Spring is here…

And MERG is celebrating it’s arrival with tacos, buritos, and ethopian food at Mercado la Paloma.

MERG at AERA 2018

We are pleased to announce the symposia and presentations of MERG members that will take place at the 2018 annual American Educational Research Association conference in New York City.

Patall, E.A., Steingut, R. R., Freeman, J.L., Pituch, K. A., & Vasquez, A. (2018, April). Motivational gender inequity in high school science classrooms.  Symposium session conducted at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York, NY.

Patall, E.A. (2018, April). The promise and peril of choosing for motivation and learning. Workshop session conducted at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York, NY.

Hooper, S., Patall, E.A., Vasquez, A., Pituch, K. A., & Steingut, R. R. (2018, April). Science is too hard: Daily perceived difficulty and the role of teacher autonomy support. Symposium session conducted at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York, NY.

Fong, C., Vasquez, A. & Patall, E.A. (2018, April). Controlling parents thwart students’ motivation, self-perceptions, and psychosocial outcomes: A meta-analytic investigation.  Roundtable session conducted at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York, NY.

Patall, E.A. (2018, April). The implications of new norms in education research for research synthesis. Discussant for symposium session conducted at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York, NY.

Two new journal articles on Autonomy Support from MERG

Erika Patall and MERG members, Rebecca Steingut, Ariana Vasquez, and Jen Freeman, recently published:

and

“Supporting and Thwarting Autonomy in the High School Science Classroom” in Cognition and Instruction (read the full article here).

Bon Voyage, MERG Alumni!

Four of MERG alumni recently started or will start their new jobs!

Carlton Fong will start his new position as an assistant professor in Developmental Education at Texas State University. As an assistant professor, he will continue his research agenda on psychosocial factors that influence college student success and persistence as well as teaching graduate courses in research methods and learning sciences. Carlton is excited to mentor very hardworking and kind graduate students. Carlton will miss Erika’s fun holiday get-togethers and the support of all the lab members the most.

Ariana Vasquez recently started her new job as a Manager on the Quantitative Insights Team at GLG, which is a professional learning community. At this position, Ariana will get to work on interesting, fast-paced projects every day. Ariana is excited about working with her team made up of smart, talented, and hard-working associates from all over the world. However, Ariana will definitely miss people at UT the most.

Rebecca Steingut has been working on a NSF-funded research project as a postdoctoral researcher at Teachers College, Columbia University. At this position, she has developed, implemented, and tested scientist struggle intervention in science classrooms. She is excited to be back in her hometown of NYC and working on classroom-based interventions. Rebecca misses the amazing team of collaborators in the MERG. However, she also said, “Luckily I get to see them at conferences and still work on some projects with them!”

Eunjin (Jin) Seo recently started her new job as a postdoctoral research fellow at Texas State University. She started multiple research projects on academic achievement in cultural contexts using nationally representative longitudinal datasets. She is excited to learn more about the roles of cultural context and family processes in adolescents’ achievement as a postdoctoral researcher. Jin will miss Erika’s amazing weekly guidance and awesome MERG members’ feedback on her research projects during the lab meeting the most.

Congratulations, Carlton, Ariana, Rebecca, and Jin!

Award for Sophia Hooper

Sophia Yang Hooper has been awarded the Frances Fowler Wallace Memorial for Mental Health Dissertation Award from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.  Sophia’s dissertation is a meta-analysis on the effects of teacher autonomy support and control on student motivation, achievement, and psychosocial outcomes. Congratulations Sophia!

Congratulations, Seo!

Eunjin Seo received the 2017 Paul R. Pintrich Memorial Award from the Motivation in Education Special Interest Group at the AERA!  Her award-winning paper, coauthored with Erika Patall, is “Achievement Goals Predict Not Only Levels of Intrinsic Motivation but Also Its Stability.”

Another Award for Eunjin Seo

Eunjin Seo has been awarded a Dissertation Writing Fellowship. This competitive award is provided by the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin. Congratulations, Eunjin!