The middle-school transition has long been linked with poor social-emotional and academic outcomes for children. However to date, research on the middle-school transition has been predominantly observational, not experimental, and has not addressed whether the transition itself – or unobserved factors – cause children’s outcomes. In my dissertation, therefore, I explored the causal impact of a policy that foreshortened by one year the timing of the middle-school transition on children’s developmental trajectories of anxiety and depressive symptoms. In the summer of 2006, five of the 18 schools participating in the New York City Study of Social and Literacy Development (Jones, Brown, Hoglund, & Aber, 2010) shifted from a pK-6 to a pK-5 structure. Students entering fifth grade in these schools in the fall of 2006, therefore, faced the new knowledge that it would be their final elementary-school year. With no evidence of advance warning to families, I argue that this shift provided an exogenous disruption to children’s trajectories and therefore supported the unbiased estimation of causal impact. I employed an analytic strategy that combined, in a single analysis, elements of three statistical approaches: the multilevel modeling of change, to estimate children’s symptom trajectories over a two-year period; an interrupted time-series design, to estimate the immediate causal impact of the change in policy on children’s symptoms at the discontinuity among children who experienced the policy disruption; and a difference-in-differences correction, to subtract from the estimated impact of the disruptive policy any secular differences estimated using data from children in the non-affected schools. I found that the foreshortening of the time to middle-school transition caused a rise in children’s depressive symptoms, but not in their anxiety symptoms. In addition to the causal impact of the policy, I observed developmental and gender-based patterns in trajectories of children’s anxiety and depressive symptoms during the important middle-childhood period.

An attempt is made at answering the following questions: How can reliability be assessed? Is the final decision reached congruent with the reasons given to arrive at that decision? Are there any particular qualities in judges which may have an effect on the encoding procedure? Does the type of task (well-defined or ill-defined) have an effect on the encoding procedure? It was predicted that judges who are more skilled at categorizing protocols would use certain strategies that less skilled judges would not. The level of agreement on the final decisions was analyzed under several criteria. The marked difference indicates that the codes selected by the judges are not always coherent with the reasons invoqued or that the grid categories are ambiguous. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The increased interest in identifying effective interventions to facilitate learning disabled students in their academic pursuits necessitates a better understanding of the personal struggles of these students. This study is a preliminary attempt to focus on adult university students who have only recently been identified as having a learning disability. It used a social constructivist approach in an attempt to identify cognitive and metacognitive strategies employed by these students in the past and present, and those they might employ in future. Cognitive dissonance emerged as a major factor as regards the self-concept and self-esteem of these adult students. The dissonance surrounding their self-concept emanated from educational experiences and conflicting judgements about their intelligence. Their narratives identified anxiety as another major factor related to their learning experiences and this was consistent with several empirical studies that have found higher levels of anxiety among students with learning disabilities than the average student population. The narratives within this study have linked the students' cognitive dissonance with their anxiety and their attempts to establish consonance in their self-concept and what they perceived as acceptable levels of self-esteem. This study has resulted in significant insights into the use of myths by these four individuals as a means of coping with their dissonance and anxiety. It explores to what degree this myth-making was effective in assisting these four participants in mediating and self-regulating their learning. The methodology for this study included three 90-minute interviews over one- to three-week periods (Seidman 1998). The interviewer made use of the results of empirical tests that had previously been administered to these students to identify their learning disability. The test results helped to augment the students' exploration of their cognitive struggles and strategies. It is hoped that this study will lead to a richer understanding of the struggles of students with undiagnosed learning disabilities. Further, it is hoped that this study will enhance the use of narratives and a social constructivist approach to further research more effective mediations and self-regulation by this population.

