Focalization is such an intrinsic component of narrative that readers are often unaware of its effect. With internal focalization, an actor within the story narrates the events from their vantage point, flavoring the story with their perspective. While extant research demonstrates that many features of narrative structure influence how readers…

Learning transfer has been studied for over a century, though studies are primarily through the lens of the researcher or an expert. The purpose of this project was to better understand the student perspective in transfer by examining how they approached transfer tasks and how these approaches related to classroom instruction. The Actor-Oriented…

Counterfactual conditional sentences (e.g., "If giraffes had fins, they would swim") involve an antecedent (e.g., "If giraffes had fins") which is false in the actual world. They also involve a consequent (e.g., "they would swim"), expressing a possibility given the antecedent. Reasoning about counterfactual…

Followership has become more relevant to scholars over the last few decades, and these scholars' work has led to a deeper understanding of followership in many contexts; however, there is a paucity of literature on followership concerning education. Therefore, this study aimed to add to existing knowledge in this field. This study examined how…

Human language is an incredibly rich yet incredibly constrained system. Learning and generalizing these systematic constraints from small, sparse, and underspecified data presents a fundamental inference problem. Therapidity and ease by which humans learn these constraints has made this a foundational study in cognitive science, linguistics, and…

This study investigated evidence of how students' mental models of fundamental kinematic relations evolved (i.e., developed cognitively over time) as observed during an introductory course in calculus-based classical mechanics. The core of the curriculum is based on a claim known as Galileo's principle of relativity. The course material comprised…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of an intervention utilizing modified schema-based instruction (MSBI) on the mathematical problem-solving ability of elementary school students with mild to moderate disabilities. Four participants were taught to solve percent of change word problems, which required them to calculate the…

The Science of Reading era has (re)ignited conversations about equitable literacy instruction. Conflicting literacy research and literacy media reports complicate matters further. Guided reading, a ubiquitous form of small group instruction designed to meet readers' needs through individualized conferring and independent reading with…

When individuals read a narrative text, they construct a mental representation known as a situational model to comprehend the unfolding story. These models require updates at meaningful changes in the story to reflect current information accurately. Existing research highlights the attentional and working memory demands of these updating…

This dissertation investigates the interaction of developing extralinguistic cognitive systems with early language learning and processing through the case study of verb argument structure. The interaction of these systems with the linguistic system underpins fundamental theories of language learning and use: language does not exist in isolation.…

This study examined online graduate students' perceived learning styles and perceptions of factors that influenced their overall academic achievement in online courses. The study explored relationships between the learning styles and the factors identified as influencing achievement. Previous research produced mixed results when evaluating the…

Instructional coaching has been a part of educational communities for decades as a way to support teachers, improve instructional practices, and support student achievement. Research has been conducted on various models for instructional coaching with varying levels of proven success. As new policies are implemented, instructional expectations…

In this dissertation, I explore ways to support secondary school students' meaningful understanding of quadratic functions. Specifically, I investigate how students co-developed representational fluency (RF) and functional thinking (FT), when they gained meaningful understanding of quadratic functions. I also characterize students' co-emergence of…

Are there developmental pathways for learning that provide continuity from early learning through adulthood with measurable intervals for assessment and with transitions for learning that are understandable, stable, identifiable, communicable, flexible, and affordable to implement? If so, what are the foundations for learning that enable students…

The present preliminary study is aimed at finding the interconnection between maladaptive personality characteristics, sexually aggressive behaviors, and rape myth endorsement in a sample comprised of college men. Sexual violence is particularly rampant in the college venue, therefore, understanding more about the risk factors associated with…