Perceived Power and Conspiracy Theory Belief

As conspiracy theories become increasingly intertwined with politics, it is important to understand the formation of conspiracy theory belief. Currently in the field of psychology, there is no consensus regarding the factors that lead to conspiracy theory endorsement. As this field of study is relatively new, research has yet to explore the role of perceived power, the power that one feels they have regardless of real-world power. I argue that decreased perceived power is related to an increased endorsement of conspiracy theories. A diverse sample of 347 participants were recruited via MTurk to complete a series of questionnaires. Perceived power was measured through a questionnaire regarding participants’ personal perceived privilege and oppression based on six aspects of identity: gender, religion, race, sexual orientation, economic status, and political affiliation. Participants were also asked to rate their belief in political conspiracy theories. When asked directly to rate their privilege and oppression, decreased privilege ratings or increased oppression ratings led to higher conspiracy theory belief in: cisgender men asked about gender privilege or oppression, White participants asked about race privilege or oppression, heterosexuals asked about sexual orientation privilege or oppression, and Christians asked about religious privilege or oppression. Additionally, Republicans who reported higher political affiliation oppression also reported higher belief in conspiracies. However, cisgender women who reported higher gender privilege reported higher belief in conspiracies. The same is true for atheists with higher perceived religious privilege and Black participants with higher perceived race privilege

The effects of TELPAS in the reclassification of long-term English learners

The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) on the reclassification of long-term English Learners (LTELs). Through a mixed-methods approach, the research design consisted of a quantitative and qualitative section. The quantitative component of this study utilized archival data, including test scores and student demographic data from a purposeful sample of high school students in grades 9-11 who are identified as English learners (ELs) with more than six years in U.S. schools. The data were analyzed by the researcher using frequencies, percentages, Pearson’s Product Moment Correlations (r), and linear regression. The descriptive statistics revealed that of the 30 students that attained Meets or Masters on the STAAR English I or II End of Course (EOC), 0% met the reclassification status based on the student’s less than Advanced High proficiency levels on TELPAS. The quantitative findings also revealed a statistically significant relationship between TELPAS reading and STAAR English I or II EOC and that TELPAS reading scores effectively predict STAAR reading achievement. The qualitative component of the study purposefully selected students identified as LTELs to participate in the interviews. The participants’ responses were analyzed using a constant comparative approach and an inductive coding process. Eight themes emerged from the qualitative analysis of this study: (a) student perceptions of the TELPAS, (b) student self-efficacy on language proficiency, (c) student perceptions of STAAR EOC and TELPAS, (d) attitudes towards TELPAS, (e) student experiences learning English, (f) student perceptions of program effectiveness, and (g) student self-efficacy on TELPAS readiness. This study highlights significant implications for ESL teachers, curriculum and instruction departments, campus administrators, and policymakers in identifying effective teaching practices and programming to improve performance on TELPAS and increase the number of LTELs meeting reclassification

Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Parents’ Perceptions of Their Involvement in Decision-Making During Individualized Education Plan Meetings

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires local education agencies to include parents as equal team members in cultivating their child’s Individual Education Plan (IEP). Despite the law, studies have shown that parents experience barriers to being included in the decision-making for their child in IEP meetings. Barriers, such as a lack of information, understanding the law, and feeling of unequal status or power compared to school district team members, have been noted by previous research. This study explored the perceptions, feelings, and understanding of the IEP development process experienced by parents from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was employed to understand the parents’ lived experience of participating in decision-making during the IEP meeting. A purposive sample of three Arabic CLD parents from a city in southeast Texas were recruited, by the researcher, to reflect on their experience and respond to the in-depth semi-structured interview questions. Analysis of the participants' reflections on their lived experiences revealed several personal experiential themes (PETs), which made up the final three Group Experiential Themes (GETs): aiming for knowledge; pursuing progress; and seeking success. The findings of this study suggest that IEP meetings with CLD parents are focused on compliance with the law rather than providing CLD parents the opportunity to participate effectively in decision-making during the IEP meeting

Preservice Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Adopting Learning Management Systems

With the rapid arrival of COVID-19, the global education community was forced to move from traditional face-to-face instruction to online instructional formats. The global pandemic drew attention to the insufficient training of many teachers in the field. This mixed-methods study aimed to determine preservice teachers’ (PSTs) attitudes toward using a learning management system (LMS) after exposure in their technology course at a southeast Texas university. This study utilized a retrospective survey design, allowing participants in the technology course to answer pre- and post-survey questions simultaneously. Additionally, PSTs were asked to consent to continue to an open-ended questionnaire section of the survey to discuss their opinions and opportunities provided to them during the instruction on an LMS. This study utilized data from the 2023 summer and fall semesters with a sample of 197 PSTs who responded. This study’s quantitative results indicated a significant difference between PSTs’ perceived usefulness of, perceived ease of use of, attitude toward using, intent to use, and perceived competency before and after exposure to an LMS in their Teacher Education Program (TEP) required technology course. However, no significant difference was found between the same factors based on PSTs’ certification levels before or after exposure to an LMS. The qualitative data revealed six themes related to both research questions. The themes were familiarity with an LMS, experience with an LMS, understanding an LMS as a teaching tool, challenges in learning and implementing an LMS, concerns and questions about LMS use, satisfaction with training and course structure, and positive changes in attitudes. The research concludes with implications for course professors, course design, TEPs, and advancement and use of technology and recommendations for future research

Identification and prioritization of factors associated with health workforce resilience with analytic hierarchy process

