The purpose of this experimental study was to examine the effects of initial mental model construction in the early stage of a learning process on mental model development, performance, metacognition, and intrinsic motivation in the context of learning how to create a personal financial plan. An initial mental model building activity was offered as an instructional intervention for learning a complex task, which consisted of a presentation of simple example of a financial plan and creating annotated concept maps (ACMs) based on a problem scenario. Cognitive apprenticeship provided a general framework for independent learning in an online learning environment. The MANCOVA analysis results suggest that the initial mental model construction enhanced only metacognition and the structural aspect of mental model development. Limitations of the study are discussed such as lack of time for ACM training and the main learning activity along with recommendations for future research. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2010. / June 3, 2010. / Advance Organizer, Annotated Concept Map, Worked Example, Cognitive Apprenticeship, Financial Literacy, Metacognition, Intrinsic Motivation, Performance, Mental Model, Initial Mental Model Construction / Includes bibliographical references. / J. Michael Spector, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Valerie Shute, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Elizabeth Jakubowski, University Representative; John Keller, Committee Member.

The rise in the enrollment of persons with disabilities in post-secondary institutions has introduced a need for the identification of services and/or pre-entry variables that assist in the elevation of retention rates. There is a growing substantiation that connects support service usage with a successful academic experience. However, there is little in literature that is specifically designed for students with disabilities. Furthermore, larger gaps are located when determining the effects of educational background on future successful retention within the same population. This study was conducted to examine the relationship between disability classification, The study identified 250 students who have self-identified as having a disability and must be also be classified as FTICs or first time in college enrollees. Qualified participants were identified through Disability Support Services at Tallahassee Community College. Three separate ANOVA's were used to analyze the data set. The Bonferroni correction was used to reduce the chance of a family wise error or a false positive. Services that demonstrated significance with relation to retention included the use of assistive technology and tutoring. Educational background also showed significance with high school diploma recipients, generally, performing better than their GED counterparts. Age and disability classification maintained no identifiable relationship with retention. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2009. / October 12, 2009. / Retention, Disability / Includes bibliographical references. / Deborah Ebener, Professor Directing Dissertation; Gary Peterson, University Representative; Mary Frances Hanline, Committee Member; Susan Smedema, Committee Member.

The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of the affect and gender of pedagogical agents as learning companions (PALs) on learning, interest, self-efficacy, and agent persona. Two experiments were conducted to examine PALs' affect separately in terms of affective expression and affective response. 142 students in a computer literacy course participated in Experiment I, which examined the effects of PALs' affective expression (positive vs. negative vs. neutral) and gender (male vs. female). 56 pre-service teachers participated in Experiment II, which examined the effects of PALs' affective response(responsive vs. non-responsive) and gender (male vs. female). The results of Experiment I indicated that affective expression significantly influenced agent persona: Students who worked with the PAL expressing positive affect perceived the PAL's persona more positively than students who worked with the negative PAL (p The results of Experiment II revealed that PALs' affective response significantly influenced interest and self-efficacy: Students who worked with a PAL that responded to their affect showed significantly higher interest (p Overall, PALs' affect and gender influenced learners' affective and cognitive characteristics as real human teachers or peers did (Wong & Dornbusch, 2000). This implies that PAL-learner relationships in computer-based learning can be consistent with human peer relationships in traditional classrooms. Given the finding of the study confirming the instructional impact of PALs' affect and gender, researchers can design the gender and affect of PALs appropriately in the way that facilitate learning and motivation in computer-based environments. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2004. / June 29, 2004. / Affective Pedagogical Agents, Pedagogical Agents, Learning Companions, Educational Technology, Computer-Based Learning / Includes bibliographical references. / Amy L. Baylor, Professor Directing Dissertation; Ian Douglas, Outside Committee Member; John M. Keller, Committee Member; Marcy P. Driscoll, Committee Member.

The importance of students' motivation, volition, and beliefs has been recently emphasized in mathematics education. However, despite extensive research acknowledging students' motivation, volition, and beliefs as critical factors for their attitudes, study habits, and achievement, there has yet to emerge a robust framework encompassing relevant theoretical foundations and empirical evidence. Moreover, much of the previous research has been conducted without an integrative view of the key constructs, and, as a consequence, tends to overlook the interconnectedness among the constructs. Given this gap, this study intended to build a conceptual framework for research on motivation, volition, and beliefs for the improvement of students' attitudes, study habits, and achievement in mathematics education. The framework was grounded in a review of relevant theories and models as well as empirical studies. This exploratory experimental study focused on the cumulative effects of email messages designed in accordance with the framework, and, as a consequence, it provided an initial validation of the framework in the context of the design, development and evaluation of interventions in mathematics education. Specifically, this study investigated the effects of motivation and volition change strategies and belief change strategies as implemented with targeted email as personal and group messages on students' attitudes, study habits, and achievement in a calculus course for non-mathematics majors. This study involved seven groups receiving one of the following treatments: 1) motivation and volition change strategies distributed via email with personal messages (MV-P), 2) motivation and volition change strategies distributed via email with group messages (MV-G), 3) belief change strategies distributed via email with personal messages (B-P), 4) belief change strategies distributed via email with group messages (B-G), 5) motivation, volition, and belief change strategies distributed via email with personal messages (MVB-P), 6) motivation, volition, and belief change strategies distributed via email with group messages (MVB-G), and 7) neither motivation and volition change strategies nor belief change strategies distributed via email (Control). Eighty four undergraduates enrolled in a calculus course were distributed among the seven treatment groups, and they received emails over a period of 8 weeks. Their attitudes toward mathematics were measured using pre- and post-tests based on the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes (FSMA) questionnaire (Fennema & Sherman, 1976); achievement was measured by their grades on the first and second exams of the semester. Study habits of 52 participants from the personal message and control groups (i.e., MV-P, B-P, MVB-P, and Control) were measured using a survey, administered four times, asking how many total hours were spent studying calculus during the week before getting the survey from researchers. The general message groups (i.e., MV-G, B-G, and MVB-G) were excluded for the examination of study habits because their study hours were asked only once as described in the method chapter. The treatment effects on the dependent variables of attitudes toward mathematics, achievement, and study habits were examined using a one-way repeated measures ANOVA analysis. Also, Post Hoc analysis compared each group with the others using Fisher's Least Significant Difference (LSD) test. In addition, the graphs showing changes in each of the three variables were also analyzed. The results indicated that the use of belief change strategies with personal messages was effective in improving learners' attitudes toward mathematics. Notably, change strategies with personal messages led to more positive changes in attitudes than those with general messages. A combination of motivation and volition change strategies and belief change strategies seemed to have had less impact on attitudes and study habits than either motivation and volition change strategies or belief change strategies but not both. No significant difference was found for achievement. Possible explanations for the findings are discussed in relation to the framework of this study constructed based on theoretical and empirical foundations. Limitations of this study are also described as are implications and possibilities for future studies. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2007. / September 21, 2007. / Motivation, Volition, Beliefs, Attitudes, Study Habits, Mathematics Education, Change / Includes bibliographical references. / John M. Keller, Professor Directing Dissertation; John K. Mayo, Outside Committee Member; Robert A. Reiser, Committee Member; Amy L. Baylor, Committee Member.

