Abraham E. Flanigan

Georgia Southern University | GSU · Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading

Undergraduate student misuse of mobile technology (e.g., smartphones, laptops, tablets) for non-class purposes (e.g., texting, scrolling social media, playing games) has become ubiquitous in college classrooms across the globe. In addition, research has suggested that these digital distractions can negatively impact learning and performance. The pr...

Objectives . Although prior research has uncovered shifts in computer science (CS) students’ implicit beliefs about the nature of their intelligence across time, little research has investigated the factors contributing to these changes. To address this gap, two studies were conducted in which the relationship between ineffective self-regulation of...

The present study investigated how course policies and enforcement strategies designed to curb classroom digital distraction affect undergraduates' perceptions of student-instructor rapport. Data gathered from online surveys completed by undergraduates at four United States universities revealed that student perceptions of rapport can be influenced...

Many college students believe that typing lecture notes on computers produces better notes and higher achievement than handwritten lecture notes on paper. The few studies investigating computer versus longhand note taking yielded mixed note-taking and achievement findings. The present study investigated computer versus longhand note taking but perm...

This study updates and extends prior work on institutional and individual productivity in educational psychology journals (Cognition and Instruction, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Educational Psychologist, Educational Psychology Review, Journal of Educational Psychology) from 2015 to 2021. As in previous studies, the University of Maryland,...

Two studies investigated change in computer science (CS) students’ implicit intelligence beliefs. Across both studies, we found that the strength of incremental and entity beliefs changed across time. In Study 1, we found that incremental beliefs decreased and entity beliefs increased across the semester. Change in implicit intelligence beliefs was...

The purpose of this study was to determine how graphic organizer completeness (complete, partial, or no organizer) and note-taking medium (longhand or computer) affect note-taking quantity and quality and affect computer-based learning. College students were presented with a computer-based PowerPoint lesson accompanied by complete, partial, or no g...

Student use of digital devices for non-class purposes has become ubiquitous in college classrooms across the globe—a phenomenon commonly referred to as digital distraction. The purpose of the chapter is to provide readers with an overview of the prevalence of student digital distraction in college classrooms, an understanding of the factors that co...

We investigated the behaviors and contextual factors college instructors rely upon to cultivate rapport with students in asynchronous online courses. Nineteen phenomenological interviews revealed that online instructors view rapport-building as a two-pronged process of initiating and subsequently maintaining rapport with students. Findings also ind...

We examined college instructors’ perceptions of the behaviors and contextual factors that allow them to initiate and maintain rapport with their students. Phenomenological interviews with 21 college instructors indicated that instructors rely on different strategies and contextual factors to initiate and to maintain rapport with students across the...

Contribution: This article presents a synthesis of the findings and implications from the IC2Think program of research in undergraduate computer science (CS) courses examining student motivation and self-regulated learning (SRL). These studies illuminate both the difficulty and potential for motivating CS students, as well as the uniqueness of CS a...

Laptop computers allow students to type lecture notes instead of relying on the traditional longhand (i.e. paper–pencil) method. The present research compared laptop and longhand note-taking methods by investigating how the quality (i.e. complete versus incomplete idea units) and quantity (i.e. total words and total idea units) of typed and handwri...

Previous studies have investigated the characteristics, influencing factors, and working strategies of highly successful educational psychologists. These studies, however, have focused mainly on male scholars. Consequently, little is known about how successful female educational psychologists go about their work and are so productive. In the presen...

We examined college instructors’ perceptions of student use of mobile technology for off-task purposes during class. Previous research demonstrated that digital distraction hinders student learning, yet little is known about instructor views and reactions to this behavior. Phenomenological interviews with 11 college instructors revealed that studen...

There has been a shift in college classrooms from students recording lecture notes using a longhand pencil-paper medium to using laptops. The present study investigated whether note-taking medium (laptop, longhand) influenced note taking and achievement when notes were recorded but not reviewed (note taking’s process function) and when notes were r...

Today’s traditional-aged college students are avid users of mobile technology. Commonly referred to as the Net Generation, today’s college students spend several hours each day using their smart phones, iPads, and laptops. Although some scholars initially opined that the Net Generation would grow into technologically savvy digital natives who would...

This research investigated the relationships among undergraduate computer science students’ computer-science-related career aspirations, perceived instrumentality (PI) for computer science courses, and achievement in those courses. Specifically, the two studies examined (a) change in PI and career aspirations during a single semester, (b) the relat...

