A review of research concludes that a high proportion of high school students are disengaged from their learning and that the adolescent peer culture demeans academic success. Parents are just as disengaged from school as their children. The overall guiding question for this study was: How do high school students vary their engagement with school when influenced by the interaction of family involvement practices and peer relationships? Subordinate questions were: (a) Do high school family involvement programs influence individual student engagement? (b) What is the ability of high school instructional and noninstructional programs to positively influence student engagement practices? and, (c) What effects do parental influences have over the relationship between individual students and their peers. The research methodology used in this study was a case study analysis of 20 high school students at a large, comprehensive high school. An analysis of in-depth interviews and a review of available documents were the preliminary methods of investigation. Results indicate that the varied engagement practices of high school students are not directly affected by overlapping influences of peers, family, and school, but that these overlapping influences are a catalyst for five forces for engagement that emerge from these intricate relationships. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe the evaluation of university-community engagement scholarship through the college level promotion and tenure process at Southeastern University and to determine the value of faculty engagement as scholarship through that process. This study also examined useful criteria for judging such scholarship. In designing this study, three research methods were employed. Those methods were (a) interviews with faculty and department heads within the College of Education, and other university administrators at Southeastern University; (b) a review of university documents germane to the promotion and tenure process; and (c) an examination of dossier comment forms about a fictional dossier. Data were transcribed, coded, and categorized using content analysis. A role-ordered matrix was designed to display the perceptions and attitudes of the participants interviewed regarding the evaluation of engagement scholarship within the College of Education at Southeastern University. A conceptually clustered matrix was used to display empirical data that related by theme. A case dynamics matrix was used as an attempt to link consequential processes. An event network was helpful in displaying relationships among the respondents regarding the promotion and tenure process. This network depicted the people within that process and the flow of major communication that affects the promotion and tenure process. This study resulted in a model of engagement scholarship and a model for promoting engagement within a university setting. Findings from this study included a list of criteria offered by the resondents that paralleled those proposed by Glassick et al (1997). Perceived values of engagement scholarship were mixed and depended on whether such scholarship produced publications, grants, and contracts. This study might be useful for persons being evaluated for university-community engagement scholarship and for those evaluating university-community engagement scholarship in university setting. / Ph. D.

The purposes of this study were to conduct an exploratory study of the status quo of engineering faculty motivation for and engagement in formative assessment, and to conduct a preliminary validation of a motivational model, based in self-determination theory, that explains relationships between these variables. To do so, a survey instrument was first developed and validated, in accordance with a process prescribed in the literature, that measured individual engineering faculty members’ motivational traits and engagement regarding formative assessment, as no such instrument existed. The survey asked engineering faculty about their satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs, degree of self-determined motivation experienced, and engagement, all relative to formative assessment of student learning. Data from the final instrument were obtained from a stratified national sample of approximately 2,500 U.S. engineering faculty, attaining 223 responses, and was first evaluated for validity and reliability. The major validity check utilized was to review two examples of formative assessment that respondents provided and then discard data from invalid responses; over 70% of responses qualified as valid. Only responses with valid examples of formative assessment were used, indicating that the inferences drawn from this study only directly pertain to faculty who understand formative assessment, a subset of the U.S. engineering faculty population. The reliability of instrument constructs was evaluated through use of Cronbach's Alpha, including removal of low-scoring survey items. Following, the remaining data were analyzed with descriptive statistics to evaluate trends and with linear regression to validate the motivational model. Results show that, for the subset of engineering faculty studied, engagement in formative assessment is positive, motivation for it is self-determined and largely derives from faculty identifying its contribution to teaching and learning, and needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness are moderately to highly satisfied. Further, from testing of the motivational model, it can be reasonably concluded that faculty engagement is significantly predicted by self-determined motivation, but the prediction of self-determined motivation by motivational needs has a caveat: the self-determined motivation of male engineering faculty was predicted by autonomy and relatedness, but by autonomy and competence for females. / Ph. D.

The number of English Language Learner (ELL) students in U.S. public schools are increasing yearly. More than 75% of ELL student's home language is Spanish. Their academic performance and graduation rates are lower than their non-ELL peers. Parent involvement contributes to student success in school, and urban leaders must examine how they involve ELL students and parents in school. The purpose of this study was to identify perceived strategies urban high school teachers use to involve ELL parents and to identify whether perceived barriers exist. School leaders can benefit from this qualitative study to address the achievement gap between ELL and non-ELL students. Five ESL teachers, six content teachers, and three Graduation Coaches participated in three focus group interviews. Seven findings arose from the interviews. A few findings include 71% (10 out of 14) of participants perceived that all educators in the building are responsible for ELL students, 93% (13 out of 14) of participants perceived there are practices and policies established to aid teachers with communicating and involving ELL parents, and 80% percent (4 out of 5) of ESL teachers interviewed believed parents are more trusting of the school when schools partner with other community agencies to host events. Teachers perceived barriers exist that inhibit them from involving and communicating with parents. Ninety-three percent (13 out of 14) of participants noted time as a barrier. Almost 43% (6 out of 14) participants noted parents being unaware of their rights as a barrier. / Doctor of Education / Hispanic English Language Learners (ELL) are the fastest-growing group of students in U.S. public schools. There is an achievement gap between ELL students and non-ELL students. The graduation rates and academic performance of ELL students are lower than non-ELL students. Parent involvement is one factor that increases students' academic performance. The research in this study explored the impact and perception of parent involvement. The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify perceived strategies urban school teachers use to involve ELL parents and whether teachers perceive the strategies are effective. Content Teachers, Graduation Coaches, and ESL teachers from two high schools within one eastern Virginia school division participated in focus group interviews. The study indicated seven findings and eight implications. A recommendation for future studies is to explore and examine the practices of more diverse areas of Virginia and the impact of ELL parent involvement.