This study investigated the effect of model-centered instruction (MCI) in both individual and collaborative contexts. The study focuses on learning effectiveness in acquiring instructional design knowledge, developing mental model of instructional design, and acquiring instructional design skill by making lesson plans when an expert model is presented and a cognitive apprenticeship model is applied within a collaborative context. The main research question is what are the effects of model-centered instruction and collaborative learning on achievement and mental model development of novice instructional designers? This study included a total of 126 undergraduate students enrolled in four sections of an Educational Method and Educational Technology (EMET) course. Four intact groups were assigned randomly to four treatment groups for this study. One key factor was model-centered instruction (model-centered instruction (MCI) group vs. non-model-centered instruction (non-MCI) group) and the other was collaborative learning (collaborative learning group vs. individual learning group). Three times during the learning activities, all participants were asked to make lesson plans on social studies topics for middle school students. All participants made lesson plan A before the instructor taught about instructional design and the strategies used for making a lesson plan. After receiving instruction about instructional design and the strategies for making a lesson plan, participants revised their lesson plan A using the same topic. According to the treatment condition, students in the MCI group were given an expert lesson plan to use while they complete their task—making a lesson plan. Then, the students in the MCI group had instruction developed according to the modeling, coaching, and scaffolding. During this process, the students were asked at each stage of the instruction to compare their mental models for making a lesson plan to an expert model for that same lesson plan task. On the other hand, the expert model was not presented to the non-MCI group. Therefore, the non-MCI group students did not have opportunities to compare their mental models to an expert model. Instead, they received standard instruction and were asked to evaluate their mental models for making a lesson plan using principles of instructional design theory and tactics for making lesson plan. The learners in the collaborative learning group revised lesson plan A with their partners, and the learners in individual learning group worked alone. After the learners in the collaborative learning group completed the lesson plan, they presented their lesson plans to the whole class. During the presentation they could articulate their mental models of making a lesson plan. Then, their classmates asked some questions or gave suggestions or comments to improve the lesson plans. The dependent variable was learning effectiveness as measured by three types of performance: (a) responses to questions for measuring mental model improvement about instructional design; (b) the overall quality of their lesson plans; and, (c) scores on general knowledge tests of the instructional design process as judged by acknowledged expert practitioners. To assess the quality and improvement of the mental model of instructional design, the learners' mental model about instructional design was compared with the expert model. The similarities between the expert's model and the students' model were calculated by the T-MITOCAR program which is a language-based diagnosis tool. Results of the analysis showed that there was statistically significant difference between the collaborative learning group and the individual learning group on the general knowledge test. Also, the results of the data analysis about instructional design skill indicated that there were statistically significant differences between the MCI and non-MCI groups on instructional design skills as well as between the collaborative and individual groups. Also, there was interaction effect of MCI in the collaborative learning group and the individual learning group on instructional design skill. The results indicated that the use of model-centered instruction with an expert model was effective in improving learners' instructional design skills. Also, the results suggested that collaborative learning was helpful for novice learners to enhance general knowledge of instructional design and instructional design skill. Therefore, this study provides support for the basic theoretical assumptions that novice learners need a chance to modify their mental models by comparing them with expert models as well as collaborative learning with their peers for effective learning. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2008. / February 18, 2008. / Model-Centered Instruction, Collaborative Learning, Instructional Design / Includes bibliographical references. / J. Michael Spector, Professor Directing Dissertation; Laura Lang, Outside Committee Member; Norbert Seel, Committee Member; Vanessa P. Dennen, Committee Member; Valerie Shute, Committee Member.

The higher mental functions are developed through social mediation and sign systems which are socially and culturally mediated. The educational roles of signs and social interaction for moral judgment competency were investigated in this experimental study by juxtaposing semiotic mediation and social mediation. Semiotic mediation was represented by two different types of texts-open text and closed text. Open text is defined as a text that facilitates readers' multiple and mediated interpretation, while closed text leads readers to one aimed interpretation. Texts were developed by inserting interface design elements (semantic, pictorial, and structural elements), and the story of the Heinz dilemma was embedded in texts. The participants drew concept maps after they interacted with each type of text. Social mediation was operationalized as individual writing and group discussion conditions to represent the absence and presence of social interaction respectively. Each participant wrote an individual essay or contributed to group discussion. Through social mediation, individuals can reach intersubjectivity with other social beings. The mixed method approach was used as a triangulation of hierarchical linear modeling with semiotic analysis. The three-time repeated measures on moral judgment test (MJT) were obtained from a total of 242 college students. The pre-measure data on moral epistemology (cognitive aspect) and moral motivation (affective aspect) was also collected as two individual characteristics related to moral judgment. The open text group acquired significantly higher MJT scores at the final measure than the closed text group, and the participants in the group discussion condition showed significantly higher growth rates than those in the individual essay condition. In addition, group discussion also significantly influenced the final scores, and open text influenced the growth rates. As the cross-interaction effect, the effect of semiotic mediation was significant on the effect of moral epistemology on the final MJT score. The results of subsequent qualitative analysis were consistent with the quantitative results. Both quantitative and qualitative results suggest that young adults can reach a more desirable level of moral judgment competency when they are encouraged to think critically about multiple aspects of a given moral situation, and morality is grown and amplified through social mediation. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2006. / May 10, 2006. / Hierarchical Linear Growth Modeling, Moral Judgment Open Text, Social Mediation, Semiotic Mediation, Semiotic Analysis / Includes bibliographical references. / Amy L. Baylor, Professor Directing Dissertation; Michael A. Uzendoski, Outside Committee Member; Betsy J. Becker, Committee Member; J. Michael Spector, Committee Member.

