Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 171-190). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-102).

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

A common issue noted by detractors of the traditional scoring of Multiple Choice (MC) tests is the confounding of guessing or other false positives with partial knowledge and full knowledge. The current study provides a review of classical test theory (CTT) approaches to handling guessing and partial knowledge. When those methods are rejected, the item response theory (IRT) and cognitive diagnostic modeling (CDM) approaches, and their relative strengths and weaknesses, are considered. Finally, a generalization of the Multicomponent Latent Trait Model for Diagnosis (MLTM-D; Embretson & Yang, 2013) is proposed. The results of a simulation study are presented, which indicate that, in the presence of guessing, the proposed model has more reliable and accurate item parameter estimates than the MLTM-D, generally yielding better recovery of person parameters. Discussion of the methods and findings, as well as some suggested directions for further study, is included.

This proposed study examines whether different levels of informative feedback can change students’ achievement goal orientation. A factorial repeated-measures MANOVA will be conducted to investigate changes in levels of trichotomous goals and reading comprehension scores of community college students over one academic semester. I hypothesize that both scores will be responsive to the level of informative performance feedback. Participants who get more information about their performance and a strategy to solve similar tasks will show significantly greater increases in mastery and performance-approach goals and decreases in performance-avoidance goals. In addition, effects of demographic variables on the goal-regulation outcomes (e.g., sex and ethnicity) will be examined. Implications for future research and educational applications are presented. This report also includes an evaluation plan which details the components of the trust building program, a model for the program, and the proposed method to measure the reported outcomes. / text

The Asian immigrant population is growing more rapidly than any other group in the U.S. (Social Science Data Analysis Network, 2004), and Chinese Americans represent the largest Asian subgroup (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002). Assuming recent trends continue, the number of first- and second-generation Chinese children will increase dramatically, and their developmental needs will demand special attention. Using structural equation modeling to analyze two waves of data from a study on 444 Chinese families, this project aims to provide a better understanding of the relations between family members’ adaptations to life in the U.S. and adolescents’ academic grade point average (GPA). Chinese children of immigrants have been found to succeed in school (Fuligni, Tseng, & Lam, 1999). However, little is known about the ways in which their academic achievement may be related to acculturation, the process through which an individual or group makes socio-cultural or behavioral adjustments through repeated contact with another group or culture (Gordon, 1964; Berry, 2003). Exploring the variation in acculturative processes among Chinese immigrant family members and identifying how the various acculturative strategies may relate to adolescent academic achievement would bridge a gap in the extant literature. Therefore, the first objective of this study was to assess whether fathers’, mothers’, and adolescents’ individual acculturation to American and Chinese cultures were related to adolescents’ GPA. The second goal was to test for moderation effects in these relations. Interaction terms were created for parents’ acculturation in relation to adolescents’ acculturation to test whether the connections between adolescents’ acculturation to the American and Chinese cultures and adolescents’ GPA were conditional on either fathers’ or mothers’ American or Chinese orientation. Third, this study included two culturally salient factors as mediators of potential relations found between individual and dyadic acculturative processes and adolescents’ academic achievement. These mediators were adolescents’ sense of family obligation and adolescents’ level of behavioral academic engagement. The fourth and final objective was to assess whether there was invariance by adolescent gender in the structural model. / text

published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Past research has revealed that both people’s beliefs and situational factors affected people’s goal orientation. This study investigated the interactive effects of competition and theories of intelligence on people’s goal orientation. A 2x2 between-subject factorial design was adopted. Seventh graders (N = 132) were primed with either incremental or entity theory of memory. The students were randomly assigned to either competitive or non-competitive condition. Motivational outcomes were measured after all the four groups received failure feedback. Findings showed that the effect of competition marginally overrode the effect of theories of intelligence in the entity condition. There were no statistical significant changes in self-efficacy and interest on the task before and after the setback in the groups. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences