Chris Cobb will miss the match this weekend to present a paper at the American Educational Research Association (AERA), one of the most prominent and prestigious educational research groups in the world. This years meeting will be in Vancouver, BC and will provid an opportunity for Chris to meet fellow researchers from around the world.
Chris’s paper was accepted following a review of over 11,000 submissions. In addition to getting accepted to present at the annual conference, the study also took 2nd place at the Student Research Forum, the highest place of any group of authors that are solely comprised of students.
Much like rugby, the race to be a successful education researcher is incredibly competitive. Four U of M student researchers were able to beat significant odds to have their study accepted into the annual conference in Vancouver. The study is the first and most successful in a project of studies called the Math and Mindsets projects. The following is from the abstract of the accepted study:
The authors developed a structural equation model based on Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory which posits that a person’s behavior is influenced by both individual factors and social-contextual factors. The model informs our understanding of the nature of the relationship between the social-contextual factors and individual factors as they relate to math achievement in high school students. Individual factors including self-beliefs (math self-efficacy and implicit theories of math ability) and math behaviors (persistence and effort) were identified as mediators of the relationship between school climate and math achievement. The current study utilizes data from 16,197 10th grade students from the base year of a nation-wide dataset, the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002.
Chris is joined with fellow authors Thomas Hamlet, Katherine Wright, and Caro Hart in authoring the paper. We are extremely proud of our fellow rugger and wish him well this weekend.