Theses (Educational Psychology)

Permanent URI for this collection

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 20 of 288
  • Item
    Unpacking the Self: Exploring How Spouses of Trauma Exposed Professionals Struggling with Post-Trauma Symptoms Navigate a Sense of Personal Identity
    (2023-12-21) Buss, Jessica; Black, Tim
    How spouses of Trauma Exposed Professionals struggling with post-trauma symptoms navigate a sense of personal identity, and the mechanisms by which identity is processed and understood, is largely underrepresented within the literature. The current study examined the ways in which five TExP spouses, whose partners were struggling with post-trauma symptoms, actively navigated identity in these contexts, including the agentic and intentional mechanisms they employed in their navigation. Participants shared their personal experiences with the researcher, who then collated and co-constructed those experiences into six themes: 1) the experience of identifying as the ‘protector’ and 2) identifying as the ‘preventor’ (embodying one or both of these roles in an effort to mitigate/manage damage and protect); 3) the importance of seeing self as more than the singular role of ‘spouse’; 4) engaging others outside of oneself in order to access new perspectives on selfhood; 5) recognizing that one’s own needs are important and valuable; and 6) the experience of having one’s needs take a backseat role.
  • Item
    Advancing Learner-Informed Practices in Early Reading: A Collaborative Response to Intervention (RTI) Partnership
    (2023-12-13) Pollitt, Shelby Irene; Harrison, Gina
    This study examined the efficacy of teacher-implemented interventions to accelerate foundational reading skills in 48 children (mean age 5 years, 3 months) in their first year of school, within a Response to Intervention (RTI) framework. Formal RTI is currently being used across the United States to inform early and efficient intervention for children who are at risk for reading difficulties. While there is growing awareness of the benefits of early screening, effective classroom instruction, and evidence-based intervention, such a formalized, multi-tiered approach is not as prevalent in Canada. Four participating kindergarten teachers received professional development on comprehensive and evidence-based early reading instruction. Throughout a school year complicated by unprecedented challenges due to Covid-19 (i.e. extended student absences, teacher shortages, teacher burnout), teachers embedded explicit teaching of phonological awareness and phonics skills into their existing literacy programs for all students in the classroom at Tier 1, and monitored students’ progress monthly using curriculum- based measures (CBMs) of reading. Students who did not demonstrate gains in response to instruction, as per results on CBMs, were identified for intensified Tier 2 small-group intervention. Results suggest that timely professional learning coupled with evidence-aligned resources and ongoing facilitation throughout the school year for classroom teachers can accelerate kindergarten students’ emergent literacy skills. Additionally, whereas results indicated a statistically significant difference between students who received Tier 1 classroom instruction and students who received supplemental Tier 2 intervention with regard to Letter- Word Skills at the beginning of the school year, group means were not significantly different at the end of the school year. Situating teachers at the heart of implementation and using multiple means of concurrently-gathered intervention and implementation data, these findings offer valuable insight into designing effective, multi-tier interventions for all students. Finally, despite the exceptional circumstances due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this study demonstrates that purposeful instruction and supplemental intervention targeting foundational literacy skills can effectively close the gap for our priority students.
  • Item
    Mindful of Authority: Exploring the practice of meditation, mindfulness, and leadership with commissioned Canadian police officers.
