This thesis explores the impact of an inquiry-based learning programme on students’ self-reported levels of self-regulated processes and related motivations in the science classroom. Appreciating the interest seen in developing self-regulated learning and motivation in young students (Gläser-Zikuda & Järvelä, 2008; Zimmerman, 2002) and considering current discussions regarding the way science is taught around the globe (Kalman, 2010, Leou, Abder, Riordan, & Zoller, 2006), it was deemed important to explore the development of these constructs in young science students through participation in a curriculum initiative currently being implemented across the UK - the CREativity in Science and Technology (CREST) programme. The three studies included in this thesis followed a longitudinal quasi-experimental design using a naturalistic setting. After placing the research within a theoretical framework (Chapters 1 & 2) and describing the pilot work and methodology for the three investigations (Chapter 3), Study 1 (presented in Chapter 4) explored the impact of the CREST programme on developing self-regulated processes and related motivations in young students (n=34) compared to a control group of students from the same school (n=39). The findings indicated that students participating in the programme experienced significant increases in their self-reported levels of self-regulated learning and career motivation in comparison to the control group of students and that these developments were retained six months following programme completion. The results also demonstrated the potential for the CREST programme to reduce the decreasing trends relating to self-determination and intrinsic motivation found in the control group and reported in the wider literature in the field. Study 2 (presented in Chapter 5) built on the methodology of Study 1 and investigated class differences in response to the CREST programme. Study 2 aimed firstly to replicate the findings from Study 1 regarding group differences in self-reported levels from pre-test to post-test on the measured variables. While a reference control class (n=18) showed no significant changes from pre-test to post-test, on average, students taking part in the CREST programme showed significant increases in self-regulated learning, self-determination, self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, and overall science motivation. However, due to the lack of an appropriate control group of equal size (n=160), conclusions were drawn cautiously. Another aim of this second study was to gain an understanding of whether individual classes of students experienced the programme differently and identify classroom dynamics that might predict the degree of benefit students obtain. The findings showed no class differences in response to the CREST programme relating to the self-regulated processes and related motivational constructs measured, and highlighted the sensitivity of the analyses used in classroom effects research. Study 3 (presented in Chapter 6) followed a similar quasi-experimental design (n=188) to Studies 1 and 2, with the addition of another intervention condition of students who had participated in CREST the year before the study was conducted. This, more, rigorous methodological design allowed for longer-term retention effects to be investigated. The results from this study highlighted the immediate and three-month delayed impact of the CREST programme on increasing self-reported for this sample of students. However, retention at the nine-month delayed post-test was not observed, suggesting that strategies need to be in place in order to maintain any developments through CREST programme participation. Teacher ratings of students’ self-regulated learning were also measured and did not align with the students’ self-reported results, highlighting the difficulty for teachers to identify and quantify internal processes like self-regulation among their students. While extensive research has been conducted on self-regulated processes and related motivations in students of all ages, the need for an increased understanding in natural classroom settings through implementing more rigorous research designs in specific learning contexts has been identified. Bringing the findings together, the three studies included in this thesis illustrate the beneficial impact of CREST programme participation on self-regulated processes and related motivations in young science students. The series of intervention studies presented provides a distinct contribution to research, demonstrating that these constructs can be developed in natural classroom settings by promoting an environment that encourages students to be more self-regulated and motivated in their science learning.

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the relationship between self-efficacy and reading achievement and to examine the predictive validity of a variety of reading self-efficacy measures in a sample of 364 students in Grades 4 to 6. Mean differences in self-efficacy were also examined by gender, ethnicity, and school type. Results suggested that the four measures of reading self-efficacy were psychometrically sound. Mean differences were not present for students based on gender or ethnicity. Elementary school students reported higher levels of reading test self-efficacy than did middle school students. Reading self-efficacy predicted reading performance as measured by four different outcomes (i.e., language arts grades, scores on a standardized reading test, teacher ratings of students’ reading competence, and daily minutes read). For these analyses, the type of reading self-efficacy that most closely corresponded with the performance outcome was the best predictor. These findings suggest that reading self-efficacy is best measured in a context-specific manner.

