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!

MERG is moving to USC!

We are excited to announce that MERG is moving to the University of Southern California (USC). Dr. Patall has accepted a position in the Rossier School of Education that begins on January 1, 2017. For an announcement from Rossier, click here. Erika’s going to miss the University of Texas (UT) and all her amazing UT colleagues and friends. She’s excited for a new adventure at USC. Make sure to check back at this website to see all the exciting things MERG folks at USC, UT, and elsewhere are up to this spring.

MERG at AERA 2017!

Members of the MERG lab after a lunch reunion at AERA 2017 in San Antonio (from left to right: Ariana Vasquez, Erika Patall, Rebecca Steingut, Eunjin Seo, Danika Maddocks and David Osman)

We are pleased to announce the symposia and presentations of MERG members that will take place at the 2017 annual American Educational Research Association conference in San Antonio.

• Fong, C. J., Davis, C., Li, D., Kim, Y. W., & Hartman, C. E. (2017, April). A meta-analysis of noncognitive factors and community college transfer student success at four-year institutions. Paper to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association, San Antonio, TX.
• Fong, C. J., Kim, Y. W., Morrill, S., Lin, S., Hoang, D., & Ryu, W. (2017, April). Do noncognitive interventions enhance community college student success? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Paper to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association, San Antonio, TX.
• Jabbar, H., Fong, C. J., Germain, E., Li, D. Sanchez, J. D., Sun, W.-L., & DeVall, M. (2017, April). The competitive effects of school choice on student outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Paper to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association, San Antonio, TX.
• Maddocks, D., Osman, D. & Patall, E.A. (2017, April). Teacher enthusiasm and student outcomes: A meta-analysis. Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Antonio.
• Pituch, K. & Patall, E.A. (2017, April). A primer on intensive longitudinal design and analysis for classroom research.  Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Antonio.
• Seo, E. & Patall, E.A. (2017, April). Characteristics of college students’ personal academic goals, daily effort, and affective well-being. Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Antonio.
• Seo, E., Lee, Y., & Patall, E.A. (2017, April). Achievement goals predict not only levels of intrinsic motivation but also its stability. Paper to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Antonio.
• Vasquez, A. & Patall, E.A. (2017, April). Daily exercise habits and well-being: The effects of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Antonio.
• Williamson, Z. H., Fong, C. J., Lin, S., Williams, K. M., Kim, Y. W., & Schallert, D. L. (2017, April). Self-kindness in the face of criticism: Self-compassion influences undergraduates’ perceptions of constructive feedback. Paper to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association, San Antonio, TX.
• Somers, P. A., Fong, C. J., …Cummings, L. (April, 2017). Women and campus carry. Paper accepted to the Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association, San Antonio, TX.

New journal article by Patall, Vasquez, and Steingut

Erika Patall and two MERG members, Ariana Vasquez and Rebecca Steingut, recently published an article, titled “Daily interest, engagement, and autonomy support in the high school science classroom,” in Contemporary Educational Psychology. Here are the article highlights:

• High school students in 43 science classes participated in a 6-week diary study.
• Student interest and behavioral engagement declined.
• Interest during class predicted engagement, particularly early in the unit.
• Interest predicted same and subsequent day perceived teacher provision of choice.
• Interest-perceived choice links were strongest early in the unit and for males.

Read the full article here.