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The reality of students' affective experiences in the peer conference phase of process writing has been underresearched and real student voices are missing from the literature. Adolescent girls' development of self--actually a corporation of selves--and identity is a site of struggle within oppressive dominant discourses, often resulting in girls' disappearing into a gender-stereotyped loss of that self/selves and identity. In this study, a series of four interviews with five pairs of "disappeared" eighth grade girls provides the voices of adolescent girls discussing their experiences with and affective responses to peer conferencing. A modified form of Brown (1988) and Brown and Gilligan's (1990) model for reading/listening for care and justice perspectives was used to guide interpretations of the interviews. These "disappeared" girls talk of intricate, interior negotiations around offering suggestions to peers about their writing, revealing a balancing or blending of care and justice concerns. This blending indicates their capacity to interrelate broadly across the human spectrum of response, from independence to connection. These voices also give evidence that peer conferencing offers opportunities for girls to rehearse and express resistance to dominant discourses as they struggle to establish their selves and to hold on to their selves in the writing.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology / Fred O. Bradley / This study examines the validity of the College Learning Effectiveness Inventory (CLEI). The CLEI is a new instrument designed to assess issues that college students face that affect their performance, including academic success and persistence. The CLEI serves diagnostic and prescriptive functions. Academic advisors, counselors and others whose work involves supporting student success and retention can use the CLEI to assess an individual student’s strengths and weaknesses and use the results to counsel students and provide appropriate remedial activities. This study compares the following six scales of the College Learning Effectiveness Inventory (CLEI) with instruments that have already been established. The six scales of the CLEI are as follows: (1) Academic Self-Efficacy, (2) Organization and Attention to Study, (3) Stress and Time Pressure, (4) Involvement with College Activity, (5) Emotional Satisfaction, and (6) Class Communication. The validation instruments for this cross-validation study included the Concentration, Self-Testing, Study Aids, and Time Management scales from the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI), the Time Organization and Study Environment Management subscale of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), the College Adjustment Questionnaire (CAQ), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and the Student Propensity to Ask Questions (SPAQ) scale. This study answers the following research questions: 1.) Are the CLEI scales reliable measures of the constructs they purport to assess? 2.) Are the CLEI scales valid measures of the dimensions they purport to assess? 3.) What are the CLEI scales attributes for this sample, and how do they compare with those from an earlier normative sample? 4.) How are the CLEI scales related to one another? 5.) Are the CLEI scales gender neutral? and 6.) Does the CLEI differentiate between students who are successful and those who may be at risk? Finally, this study cross-validates the CLEI. The reason for a cross-validation study of new scales is to demonstrate that these new measures actually measure what they purport to assess. Without cross validation, we would have to rely on a scale’s face validity, which is a comparatively weak method of assessing validity.

<p> The concept of self-esteem has so thoroughly infiltrated American education that &ldquo;most educators believe developing self-esteem to be one of the primary purposes of public education&rdquo; (Stout, 2001, p. 119). That the available scholarship challenging the validity of self-esteem principles has had little to no impact on schooling and school policy demonstrates the need for more a comprehensive interrogation of a concept that has become so pervasive and commonsensical that many administrators and teachers do not even think to question its place in traditional pedagogy, let alone consider the possibility that self-esteem is a damaging ideological construct. The rhetorical (and impossible) promise of self-esteem as both a quantifiable and fixed human resource has proliferated in educational language as schools continue to promote self-esteem among racialized and poorly performing students, while the structural conditions that negatively impact these students&rsquo; performance in the first place remain intact.</p><p> The legacy of self-esteem in educational discourse requires a critical interpretation, or re-interpretation, by educators who wish to challenge oppressive commonsense assumptions and feel-good principles that covertly help to maintain &ldquo;dominant cultural norms that do little more than preserve social inequality&rdquo; (Darder, 2015, p. 1). This study takes a decolonizing approach that involves a substantive interrogation&mdash;historical, political, and philosophical&mdash;of the Eurocentric epistemological concept of self-esteem, in order to demonstrate the debilitating effects that self-esteem has on students from working-class communities of color. It then suggests an emancipatory understanding of the self and alternative critical pedagogical principles of social empowerment.</p>

<p> The decision regarding when to send their child to school can be difficult one for parents. Much attention has been paid to the relationship between age of entry into kindergarten and academic achievement. However, a child&rsquo;s ability to maintain the behavioral standards of a classroom is an equally important aspect of readiness for school. In this study, a secondary analysis of 9,474 kindergarten students examined the relationship between the age at which a child enters kindergarten and teacher reports of externalizing behavior problems. Data on other child factors including child sex, attendance in a preschool program, socioeconomic status, race, and family structure were also obtained in the fall of the kindergarten year. There was a significant main effect of child age on externalizing behaviors, even after controlling for family structure and socioeconomic status (SES). In addition, there were significant relationships between race and externalizing behavior, child sex and externalizing behavior, and preschool attendance and externalizing behavior, even after controlling for family structure, and SES.</p>

