The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2019 assessment results show a drop in mathematics achievement among Hong Kongese students. While several predictors associated with Hong Kongese students' declining mathematics outcomes in recent years have been explored, only a few of them have interrogated the relationship of…

Dweck and her colleagues (Diener & Dweck, 1978, 1980; Dweck, 1975, 2006; Dweck & Blackwell, 2021; Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Dweck & Reppucci, 1973), have conducted decades of research on growth mindset, specifically related to results indicating a significant positive relationship between student growth mindset and achievement. What…

This presentation was an invited address at the opening session of the 2021 Annual Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching (CAST) in Ft. Worth, Texas. The presentation will investigate student achievement using three perspectives. The presenters will first ask if one could recognize a great teacher. They will then report research…

Purpose: Evidence has indicated plausible effects of employees' use of their personal strengths at work on their attitudes, performance and well-being. Although the use of personal strengths was also expected to benefit others in the organization, such effects have rarely been examined. Here we studied associations of principals' use of their…

Schools' overt or explicit practices are a dominant lens through which education researchers and policymakers attempt to understand how schools are racially inequitable. Yet, Lewis and Diamond argue that contemporary racial inequalities are largely sustained through implicit factors, like institutional practices and structural inequalities. Ray's…

Experimental evidence of the effects of teacher characteristics and teacher-student relationships on student performance is limited and even more scarce in education contexts outside of the United States. In this dissertation, I implement quasi-experimental research designs in two separate studies to investigate teacher-characteristic effects and…

As teacher profession can be seen as a learning profession, it is crucial that teacher education equips future teachers with high-level skills to update and increase their proficiency and expertise throughout their career. In this aim, cognitive processing strategies and metacognitive regulation strategies as well as academic self-efficacy beliefs…

Teachers hold many beliefs, shaped by their educational knowledge, experiences, and cultural, social, historical, and political environments. These teacher beliefs, together with teacher characteristics and school context factors can influence cognitive processes, expectations, instructional decisions, and practices which could affect learning…

American students are far more diverse than their teachers. Some 79 percent of U.S. teachers are white compared to 44 percent of students. As a result, students of color are far less likely to have a same-race teacher than are white students, a phenomenon that has attracted the attention of philanthropists and policymakers alike. Foundations have…

This research scrutinizes the link between academic stressors (both challenge and hindrance types) and the academic performance of university faculty, while also considering the mediating role of achievement motivation. Furthermore, the study evaluates the moderating influence of faculty self-efficacy on the relationship between these stressors…

This study aimed to describe 2nd-grade teachers' use of different forms of praise during English Language Arts (ELA) instruction and examine if teacher characteristics were associated with differences in the use of different types of praise. Investigators recorded 2nd-grade teachers' language use during randomly selected, 15-min excerpts (n = 912)…

This study aimed to describe 2nd-grade teachers' use of different forms of praise during English Language Arts (ELA) instruction and examine if teacher characteristics were associated with differences in the use of different types of praise. Investigators recorded 2nd-grade teachers' language use during randomly selected, 15-min excerpts (n = 912)…

Not all students have equal opportunities to learn from effective teachers, and students from historically disadvantaged backgrounds are disproportionately more likely to be taught by ineffective teachers year after year. However, the cumulative experience of being taught by (in)effective teachers has received less attention. Utilizing data from…

The study aims to uncover the influence of positive personality traits among Turkish language teacher candidates on their effective communication self-efficacy and academic self-efficacy. Furthermore, it seeks to identify the mediating variable effect of effective communication self-efficacy. To achieve these objectives, the research employed the…

For decades, mandates have driven the way we educate our students. Seemingly ever since the inception of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), schools across the nation have struggled to meet federal standards for student success. However, when many schools still failed to show a significant amount of achievement, they became labeled "Priority"…