We investigated environmental supports, an understudied aspect of Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), with rural Appalachian youth, an understudied population. We developed a new measure of proximal influences that bolster the pursuit of postsecondary education, the Assessment of Postsecondary Supports (APSS). Across 3 studies, we develop and…

The purpose of this study was to examine students understandings about nature of science (NOS) and their arguments in context of controversial socio-scientific issue (SSI). A total of 74 11th graders in six schools in Saudi Arabia participated in the study. The instrument used was a questionnaire consisting of four scenarios addressing SSI about…

The purpose of this case study was to explore how rural high school teachers and students, grades 9-12 use iPads in class, the obstacles and barriers to teacher and student iPad use, and the relationship between types and frequency of use, in one high school in Southern Oregon. The study consisted of classroom observations and follow-up interviews…

Given Chinese students often perform well academically despite the challenges of their competitive academic environments, it is important to explore what enables the academic resilience of these students. Moreover, because the extant resilience literature is biased towards Western accounts of resilience, it is crucial that non-Western perspectives…

The primary goal of the study presented in this dissertation is to describe 11th-graders' understandings, through different representations, of: (1) the definition of function, (2) the production of a function, and (3) the interpretation of a function. In addition, this dissertation seeks to describe the relationship between 11th-graders' scores…

As low-achieving students face difficult time at school and usually experience low motivation to learn, blogging in the classroom might be used as a possible way of motivating them through its use as an e-portfolio (show-case blog) for students to show their work. The researcher used case study approach to examine 11th grade class (n = 22) Arab…