Guided by the sociocultural approach (Wertsch, 1998; Wertsch, Del Rio & Alvarez, 1995), the study explores the relationship between parental expectations of the Chinese immigrants and their children's school achievement by pursuing three objectives: (a) to depict how immigrant Chinese parents and children "do things on the basis of their beliefs and desires, striving for goals, meeting obstacles which they best or which best them" (Brurier, 1990, p.43); (b) to obtain a better understanding of how immigrant Chinese parental expectations are constructed in a given sociocultural and historical context; and (c) to examine the affordances and constraints of immigrant Chinese parental expectations on their children's school achievement. With a qualitative grounded theory methodology (Strauss & Corbin, 1990), multiple data collection methods (open-ended interviews, researcher's journal, and document review) and multiple sources of data (parents, children, and other Chinese informants) were employed to ensure research trustworthiness. Seven recent immigrant Chinese families were primary participants in the study. The convergence and divergence of the accounts of the participants and other informants put forward an immigrant Chinese folk theory. The findings comprise four sections: (a) accounts of the parents; (b) accounts of the children; (c) visible minority experiences; and (d) role of parental expectations. Based on their cultural beliefs and life experiences, the parents mainly addressed their expectations in five areas, namely school achievement, career aspirations, integration of two cultures, moral character, and leadership role. The children expressed their perceptions of parental expectations, their anxious thoughts and feelings, and their self-expectations. All participants shared their thoughts on racial discrimination, visible minority ideology, and dreams of prosperity. Both parents and children affirmed that parental expectations fostered goal orientation, mastery learning experiences, internal control beliefs, and study habits. The study has demonstrated that the relationship between parental expectations of the Chinese immigrants and their children's school achievement is significantly shaped by the dynamic and complex interplay of multiple forces such as indigenous cultural expectations, personal life experiences, and the challenges of acculturation. High parental expectations and children's striving for excellence are rooted in Chinese cultural heritage and are situationally motivated and historically transformed in different ways in response to the demands of the Canadian sociocultual context. By giving voice to this fastest-growing yet under-researched largest visible minority group in Canada, the study makes educational experiences of the Chinese immigrants intelligible to the general public as well as to policy makers. It lends insights to the importance and necessity of anti-racism education. It assists immigrant Chinese parents and children to achieve mutual understanding in the process of acculturation. It also helps teachers and counsellors understand the cultural and family factors involved in schooling for immigrant Chinese children, so as to provide more efficient social and academic mentoring for non-mainstream children, and ultimately to enhance future school-home collaboration.

This study was a phenomenological investigation of Research and Development scientists' experience of creative self-efficacy. Creative self-efficacy is defined as an individual's belief in his or her ability to be creative in a given situation. A phenomenological research model (Moustakas, 1994) guided the investigation. Data collection methods included in-depth interviews with the 12 participants, a review of documents collected from participants, and researcher's reflective journal. Core findings that emerged were that creative self-efficacy seems to operate below the surface of awareness for the R&D scientist; it is not something he or she would have thought about until asked, and positively influences creative performance. Creative self-efficacy can be traced back to age four to twelve through the act of building things and making things work. It is influenced by freedom and thought space to be creative, along with positive feedback. Finally, creative self-efficacy contributes to the creative process providing confidence in the R&D scientist to use novel and new approaches to solve technical problems. Future research implications in the area of educational practice, the professional development of R&D scientists, organizational development, and society, are also discussed.

Late-adolescents face the challenges of leaving their families and creating lives of their own. Research has focussed on factors affecting their adjustment as they make this transition. Attachment theory is a useful model for understanding this process of adjustment, as moving away from home has been likened to a naturally occurring adolescent-equivalent of the Strange Situation that is used to measure security and style of attachment in infants. First year university students compose a large population of late-adolescents who recently left home, and attachment theory has been used as a basis for understanding the process of adjustment to university. The security of students' attachments to their parents impacts upon their adjustment in several domains. This research has not been linked to the growing literature on adult attachment styles. History of exposure to trauma has been linked to attachment style and to psychological adjustment in undergraduate students, but has not been linked directly to the process of adjustment to university. In the current study, the impacts on adjustment to university of security of attachment to parents, adult attachment style, and history of exposure to trauma were examined using path-analytic models. It was proposed that relationships between security of attachment to parents and adjustment to university would be entirely mediated by adult attachment style. It was also proposed that trauma and its negative after effects would have both direct impacts on adjustment to university, and indirect impacts through attachment style. The results did not support adult attachment style as a strong mediator of the relationship between security of attachment to parents and adjustment to university. Security of attachment style did predict self-perceived academic and social adjustment. Security of attachment style at the beginning of the year was a more important predictor than security of attachment style later in the year. Having a more preoccupied attachment style was linked to conformity motives for drinking. Trauma and its negative after effects had strong impacts on self-perceived emotional adjustment, also impacted significantly upon academic and social adjustment, and was related to drinking to cope with negative affect. The impact of trauma on adjustment in all domains was stronger later in the year than at the beginning of the year. The results are discussed in terms of implications for attachment theory, for the process of adjustment to university, and for the facilitation of adjustment among insecure and previously traumatized students.