Social engagement has been clearly associated with socio-developmental outcomes in clinical and at-risk populations of infants, who show deficits in gaze following, face processing, and joint attention. Importantly, these are all skills related to language learning. This is most prominently illustrated by individuals with autism, for whom social engagement and language are markedly dysfunctional. In contrast, for typically developing infants the parameters of social engagement and language learning have only been generally defined. The present study was designed to relate infants' social attention to later language outcomes. In this longitudinal study, 11-month-old infants participated in social attention tasks (distracter, gaze following and face scanning tasks); at 14 months, infants returned to participate in language (word/object association) and joint attention (Early Social Communication Scales) tasks; at 18-20 months, caregivers reported on language (vocabulary size) and autistic symptomatology (developmental screening measures). Overall, the results indicated that measures of social attention predict later language outcomes. In particular, joint attention accounted for 13% of the variance in infants' word/object association performance at 14-months. More frequent response to the joint attention bids of an adult female tester (e.g., looking in the direction of her pointing) was associated with better word/object association learning. With regard to vocabulary size, two tasks emerged as significant predictors, the distracter and joint attention tasks, which together accounted for 38% of the variance in language at 18-months. Specifically, longer latencies (i.e., less distractibility) to look away from the face when an adult female was speaking (distracter task) and more frequently responding to the attention bids of the tester were associated with a larger productive vocabulary size. / Ph. D.

yes / It is argued that “individuals do not automatically become free and responsible citizens but must be educated for citizenship” (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, 2003, cited in Leisha, 2012:55). Hence adults’ promotion of young people’s civic engagement is intended to educate young people to become active citizens. This assumes a deficit, or lack of caring by young people about issues in their country or community. However, young people’s sense of belonging and motivations to participate in civic activities are different from that of adults. This paper discusses research with young people involved in two participatory initiatives in Ghana, to examine their motivations for engaging in the projects. The study found that in addition to demonstrating that they are active citizens by engaging in the projects, the young people were also motivated by other self-interest reasons. There was however a marked gender difference in their reasons for participating in the projects. It was observed that the motivations given by the young people reflected gender stereotype of masculinity and femininity. The paper concludes that by understanding what motivates young people to engage in civic activities and other decision-making forums, participatory opportunities that emphasise young people’s interests and motivations could be created in order to sustain their participation.