The relationship of immune disease, headaches, and handedness to learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder (ADD) was investigated. Questionnaires were completed by the parents of learning disabled (LD) and regular education students attending public middle school. A measure of ADD was included to separate the sample of LD students into two categories: those with academic and behavior disorders and those with only academic disorders. Discriminant analyses failed to indicate a significant difference between the LD and regular education students on measures of immune disease, headaches, handedness, or attention deficit disorder. Chi-square analyses of the data indicated that the only significant difference between LD and regular education students was on a measure of allergies to food and drink where the LD students reported a higher incidence as compared to regular education students. Implications of these findings are discussed.

<p> Therapist self-disclosure is a controversial topic in that it has been historically and widely debated in past research and literature across theoretical orientations. Much of the existing self-disclosure research focuses on the effects that therapist self-disclosure has on the therapeutic relationship, using varied methodology in its definition and measurement of how, when, and in what context therapist self-disclosure is utilized. There are also very few studies that investigate frequency rates of therapist self-disclosure; of those that do exist, results are mixed. Additionally, there is little to no research on how self-disclosure is used by student therapists, in actual psychotherapy sessions, particularly in the context of sessions in which difficult or traumatic subject matter is discussed. Accordingly, the purpose of the present study was to qualitatively explore verbalizations of student therapist self-disclosure in psychotherapy sessions with trauma survivors. A sample of 5 therapist-participants from university-based community counseling centers were selected, and transcribed videotaped sessions in which client- and therapist-participants discussed trauma were analyzed. A qualitative and deductive content analysis was employed, using a coding system that was created based on the extant literature on therapist self-disclosure, to examine verbal expressions of therapist self-disclosure in psychotherapy sessions with trauma survivors. The results indicated that the therapist-participants used many different forms of self-disclosure (self-involving disclosures, disclosures that are not otherwise specified, personal self-disclosure, and demographic self-disclosures, in order of frequency) both within and out of trauma discussions. More specifically, self-involving disclosures (SINV-PERS) tended to occur more frequently within trauma discussions while personal and demographic disclosures (SDIS-PERS and SDIS-DEMO) tended to occur more frequently in non-trauma discussions. Therapist self-disclosures comprised 6 of the 9 proposed coding categories over all 5 psychotherapy sessions. It is hoped that this study will raise awareness around the issue of the use of therapist self-disclosure in psychotherapy, both in general and with clients who have experienced traumatic events during the course of their lives. The findings have implications for both future studies examining therapist self-disclosure as well as clinical training practices in graduate programs for student therapists, an area of study that is currently under-researched.</p>

<p> Process-based approaches to writing tend to overlook the self-regulatory skills and motivational beliefs required for proficient writing (Harris, Santangelo, &amp; Graham, 2008) and do not provide the support many students need to develop into effective writers (Graham, Harris, &amp; Mason, 2005; Harris, Graham, &amp; Mason, 2006). Additionally, restricted writing opportunities preclude the sustained deliberate practice students need to develop expertise in writing (Kellogg &amp; Whiteford, 2009). This study examined an intervention that incorporated the self-regulated strategy development model (SRSD, Graham &amp; Harris, 1993) with the automated writing evaluation (AWE) program NC Write. An embedded quasi-experimental mixed methods design was used to determine the impact of the intervention on students&rsquo; argumentative writing performance, knowledge, and self-efficacy. Middle school students (<i>N</i>=829) participated in one of three conditions: NC Write + traditional writing instruction, NC Write + SRSD instruction, or a comparison condition.</p><p> Results of multi-level models that controlled for pretest performance and predicted posttest performance averaging across students and within teachers showed that students in the NC Write + SRSD instruction condition produced posttest essays that were of a higher quality, longer, and included more basic elements of argumentative essays than students in the other two conditions. Students in the NC Write + traditional writing instruction condition produced higher-quality essays than students in the comparison condition at posttest. Students in the NC Write + SRSD instruction condition identified more essay elements at posttest, though there were no between-condition differences in writing knowledge of substantive processes or in students&rsquo; writing self-efficacy at posttest. </p><p> Additional multi-level models were specified to include all essays written by treatment condition students and examine the shape of growth in writing performance. Results showed that students&rsquo; growth in writing quality, essay length, and essay elements was best represented by a quadratic growth model. On average, students&rsquo; growth in writing performance reached a plateau following the fourth essay written during the intervention. Differences in rates of change and deceleration in writing quality, essay length, and essay elements were not significantly different between the two treatment conditions.</p><p> Survey results showed students and teachers held generally favorable opinions of NC Write. Interview results determined that NC Write as well as the overall writing intervention had acceptable social validity. Qualitative data analysis revealed that NC Write provided a framework for deliberate writing practice. In this framework students&rsquo; growth in writing performance is supported by a cycle of learning, practice, and feedback. NC Write enabled deliberate practice by affording writing quality feedback, efficiency, and evidence of growth, and supporting teachers&rsquo; writing instruction and students&rsquo; intrinsic motivation. Limitations of the framework included some aspects of feedback, limited lesson data, and lack of a plagiarism scanner in NC Write. Implications from these findings support integrating SRSD instruction with an AWE program to support teacher implementation of the SRSD model and more efficiently provide students with the strategy instruction, practice opportunities, and feedback needed to develop proficiency in writing. Recommendations are provided for AWE programs to better support students&rsquo; maintenance of writing quality growth.</p>