    (2023-12-07) Sylven, Les; McGregor, Catherine
    Police leaders in Canada are facing a daunting series of new challenges that will require significant personal resources to address. In addition to ensuring their organizations are evolving to meet greater community expectations, they must also address a crisis of wellness occurring inside many of their organizations. Mindfulness, meditation, and other related contemplative practices appear to benefit leaders in other professions; however, little is known about how these mental practices may, or may not, be helpful for police leaders. Accordingly, this exploratory qualitative study set out to answer the research question, “How might meditation and mindfulness practice support police leaders in Canada?” Guided by a reflective thematic analysis approach, data from semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 11 Canadian Commissioned Officers who have regular meditation practices were analyzed and the results are presented in three manuscripts. The first manuscript examines the specific practices these Officers engaged in and why they began meditating. The second explores their perceptions of how meditation influences their leadership. The third investigates how participants believe meditation and mindfulness training should be introduced into their large Canadian police service. This dissertation concludes with a summary of the findings across the manuscripts, as well as the potential study limitations and areas for future research. Although this study extends aspects of the literature on mindful leadership into policing, and provides practical suggestions for introducing mindfulness to police organizations, it also identifies the need for significantly more research to understand if mindful leadership could become a catalyst for police reform.
  • Item
    A Study of New Professionals in Student Affairs: Women’s Early Career Experiences in Their Own Words
    (2023-09-11) Heikkila, Kalenne; Clover, Darlene
    My feminist qualitative study examined the lived experience of five young women working in the field of student affairs and services in British Columbia. Using this feminist approach I explored their stories, views of gender, and conceptions of leadership. Central aims of this study were to uncover unexamined perspectives of these young women working in the field and their perceptions of leadership. By lending legitimacy to women’s experiences my study provides insights that have been discounted in the literature, as well as due to women’s age, level of experience, and gender. Ultimately however, these insights could have a positive impact on practices in student affairs and services. I gathered data through semi-structured interviews and a focus group. My research findings demonstrate the importance of mentorship and support, particularly from other women, as well as the broad impact of gender and age on the experience of student affairs professionals. My research also reveals the wide variety of ways young women are engaging with professional development and leadership as part of their work. This lends new insight into the current student affairs landscape as lived by young women, what impacts their experience as staff and leaders, as well as their vision for themselves and for the field in the future. I conclude this thesis with recommendations aimed to improve the experiences of new professionals and their supervisors, and to influence positive change within the systems and institutions in which they operate. Conducting this study with practitioners in British Columbia contributes to the research landscape by providing research from within the Canadian post-secondary context. It also provides research focused explicitly on women working in the field and on the experiences of new professionals from their own perspective, both of which are currently under-explored areas of student affairs and services research.
  • Item
    Understanding the Drivers of Educational Change in Tanzania: Educational Policy and Professional Capital
    (2023-08-31) Majani, William Pastory; McGregor, Catherine
    Despite series of educational change initiatives adopted in Tanzania immediately after independence to the present, there is little evidence to demonstrate that these change efforts are providing the desired learning outcomes. This study adopted qualitative research to investigate educational change in Tanzanian secondary education from the perspectives of policy makers, school leaders, and teachers. Using case study research design, a total of 26 participants were interviewed. Document analysis and semi structured interviews were the data collection methods. The study used Fullan’s (2007) educational change model and Weaver-Hightower’s (2008) an ecology metaphor of policy analysis as frameworks to structure and interpret the findings of my study. The study findings suggest that secondary schools in Tanzania are primarily sites where mandated and prescriptive educational change initiatives are implemented. Teachers and school leaders are regarded as recipients of change directives which must be implemented unquestioningly. This makes implementation problematic because; proposals leading to change flow in one direction, and Tanzania secondary education is characterized by series of disconnected changes and contextual features that are not supporting change. These study findings imply that educational change initiatives must align with teachers’ beliefs and classroom practices. To make educational change a success, there must be, (1) political will to commit sufficient physical and fiscal resources to facilitate change, (2) teaching force with strong knowledge base, dedicated and ambitious to work as a team, and ability to make sound decisions to improve students’ learning outcomes. Lastly, (3) teachers must assume a new position and play a new role in educational change landscape.
