plot asymmetry may be due to statistical artefact rather than publication bias and evaluate a novel test to resolve this. Firstly, we conducted assessment for publication bias in nine meta-analyses of postoperative analgesics (344 trials with 25 348…

Survey-based experimental methods are increasingly used in the social sciences to study, among others, attitudes, norms, and fairness judgments. One of these methods is the factorial survey experiment (FSE or vignette experiment) in which respondents are confronted with various descriptions of situations that differ in a discrete number of…