Motivation is a key ingredient of successful athletic performance over time. Although the concept of maximizing motivation has long been of interest to coaches and practitioners, the vast number of motivational theories, principles, and strategies can seem overwhelming and confusing. Consequently, there is a need for providing more holistic frameworks to coaches and practitioners that not only summarize the essential findings of motivation research but also make the information more understandable and applicable in practical settings. The purpose of this study is to present and test the MUSIC Model of Motivation as a framework that can be applied in performance environments by coaches and practitioners to improve athletes' motivation, engagement, and ultimately, performance. The dissertation includes three related studies. First, I conducted a systematic content analysis to support the application of the MUSIC Model in sports. I analyzed 13 books in the realm of sport psychology and coaching. Results showed strong evidence that the underlying principles and theories of the MUSIC Model are represented in the sports literature, which supports the application of the model as a holistic framework for coaches. For the second study, Brett Jones and I developed a motivation inventory for athletes by modifying an existing motivation inventory for use with athletes. I collected data from student athletes at a large public university and conducted Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with Principal Axis Factoring and Promax Rotation to examine the factor structure of the inventory scales. I used the results of the EFA to make changes to the inventory. Subsequently, I conducted a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) on a second data set to test for model fit. The fit indices for the CFA demonstrated reasonably good fit to the results, which confirmed the five-factor structure of motivation inventory. Reliability analysis based on Cronbach's alpha showed very good results with alpha ratings ranging between .84 and .94. Overall, the findings provided validity evidence for the produced scores of the MUSIC® Athletic Inventory with student-athletes. / Ph. D. / Three studies were conducted to test the feasibility of using a motivation model, designed initially for educational settings (the MUSIC® Model of Motivation), in athletic settings by coaches. The first study showed that the underlying theories and principles of the MUSIC Model of Motivation are represented in the sport psychology and coaching literature. This is important because it demonstrates that it may be possible to apply the MUSIC Model in athletic settings. The second and third study tested an athletic version of a questionnaire (the MUSIC® Model of Academic Motivation Inventory) that was originally designed to assess students’ perceptions of the MUSIC model components in educational settings. Titled the “MUSIC® Model of Athletic Motivation Inventory,” this newly developed questionnaire was adapted from the academic version so that it could be administered to student-athletes at a large public university. The results indicated that the athletic version of the inventory can produce valid scores with student-athletes in competitive sports settings. These findings indicate that coaches could consider administering the newly developed questionnaire to assess athletes’ perceptions of the athletic setting. Based on the results, they could modify their coaching strategies and/or try new coaching strategies consistent with the MUSIC® Model of Motivation.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many researchers turned to remote testing to continue to collect data. This shift provided new insights and exciting opportunities for researchers, including the ability to gain access to larger demographic pools. However, remote work has come with unique challenges. One factor that has proved to be challenging is the level of control researchers have when conducting remote studies. For example, compared to in-lab room setup and design, participants' home environments have numerous distractions for young toddlers (e.g., family members, pets, tv, toys). Thus, the increased variability has led to important questions regarding methodology, implementation, and in the current study, variability in participation. That is, are there systematic biases in final samples due to differences in participant characteristics, such as temperament? Particularly for remote work, the increased variability has created challenges for researchers to collect data but also exciting opportunities to understand how temperament may interact with participation and study completion rates. The current study aimed to understand whether temperament plays a role in study completion rates in remote research for toddlers ages 18 and 24 months. It was expected that effortful control would significantly influence participation and study completion, and that both negative affectivity and surgency would negatively influence participation in the remote study. Both effortful control and negative affectivity were not significantly related to participation, while surgency positively related to participation. / Doctor of Philosophy / Since the pandemic, many developmental researchers shifted from in-person settings to online testing. Although remote testing is not new, this shift provided many research labs with new opportunities to reach more participants. However, with this shift to remote testing, researchers relinquished control that has been designed in the lab, in that each home environment is different. For example, noise, internet speed, and computer size will vary across participants, whereas in the laboratory, these factors remained constant. Moreover, toys, tvs, pets, and/or siblings may be distracting for toddlers participating in a remote study. Thus, these differences across home environments have illuminated differences in toddlers' successful participation. For example, are some toddlers more likely to maintain their attention to the current task? Temperament was investigated in the current study to determine if certain skills may influence study participation and completion rates for toddlers ages 18 to 24-months. It was expected that effortful control (e.g., inhibitory control, attention focusing) would significantly influence the likelihood of a toddler completing the remote task. On the other hand, it was expected that both surgency (e.g., impulsivity, activity level) and negative affectivity (e.g., fear, shyness) would negatively influence task participation. Only surgency positively influenced task participation, and will be discussed in the context of toddler motivation, and engagement in the task.

Yes / Purpose – This study aims to examine the impact of mobile interactivity dimensions (active control, personalization, ubiquitous connectivity, connectedness, responsiveness, and synchronicity) on customer engagement. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative field survey study was conducted to collect the required data from actual users of mobile shopping in three countries: Jordan, the United Kingdom (UK) and Saudi Arabia. Findings – The results are based on structural equation modelling and support the impact of five dimensions of mobile interactivity: active control, personalization, ubiquitous connectivity, responsiveness, and synchronicity. Research limitations/implications – This study only considered the shopping activities conducted by mobile channels, while other channels (e.g. online channels, traditional channels, and social media shopping channels) are not considered. Furthermore, the current model does not consider the impact of personal factors (e.g. technology readiness, self-efficacy, user experience). The results of the current study present a foundation that can guide marketers and practitioners in the area of mobile shopping. Originality/value – This study enriches the current understanding of the impact of mobile interactivity on mobile shopping, as well as how mobile interactivity can enhance the level of customer engagement.

Yes / Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of factors such as attention, preparation, participation, feedback and engagement on the student learning performance. Design/methodology/approach Students of an undergraduate business course of a British university took part in the survey. The survey questionnaire was distributed to students during the revision week of the course and a total of 61 valid responses were gathered from them. The linear regression analysis using statistical package for the social sciences was performed to analyse the data. Findings The results indicated the significant relationships for all six hypotheses. The model explains variance of 43.2 per cent in learning performance, which indicates that independent constructs contribute significantly on the research model's performance. Research limitations/implications First, the sample only provides the students' views about the use of clickers in the classroom setting. Second, the sample size for the gathered data is small. Third, the variance explained by the research model is reasonably moderate and hence can be improved further. Originality/value This is the first study to explore the impact of factors such as attention, preparation, participation, feedback and engagement on the student learning performance in the UK educational setting.