  • Item
    “It helps me to be more aware and connected to my body when I spent so many years trying to disconnect”: A qualitative study on the effect of time spent in nature on eating disorder recovery
    (2023-08-31) Buchkowski, Megan; Nutter, Sarah
    Eating disorders (EDs) are one of the deadliest mental health disorders (Walsh, 2017) with a high relapse rate (Berends et al., 2016) and complex treatment needs (NCCMH, 2004; NICE, 2020). One of the most common experiences of people suffering from EDs is a lack of embodiment and disconnection from their bodies (Piran, 2017; Cook-Cottone, 2020). As such, increasing positive embodiment and the positive relationship with one’s body is a means to help support those with EDs towards recovery (Cook-Cottone, 2020). Time spent in nature has been shown to increase embodiment (Monteleone et al., 2017; Lumber et al., 2017) as well as have positive benefits on human health in general (Barton, 2009; Stigsdotter & Grahn, 2011; Sahlin et al., 2014). The current study examined the effects of time spent in nature on ED recovery in a sample of seven women residing in North America. Participants shared that spending time in nature helped them appreciate and care for their bodies as well as helped them to calm their anxious minds, providing a foundation on which to build and maintain recovery from their ED. Participants also noted that being out in nature helped them feel connected to other people and other beings, leading to feeling a sense of belonging and a part of something bigger than themselves. They shared that nature was a non-judgemental space where all bodies were important and they were accepted just as they are. The findings from this study have implications for ED treatment, suggesting that spending time in nature may support ED recovery and maintenance. Nature may be an accessible and affordable foundation for people suffering from EDs to build recovery, find peace, experience positive embodiment, and connect to something larger than themselves.
  • Item
    Exploring Student-Centered Teaching and Learning Experiences In Higher Education During Emergency Remote Instruction
    (2023-08-29) Benfaida, Natasja; Gounko, Tatiana; Kulikova, Nadezda
    The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore student-centered teaching and learning experiences of University of Victoria (UVic) students and instructors during the fall of 2020, a time when higher education institutions such as UVic suddenly taught most of its face-to-face courses online with various education technology in response to Covid-19 social distancing restrictions. Ten UVic students and five instructors participated in semi-structured interviews to share their experiences during this period of emergency remote instruction, also known as emergency remote teaching. The interview questions were created according to the indicators of teaching, social, and cognitive presence in the constructivist Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework. The findings of the study demonstrated how the study’s participants engaged in teaching, social, and cognitive presence while using the Brightspace learning management system and other education technology. The students and instructors interacted with each other and the instructional content through Brightspace primarily for organizational and instructional purposes. While Brightspace supported the development of the CoI’s teacher and cognitive presence, social media and Zoom’s video conferencing feature, chat and break-out rooms predominantly supported the development of social presence. The findings also identified student-centered teaching and learning practices according to the CoI framework. Furthermore, the findings of the research highlighted how socio-cultural context and technology use directly impacted the development of teaching, social, and cognitive presences during emergency remote instruction.
  • Item
    The mobilization of anti-racism here is like squeezing a square peg through a round hole: A critical qualitative inquiry into anti-racism in settler-colonial Canadian nursing education
    (2023-08-22) Bell, Blythe; McGregor, Catherine
    Anti-racism is a relatively new priority for nursing education. The political mandate to act on the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Report and the legislation of the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act in British Columbia, have made this so. This dissertation represents a qualitative study of anti-racism in Canadian nursing education from the standpoint of baccalaureate nurse educators. The purpose of the study was to map the landscape of anti-racism in schools of nursing to identify strengths, gaps, and failings so individuals and schools can accountably develop action plans. The research questions were: How do Canadian nurse educators engage in anti-racism in their work? What are the structural and discursive barriers to urgently addressing racial discrimination or hegemonic race ideology? And the sub-question: How do participants understand the influence their identities have on their anti-racism knowledge and practice? Data were collected via an online questionnaire and online focus groups in 2021, and was analyzed through a contextualist content analysis. Educators engage in anti-racism through the content they teach, and less so through their instructional methods but are held back by myriad structural and pedagogical barriers. Anti-racist pedagogy remains poorly articulated in nursing curricula and by nurse educators, is often relegated to discrete, one-time courses, and can be confused with Indigenization. Job precarity and institutional resistance act as structural barriers to anti-racism. Nurse educators navigate and participate in cultural and institutional Whiteness which limits the reach and authenticity of any anti-racist effort. Twenty-six structural and pedagogical recommendations are offered. This dissertation is presented in journal article format.
