Two studies were conducted to examine the use of grounded embodied pedagogy, construction of Imaginary Worlds (Study 1), and context of instructional materials (Study 2) for developing learners' Computational Thinking (CT) Skills and Concept knowledge during the construction of digital artifacts using Scratch, a block-based programming language. Utilizing a conceptual framework for grounded embodied pedagogy called Instructional Embodiment, learners physically enacted (Direct Embodiment) and mentally simulated (Imagined Embodiment) the actions and events as presented within pre-defined Scripts. Instructional Embodiment utilizes action, perception, and environment to create a dynamic, interactive teaching and learning scenario that builds upon previous research in embodied teaching and learning. The two studies described herein examined the effects of Instructional Embodiment, Imaginary World Construction, and Context on the development of specific Computational Thinking Concepts and Skills. In particular, certain CT Concepts, such as Conditionals, Variables, Thread Synchronization, Collision Detection, and Events, and CT Skills, such as abstraction and pattern recognition, were identified and measured within the learners' individual digital artifacts. Presence and/or frequency of these Concepts and Skills were used to determine the extent of Computational Thinking development. In Study 1, fifty-six sixth- and seventh-grade students participated in a fifteen-session curricular program during the academic school day. This study examined the type of instruction and continuity of Imaginary World Construction on the development of certain CT Skills and Concepts used in a visual novel created in Scratch. Main effects were found for learners who physically embodied the pre-defined instructional materials: embodying the pre-defined Scripts led to the learners using significantly more 'speech' Blocks in their projects and more Absolute Positioning Blocks for 'motion' than those who did not physically embody the same Scripts. Significant main effects were also found for continuity of Imaginary World Construction: learners who were instructed to continue the premise of the first digital artifact (Instructional Artifact) implemented significantly more computational structures in their second digital artifact (Unique Artifact) than those who were instructed to create a Unique Artifact with a premise of their own design. In Study 2, seventy-eight sixth- and seventh-grade students participated in a seventeen-session curricular program during the academic school day. This study examined the type of instruction and context of instructional materials on the development of CT Skills and Concepts during the construction of a video game using Scratch. Similar to Study 1, findings suggest that physically embodying the actions presented within the pre-defined instructional materials leads to greater implementation of many of these same structures during individual artifact construction. The study also showed that as the pre-defined Scripts become more complex (e.g. single-threaded to multi-threaded), the effect of physical embodiment on the development of CT Skills and complex CT Concept structures becomes less pronounced. Findings from this study also suggest that Context has a significant effect on identifying and implementing the CT Skill pattern recognition: learning CT Concepts from an Unfamiliar Context had a significant positive effect on the implementation of both Broadcast/Receive couplings and Conditional Logic and Operator patterns. In sum, the findings suggest that the type of instruction, the continuity of the Imaginary World being constructed, and the context of the instructional materials all play a significant role in the learners' ability to develop certain Computational Thinking Skills and Concept knowledge. The findings also suggest that a physically embodied approach to teaching abstract concepts that is grounded in an unfamiliar context is the most effective way to integrate a grounded embodied approach to pedagogy within a formal instructional setting.

How do children use physical and virtual tools to develop new numerical knowledge? While concrete instructional materials may support the delivery of novel information to learners, they may also over-simplify the task, unintentionally reducing learners' performance in recall and transfer tasks. This reduction in testing performance may be mitigated by embedding physical incongruencies in the design of instructional materials. The effort of resolving this incongruency can foster a richer understanding of the underlying concept. In two experiments children were trained on a computerized number line estimation task, with a novel scale (0-180), and then asked to perform a series of posttest number line estimation tasks that varied spatial features of the training number line. In experiment 1, during training with feedback, children either received a ruler depicting endpoint and quartile magnitudes (i.e., 0, 45, 90, 135, 180) that physically matched the on-screen number line (congruent ruler), a proportionally-similar ruler scaled 33% larger than the on-screen number line (incongruent ruler), or no ruler. Children were trained to criterion before proceeding to posttest. Results indicated that while children who used the congruent ruler performed well during training, their performance at posttest was less accurate than the other two conditions. On the other hand, by increasing the difficulty of the learning task, while providing relevant landmark information, children in the incongruent ruler condition produced the highest accuracy at posttest. In experiment 2, controlling for learning task duration, the incongruent ruler and congruent ruler conditions were compared directly. Posttest results confirmed an advantage for children in the more complex, incongruent ruler condition. These results are interpreted to suggest that landmarks representations are an important and accessible means of developing a mature numerical representation of the number line. Furthermore, the results confirm that desirable difficulties are an essential component of the learning process. Potential implications for the design of learning activities that balance instructional support with conceptual challenge are discussed.

