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We examined the political attitudes of college students and the political identities of their par... more We examined the political attitudes of college students and the political identities of their parents to better understand the role that both parent-child political socialization and the liberal university environment play in political identity formation. We compared students explicit and implicit political attitudes and examined the relationships of these attitudes to the political identities of their parents. We also explored the uniqueness of two candidates, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential election. Our results supported the existing notion of parental influences on political identity formation and revealed that the university environment may not play as large of a role in shifting firstand second-year university students away from political identities established at home. However, data revealed greater support for the nontraditional candidate in our left-leaning participants, suggesting that factors other than parent influence could be at play in forming...

Consistent with the Standard Social Science Model, educational researchers, more times than not, ... more Consistent with the Standard Social Science Model, educational researchers, more times than not, rely on explanations steeped in cultural transmission to describe and explain student behavior. The study of single vs. mixed-sex environments is no exception. Researchers who have categorically ignored the role of biology have dominated this debate. Nevertheless, every aspect of the human`s life has a biological foundation and unless it was biologically possible, it would not exist. Given the interplay of biological, psychological and sociological systems, it is unlikely that the topical intransigence surrounding the debate of single vs. mixed-sex environs will be resolved unless future investigations consider these elements. The present work is an initial step in such a direction.

Handbook of Research on the Global Empowerment of Educators and Student Learning Through Action Research

Research on service-learning has documented the importance of relationships and meaningful commun... more Research on service-learning has documented the importance of relationships and meaningful community connections for preservice teachers' development. What remains less explored is the opportunities and challenges provided by e-service learning integrated into teacher preparation coursework. In this study, the authors utilize action research methodology to explore how preservice teachers engaged in e-service learning during the move towards remote instruction in the summer of 2020. Drawing on the analysis of students' weekly journals, final reflections, and the survey of stakeholders, they examine how e-service-learning created opportunities for students to feel connected to the community during the time of social isolation and be motivated by their ability to make an impact on children's interest in learning STEM content. The challenges emerged out of a disconnect between course content and some of the e-service learning assignments. This study's implications includ...

American Journal of Distance Education

Mental Health, Religion & Culture

The Religious Attribution Scale (RAS) was developed recently and validated with a predominantly M... more The Religious Attribution Scale (RAS) was developed recently and validated with a predominantly Muslim Indonesian sample. This study aimed to demonstrate the validity of the RAS with a sample of individuals from the US. Students from two US colleges participated in this research. In addition to the RAS, other constructs such as meaning in life and life satisfaction were assessed. Reliabilities for all measures were acceptable. Similar to the findings reported for the Indonesian sample, positive religious attribution was associated positively with the presence of meaning in the US sample. However, different relations were observed between positive attribution and search for meaning in life in the US and Indonesian sample. We also found that positive religious attribution had positive correlations with life satisfaction and negative religious attribution factors were negatively related to life satisfaction. Mediational analysis revealed that meaning in life was a potential mediator for religious attribution and life satisfaction.

Mental Health, Religion & Culture


Humans frequently compete with members of their own sex to gain reproductive access to opposite-s... more Humans frequently compete with members of their own sex to gain reproductive access to opposite-sex partners. Competition is often accompanied by adaptive changes in basic physiological processes, endocrine system in particular. We investigated organism`s cortisol response to the presence of opposite sex individuals in educational settings. Working from the assumption of evolutionary psychology that behavior depends on underlying psychological mechanisms and notion that all intrasexual interactions serve reproductive purposes to some degree,we predicted that presence of opposite sex individuals will elicit a physiological response that help to gain reproductive access to opposite-sex partners. 5 males and 4 females were exposed to mixed and single sex environs while completing a jigsaw puzzle. Saliva samples were extracted to establish individual cortisol base line prior to introduction of mental tasks and after 30 minutes in the task in each environ. ELISA kit was used to assess fr...

Educational Research and Evaluation, 2011

Inasmuch as educational research is concerned with individual student assessment and development,... more Inasmuch as educational research is concerned with individual student assessment and development, it is surprising that single-subject designs are not more readily utilized in classroom-based action research. The purpose of this article is to emphasize benefits of single-subject research in the K-12 setting, given that teachers teach and assess individual students, the availability of individual student data, the uniqueness of

Creative Education, 2013

This proof of concept study assessed student cortisol levels under three environs: 1) alone; 2) s... more This proof of concept study assessed student cortisol levels under three environs: 1) alone; 2) same-sex setting; and 3) mixed-sex setting after completing a cognitive task. The results indicated that both males and females demonstrated increased levels in the same-sex environs compared to the other environs. The relevant issue for educators is whether this response is adaptive. Implications of these findings are discussed.

http://www.abstractsonline.com/Plan/ViewAbstract.aspx?sKey=2828ecee-c877-4630-8b24-Changes in cor... more http://www.abstractsonline.com/Plan/ViewAbstract.aspx?sKey=2828ecee-c877-4630-8b24-Changes in cortisol levels serve as a reliable indicator of stimulus response. Cortisol is the most potent glucocorticoid produced and secreted by the adrenal cortex in response to activation of HPA-axis. We investigated intra-individual cortisol responses under single and mixed sex groupings during a cognitive task. Our efforts were driven by an interest in connecting the long standing debate over co-education vs. single sex education with a consideration of physiological processes. The assumptions of cognitive sciences that mental events are structured informational manipulations of physical systems in the brain served as the theoretical foundation for this study. Thus, if the sex of the partner is relevant to a response, the intra-individual cortisol differences should be evidenced among varying sex groupings. If there are no differences, researchers cannot empirically state that sex rises to the l...