The purpose of this research was to further develop an instrument assessing the prevalence of student-on-student victimization in the schools. This research was initiated and conducted in response to the need for a comprehensive and validated self-report measure of student-on-student victimization. Specifically, the Adolescent Index for School Safety (AISS) was designed to fill this void by assessing the prevalence of student-on-student victimization across four victimization domains: physical, emotional, property, and sexual victimization. Prior to its inception, no victimization instrument existed that measured all of the domains of victimization as it pertained to adolescents in school. Items were derived through a review of SSV research, available child and adolescent victimization instruments, as well as from existing adult measures. Based upon this investigation, 66 items measuring student-on-student victimization in schools were written for the domains identified by a team of researchers. Initial studies of the AISS were promising, but did not directly evaluate the reliability and validity of the measure. As such, the current research sought to continue with the development of the instrument. First, a content validity study involving four external reviewers was completed to assess item appropriateness. As a result of the study, 45 items concerning the prevalence of SSV (emotional, physical, property, and sexual victimization) were maintained from the original form. Next, available AISS data from 563 participants were utilized in a confirmatory factory analysis (CFA) to evaluate the proposed four-factor model of victimization. Goodness of fit indices for the analysis were variable, but generally did not support the theoretically proposed SSV model. A modified AISS subjected to CFA produced similar findings. In light of the theoretical support for the model, the 45-victimization item AISS was maintained for use in subsequent analyses. Reliability of the AISS overall was moderate to strong, with good internal consistency (r=0.91), split-half reliability (r=0.77), and test-retest reliability (r=0.80). Discriminant and convergent validity were supported through an investigation of hypotheses concerning known facets of student-on-student victimization. As well, the AISS was shown to correlate appropriately with the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (r=0.412), revealing criterion-related validity as individuals reporting victimization also reported increased psychological distress. Convergent validity was demonstrated through a strong correlation of the AISS and a similar instrument, the Bully Victimization Scale (r=0.497). Based on the overall findings, support for the construct validity of the AISS was moderately established. Though the AISS' factor structure was not confirmed, all findings regarding the total measure were at least modestly reflective of general validity and reliability. Further studies investigating the AISS will be helpful in determining whether results were inhibited by demographic/sample limitations. Nonetheless, based on empirical findings, the AISS can be considered a clinically useful measure in the evaluation of student-on-student victimization. Researchers and clinicians can utilize the measure to assess information pertaining to the overall school climate, as well as individual prevalences of victimization. With such information and subsequent increased understanding, more effective individual and systematic interventions may be developed in the overall prevention of student-on-student victimization and its detrimental effects. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2005. / August 29, 2005. / Victimization, Bullying, Test Development, School Violence / Includes bibliographical references. / Stephen A. Rollin, Professor Directing Dissertation; Sandra Lewis, Outside Committee Member; Gary Peterson, Committee Member; F. Donald Kelly, Committee Member.