In early childhood mathematics, strategy-use is an important indicator of children's conceptual understanding and is a strong predictor of later math performance. Strategy instruction is common in many national curricula, yet is virtually absent from most math software. The current study describes the design of one software activity teaching single-digit addition strategies. The study explores the effectiveness of the software in detecting the strategies first-graders use and teaching them to use more efficient strategies. Instead of a business-as-usual control group, the study explores the effects of one aspect of the software: the pedagogical agent, investigating whether multiple agents are more effective than a single agent when teaching about multiple strategies. The study finds that while children do not accurately report their own strategies, the software log is able to detect the strategies that children use and is particularly adept at detecting the effective use of an advanced strategy with a model that performs 67% better than chance. Overall, children improve in their accuracy, speed, and use of advanced strategies. Of the three teaching tools available to the children, the count on tool was most effective in encouraging use of an advanced strategy, highlighting a need to revise the other tools. Low-performers correctly used advanced strategies more frequently across the six sessions, while mid-performers improved after just one session and high-performers' correct use of an advanced strategy was consistent across the sessions. Whether a student saw lessons featuring a single agent or multiple agents did not have strong effects on performance. More research is needed to improve the strategy detection models, refine the tools and lessons, and explore other features of the software.

The objective of this dissertation is to offer a series of analyses that contribute to the validation of the Aurora Battery, a cognitive assessment based on Robert J. Sternberg's theory of Successful Intelligence that is currently under development. Convergent validity will be examined by exploring how objective and subjective measures of the battery converge, through the novel application of the Correlated Trait Correlated Method-1, a specialized confirmatory factor analysis model that allows subjective measures to be compared against an objective measure. The predictive validity of Aurora will be shown by highlighting Aurora's ability to help predict students' school grade point average through latent growth curve models that are extended into path models. Divergent validity will be demonstrated by establishing sensitivity and specificity between the Aurora Battery and the TerraNova tests. Finally, the current state of the field of giftedness and possible future directions will be discussed.

Number sense, which can broadly thought of as the ability to quickly understand, approximate, and manipulate numerical quantities, can be a difficult construct for researchers to operationally define for empirical study. Regardless, many researchers agree it plays an important role in the development of the symbolic number system, which requires children to master many tasks such as counting, indentifying numerals, comparing magnitudes, transforming numbers and performing operations, estimating, and detecting number patterns, skills which are predictive of later math achievement. The number line is a powerful model of symbolic number consistent with researchers' hypotheses concerning the mental representation of number. The MathemAntics Number Line Activity (MANL) transforms the number line into a virtual manipulative, encourages estimation, provides multiple attempts, feedback, and scaffolding, and introduces a novel features where the user can define his own level of risk on the number line. The aim of the present study was to examine how these key features of MANL are best implemented to promote number sense in low-income second-graders. Sixty-six students from three schools were randomly assigned to one of three conditions; MANL User-Defined Range (UDR), and MANL Fixed Range (FR), and a Reading comparison condition and underwent a pretest session, four computer sessions, and a posttest session. During the computer sessions, researchers coded a child's observed strategy in placing targets on the number line. The results showed that children with higher number sense ability at pretest performed better on a posttest number line estimation measure when they were in the UDR condition than in the FR condition. Conversely, children with low number sense ability at pretest performed better on the number line estimation posttest measure when they were in the FR condition than UDR. Although in general, all children improved over time, children with low number sense ability at pretest were more likely to use the UDR tool ineffectively, thus negatively impacting performance. When children were not coded as responding quickly, target number significantly impacted performance in the computer sessions. Finally, children in the UDR condition utilized better expressed strategies on the number line estimation posttest than children in the Reading comparison group. These findings indicate that prior number sense ability plays a role in how children engage with MANL, which in turn affects the learning benefits the child receives. Implications for researchers, software designers, and math educators, as well as limitations are discussed.