We examined the political attitudes of college students and the political identities of their par... more We examined the political attitudes of college students and the political identities of their parents to better understand the role that both parent-child political socialization and the liberal university environment play in political identity formation. We compared students explicit and implicit political attitudes and examined the relationships of these attitudes to the political identities of their parents. We also explored the uniqueness of two candidates, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential election. Our results supported the existing notion of parental influences on political identity formation and revealed that the university environment may not play as large of a role in shifting firstand second-year university students away from political identities established at home. However, data revealed greater support for the nontraditional candidate in our left-leaning participants, suggesting that factors other than parent influence could be at play in forming...

Consistent with the Standard Social Science Model, educational researchers, more times than not, ... more Consistent with the Standard Social Science Model, educational researchers, more times than not, rely on explanations steeped in cultural transmission to describe and explain student behavior. The study of single vs. mixed-sex environments is no exception. Researchers who have categorically ignored the role of biology have dominated this debate. Nevertheless, every aspect of the human`s life has a biological foundation and unless it was biologically possible, it would not exist. Given the interplay of biological, psychological and sociological systems, it is unlikely that the topical intransigence surrounding the debate of single vs. mixed-sex environs will be resolved unless future investigations consider these elements. The present work is an initial step in such a direction.

Handbook of Research on the Global Empowerment of Educators and Student Learning Through Action Research

Research on service-learning has documented the importance of relationships and meaningful commun... more Research on service-learning has documented the importance of relationships and meaningful community connections for preservice teachers' development. What remains less explored is the opportunities and challenges provided by e-service learning integrated into teacher preparation coursework. In this study, the authors utilize action research methodology to explore how preservice teachers engaged in e-service learning during the move towards remote instruction in the summer of 2020. Drawing on the analysis of students' weekly journals, final reflections, and the survey of stakeholders, they examine how e-service-learning created opportunities for students to feel connected to the community during the time of social isolation and be motivated by their ability to make an impact on children's interest in learning STEM content. The challenges emerged out of a disconnect between course content and some of the e-service learning assignments. This study's implications includ...

American Journal of Distance Education

Mental Health, Religion & Culture

The Religious Attribution Scale (RAS) was developed recently and validated with a predominantly M... more The Religious Attribution Scale (RAS) was developed recently and validated with a predominantly Muslim Indonesian sample. This study aimed to demonstrate the validity of the RAS with a sample of individuals from the US. Students from two US colleges participated in this research. In addition to the RAS, other constructs such as meaning in life and life satisfaction were assessed. Reliabilities for all measures were acceptable. Similar to the findings reported for the Indonesian sample, positive religious attribution was associated positively with the presence of meaning in the US sample. However, different relations were observed between positive attribution and search for meaning in life in the US and Indonesian sample. We also found that positive religious attribution had positive correlations with life satisfaction and negative religious attribution factors were negatively related to life satisfaction. Mediational analysis revealed that meaning in life was a potential mediator for religious attribution and life satisfaction.

Mental Health, Religion & Culture


Humans frequently compete with members of their own sex to gain reproductive access to opposite-s... more Humans frequently compete with members of their own sex to gain reproductive access to opposite-sex partners. Competition is often accompanied by adaptive changes in basic physiological processes, endocrine system in particular. We investigated organism`s cortisol response to the presence of opposite sex individuals in educational settings. Working from the assumption of evolutionary psychology that behavior depends on underlying psychological mechanisms and notion that all intrasexual interactions serve reproductive purposes to some degree,we predicted that presence of opposite sex individuals will elicit a physiological response that help to gain reproductive access to opposite-sex partners. 5 males and 4 females were exposed to mixed and single sex environs while completing a jigsaw puzzle. Saliva samples were extracted to establish individual cortisol base line prior to introduction of mental tasks and after 30 minutes in the task in each environ. ELISA kit was used to assess fr...

Educational Research and Evaluation, 2011

Inasmuch as educational research is concerned with individual student assessment and development,... more Inasmuch as educational research is concerned with individual student assessment and development, it is surprising that single-subject designs are not more readily utilized in classroom-based action research. The purpose of this article is to emphasize benefits of single-subject research in the K-12 setting, given that teachers teach and assess individual students, the availability of individual student data, the uniqueness of

Creative Education, 2013

This proof of concept study assessed student cortisol levels under three environs: 1) alone; 2) s... more This proof of concept study assessed student cortisol levels under three environs: 1) alone; 2) same-sex setting; and 3) mixed-sex setting after completing a cognitive task. The results indicated that both males and females demonstrated increased levels in the same-sex environs compared to the other environs. The relevant issue for educators is whether this response is adaptive. Implications of these findings are discussed.

http://www.abstractsonline.com/Plan/ViewAbstract.aspx?sKey=2828ecee-c877-4630-8b24-Changes in cor... more http://www.abstractsonline.com/Plan/ViewAbstract.aspx?sKey=2828ecee-c877-4630-8b24-Changes in cortisol levels serve as a reliable indicator of stimulus response. Cortisol is the most potent glucocorticoid produced and secreted by the adrenal cortex in response to activation of HPA-axis. We investigated intra-individual cortisol responses under single and mixed sex groupings during a cognitive task. Our efforts were driven by an interest in connecting the long standing debate over co-education vs. single sex education with a consideration of physiological processes. The assumptions of cognitive sciences that mental events are structured informational manipulations of physical systems in the brain served as the theoretical foundation for this study. Thus, if the sex of the partner is relevant to a response, the intra-individual cortisol differences should be evidenced among varying sex groupings. If there are no differences, researchers cannot empirically state that sex rises to the l...