Considerable attention has been directed toward the value of peer assessment where learning is enhanced through maximizing the opportunities for students to share their work with others in the assessment process. Although previous research has shown the effectiveness of peer assessment, very little work has been done to investigate the effects of the different types of learner roles in peer assessment on learning. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of the Assessor and Assessee's role on preservice teachers' metacognitive awareness, performance, and attitude in a technology-related design task. This study examined three specific questions: Question 1. What are the comparative effects of the Assessor's role and Assessee's role on metacognitive awareness, performance, and attitude? Question 2. Does the role combination (playing both Assessor's role and Assessee's role simultaneously) improve learners' metacognitive awareness, performance, and attitude to a greater degree than either of the roles alone or neither role? Question 3. Are there any relationships between the quality of peer feedback and Assessees' metacognitive awareness, performance, and attitude? Eighty-two students (preservice teachers) from four sections of an Introduction to Educational Technology course at the Florida State University participated in this study. The four sections were randomly assigned to four conditions (Assessor-only role condition, Assessee-only role condition, Both-roles condition, and control condition. At first, the participants submitted a technology-related design assignment (concept mapping by Inspiration) to the instructor. After gathering students' concept map, the researcher randomly assigned assessee's concept maps to peer assessors. Student assessors received a peer's concept map and assessed it for 20 minutes. After completing peer assessment, student assessors submitted their assessment form to the instructor. The instructor delivered the peer feedback to the assessees. Then, the assessees had an opportunity to reflect peer feedback by filling out back-feedback (feedback on feedback) form. Immediately following the peer assessment activities, the instructor returned the draft concept map to the students and asked them to revise it based on the experience of peer assessment. After they finishing revising, students resubmitted the final concept map to instructor, which served as the posttest for the study. After submitting this final concept map assignment, students completed a metacognitive awareness questionnaire and an attitude survey. To compare the main effects of the two different types of role (assessor's role & assessee's role), a two-factor MANOVA was employed. In addition, to compare the mean difference across conditions, a one-factor MANOVA was employed. For all tests, the alpha level was set at .05. The results indicated that the Assessee's role was helpful for students to enhance metacognitive awareness on their own learning and to promote their performance, while the assessor's role did not show significant effectiveness. This may be attributed to the back-feedback activity, which seemed to help the Assessees internalize and reflect upon the peer feedback. With respect to the effects of the combination role (playing both roles: assessor's role + assessee's role), the Both-roles condition did not always outperform the Assessor-only role condition or Assessee-only role condition. Contrary to what had been hypothesized, the one role only conditions sometimes outperformed the Both-roles condition. The results of this study illustrated that simply playing two different roles at a time does not always guarantee better effects of peer assessment than playing only one role. Even when students play only one role during peer assessment, they can have benefits of peer assessment for their learning. The back-feedback score and Assessee's performance was significantly associated, but negatively. It may be explained by the degree of students' understanding of the assessment criteria and the requirements of the assignment. By giving the Assessees the opportunity to critique their peer's (Assessor's) feedback, it seems to have empowered them to have better understand the criteria and prove their own performance. The findings of this study suggest instructional implications for those who want to employ peer assessment through providing examples regarding the effectiveness of well-developed assessment criteria and instructional activities, particularly the back-feedback activity. Due to the lack of fully randomized design and the short treatment time, the results and interpretation are tentative. Further studies to verify the results are recommended. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2005. / April 18, 2005. / Peer Assessment, Metacognitive Awareness, Assessor, Assessee / Includes bibliographical references. / Amy L. Baylor, Professor Directing Dissertation; Janice Flake, Outside Committee Member; John Keller, Committee Member; Allan Jeong, Committee Member.