Previous research (Kiewra & Creswell, Educational Psychology Review 12(1):135–161, 2000; Patterson-Hazley & Kiewra, Educational Psychology Review 25(1):19–45, 2013) has investigated the characteristics and work habits of highly productive educational psychologists. These investigations have focused exclusively on American scholars who were trained...

Contribution: This paper provides evidence that computational creativity exercises (CCEs) can increase engineering students' learning in introductory computer science (CS1) courses. Its main contribution is its more rigorous treatment/control group research design that allows testing for causal influences of CCEs on student learning and performance...

The purpose of the present study was to investigate how the inclusion of computational creativity exercises (CCEs) merging computational and creative thinking in undergraduate computer science (CS) courses affected students' course grades, learning of core CS knowledge, self-efficacy, and creative competency. CCEs were done in lower- and upper-divi...

Retaining students in computer science (CS) courses and majors is a concern for many undergraduate CS programs in the United States. A large proportion of students who initially declare a major in CS do not complete a CS degree. The impact of future-oriented motivational constructs such as career aspirations and future connectedness on retention ha...

Today’s traditional-aged college students spend several hours each day using their smart phones, iPads, and laptops. Although scholars initially believed these students—commonly referred to as the Net Generation—would leverage their nearly unlimited access to technology for professional and academic betterment, research suggests otherwise. Instead...

Computational thinking and creative thinking are valuable tools both within and outside of computer science (CS). The goal of the project discussed here is to increase students' achievement in CS courses through a series of computational creativity exercises (CCEs). In this paper, the framework of CCEs is described, and the results of two separate...

Our research is based on an innovative approach that integrates computational thinking and creative thinking in computer science courses to improve student learning and performance. Referencing Epstein's Generativity Theory, we designed and deployed Computational Creativity Exercises (CCEs) with linkages to concepts in computer science and computat...

Effects of Environment on Depressive Symptoms on Chinese Left-Behind Children Lanyan Ding & Eric S. Buhs, Ph.D. .....4 Students on the Edge: Evaluating an Academic Support Group Ben Heinisch .....26 Examining Inequalities in Science Literacy by Religious Affiliation Among Adults Alexis Swendener ........47 Applying Encoding and Retrieval Techniques...

This study investigated introductory computer science (CS1) students' implicit beliefs of intelligence. Referencing Dweck and Leggett's (1988) framework for implicit beliefs of intelligence, we examined how (1) students' implicit beliefs changed over the course of a semester, (2) these changes differed as a function of course enrollment and student...

In the past three decades, several studies have found an achievement advantage for studying graphic organizers such as a hierarchy or matrix over studying linear displays such as a text or outline (e.g., Dye, 2000; Guri-Rosenblit, 1989; Kauffman & Kiewra, 2010). However, little was learned about how students study graphic organizers and the cogniti...

We explored CS1 students' perceived instrumentality (PI) for the course and aspirations for a career related to CS. Perceived instrumentality refers to the connection one sees between a current activity and a future goal. There are two types of PI: endogenous and exogenous. Endogenous instrumentality refers to the perception that mastering new info...

The goal of this study was to investigate how students' entering motivation for the course in a suite of CS1 introductory computer science courses was associated with their subsequent course achievement and retention. Courses were tailored for specific student populations (CS majors, engineering majors, business-CS combined honors program). Student...

There are not many student-run academic journals, so The Nebraska Educator is excited to provide a forum for researchers, scholars, policymakers, practitioners, teachers, students, and informed observers in education and related fields in educational settings in the United States and abroad. Now in our third year, it is exciting to see the work tha...

Our study was based on exploring CS1 students' implicit theories of intelligence. Referencing Dweck and Leggett's [5] framework for implicit theories of intelligence, we investigated (1) how students' implicit theories changed over the course of a semester, (2) how these changes differed as a function of course enrollment and students' self-regulat...

The presence of technological distractions during homework and study diminishes students’ ability to self-regulate effectively, a phenomenon known as motivational interference. To date, no studies have explored the relationship between college students’ delay of gratification tendencies and motivational interference. Do students with greater delay...

The Nebraska Educator is an open access peer-reviewed academic education journal at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This journal is produced by UNL graduate students and publishes articles on a broad range of education topics that are timely and have relevance in the field of all levels of education. We seek original research that covers topics...

This study investigated the achievement benefits of studying different forms of verbal displays and explored how students study these displays using eye-tracking technology. Sixty-eight college students were assigned randomly to one of four display groups: text, outline, simple matrix, and signaled matrix. One at a time, students wearing an eye-tra...