  • Item
    Examining the Contributions of Coping Self-Efficacy and Help-Seeking Behaviour on Academic Performance
    (2023-08-10) Paular, Rikka; Hadwin, Allyson F.
    Self-regulated learning (SRL) has become an essential aspect of education, with a focus on improving students' skills and strategies to learn and perform effectively. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating role of instrumental help-seeking in the relationship between coping self-efficacy and academic performance from a SRL perspective. Participants (N=233) were enrolled in an elective educational psychology course at a Western Canadian University and completed weekly self-assessments related to SRL practices (e.g., coping self-efficacy, time management, help-seeking behaviours). Path analyses using structural equation modeling were used to examine the mediating role of instrumental help-seeking behaviour on the relationship between coping self-efficacy and academic performance. Findings revealed that coping self-efficacy was not significantly related to academic performance, and that instrumental help-seeking behaviour did not mediate this relationship. However, subsequent models showed that while coping self-efficacy may not directly impact students' GPA, it does influence their help-seeking behaviors. Specifically, the results demonstrated that students with low coping self-efficacy tend to avoid seeking help and perceive it as a threat. Notably, only executive help-seeking behavior had a negative association with GPA, suggesting that relying on others to solve the task may have a detrimental effect on academic performance. Overall, this study offered valuable insights into the role of coping self-efficacy and help-seeking behaviors in academic settings, emphasizing the need for further research to investigate the underlying factors contributing to the negative association between executive help-seeking and GPA.
  • Item
    Collective Leadership: Non-Hierarchical Organising in Activist Art Practices
    (2023-05-09) Croswell, Kimberly; Clover, Darlene E.
    Through a new anarchist inflected critical realist methodology, this study examines the shared leadership practices informing the creative production and distribution practices of three anarchist/anti-authoritarian activist art collectives: World War Three Illustrated, an all-volunteer collective of radical comic artists; Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative, a distribution network for social justice printmakers and multimedia artists; and sub.Media, an anarchist video collective producing documentary and satirical news for online social intervention. Responding to in-depth semi-structured interviews, members of these three collectives outline their practices of self-organising, their shared economies, and relational experiences of leadership and collectivity in the context of activist art production and dissemination. Data was coded and organised using constructivist grounded theory methods, which were adapted to suit critical realist meta-theory requirements. Retroductively analysing demi-regularities in the data, four causal properties of shared leadership were determined: anarchy (i.e., non-hierarchical relations); affinity (i.e., co-identification & affinity through diversity); collective autonomy (i.e., unanimity & resistance to unfreedom); and cooperation (i.e., mutuality). The four causal properties were cross referenced with matching tendential demi-regularities found in the data emerging from constructivist grounded theory. Findings show that the primary causal power influencing the development of shared leadership is the power of cooperation in the form of mutuality. This study makes original contributions to the fields of leadership and organisational studies, specifically in relation to leadership in specialist creative groups, alternative economics, identities, and applied critical realism.