Using Texas undergraduates’ memory of high school social norms (n = 88), I attempt to determine the replicability of Gelfand et al.’s (2011) research on the tightness-looseness scores of 33 nations. Tightness-looseness refers to a complex model in which cultural social norms are explicated. “Tight” cultures indicate strong social norms where members perceive larger pressures for conformity. These pressures result in higher levels of self-monitoring and regulation. Conversely, “loose” cultures signify weaker social norms and a higher tolerance for atypical conduct. My research confirms that the tightness-looseness model can be applied to school environments because my research revealed a tightness-looseness mean score of 4.3, which is near the midpoint of the six-point scale. Gelfand et al.’s (2011) research (n = 6,823) revealed that the United State had a tightness-looseness score, 5.4, which was near the middle of the range of scores for the 33 nation samples, which ranged from 1 to 12.3. However, my research discovered no significant effects of tightness-looseness on demographic variables, or on the Behavior or Situation Measures. These non-significant findings do not necessarily preclude the concepts discussed here from future research. Rather, future research should include comparison groups from different educational environments and a larger sample size reflective of Gelfand et al. (2011). / text

In this thesis, I present a view according to which folk psychology is not only used for predictive and explanatory purposes but also as a normative tool. I take it that this view, which I delineate in chapter 1, can help us account for different aspects of human agency and with solving a variety of puzzles that are associated with developing such an account. My goal is to examine what it means to act as an agent in a human society and the way in which the nature of our agency is also shaped by the normative constraints inherent in the common understanding of agency that we share with other agents. As I intend to demonstrate, we can make significant headway in explaining the nature of our capacity to express ourselves authoritatively in our actions in a self-knowing and self-controlled manner if we place this capacity in the context of our social interactions, which depend on a constant exchange of reasons in support of our actions. My main objective is to develop a promising account of human agency within a folk-psychological setting by mainly focusing on perspectives from the philosophy of action and mind, while still respecting more empirically oriented viewpoints from areas such as cognitive science and neuroscience. Chapter 2 mainly deals with the nature of self-knowledge and with our capacity to express this knowledge in our actions. I argue that our self-knowledge is constituted by the normative judgments we make and that we use these judgments to regulate our behaviour in accordance to our folk-psychological understanding of agency. We are motivated to act as such because of our motive to understand ourselves, which has developed through our training as self-knowing agents in a folk-psychological framework. Chapter 3 explores the idea that we develop a self-concept which enables us to act in a self-regulating manner. I distinguish self-organization from selfregulation and argue that we are self-regulating in our exercises of agency because we have developed a self-concept that we can express in our actions. What makes us distinct from other self-regulating systems, however, is that we can also recognize and respond to the fact that being such systems brings us under certain normative constraints and that we have to interact with others who are similarly constrained. Chapter 4 is mainly concerned with placing empirical evidence which illustrate the limits of our conscious awareness and control in the context of our account of agency as a complex, emergent social phenomenon. Finally, chapter 5 deals with the way in which agentive breakdowns such as self-deceptive inauthenticity fit with this account.

According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services (1999), between 10-15% of children and adolescents in the United States show some symptoms of depression that interfere with their functioning at home and school. This same report indicated that only 20-25% of these children get the treatment they need to cope with this significant debilitating condition. Adults often turn to spirituality in order to find comfort, hope and relief from distress. Spirituality refers to one's own beliefs, experiences and ideals concerning how to cope with a crisis (Elkins & Cavendish, 2004). However, most work in spirituality has been done with adults; little is known about the ways in which spirituality may be used or expressed by children who are facing difficulty in life, and especially among clinically children with depression (Elkins et al., 2004).The purpose of this study was to investigate experiences and views that promote well-being among school-age children (ages 9-12 years) who had been diagnosed with depression, and specifically what role spirituality has in this process. The goal was to better understand the process of how these children express and find purpose and meaning in their life in order to find a sense of hope, comfort and strength in order to cope during their experience with depression. The method used for this study was grounded theory, designed to examine an underlying social process (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). The sample consisted of 7 English speaking children ages 9-12 that had been diagnosed with depression not otherwise specified or dysthymia. Children were patients at a counseling center in Arizona. A semi-structured interview schedule ensured that the research questions were answered. Data were analyzed using constant comparison of themes across and within data from the participants and other text-based sources.Self-regulation, which included spiritually-related approaches, was found to be a key underlying process of coping in this group of children. Understanding the process of spiritual self-regulation was useful in providing more definitive knowledge for theory-guided practice with clinically depressed school-aged children.

