<p> The purpose of this dissertation is to describe a doctoral research study designed to implement Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) writing revision strategies, delivered in a completely online format, for college students. There is an insignificant amount of empirical research that has been conducted supporting writing interventions for college students. Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) is a writing intervention for which a significant amount of empirical research has been conducted in regards to its efficacy in elementary, middle, and high schools, with results showing positive effects for students of all ages. SRSD has features that lend itself to web-based interventions as well. Research on web-based interventions for students of all ages is on the rise, and is significant in regard to the methods of communication in which students today function. This study investigated the efficacy of a web-based version of SRSD provided to college students in freshman writing classes. The three SRSD revision strategies chosen to investigate were REVISE, SCAN, and Compare, Diagnose, Operate. The results indicated those SRSD participants who reported using at least one of the revision strategies at some point during the semester received higher course grades in their writing classes, in comparison to those participants who did not use the strategies; secondary analysis indicated that although the SRSD students' grades were higher, when group size was controlled, the difference in grades was not statistically significant. Qualitative analyses indicate that students felt as though the REVISE and SCAN strategies were most effective, and may be the most socially valid. The findings are discussed in the context of the procedures necessary for creating effective evidence-based writing interventions in the college setting.</p>

<p> This causal comparative study investigated the relationship of an identified disability (IDEA declared vs. non-declared) on success outcomes for sixth through twelfth grade at-risk students enrolled in a school-based mental health program. Outcome variables included: selected attendance, behavior, and achievement indicators for students who were enrolled in and received intensive school-based counseling.</p><p> Overall, after one year in the program, referrals for violent incidents significantly decreased for both groups of students while lack of respect incidents increased, indicating that staff changes in providing preventative strategies and approaches for working with students may have led staff to "catch" student behaviors at an earlier phase. IDEA declared students also had a significant decrease in suspensions. Although absences increased and instructional days decreased for both groups of students, a few of the non-declared students had more extreme changes. In-depth examination of the data showed that non-declared students, in particular Black and Asian students, had the most negative changes. Achievement data revealed that the majority of IDEA declared and non-declared students failed at pre and continued to fail at post.</p><p> This study adds to the limited base of research that on outcomes for students with and without disabilities. As school-based mental health counseling programs, coupled with strengths-based, multi-level counseling approaches expand across schools, it is important that we further the research base to determine what differences exist and what ramifications emerge for students based on disability, mental health problem, or ethnicity. Findings in this study of decreased referrals for severe behaviors for all students, decreased suspensions for IDEA declared students, and more extreme cases of negative outcomes for Asian and Black students without a disability, should be considered important factors in the continued effort to improve educational success for all students by supporting and promoting positive social emotional development and decreasing student risk factors.</p>

<p> As rapid demographic change transforms American classrooms, incongruities between the ways culturally diverse students are accustomed to learning and those emphasized in educational institutions can present barriers to learning. This study investigated culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP), a teaching approach that seeks to ameliorate such incongruities by basing instruction upon students' cultural knowledge, frames of reference, and preferred learning, communication, and performance styles (Gay, 2002). To complement studies that examine teachers' perceptions of CRP, this study sought to illuminate student perspectives. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to explore adolescent choral students' perceptions of culturally responsive teaching in an urban community children's choir. Research questions focused on how students perceived their choir experiences to be informed by cultural diversity, the barriers to CRP they identified, and how CRP influenced relationships between students' musical and cultural identities. </p><p> A multiple embedded case study design was used to investigate students' perceptions of CRP as practiced in three demographically contrasting choirs within an urban children's choir organization. Within each choir site, one teacher and three student participants framed the analysis. Data generation methods included semi-structured interviews, ethnographic field notes, autobiographical notes, and collection of material culture. </p><p> Students perceived their choral instruction to be culturally responsive in that their classroom experiences promoted understanding and appreciation of their own cultures while broadening their cultural, musical, and intellectual horizons. They identified three barriers to CRP: educators' lack of comfort teaching diverse music, the complexity of students' cultural identities, and the challenges involved in practicing CRP equitably given constraints on instructional time. In one site, experiences with diverse music were peripheral to a Eurocentric core curriculum and did not promote connections between students' musical and cultural identities. There, the discourses associated with Western classical singing defined students' identities and alienated some students from the belief that they were musicians. Two sites incorporated a greater range of discourse norms associated with singing diverse musics and featured greater responsiveness toward the cultural backgrounds of particular students. In those sites, CRP fostered intersections between students' musical and cultural identities by meaningfully bridging their musical experiences inside and outside of the classroom.</p>