  • Item
    Anti-Oppressive Pedagogy: Developing "Reciprocal Resilience" through Storytelling in the Classroom
    (2023-05-02) Hope, Georgina; McGregor, Catherine
    This thesis examines how storytelling can develop resiliency, in both the student and the teacher: a reciprocal process rooted in the foundations of Indigenous, anti- oppressive, and feminist paradigms. The study captures data from educators active in innovative course deliveries, who utilise storytelling from diverse participants, themselves included. The qualitative research process utilised a mixed genre approach to review existing literature on narrative practices in group settings, to gather and describe the practices of said “misfit” storytelling teachers in secondary classrooms, and to interrogate the researcher’s own life experience and teaching practice through autoethnographic writing. A very real damage and pain exists when a person who has experienced marginalisation and has interacted with systems of oppression finds themselves in a position, as an educator or leader, encountering and participating in dominant systems. This work names these teachers as “misfits”- they often found themselves on the margins as youth. This thesis argues it is this very misfitness that led them into a place of reciprocal resilience with the students who also do not “fit.” By collecting the stories of such pedagogues, we may find avenues to create slower, more effectively inclusive, critical, and decolonising classrooms. A gap in the intersection of education, leadership, and activism is acknowledged. Ultimately, the thesis concludes with a discussion on inherent risks to educators practicing anti-oppressive methods while navigating past and continuing marginalisations of their own: a significant, emergent theme worthy of future research.
  • Item
    Women, Leadership and Policing: Negotiating and Navigating Gendered Experiences
    (2023-04-26) Silden, Eva M.; Clover, Darlene E.
    This study explored the lived experiences of 21 women police officers in southern British Columbia and their gendered experiences from recruitment through promotion to positions of leadership. The research is grounded in feminist theory and employed a qualitative approach which included individual interviews. The questions that guided my study were: How are women changing policing? And how is policing changing women? Findings show that despite advances, this group of women in policing in BC continues to need to navigate what remains a hyper masculinized environment mired in hierarchies of power and authority. My participants experienced sexism and harassment in a number of ways, although some suggested it was better than before. Many experienced having to prove their value and worth on a continual basis and transforming themselves to fit into the normative policing culture. Although many are in leadership positions, promotion and acceptance remain difficult. Women who choose to have children are considered to be less committed to their career because the ladder upward has no rungs for a more committed homelife. However, my participants also spoke with pride in doing things differently and the importance of what they were bringing to policing such as being more collaborative and communicative than their male colleagues. Many had made it to positions of seniority despite the obstacles along their path. In the face of these continuing barriers, I conclude this thesis with several recommendations that I believe, as an educator working in the criminal justice sector, could help to change the culture of policing to address structural practices of gender discrimination.
  • Item
    Examining Achievement Goal Orientations, Goal Setting, and Motivation Challenges from A Self-Regulated Learning Perspective
    (2023-04-25) Nie, Muqing; Hadwin, Allyson
    Adopting a self-regulated learning perspective, the present study examined the mediating role of goal management practices in the relationship between achievement goal orientations and motivation challenges among 213 undergraduate students enrolled in a learning-to-learn course at a university in Western Canada. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the data. The results indicated that mastery-approach goal orientation negatively predicted motivation challenges and that goal management practices served as a mediator in this relationship. However, this thesis did not find a significant predictive relationship between mastery-avoidance goal orientation, performance-approach goal orientation, as well as performance-avoidance goal orientation and motivation challenges. This study sheds light on the complexity of achievement goal orientations and the critical role of goal management practices in mediating the relationship between mastery-approach goal orientations and motivation challenges.
  • Item
    Barriers to Women in Policing - Traversing the Gender Gap: An Examination into the Perceptions and Experiences of Senior Ranking Policemen
    (2022-11-24) Pamminger, Mark; McGregor, Catherine
    This qualitative study investigates senior ranking policemen’s perceptions, perspectives, and experiences with policewomen. More specifically, the level of awareness that senior ranking policemen have regarding the barriers and challenges encountered by policewomen, and what police organizations are doing to address the barriers and challenges. Data were generated through in-depth semi-structured interviews with nine senior ranking policemen from two police organizations within Canada. The overall methodological approach in this study was qualitative and used a process of analytic analysis informed through grounded theory (Saldaña, 2011). The research findings reveal that Canadian police organizations are gendered worksites, where policewomen continue to encounter daily organizational challenges, thereby restricting their full participation and overall wellness, within police organizations. Despite the many challenges and barriers for policewomen, the senior ranking policemen remain hopeful that policewomen will have more parity, equality, and equity in the years ahead. My study separates itself from past research on gender and policing as my study is Canadian based, with most of the previous studies being done in other parts of the world. In addition, my study separates itself as it the only one that has drawn upon the National Institute of Justice Report (Starheim, n.d.) and their subsequent 30x30 initiative, while centering senior ranking policemen’s experiences and perspectives in relation to gender equality and gender equity issues.