This dissertation presents a literature review on procrastination and more specifically research involving the domain of academic procrastination, characteristics/traits academic procrastinators exhibit, and two different types of academic procrastinators. Even though a comprehensive theory has not been established, social cognitive theory, attribution theory, and motivation theories contribute to our understanding of academic procrastination. Studies that investigate prevalence of high school and college students who procrastinate in international settings, and more specifically in the United States, are reviewed, along with the literature on the relationship between academic procrastination and achievement. Research has demonstrated with relative consistency that academic procrastination has significant adverse effects on academic progress (Ferrari et al., 2005; Moon & Illingworth, 2005) and that high percentages of undergraduate college students self-report they engage in academic procrastination (Steel, 2007). The literature review is followed by an investigation that utilizes an adapted version of the Procrastination Assessment Scale-Students (Özer & Ferrari, 2011), a self-report instrument, to measure students’ academic procrastination. The purpose of this study was to investigate (a) the percentage of undergraduate college and high school students who self-report academic procrastination; (b) the frequency of academic procrastination among undergraduate college and high school students for the specific academic tasks of studying for exams, completing reading assignments, and writing papers; and (c) the relationship between academic procrastination and achievement of undergraduate college and high school students. Both on specific tasks and overall, significantly more college students report higher procrastination than high school students. Unexpectedly, this study did not find a significant relationship between academic procrastination and academic achievement, as measured by grade point average. This study highlights the importance of considering students’ age when examining academic procrastination.

<p>Research has long assumed that the process of self-control involves mechanisms for overcoming temptations. Such mechanisms, however, may not necessarily be consciously deployed, and relatively little is known about how individuals’ explicit beliefs about temptations may impact their response to them. With this in mind, five studies were conducted to examine the self-regulatory impact of individuals’ general beliefs about the necessity of avoiding temptations and the potential utility of having indulged in them. These studies considered how the impact of these beliefs may themselves depend on an individual’s ability to implement self-control. Study 1 tested the connection between an individual’s decision to avoid temptations and the two beliefs on overcoming temptations – beliefs in the necessity of avoidance and in the utility of indulgence. Studies 2 and 3 examined the relationship between self-control and the general belief that the utility of indulging in temptations affects self-control related behaviors. Study 4 explored how these beliefs may impact healthy dietary choices in the face of food temptations. Finally, Study 5 employed a different task paradigm to examine how various beliefs about temptations may mitigate the negative experiences of failures in self-control. Overall, the findings indicated that a general belief in the utility of avoiding temptations may positively impact goal pursuit, especially when self-control is low. Alternatively, a belief in the value of indulging in temptations may negatively impact goal pursuit when individuals’ self-control is low. This belief, however, may mitigate the consequences of temptation indulgence for future self-control.</p> / Dissertation

This applied research in education was undertaken within the context of a school mentoring programme, where my role as a mentor researcher is directed at promoting change in teacher pedagogy consistent with junior-high school educational reforms in Israel. The purpose of this study has been twofold: 1) to confront conflicting issues that exist between the need for change in teacher pedagogy and the resistance felt by many of them toward ‘never ending’ new reforms and: 2). to investigate the impact of the mentoring model (MM) on learning processes that foster teacher empowerment. Assessment of empowerment, as both a process and a product, drew on the teachers' metacognitive development, growing sense of satisfaction and self-efficacy as mediators of their pupils' thinking/learning skills. This study presents a unique approach to teacher empowerment through its theoretical and methodological perspectives. Socio-cultural perspectives serve as an over-arching framework through which various theoretical perspectives for learning and development may be integrated. Action research and discourse analysis were found to be compatible with the researcher’s philosophical approach, whereby educators engage in a collaborative learning process that promotes shared visions and goals. Promoting the characteristics of a learning organisation within the school shed light on ways that can provide teachers with a nurturing environment within the complex dynamics of the school. The detailed account and interpretation of the multi-level reciprocal interactions that occur between teachers, mentor and the school organisation presented in this study is especially significant for understanding multidimensional developmental processes. It illustrates the evolution of inventive methodological tools (such as skills rubrics and discourse analysis techniques), which assume to provide new perspectives for fostering the teachers’ trust in their own judgement when mediating higher order thinking skills. These findings are of particular relevance as contemporary research indicates that teachers often experience difficulties in practicing metacognitive pedagogy.