Specific learning disability is by far the most prevalent of the 13 special education categories recognized under the Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act (IDEA), consisting of approximately 2.5 million students and comprising 42% of all children receiving special education services in public schools (Cortiella, 2011). Research suggests that learning disabilities (LDs) are chronic conditions with lifetime implications (Morris, Schraufnagel, Chudhow, & Weinberg, 2009), and by high school, students identified with LDs are reading at an average of 3.4 years below grade level (Cortiella, 2011). Such profound reading deficits result in pervasive academic difficulties, as compared to their non-disabled peers. Thus, students with LDs are at a substantial disadvantage for accessing the curriculum (Cortiella, 2011; Shaywitz, 2003). Not surprisingly, students with LDs are more likely to drop out of high school, less likely to pursue postsecondary education, and twice as likely to be unemployed (Cortiella, 2011). In light of the drastic impact LDs have upon students and their academic success, schools must make concerted efforts to provide research-based supports for students with LDs in order to minimize these disadvantages. Research suggests that improvements in note-taking may be one way to increase academic achievement, and thus the prominence of lectures, coupled with the established benefits of lecture note-taking, provides unique intervention opportunities to target special education students. The purpose of this study was to compare the lecture note-taking skills of adolescents with and without LDs by exploring the role of cognitive processes speculated to impact note-taking ability and proficiency. While existing research identifies discrepancies between the quality of notes recorded by students with and without LDs, little is known about the underlying cognitive processes causing these differences. Building upon this previous research, with consideration to the unique characteristics of students with LDs, this study investigates the following cognitive processes theorized to impact the note-taking skills of adolescents with and without LDs: (1) handwriting speed, (2) listening comprehension, (3) sustained attention, and (4) background knowledge. The researcher hypothesized that 1) NLD students would outperform LD students across all independent and dependent variables, 2) LD status, listening comprehension, handwriting speed, background knowledge, and sustained attention would significantly predict notes, 3) LD status, listening comprehension, handwriting speed, background knowledge, sustained attention, and notes would significantly predict multiple-choice test performance, and 4) the prediction pattern for the LD group would be the same as the prediction pattern for the NLD group. Participants were recruited from two northeast high schools, located within the same urban school district, and specific selection criteria were identified for the LD and NLD groups. All students selected for the LD group were required to have an IQ score of 70 or above, based on the most recent psychological assessment. Additionally, all potential participants completed a screening session to assess their reading comprehension skills and confirm their appropriateness for the assigned group. The final sample included 70 adolescents with a mean age of 16.1 (SD= 1.23). After the screening, all participants completed two sessions in small groups within a ten-day period. During the first session, participants were asked to (a) view a video-recorded lecture while simultaneously taking notes on the lecture content, (b) complete a demographics questionnaire, (c) review their lecture notes, (d) complete a measure of handwriting speed, and (e) complete a multiple-choice test based on the lecture content. In the second experimental session, participants were asked to (a) complete a measure of listening comprehension, (b) complete a measure of background knowledge, and (c) complete a measure of sustained attention. Consistent with hypothesis, results of the study indicated that NLD students significantly outperformed LD students across all measures. However, contrary to hypotheses, LD status was the only significant predictor of notes' total. Additionally, LD status, handwriting speed, listening comprehension, and background knowledge predicted test performance. When the LD and NLD groups were analyzed separately, none of the independent variables predicted notes' quality. Interestingly, handwriting speed predicted multiple-choice test performance for the LD group, but listening comprehension and background knowledge predicted multiple-choice test performance for the NLD group. Overall, compared to their NLD peers, LD adolescents struggled significantly across all independent and dependent variables, and given the outcomes, it appears as though LD status mediated the relationship between the cognitive variables and note-taking.

The purpose of this research study was to examine the effectiveness of two digital tools: a virtual number line (Jumper Tool); and a dynamic hundreds chart (Morphing Chart) in improving children’s understanding of multiplication and number sense. One hundred twenty-two third grade students (69 girls), ages ranging from 8 years-0 months to 10 years-3 months (M = 8.88 years, SD = 0.44) from three New York City public elementary schools, were recruited to participate in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two math treatment groups or a reading control group. Students in the Jumper group used a number line tool, while those in the Morphing group used a morphing hundreds chart. Children’s number sense ability and understanding of multiplication were tested at pre- and posttest to examine group differences. Researchers recorded children’s strategy use and a back-end logging system collected data on accuracy during treatment sessions. No group differences across the Jumper, Morphing, or Control groups were found at posttests when controlling for pretest performance. However, the presence of a tool (Jumper or Morphing) during treatment sessions resulted in better performance than the absence of a tool (No Tool). Strategy use had a significant effect on session performance as well. Fast and Tool Use responses performed better than Delayed responses. Additionally, Fast responses were more likely to be correct than those who used an Advanced strategy. Finally, the results indicated that Fast responses were predictive of children’s performance on multiplication facts and number sense tests and Tool use was predictive of performance on multiplication facts. These findings suggest that having a tool, Jumper or Morphing, helped children solve multiplication problems and that tool use is related to superior mastery of multiplication facts.

