Perceptions of teachers' interpersonal behaviors are known to influence students' motivation and perceived competence, yet it remains unclear how agreement or discrepancy between students' and teachers' perceptions affects these outcomes. This study involved 30 teachers (24 females; M[subscript age] = 47.25, SD[subscript age] = 8.90) and 1,062…

Belonging in a discipline or department is an important aspect of people's persistence in that discipline or department, especially for undergraduate students. Previous research has shown that increasing student feelings of belonging in a department benefits all students and is even more valuable for women, racialized people, and other…

This study investigates the influence of instructor mindset on student perceptions. Due to the need for increasing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) student retention and the issue of underrepresentation of minority groups in STEM disciplines, we also examined whether instructor mindset impacts underrepresented students more…

According to Self-Determination Theory, teachers can enhance their students' motivation, engagement, and learning through need-supportive teaching, which involves providing autonomy support, structure, and involvement. However, within classes, there appears to be great variation in the degree to which teachers support students' psychological…

This study tested gender-based differences in performance of students in science, engineering, technology, and math (STEM) Information Systems (IS) courses. Data collected from 94 STEM-designated information systems courses (STEM-IS) courses and 2,189 students over a 9-year period were analyzed using ANOVA. This study tested for differences in…

Which behavioral and visual information do teachers rely on when judging relevant characteristics of their students and which cues should they rely on? Drawing on Brunswik's Lens Model (Perception and the representative design of psychological experiments, University of California Press, 1956. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520350519), we…

High-quality teacher-student relationships are related to a wide range of positive student outcomes, especially in students with special educational needs. To enable tailored support to help teachers engage in positive relationships with these students, it is important to identify and understand the different types of teacher-student relationships…

This article focuses on how secondary school pupils and teachers conceptualise bullying and how pupils navigate bullying within physical education (PE). This ethnographic case study presents findings from participant observations, focus group discussions, and semi-structured interviews. Applying figurational sociology, power imbalances central to…

This dissertation explored the career aspirations of Black and Latinx undergraduates in underrepresented health fields, crucial due to health disparities and social determinants. Using data from the 2015-2019 Higher Education Research Institute, the research analyzed factors impacting students' pursuit of healthcare careers through logistic…

Learning effective science writing is an important component of becoming a scientist, but it can also be difficult to master. Even though the lab report has a long history in science education, there are still lingering issues that impact life science instructors and students. This dissertation is a coherent body of three interrelated research…

Research Questions: While community college transfer (i.e., upward transfer) represents an important mechanism for advancing equity across STEM fields, existing studies of gender and women's participation within computer science have largely excluded the perspectives of upward transfer students. We address this gap in the literature by exploring…

Prior experimental, vignette-based research has illustrated an "escalation effect," whereby classroom teachers in the United States respond more harshly to Black students than White students for the same recurring misbehavior (Okonofua & Eberhardt, 2015). This research aims to examine escalation effects while also (1) considering…

Alevi students' longstanding discontentment regarding compulsory religious education has become an important human rights issue in Türkiye. Although many theologists, political scientists, and legal scholars have conducted research on this subject, studies addressing the issue through curriculum and teaching practices are limited. This study seeks…

The allocation of students to ability tracks is often based on teacher recommendations. These recommendations tend to be biased in favor of students from higher socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. While tracking procedures and criteria have been proposed to play a role herein, empirical research is lacking. Using a survey experiment and…

The maker movement propagated throughout educational spaces alongside promises that technological and design literacies could be harnessed to shape equitable social futures. However, researchers have highlighted the ways makerspaces can reinforce hierarchies of race, gender, and class. This paper builds on research that seeks to support girls'…