  • Item
    Investigating Time Estimation from a Self-Regulated Learning Perspective
    (2022-07-18) Bahena-Olivares, Leslie Michelle; Won, Sungjun; Hadwin, Allyson
    The present study investigates university students’ time estimation accuracy from a Self-Regulated Learning perspective. Specifically, the study examines students’ goal quality, competence for goal completion, and perceptions of goal difficulty as predictors of time estimation accuracy for single study session at three points over a semester. An additional goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between time estimation accuracy and students’ reported goal completion. Results show that more than 50% of students underestimated or overestimated their time to complete goals at every time point over the semester. Results of multinomial logistic regression analyses demonstrated that perceived goal difficulty was a predictor of underestimation at the middle and at the end of the semester, competence for goal completion predicted time estimation accuracy at the beginning of the semester, and goal quality was not a significant predictor of time estimation accuracy at any point in the semester. Lastly, students who overestimated the time spent in their study sessions were less likely to attain their goals. These results provide empirical evidence of the prevalence of misestimation during individual study sessions guided by goals created by students for course-relevant tasks and partial support to theoretical principles of SRL, which consider task perceptions and goal setting as determinants of the learning process.
  • Item
    Exploring the Experiences of Social Isolation and Loneliness of Postsecondary Students with Disabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic
    (2022-07-06) Demerling, Grace; Roberts, Jillian
    In a study of the experiences of loneliness and social isolation of postsecondary undergraduate students with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, 7 students with disabilities participated in phenomenological interviews to express their experiences during the pandemic. Interview data provided insight into the lived experiences of participants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Responses were analyzed using a descriptive phenomenological approach, resulting in 4 meta themes and 10 themes. Findings were discussed in relation to the developmental period of emerging adulthood and a new model for sustainable mental health proposed by Bohlmeijer and Westerhof (2021). Recommendations for the postsecondary institution attended by the participants are also discussed.
  • Item
    COVID-19 stress and middle school students’ engagement and school aversion: examining the mediational roles of emotion regulation and perceptions of school climate
    (2022-04-25) Hood, Moira; Hadwin, Allyson; Sukhawathanakul, Paweena
    Learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has included disruption, uncertainty, and additional stress for students. Adverse learning outcomes are a growing concern especially for vulnerable groups, such as middle school students. While COVID-19 research in academic fields is currently emerging, more research needs to address the specific experiences of middle school students. The current study examined the relationship between COVID-19 related stress (distress or fatigue) and student outcomes (student engagement and school aversion) for a sample of middle school students (N = 301). Specifically, coping (i.e., emotion regulation strategies) and perceptions of school climate were examined as mediators in the above relationship. Findings indicated that COVID-19 fatigue was inversely related to student engagement and positively related to school aversion. Emotion regulation mediated this relationship such that utilizing adaptive emotion regulation strategies promoted student engagement and dampened school aversion in relation to COVID-19 fatigue. School climate was also a significant mediator above and beyond the role of emotion regulation such that positive perceptions of school climate promoted engagement and reduced school aversion. A deeper explanation of the importance of regulation and the way middle schoolers perceive school rules and supports in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is discussed.