Technology has long been viewed an important tool in education and instructional software offers unique affordances that when designed well can help improve teaching and learning. However, for software to effectively impact education, teachers must be prepared to effectively incorporate it into the classroom. This is a task that involves many factors, three of which explored in this study include the abilities to integrate, find, and evaluate quality of educational software. With the increasing support for the use of educational software with young children, it is imperative to understand the unique challenges early childhood teachers face and how teacher education programs are preparing them to meet the demands of an evolving 21st century education system. Contrary to their colleagues who teach older students, extensive research on this population and topic is largely absent. Given that little research has been done to evaluate how prepared pre-service teachers are to enter the early childhood classroom and integrate educational software, the main goals of this study were to offer preliminary insight on their experiences using and preparing to use educational software with young children; how they approach evaluating quality of educational software; and beliefs on how well their teacher education programs have prepared them. Results from this study have important implications for the design of teacher education programs and in-service professional development on the integration of educational software at the early childhood grade levels. This paper provides initial evidence that pre-service early childhood teachers may be under-prepared to enter the classroom ready to effectively integrate educational software and demonstrates a clear need for more research on how teacher education programs prepare their students to integrate, find, and evaluate quality of educational software in the classroom setting. Furthermore, results also offer school administrators insight on how prepared first year teachers are meet classroom expectations. For educational technology to significantly impact teaching and learning, targeted in-service professional development opportunities and enhanced teacher education may be necessary, even for the generations of teachers who grew up during the technological explosion.

Lexical tones have presented great difficulties for second language learners whose native language is non-tonal. A number of recent studies suggest categorical-like perception of lexical tones by native Mandarin speakers. Can native speakers of non-tonal languages acquire categorical representations of lexical tones? Are there any differences between L1 and L2 tone perceptions? This study investigates brain responses to lexical tone categorization for three groups of adult listeners: 1) native English speakers who had no exposure to Mandarin before age 17, but took advanced Mandarin courses as adults; 2) naïve English speakers; and 3) native Mandarin speakers. Two tonal continua were derived from natural speech through interpolation within two tonal contrasts (Tone 1/Tone 4; Tone 2/Tone 3). Firstly, category boundaries were examined through classic identification and discrimination tasks. Secondly, high-density electroencephalography (EEG) was used to record brain responses while participants listened to tones in two oddball paradigms: across-category and within-category. If perception of lexical tones is categorical, cross-category deviants are expected to elicit larger ERP responses (specifically, mismatch negativity (MMN) and P300) than within-category deviants. Both behavioral and ERP results indicate that lexical tones are perceived categorically by native Chinese speakers but not by inexperienced English speakers. Although English learners of Chinese demonstrated categorical perception in behavioral tasks, their ERP response did not differ between within- and across-category conditions, however, significantly greater P300 responses were observed. Acoustic cues and characteristics of L2 phonological learning in adulthood are discussed.

Research from multiple fields and methodologies has aligned in recent years to support the development of biological models of mechanisms underlying effects of mindfulness practices in adults. Mindfulness-based programs for young children have proliferated in recent years but research examining the effects of these programs and practices is less conclusive, generally showing small mixed effects. Questions about age of initiation and the format, dosage and emphasis of programs represent a significant challenge that will require integrated multidisciplinary collaboration. The current study demonstrates the feasibility, sensitivity and reliability of electroencephalographic (EEG) measures of attention, and salivary measures of stress, in measuring biological changes associated with mindfulness practices in children aged five to seven years. Widely used and reliable behavioral measures showed no significant differences between groups whereas EEG measures showed significant group differences in event-related potentials associated with different attention networks elicited by the Attention Network Task for Children (ANT-C). The multiple salivary measures of stress showed mixed differences in slope by measure and group, some of which were predicted and align with previous literature, albeit not reaching statistical significance. Together, results demonstrate the value of utilizing multiple biological measures, particularly functional brain imaging, as a means to gain insights into the effects of mindfulness-based practices in young children. Additional data and more rigorous study designs are needed to directly associate observed differences with specific mindfulness programs and practices, but data suggest mindfulness practices enhance attentional and executive control which in turn could support enhanced regulation of the stress response system. Mindfulness based interventions and programs in early development have the potential to protect and enhance the development of critical biological systems that support academic achievement, health and wellbeing.