When conducting a meta-analysis, it is common to find many collected studies that report regression analyses, because multiple regression analysis is widely used in many fields. Meta-analysis uses effect sizes drawn from individual studies as a means of synthesizing a collection of results. However, indices of effect size from regression analyses have not been studied extensively. Standardized regression coefficients from multiple regression analysis are scale free estimates of the effect of a predictor on a single outcome. Thus these coefficients can be used as effect–size indices for combining studies of the effect of a focal predictor on a target outcome. I begin with a discussion of the statistical properties of standardized regression coefficients when used as measures of effect size in meta-analysis. The main purpose of this dissertation is the presentation of methods for obtaining standardized regression coefficients and their standard errors from reported regression results. An example of this method is demonstrated using selected studies from a published meta-analysis on teacher verbal ability and school outcomes (Aloe & Becker, 2009). Last, a simulation is conducted to examine the effect of multicollinearity (intercorrelation among predictors), as well as the number of predictors on the distributions of the estimated standardized regression slopes and their variance estimates. This is followed by an examination of the empirical distribution of estimated standardized regression slopes and their variances from simulated data for different conditions. The estimated standardized regression slopes have larger variance and get close to zero when predictors are highly correlated via the simulation study. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2011. / June 30, 2011. / Standardized Regression Coefficients, Effect Sizes, Meta-analysis, Regression Analyses / Includes bibliographical references. / Betsy Jane Becker, Professor Directing Dissertation; Fred Huffer, University Representative; Yanyun Yang, Committee Member; Insu Paek, Committee Member.

The present study examined aspects of Reversal Theory; more specifically meta-motivational dominance in combination with sensation seeking on motor tasks in pressure-filled and non-pressure conditions. Meta-motivational dominance refers to an individual's tendency to maintain in either a telic or paratelic state the majority of the time. Telic dominant individuals tend to be more serious-minded and goal-oriented, and adhere to less challenging activities while paratelic dominant individuals are more playful, spontaneous, and less serious-minded in nature. Sensation seeking individuals tend to engage in more challenging, high-risk activities for the sake of immediate enjoyment, while low non-sensation seekers prefer to avoid such activities and challenge. This study was undertaken given the fact that no previous research had combined paratelic/telic dominance and sensation seeking characteristics in an attempt to determine performance on motor tasks under non-pressure and pressure-filled situations. The main purpose of this research was to experimentally examine whether performances under pressure and task-characteristics would vary as a function of high paratelic dominant sensation seeking (high SSPT) versus telic dominant low sensation seeking (low SSPT) in individuals. It was hypothesized that high SSPT individuals would perform more accurately on both novel apparatus guidance and vowel circling tasks under the pressure-filled condition than low SSPT individuals, and that low SSPT individuals would perform better under the low-pressure condition on the vowel circling task. It was also hypothesized that high SSPT individuals would perceive the pressure-filled scenario as more facilitating, regardless of task. Seventy-three participants completed the Sensation Seeking Scale-V (Zuckerman, 1979) and the Paratelic Dominance Scale (Cook & Gerkovich, 1993) and a final sample of 24 individuals was asked to participate in the task-oriented study. Participants completed a boring task (vowel circling) and a challenging task (a novel apparatus) under both a control setting and a pressure-filled setting. Each task was comprised of three 10-minute trials under each setting, during which time participants were asked to fill out manipulation check questions regarding perceived pressure, facilitation, determination, and challenge. Performance was computed by tabulating the amount of completions and errors made on each task for each trial. A RM-ANOVA was performed in order to determine differences in the dependent variables across for tasks and settings. Contrary to hypotheses and predictions based on Reversal Theory, high SSPT participants scored more completions and fewer errors on both the vowel circling and novel apparatus tasks, regardless of the pressure level. Although high SSPT participants performed better under the pressure condition than low SSPT participants as expected, the pressure variable had little to no effect on performance. SSPT was also not found to influence perceived facilitation. Overall, the current study's findings provide evidence that SSPT influences task performance, but regardless of setting or the task being performed. Further consideration regarding SSPT and motor task performance must be made to better understand this connection. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Fall Semester, 2008. / July 30, 2008. / Reversal Theory, Metamotivational, SSPT / Includes bibliographical references. / Gershon Tenenbaum, Professor Directing Thesis; Robert Eklund, Committee Member; David Eccles, Committee Member.