Researchers adopting the strength-energy model of self-control (Baumeister et al., 1998) have suggested that taxing situations (i.e., self-control demands) exhaust a limited self-control resource and leave individuals in a state of self-regulatory fatigue known as “ego-depletion.” Following the onset of ego-depletion, numerous studies have shown that individuals are more susceptible to lapses in self-control, including failure to resist alcohol consumption. Self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2000) researchers have contributed to this body of research in at least two major ways. First, they have suggested that psychological need satisfaction may hold a restorative function and buffer against the ego-depleting effects of self-control demands during the day (Ryan & Deci, 2008). Second, they have empirically demonstrated that self-control resources may only be needed to execute responses involving greater controlled (CR) than autonomous (AR) regulation (Moller et al., 2006). Drawing upon each of these perspectives, the current study investigated: a) whether students reporting greater self-control demands during the day would be protected from higher levels of ego-depletion during the evening if they perceived greater psychological need satisfaction during the day, and b) whether students reporting higher levels of ego-depletion during the evening would be at greater risk of alcohol-related self-control failure at night if they reported relatively greater controlled than autonomous regulation for limiting their nighttime drinking. Two independent samples of university students were recruited during the Fall 2015 (Sample 1; n = 175) and Spring 2016 (Sample 2; n = 204) semesters. Across three (Sample 1) and four (Sample 2) week periods, students were prompted to complete measures of self-control demands and psychological need satisfaction during the day, and ego-depletion, alcohol-related self-control failure, and self-regulation for limiting alcohol consumption during the night. Using multilevel analysis, findings revealed a positive association between self-control demands and ego-depletion. This association was moderated by psychological need satisfaction during some temporal periods more than others. Findings also revealed a positive association between ego-depletion and alcohol-related self-control failure, but only among Sample 1 participants. Findings did not implicate self-regulation as a moderator of this relationship. The applicability of the strength-energy model is discussed in relation to student drinking behaviour. / Graduate / 2017-12-14 / tcarey@uvic.ca

Quality of appearance is important in nature and individuals have a basic need to establish the normality of appearance to confirm their acceptability to others. In daily inter-relationships of the same species, for instance, normal-appearing members of a species group reject or kill other members who appear abnormal. In human society, appearance is considered as one of the most direct sources of information about other people, and unattractiveness is often accompanied by negative judgments, which can cause emotional distress and isolation. Accordingly, humans tend to pay great attention to their personal appearance and make improvements to enhance their self-representations. The growth of the beauty and cosmetic surgery industries is an indication of an increasing willingness to enhance physical appearance. However, despite the growing demand for cosmetic procedures, the consumer research literature on this topic is extremely sparse. In fact, little is known about the attitudinal and motivational drivers that facilitate undergoing such procedures. This dissertation enriches our understanding of factors that affect consumers’ motivation to pursue cosmetic procedures and examines the role of emotions in such decisions. To that end, objective self-awareness (OSA) theory is applied and the interplay between the state of public OSA, beauty standards, and self-conscious emotions of shame and pride is explored. The results of two experimental studies indicate that access to beauty standards coupled with the state of public OSA generates self-standard comparison thoughts that may yield self-standard discrepancies. Negative emotions experienced due to such discrepancies move individuals into a self-regulatory cycle with the purpose of discrepancy reduction and impact their motivation to undergo cosmetic procedures. Pride and shame, two central self-conscious emotions, influence self-regulatory strategies and differently impact the approach to discrepancy reduction. These findings contribute to the research advocating the role of emotions in decision making and provide more insights about self-conscious emotions and their role in regulating goal pursuit behavior. The findings provide practical implications for marketers of cosmetics products and services, social marketers trying to encourage or discourage certain behaviors, and public policy makers. Moreover, the results have wide-ranging implications for structuring programs designed to contribute to consumer welfare.