Dr. Andrew (Andy) Markelz
<b>Department: </b>Special Education<br><b>Research Area: </b>Expediting the novice-to-expert teaching curve in proactive classroom management strategies and issues related to special education law.<br>
Department: Special Education
Research Focus: During the fall 2021 semester, a team and I will be conducting a study titled Evaluating the Effects of Teacher Praise Variability on Student Behaviors. The purpose of the study is to evaluate differences in effect on student on-task behaviors between varied teacher praise and non-varied teacher praise. A single-case methodology will be used to examine four teacher/student dyads and measure the effects of varied praise statements on percentage of student on-task behavior. Understanding efficacies of praise characteristics is important for classroom management and teacher education research. Examining praise variety is novel in the field of praise research.
Potential Student Project(s): Depending on the amount of contribution to the project, the student may receive authorship on the published results from the project.
Attributes/skills/background sought in undergraduate: Our research will benefit from a student who has basic experience with Microsoft applications, particularly Excel spreadsheets. In addition, a student who has experience searching literature databases for peer-reviewed articles will be beneficial. Depending on the student's schedule, they may be able to participate and contribute to the project with live data collection. In this case, the student would need to complete CITI training to be in compliance with IRB approval.
Mentoring Plan: Meeting once a week will be important for identifying particular research needs depending on progression of the project. It will be beneficial for the student to learn about and experience the steps of empirical research.
Contact: 484-682-6053, TC 749