This study aims to understand the public health workforce's resilience status by identifying and prioritizing factors associated with health workforce resilience. When not managed effectively, poor performance and, thus, inferior public health could be observed due to high stress levels or elevated adversity in the workplace. I conducted a comprehensive and systematic literature review to understand the influencing factors of public health worker resilience. This paper reports the resilience factors, categorizes whether they are individual characteristics or external environmental factors, and suggests the corresponding interventions that could enhance the resilience of the public health workforce. To understand the influencing resilience factors of public health workers, I did a comprehensive and systematic literature review. The study analyzed the importance of influencing factors of public health resilience using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). This paper aims to prioritize resilience factors resource allocation to improve public health workforce resilience

The Moderation Effect of Gender Role Orientation on the Relationship Between Sex/Gender and UPPS-P Impulsivity Facets

Previous research has shown that males and females show strong differences in certain impulsivity facets, specifically sensation seeking and negative urgency. Various theories exist to explain these differences. While biological theories are rooted in ideas that males and females are predestined to be different from each other, social theories provide a counter position, where differences between males and females differ are created by society through social influences. These social influences facilitate the creation of gender role constructs, or gender role orientation—socially-sanctioned male and female behavior via concepts of masculinity and femininity. Differences seen in sex/gender for some impulsivity facets might be rooted in varying levels of masculinity or femininity. Since most sex/gender measures are limited to capturing only sex assigned at birth, and therefore do not include other elements of gender like social roles or social expectations, differences between males and females might have been overlooked or misinterpreted. This study aimed to better understand the influence of gender role orientation (GRO) on impulsivity as measured by the UPPS-P model, defined by five facets of impulsivity: 1) negative urgency, 2) [lack of] perseverance, 3) [lack of] premedication, 4) sensation seeking, and 5) positive urgency. Our study found that levels of GRO did moderate the relationship between sex/gender and impulsivity. Findings suggested that sex/gender incongruency (e.g. where GRO does not align with sex/gender) was associated with higher impulsivity. Masculine females and feminine males might be at greater risk for negative outcomes related to three UPPS-P facets: negative urgency, positive urgency, and [lack of] perseverance

Change Talk and Sustain Talk as Mediators and Moderators in School-Based Motivational Interviewing Using the Student Check-Up

The Student Check-Up (SCU) is a brief school-based motivational interviewing intervention developed to promote academic-related behavioral changes and to increase accessibility to mental health services. Despite published randomized controlled trials demonstrating SCU’s effectiveness in promoting student self-efficacy in academic efforts, the SCU’s impact on student grade outcome has been inconsistent across studies. This study examines whether student participants' written statements that represent change talk and sustain talk predict differences in post-treatment grade outcomes and whether these effects are moderated by students’ pre-treatment academic achievement. In addition, we examine whether change and sustain talk mediate the relationship between study sites and grade outcomes. A two-level linear regression controlling for pre-treatment grades indicated that as the frequency of change talk increases, students’ post-treatment grades in English Language Arts (ELA) decrease (B = -.62, p =.03 ), suggesting that “the more” is not always “the merrier” when it comes to evoking change talks related to academic goals that require multiple behavioral changes for attainment

A Systematic Examination of Texas School District Websites for Suicide Prevention Information

Youth suicide and related behaviors continue to be a significant public health concern in the United States as the 2nd leading cause of death for the 10–14-year-old age group in 2020 (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2022). Suicide was the 3rd leading cause of death for the 10–24-year-old age group in 2020 (CDC, 2022). Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data from the CDC in 2019 showed that nearly one in five youth (18.8%) had seriously considered attempting suicide and 8.9% attempted suicide (Ivey-Stephenson et al., 2020). Schools can reduce youth suicidality by implementing suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention policies (Erbacher et al., 2015 Miller 2021; Singer et al., 2018). Research has examined public health approaches to youth suicide prevention (Horowitz, 2020), clinical treatments for suicidal adolescents (McCauley et al., 2018), and safe-messaging strategies around suicide prevention initiatives (Pirkis et al., 2017; Torok et al., 2017). Students and their parents may turn to school staff to seek help and accurate information about youth suicide prevention. However, there is no examination in the literature on what, if any, information is accessible to parents and students about suicide on school district websites. This study describes and quantifies the suicide prevention information available on a random sample of Texas school district websites. The findings of this study highlight that overall, 53% of the sampled district websites contained any suicide prevention information. Of the websites containing suicide prevention information, the most frequent pieces of information listed were numbers of suicide prevention hotlines

Reinventing the Library's Digital Footprint: Creating Interactive Learning Tools in Canvas

Poster presentation - TILC 2024In 2023, University of Houston-Clear Lake librarians created and embedded new information literacy resources in the campus Learning Management System. This included an interactive introduction to the library module which received 2,101 views in the first month of the Fall semester. Our efforts have allowed us to integrate and embed ourselves into the campus’ online learning environment, supplement class instruction with information literacy modules, and provide a more seamless accessible contact experience for our students

Teachers Perceptions and Beliefs of Discipline in K-8 Charter Schools in Post-Katrina New Orleans

There has been a narrative that has circled the country that the charter school experiment of the entire New Orleans public school system has been a chided success. However, what has been glaringly absent has been the voices of the African American teachers who work or worked in this system post-Katrina in the lower levels of the school system. Though strong opinions and targeted initiatives have been pushed and implemented by the charter schools in New Orleans, one aspect that has been the source of dissension has been the discipline practices. The purpose of this qualitative research study is to explore the perceptions and beliefs of veteran African American teachers of discipline practices in post-Katrina K-8 charter schools. This study is one of the few endeavors to represent the viewpoints of the veteran African American teachers that worked in these charter schools in the first 10-12 years after the reopening of the schools post-Katrina. Data were collected from these veteran participants through semi-structured open-ended interviews. The study offers recommendations regarding professional development for teachers that are new to the city and diversity committees that include veteran African American teachers. Evaluation of the discipline practices that are used should be continuous and evaluated for improvements