Pour explorer comment la motivation des eleves peut etre affectee par les pratiques d'evaluation des apprentissages vecues en salle de classe, ce projet de recherche s'appuie sur la theorie de l'autodetermination (Deci, & Ryan, 1985) et sur la "goal orientation theory" (Ames, 1992). Toutes les etapes du processus d'evaluation sont examinees selon qu'elles respectent les besoins psychologiques fondamentaux apprenants (autodetermination) et salon les priorites qu'elles vehiculent--performer ou se developper (goal orientation). Au moyen de l'Echelle de motivation en education (Vallerand, Blais, Briere, & Pelletier, 1989) et de l'Indicateur d'intention pedagogique cree pour cette recherche, les donnees recueillies aupres de 331 eleves de 6$\rm \sp{e}$, 7$\rm \sp{e}$ et 8$\rm \sp{e}$ annee demontrent qu'en general, ils peuvent poser un regard critique sur la maniere qu'ils sont evalues a l'ecole. Leurs responses ont permis de decrire sommairement les pratiques courantes d'evaluation des apprentissages et d'identifier celles qui ont un lien etroit avec l'autodetermination des eleves. Plusieurs pratiques d'evaluation semblent pouvoir vehiculer aussi bien les deux types d'intention pedagogique, la difference se situant probablement dans leur application en salle de classe. C'est davantage l'impression que l'ensemble des pratiques degagent quant a leur equite, a leur utilite et la confiance demontree par l'enseignant dans la capacite de reussir qui stimulent le plaisir d'appendre, que les pratiques elles-memes$\sp\*$. ftn$\sp\*$L'emploi exclusif de la forme masculine dans ce document ne vise qu'a alleger le texte et n'exclut aucunement les femmes.

Un inventaire des recherches dans le domaine de la conceptualisation de la mort chez l'enfant atteste du besoin de mieux circonscrire la genese du concept. Cette recherche se propose donc d'etudier sa formation, son organisation et sa structuration chez l'enfant d'age scolaire. Elle comporte deux volets: un volet empirique et un volet exploratoire. Le volet empirique consiste a verifier un ensemble d'hypotheses formulees a partir des relations logiques inferees par les recherches anterieures. Il vise a valider la presence de relations significatives entre les groupements operatoires logico-mathematique et infra-logique des stades du developpement cognitif et la genese conceptuelle de la mort. Le volet exploratoire se propose d'etudier le mode d'elaboration du concept, c'est-a-dire l'organisation, la structuration et l'integration de ses diverses composantes. Il cherche a determiner si une progression par stades constitue un modele adequat pour representer le developpement conceptuel de la mort chez l'enfant. En ce qui concerne le volet empirique de la recherche, trois analyses distinctes sont effectuees. Une analyse par scalogramme pour les deux epreuves operatoires permet d'identifier le niveau de developpement cognitif des sujets dans les domaines logico-mathematique et infra-logique. Les coefficients de reproductibilite total (CR), de reproductibilite marginale minimum (MMR) et les indices de scalabilite (PPR) obtenus sont acceptables dans les deux cas. Les reponses aux items de la traduction francaise du "Derry Death Concept Scale" (DDCS) sont ensuite soumises a une analyse factorielle avec iteration et rotation varimax. Les reussites des items d'un meme univers de contenu et/ou de meme niveau de developpement se regroupent en sept facteurs qui expliquent 68% de la variance totale des resultats. Ces facteurs que nous appelons composantes sont: accessibilite, causalite, irrevocabilite, cessation des fonctions, realisation, inevitabilite et animisme. La structure factorielle et le regroupement des items sont tres similaires a ceux obtenus par Derry (1979). De tels resultats appuient la validite theorique de la traduction francaise du DDCS. La technique de l'analyse discriminante permet de verifier les hypotheses de la relation entre les stades du developpement cognitif et le concept de mort. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