<p> Limited research exists examining the social-emotional functioning of rural, at-risk children in addition to school characteristics that may impact behaviors. In the present study the social-emotional functioning of rural, at-risk Kindergarten students was observed in relation to various school characteristics including teacher perceptions of professional climate, opportunities for professional development and collaboration, teacher efficacy, and teacher-child relationships. The sample of students from low SES families residing within rural areas was derived from a nationally representative database (ECLS-K 2011), and yielded a sample size of 1,318. The results were analyzed using several path analyses. The analyses revealed that teacher perceptions of professional climate in addition to reported opportunities for professional development and collaboration were important to their feelings of effectiveness as a teacher (teacher efficacy). In addition, the conflict within a teacher-child relationship was significantly related to teacher ratings of internalizing and externalizing problems. Implications for the potential impact on social-emotional problems through interventions at the school and teacher level are discussed.</p>

<p> This qualitative research focused on the type of support that influenced college enrolled former foster youth's educational decision making from the perspective of the youth.</p><p> The research data was collected via participant interviews that were recorded and transcribed. The data was analyzed to identify themes that related to social capital formation and emancipated foster youth's college enrollment. </p><p> The research results revealed that foster youth need interventions that will address their decision to decline emancipation services that promote their higher education enrollment. Further exploration within this subject matter is needed to better understand the subject matter and supplement the empirical literature that guides the professionals that provide services to foster youth.</p>

<p> Therapist self-awareness is widely regarded by educators and clinicians as an essential factor that allows psychotherapists to treat clients effectively (Ridley, Mollen, &amp; Kelly, 2011b). Accordingly, a central goal of therapist training is to increase self-awareness, which is believed to lead to important training outcomes, such as stronger trainee self-efficacy in clinical abilities (e.g., Barnes, 2004; Daniel, Roysircar, Abeles, &amp; Boyd, 2004). Despite this common belief, there is a scarcity of theory and research on the role of self-awareness in affecting therapist training outcomes (Pieterse, Lee, Ritmeester, &amp; Collins, 2013). Using a Social Cognitive Model of Counselor Training (SCMCT; Larson, 1998) as a guiding theoretical framework, the present study examined therapist trainees' self-awareness as a mediator in the relations of trainees' person variable (self-compassion) and training variables (clinical experience and supervisory rapport) to trainees' counseling self-efficacy (CSE). </p><p> Path analysis was conducted to analyze data from a sample of 466 graduate-level therapist trainees. Results showed that self-awareness partially mediated the relations of clinical experience and self-compassion to CSE. The mediation effect was not significant for supervisory rapport, although supervisory rapport did directly predict CSE. Post-hoc moderation analyses suggested that self-awareness might play a more significant mediational role for trainees with more clinical experience compared to trainees with less experience, and for trainees with more supervisory rapport versus trainees with less supervisory rapport. These findings provide valuable empirical support for self-awareness as a crucial factor in facilitating desirable training outcomes in therapist trainees. The importance of advancing theory and research in this area is highlighted. </p>

<p> The aim of this study was to examine children's reasoning about the fairness of differential treatment by teachers and to determine if there were circumstances under which children may consider differential treatment to be acceptable. Participants (n = 76), ages 6 to 11 years, evaluated hypothetical stories entailing unequal distributions of different educational goods: quantity of work, turns to read aloud, and individual attention from the teacher. The teacher's rationale for the differential treatment was systematically varied in order to determine whether it altered participants' evaluations. In addition to a condition in which no rationale was given, four different rationales were proposed to underlie the differential treatment: differentiating instruction for high achieving students, differentiating instruction for struggling students, preferential treatment for favored students, and preferential treatment for boys. </p><p> The findings showed that differential treatment in the form of individual teacher attention was most acceptable to students, followed by differential assigned work, and lastly differential turns to read aloud. Children drew a distinction between the condition in which no rationale for the differential treatment was provided and the conditions in which they were. When a rationale was not presented to explain the teacher's behavior, the majority of participants rejected the differential treatment. When rationales were introduced, participants were significantly more likely to endorse differential treatment for struggling and high achieving students than for favorite students or boys. Participants were also significantly more likely to endorse differential treatment for struggling students than for high-achieving students. Analysis of justifications supporting children's evaluations of differential treatment indicated that children drew a distinction between differentiated instruction and preferential treatment. </p><p> The presence of age differences in children's judgments of differential treatment depended upon the particular educational good at stake and the teacher's rationale. When no rationale for the differential treatment was provided, 6-7 year old participants were significantly less likely to endorse differential treatment than either 8-9 year old or 10-11 year old participants. When a rationale for differential treatment was presented, there were only two conditions (out of twelve) in which significant age differences emerged. Although the majority of participants favored modified work for high achieving students, 6-7 year old participants were significantly less likely to favor it for high achievers than 10-11 year old participants. Further, 10-11 year old participants were significantly less likely to favor extra turns for struggling readers than 8-9 year old participants. </p><p> Previous research had not yet examined justice reasoning as applied to the distribution of educational opportunities in the form of differential treatment. The present study found evidence that children as young as 6 years did not equate fairness with simple equality of treatment, but recognized that special needs may warrant an unequal distribution of the teacher's individual attention, extra opportunities to read aloud, or a modification of assignments. The findings add complexity to the view that the justice concept of equality emerges earlier in ontogeny than the justice concept of merit or need. In this study, participants across ages 6 to 11 years considered claims to equality, merit, and need (i.e., the acceptability of differential treatment for high achievers and struggling students). The results present a more nuanced picture of children's justice conceptions than has been discussed in earlier work. </p>

