Browsing by Subject "academic achievement"

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    Addressing Challenging Behaviors in the Classroom: A Manual to Enhance Teachers’ Understanding of Challenging Behavior, Causes, and Evidence-Based Behavioral Management
    (2023-05-02) Howell, Kylee A.; Petrenchik, Terry M.; Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health and Human Sciences; Anderson, Ben
    Challenging behavior is frequently seen in classrooms across the United States, and schools are in a unique position to support students beyond that of academic achievement through fostering safe, welcoming, and positive learning environments conducive to all students. In a school-based setting, occupational therapy plays a role in helping to create positive learning environments for all students and using holistic, whole-child approach to care. This means advocating for the understanding that in order to optimally learn and be successful academically, a child’s personal needs beyond that of the classroom setting should be considered. The purpose of the project was to encourage the use of a contextual, whole-child lens that accounts for a child’s stage of development, environmental, sociocultural, physical, emotional, and cognitive factors that should be taken into consideration in order to compassionately and supportively guide a student through times of adversity. This study was a 14-week experience and used both quantitative and qualitative methods to assess and evaluate the need for and the value of a behavior management manual. The capstone student created a research and evidence based behavior management manual that was distributed at the end of the capstone experience. The results of this study propose that the behavior management manual that was created has value, will leave long-lasting effects, and will change perspectives of teachers and staff on challenging behaviors for years to come.
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    Exploring the process by which positive racial identity develops and influences academic performance in Black youth: Implications for social work
    (Taylor & Francis, 2019) Kyere, Eric; Huguley, James; School of Social Work
    Although racial-ethnic socialization and racial-ethnic identity interlink to influence youth's developmental outcomes, the extant research has tended to investigate these constructs and their effect on youths’ outcomes separately. We therefore used path analysis to investigate the interrelationships between prominent racial-ethnic socialization and racial-ethnic identity constructs in one model to ascertain whether when considered simultaneously they have direct and/or mediated effect associations with the academic performance of African-American youths. Participants were drawn from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study. Findings reveal that parenting practices that expose youths to racial/cultural heritage of African-Americans, in tandem with those that alert youths to potential discrimination and strategies to respond, may influence youths’ racial-ethnic identity domains. These racial-ethnic identity domains in turn shape one another in a complex way to positively predict academic performance. Implications for social work research and practice are discussed.