In a problem solving context, executive control (EC) strategies are those strategies which monitor, direct and evaluate the problem solving process. Effective use of EC strategy knowledge characterizes the problem solving behaviour of expert solvers, but is commonly lacking in students. The exploratory investigation presented here addresses EC strategy knowledge at the university level and was guided by the following research objectives: (1) to explore EC strategy use and the associated strategic knowledge demonstrated by professors and students, while solving ill-structured problems within their domain of expertise and outside of that domain; and (2) to examine the differences in EC strategies applied and in associated strategies knowledge, across expertise and across domains. The research describes a broader range of EC strategy knowledge than is typically addressed in conventional expert-novice studies. This broader spectrum of strategy knowledge is reflected in a model of strategy knowledge first proposed by Pressley, Borkowski and O'Sullivan (1985) which, in its revised form, includes the interaction of general strategy knowledge, specific strategy knowledge and strategy acquisition knowledge. Four groups consisting of nine students and nine professors from the domain of biology and nine students and nine professors from the domain of political science respectively, were recruited on a volunteer basis. Following a short training session, each solver was requested to solve randomly assigned, ill-structured tasks in two domains: biology and political science. Participants were asked first, to work on each task while thinking aloud and then, to report on how they solved the problem in a semi-structured interview. All verbalizations were audiotaped, transcribed and then coded to extract EC strategy knowledge. The results indicate clear expertise and domain differences. Across expertise, professors and students differed in their patterns of global strategy use, the specific strategy knowledge they demonstrated and the beliefs they reported relevant to problem solving. Some of these results reflected a non-linear progression from novice to expert, suggesting that the EC strategy knowledge of both professors and effective student solvers provide an important resource in understanding and addressing EC strategy knowledge in the context of academic courses. Across domains, general strategy knowledge differences were strongest and influenced specific strategy knowledge, which in turn, was frequently implemented with different emphases and supported by different conditional knowledge. At a more general level, a number of themes emerged from the data. As expected, a full spectrum of EC strategy knowledge was demonstrated in the strategy knowledge reported by university students and professors, and the components of strategy knowledge in this spectrum were inter-dependent. The results on strategy acquisition knowledge indicated that solvers experienced little exposure to strategic knowledge in academic courses. Consequently, there was little conscious awareness of how EC strategy knowledge can be actively acquired. Finally, a performance-goal pattern of motivation was observed to influence the problem solving behaviour and strategy acquisition knowledge of both professors and students. The results have important implications for how university level educators represent and use Ec strategy knowledge in heir classrooms and demonstrate specific forms of EC strategy knowledge which could contribute to the development of "competence" in the domains of biology and political science.

The present study was designed to elicit the mental models or implicit theories held by adults about everyday problem solving. Twenty-four adults, age 25-60, from a wide range of educational and occupational orientations, were interviewed in pairs. Research questions were posed to draw forth the type of information which would allow the researcher to identify the content of these mental models. The integrated framework on Induction proposed by Holland, Holyoak, Nisbett, and Thagard (1986) was adopted as a conceptual framework for the study, by virtue of its use for ill-defined problems and its application to social science research. The study establishes the existence of mental models or implicit theories held by adults about everyday problem solving. The results identified the predominance of the interpersonal and emotional factors salient to this genre of problem solving. Individual differences, communication and problem identification were highlighted as the most significant and difficult areas upon which success was contingent. Degrees of self-confidence and habitual usage of a system or method were seen to be significant factors, often correlated with experience and education. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)