<p> This study examines how personal characteristics of a team facilitator (transformational leadership, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability) impact team members' stress level, trust in leadership, and team climate. Participants comprised assessment teams in the student affairs of higher education, providing a unique perspective on a leadership role in which hierarchical positioning between the leader (facilitator) and follower was minimized.</p><p> Hypothesis 1 examined transformational leadership and three of the subscales of the Five-Factor Model (FFM)&mdash;agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability&mdash;as predictors of team stress. It was hypothesized that team facilitators who achieved higher scores would elicit lower team stress. This hypothesis was not supported.</p><p> Hypothesis 2 examined emotional stability and conscientiousness as predictors of team climate. It was hypothesized that higher-scoring facilitators would elicit a more positive team climate. This hypothesis had partial support on two of the independent variables. The higher the facilitator scored on conscientiousness, the higher the members rated Team Climate Inventory (TCI) subscale of Vision. The higher the facilitator scored on emotional stability, the lower the members rated the TCI subscale of Participant Safety.</p><p> Hypothesis 3 examined emotional stability as a predictor of trust: the higher the score elicited on emotional stable qualities, the higher the trust level. This hypothesis was not supported by the data.</p><p> Hypothesis 4 examined transformational leadership as a predictor of trust: the higher the score, the more trust gained. This hypothesis had full support, with transformational leadership being a reliable predictor of trust.</p><p> Hypothesis 5 examined agreeableness in predicting stress: those scoring moderately would alleviate stress. This hypothesis was not supported by the data.</p><p> Analyses were also conducted on team satisfaction and team performance. Trust, team climate, and stress were examined to predict team satisfaction and performance. For both satisfaction and performance, only one of the three predictors, the TCI, contributed significantly. As the team climate became more positive, team satisfaction and team performance also increased.</p>

<p> Using an online survey methodology and descriptive statistics, 92 self-identified outdoor leaders, representing a spectrum of wilderness experience programs in the United States and Canada, were surveyed to ascertain their knowledge of select psychological theories and concepts relevant to outdoor leadership. This study explores personal leadership philosophies, attitudes, and practices and knowledge regarding the facilitation of trip participants' relational development with self, others, and the natural world. General findings indicate that leaders possess a range of knowledge and skills to facilitate participants' relational development. Therapeutic outdoor leadership is tripartite relational theory emerging from outdoor programming literature. This study finds that leaders are actively nurturing participant well-being through a relational framework, indicated by the 34% of respondents who agree with the author's definition of outdoor leadership, addressing relational development of intra, inter, and transpersonal domains. However, findings indicate that leaders do not necessarily have, or are being educated in content and skills to maximize their abilities to develop outdoor program participants' relational abilities. Less than 13% of outdoor leaders are familiar with the concepts of therapeutic alliance, transference, and countertransference. Nearly all outdoor leaders claim to facilitate participant-nature relationships, approximately 80% use nature based metaphors, 72% use ceremonies or rituals, and most of the benefits attributed to contact with nature were identified. Most participants are unfamiliar with conservation psychology, the biophilia hypothesis, or ecopsychology. Almost half of outdoor leaders understand what self-efficacy describes and 55% of respondents were familiar with locus of control. Additionally, this survey explores leaders' perceptions about trust factors, how they define emotional safety, relevant professional boundaries, and feedback giving strategies. </p>

<p> An essential aspect of discerning how men can become effective partners in reaching gender equity in the U.S., is to understand how men perceive their own masculinity. In consensus with Wanger (2011), I believe that promoting men's' healthy masculinity development is a feminist act and an act of social justice. Within the scope of social science research it is of extreme significance to study men as men as they were often "everybody" and effectually "nobody" (Kimmel &amp; Davis, 2011). This study adds to and highlights importance of research on men and masculinities. Selecting an often privileged and significant subculture of men, this case study surveyed 27 White evangelical college-aged men (WECM) of whom five participated in an in-depth semi-structure phenomenological-based interview at a single faith-based university. Based on the Subjective Masculine Experiences model (Wong et al., 2011) the researcher focused on how these men made "sense of their masculinity by connecting their life experiences [to dimensions] of masculine norms and ideology" (Wong et al., 2011, p. 238). The participants were asked to attribute levels of psychological stress to each dimension. Data gathered clustered into seven salient dimensions for this population: Responsibility, Family, Family- Provider, Faith and Religion, Emotional Toughness, Physical Body and Resistance. Analysis revealed that stress was associated with all of the dimensions, especially with Family-Provider. This paper provides the context for this study, its philosophical framework, and discussions on its limitations and implications for practice and future action.</p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> masculinity; White evangelical, college-aged, men (WECM); phenomenology; critical social constructivism; mindful inquiry </p>