Browsing by Subject "Educational psychology"

Rising demographic diversity and persistent social inequality are two defining features of youths’ social worlds, and schools and neighborhoods are key developmental contexts where this component of contemporary life plays out. This dissertation aimed to better understand the developmental implications of these twin phenomena, focusing specifically on adolescence, a critical period of development characterized by profound neurobiological and social cognitive changes. Across three studies, I asked, (1) how does exposure to different types of diversity and inequality in schools and neighborhoods relate to adolescent mental health and academic engagement? and (2) how do these relations differ across contexts and according to individual socioeconomic and racial-ethnic identity?The first chapter examined the relation between how schools say they value diversity and adolescent belonging, mental health, and academic engagement across racial groups. Results indicate that when schools’ mission statements conveyed explicit support for diversity (versus exhibiting color-evasive ideologies), racial disparities in mental health, educational aspirations, and reading achievement were smaller. However, when there was a mismatch between how schools said they value diversity and how such values were put into practice, schools’ proclaimed support for diversity was negatively associated with mental health, especially among White youth. The second chapter examined how exposure to rising inequality within neighborhoods—vis-à-vis gentrification—may impact educational outcomes. I found small positive associations between living in a gentrifying (versus chronically disinvested) neighborhood and 12th grade cumulative grade point average, intentions to pursue higher education, and one dimension of school quality: exposure to experienced teachers. However, these potential benefits of gentrification were concentrated among youth who were not economically disadvantaged and White youth. Further, for Black youth, the relation between gentrification and postsecondary plans varied according to the degree of racial turnover occurring in gentrifying neighborhoods—Black gentrification was positively associated with intentions to pursue college, but White gentrification was not. The third chapter examined two psychological mechanisms through which living in a gentrifying neighborhood may impact reading and math achievement: educational aspirations and psychological distress. Overall, there was a positive direct association between gentrification and achievement, and limited evidence of mediation. However, the pathways linking gentrification to educational aspirations, psychological distress, and achievement differed across socioeconomic and racial groups in nuanced ways that illuminate the potential costs and benefits of living in a changing neighborhood during adolescence. These three studies contribute to advancing the education, adolescent, and neighborhood literatures by examining understudied aspects of schools and neighborhoods. Findings suggest that the relation between context, identity, and development is more nuanced than is often assumed, with policy implications for how schools and neighborhoods can better address rising demographic diversity and persistent inequality.

Students hold a number of personal theories about education that influence motivation and achievement in the classroom: theories about their own abilities, knowledge, and the learning process. Therefore, college instructors have a great interest in helping to develop adaptive personal theories in their students. The current studies investigated whether specific messages that instructors send in college classroom might serve as a mechanism of personal theory development. Across 2 studies, 17 college instructors and 401 students completed surveys assessing their personal theories about education at the beginning and end of college courses. Students and instructors reported hearing and sending many messages in the classroom, including instructor help messages, conciliatory messages, uncertainty in the field messages, differential ability messages and generalized positive and negative feedback. Between-class and within-class differences in message reports were associated with students’ personal theories at the end of their courses, controlling for initial personal theories. Students’ initial personal theories were also related to the messages students reported hearing. The findings demonstrate the utility of assessing non-content messages in college classrooms as potential mechanisms for changing students’ personal theories in college. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

The salience, prevalence, and consequences of feedback students receive on their academic performance have led to widespread interest in assessment outcomes. Despite the frequency and high stakes of performance feedback, a clear picture of how it influences students' academic motivation has failed to emerge. The overarching goal of this dissertation study was to better understand the effect of performance feedback on secondary school students' academic motivation following a high-stakes assessment. In particular, this study had three main aims: (1) begin disentangling the influence of performance feedback from its valence on students' self-efficacy, goal orientations, and intrinsic motivation, (2) explore how the stage of an assessment event and performance feedback interact to influence these motivation constructs, and (3) determine whether the influence of performance feedback on academic motivation depends on the evaluation dimension of the classroom goal structure.

To investigate these topical questions, the current study implemented a cluster-randomized experimental design. One hundred sixty-one seventh through ninth grade students in 13 math or science classes from a single, all-female secondary school were randomly assigned by their class to one of the following four feedback conditions: (1) numeric grades, (2) evaluative comments, (3) numeric grades accompanied by evaluative comments, and (4) no feedback. Students' academic motivation was then measured on three occasions to capture its fluctuations during an assessment event: at baseline, immediately after teachers announced what form of feedback students would receive (i.e., anticipation stage), and immediately after students received their assigned form of feedback (i.e., receipt stage).

Results revealed a series of complex interactions between the stage of feedback (i.e., anticipation vs. receipt) and its form (i.e., grades, comments, grades plus comments, or no feedback). Notably, only students in the grades plus comments condition experienced a decline in self-efficacy from anticipation to receipt of this feedback. However, these students also reported an increase in their mastery goal orientation and intrinsic motivation upon the receipt of grades accompanied by comments. Students in the comments condition experienced a similar increase in intrinsic motivation. Finally, students in the no feedback and comments conditions also reported a greater performance-approach goal orientation when they received performance feedback (or lack thereof) compared to when they anticipated it. No evidence was found to support the hypothesis that students' perceptions of the evaluation dimension of their classroom goal structure moderated these interaction effects. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of these findings are discussed along with limitations and recommendations for future research.

One-hundred and seventy-seven high-school students and two-hundred responded to a survey assessing their motivation (goal orientations, expectancies, and values), self-regulation (cognitive, behavior, and emotion), learning processes, academic behaviors, and grades in the favorite and least favorite classes. First, multiple pathways to academic success were examined by comparing how motivation leads to academic outcomes (learning processes, academic behaviors, and grades) via self-regulation in high school and college by using structural equation modeling. As expected, the findings support the stance that there are different ways to achieve academic success. Surprisingly, emotion regulation mediated the relations between motivation and learning processes in favorite classes. Additionally, combinations of self-regulation were examined separately for type of class (favorite/least favorite) and age group (high school/college) using latent class analyses. As expected, these regulatory profiles mediated the relations between motivation and academic outcomes, found with structural equation modeling. Interestingly, students in the attention regulation profile, who were high on attention but low on other regulatory capacities, performed lower than those who tend to be high regulators. However, those who were members in the emotion regulator profile did not differ from high regulators. Behavior regulation was a mediator for college students but not high school students. The findings underscore the importance of considering cognitive, behavior, and emotion regulation in considering the relations between motivation to academic outcomes.