  • Item
    Youth mental health in the digital age: youth perspectives on the relationship between digital technology and their mental health
    (2022-01-04) Boothroyd, Sydney J.H.; Chou, Fred
    New generations of youth are coming of age at a time when digital technology is omnipresent, where devices are our constant companions, extensions of ourselves. It is not yet fully known what effect this mass consumption of digital technology will have on current and future generations. Although not entirely negative, dramatic shifts in human interaction and well-being have already presented themselves, begging understanding. Among these shifts are rising rates of youth struggling with mental health – especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Various international and domestic governing bodies highlight the importance of this burgeoning field of research, turning in part to our technology-loaded ecosystems for answers. Early research has established associations between increased digital screen usage and youth mental ill-health. Questions remain, however and there exist large gaps in counselling psychology research as to how we can best support youth in the digital age. Situated within this debate, the current study establishes a theoretical basis as to the role digital technology plays in youth mental health. The study employs a qualitative methodology, including semi-structured interviewing and thematic analysis. Eight youth were interviewed and asked to share their experiences of the relationship between their devices and their well-being. Thematic findings highlight a conflictual relationship between digital technology use and youth mental health, affecting their relationships with others, themselves, and the world around them. Because digital technology consumption on this scale is so new, this is one of the first available cohorts of youth to actively participate in the exploration of this topic, offering their unique voices in ways that will benefit broader societal understandings of technology and mental health.
  • Item
    Exploring factors that influence beginning teachers’ self-efficacy to teach in diverse classrooms
    (2021-12-01) Haider, Fizza; McGhie-Richmond, Donna
    Teacher self-efficacy for teaching in diverse classrooms is an important factor in the successful implementation of inclusion. Quantitative examinations of teacher self-efficacy have found the construct to be correlated with both contextual and teacher-related factors. In-depth qualitative exploration into type, quality, and nature of experiences that shape teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs is scarce. This research aimed to qualitatively examine potential sources of teacher self-efficacy and generate an explanation for the complex growth pattern it follows during the early years of practice. Seventy-eight beginning teachers across Canada (i.e., graduating teacher candidates and new teachers who are in the first three years of their practice) participated in 139 semi-structured interviews conducted over four years to address questions regarding the factors and experiences that influence their self-efficacy or confidence to teach in diverse classrooms. Ten factors which either had a positive or negative connotation emerged from a qualitative content analysis of their interviews. The Positive-Negative Experiences Balance (PNEB) model was conceptualized to understand and represent how these ten factors interactively, simultaneously, and collectively influence the development of beginning teachers’ self-efficacy for inclusive practice in the initial years of their careers. Through a comparison of frequency counts of codes, it was noted that beginning teachers differentially relied on experiential factors to enhance their self-efficacy when they were graduating, or were in the first three years of their teaching. The results are discussed in light of the relevant extant research. Implications of these results for teacher education programs and school leadership are also shared.
  • Item
    The relation between teacher ratings of attention and executive functioning with reading comprehension in elementary school students
    (2021-10-01) Poole, Tara; Harrison, Gina Louise
    The purpose of the present study was to examine the associations among teacher ratings of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptomology and executive functioning (EF) skills with reading comprehension and its underlying components reflected in the Simple View of Reading (SVR) including decoding and language comprehension ability. A total of 27 second grade (n = 10), third grade (n = 12), and fourth grade (n = 5) students were recruited for the study. Standardized assessment measures were used to capture word reading, decoding, reading comprehension, semantics, grammar, listening, phonological processing, and working memory. Teacher questionnaires were used to assess ADHD symptomology and EF ability in participants. Correlation analyses were conducted to explore the associations among teacher ratings of EF and ADHD, reading comprehension, and its subskills outlined in the SVR. A series of hierarchical regression analyses were performed to identify whether teacher ratings of ADHD or EF added unique variance to reading comprehension after controlling for word level reading and language comprehension skills. Results from the current study give further support for the SVR as an effective model for conceptualizing reading comprehension. An association between EF difficulties and poor word reading, in addition to weaker reading comprehension skills, was identified. These findings highlight the need for further research examining the role that EF plays in reading comprehension and its underlying components in order to better support struggling readers.