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.

Congratulations, Dr. Vasquez!

Ariana successfully defended her dissertation and earned her Ph.D. this month. Her dissertation is titled “Daily Health Habits: The Effects of Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness.” Congratulations, Dr. Vasquez!

2016 AERA Recap

In 2016 annual meeting of American Educational Research Association in Washington, D.C., MERG had several presentations and talks on motivation and education, including Dr. Patall’s Division C Early Career Award Lecture, The promise and peril of choice provision as a motivational strategy. The talk emphasized the importance of providing choices as an instructional practice with careful consideration of students’ individual differences and contextual background.

Also, here are some short words from MERG members about this year’s AERA:

• Seo: “During this AERA, I loved being extremely motivated by all the inspiring motivation scholars including Erika’s.“
• Ariana: “This year at AERA I really enjoyed catching up with the other graduate students I have met through the Motivation SIG – all of us have pretty amazing post-docs lined up around the country!”
• Jen: “I felt energized about research into the impact of teacher talk during classroom interaction, and I also enjoyed seeing the methods people are using to approach questions about emotions and motivation. It was also really fun to hang out with other grad students!”
• Danika: “At AERA this year I saw several presentations that explored theoretical and conceptual issues using novel quantitative analyses–I enjoyed seeing this approach and learning about some methodologies and statistical techniques that are new to me.”