<p> The purpose of this self-study is to examine and analyze if and how an understanding of early childhood trauma informs my practice in my student-teaching placements in early childhood special education and a special day class (SDC) autism preschool. This study was informed by research in the field, as well as qualitative interviews on the subject. This study aims brings to light the need for more training and education on trauma-informed care in ECE. Data was collected through self-focused reflections and feedback from my colleagues on my work in my student-teaching placements at a center-based early intervention program in Oakland and an autism SDC preschool in San Leandro. Data was also collected through qualitative interviews with professionals working in the realms of early brain development and childhood trauma. This data was examined using an understanding of trauma&rsquo;s impact on brain development, behavior, learning, and interactions with others, the role of early childhood educators as protective factors who provide supportive, responsive care that fosters resiliency, as well as literature on trauma sensitive care. This study makes an important contribution to the literature because, while there is a great deal of literature on early childhood trauma in the fields of psychology and neurobiology, there is a disconnect between this knowledge base and what training early childhood educators receive and a general lack of trauma-informed care in early childhood settings. This study discusses how trauma-informed care can be put into practice in ECE and advocates for more training and implementation in these settings.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to describe the co-construction of three 4-H STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) learning by design programs by volunteer educators and youth participants in the 4-H Youth Development Program. The programs advanced STEM learning through design, a pedagogical approach to support youth in planning, designing, and making shareable artifacts. This pedagogical approach is a special case of project-based learning, related to the practices found in the science learning through design literature as well as the making and tinkering movements. Specifically, I explored adult volunteer educators&rsquo; roles and pedagogical strategies implementing the <i> 4-H Junk Drawer Robotics</i> curriculum (Mahacek, Worker, and Mahacek, 2011) and how that, in turn, afforded and constrained opportunities for youth to display or report engagement in design practices; learning of STEM content; strengthening tool competencies; dispositions of resilience, reciprocity, and playfulness; and psychological ownership. The curriculum targeted middle school youth with a sequence of science inquiry activities and engineering design challenges.</p><p> This study employed naturalist and multiple-case study methodology relying on participant observations and video, interviews with educators, and focus groups with youth within three 4-H educational robotics programs organized by adult 4-H volunteer educators. Data collection took place in 2014 and 2015 at Santa Clara with an educator and seven youth; Solano with three educators and eight youth; and Alameda with an educator and seven youth.</p><p> Data analysis revealed six discrete categories of pedagogy and interactions that I labeled as <i>participation structures</i> that included lecture, demonstration, learning activity, group sharing, scripted build, and design &amp; build. These participation structures were related to the observed pedagogical practices employed by the educators. There was evidence of youth engagement in design practices, STEM content learning, strengthening of tool competencies, learning dispositions, and psychological ownership - however, their expression, manifestation, and opportunities were afforded and/or constrained by the various participation structures. Furthermore, conflicts were evidenced in the use of participation structures; emphasis of educators on formal reasoning and planning versus youth preference for hands-on tinkering; and tensions amongst youth peers while engaging in design teams. Two themes emerged regarding the educators&rsquo; pedagogy: adaptations in response to structural and curricular constraints and pedagogical approach influenced by self-identification with a professional field of engineering.</p><p> This study contributes to our understanding of STEM learning through design in out-of-school time. This research helps clarify the tensions among major co-actors, youth, educator, and curriculum, as the learning environment was co-constructed and how that, in turn, afforded opportunities for youth to learn and develop. This study illuminated the complex negotiations between these co-actors and explored questions about who can and does decide the nature of the activity structures. These co-actors were not without conflict, thus suggesting that these spaces and pedagogies do not exemplify STEM teaching on their own, but neither do they preclude practices that deepen young people's interest and motivation for STEM learning.</p>