Graduate Program

School Psychology

Degree Name

Specialist in School Psychology

Semester of Degree Completion

Spring 2020

Thesis Director

Gary L. Canivez

Thesis Committee Member

Assege HaileMariam

Thesis Committee Member

John H. Mace

Abstract

Learning behaviors are observable actions, habits, and manifestations of attitudes that facilitate learning, such as persevering at difficult tasks, showing interest in academic subjects, demonstrating care and concern about classwork, and graciously accepting feedback (Buchanan, McDermott, & Schaefer, 1998). Assessment of these learning behaviors is an essential first step to effective intervention. It is important to know which learning behaviors to target and the degree of deficit in order to remediate learning problems. The present study examined the medium length (two-month) stability of scores obtained from the Learning Behaviors Scale (McDermott, Green, Francis, & Stott, 1999). Fifty K-8 teacher rater participants from 29 schools across 26 urban, suburban, and rural school districts in Illinois and Iowa twice rated a total of 100 students (50 girls, 50 boys) on the LBS with a two-month retest interval. Both raw scores and T scores were analyzed for pattern (Pearson correlations) and level (t-tests for dependent means) agreement (McDermott, 1988), and all outcomes supported test-retest reliability (stability). Raw score stability coefficients ranged from .57-.75 and T score stability coefficients ranged from .40-.63. All LBS Total and Factor (raw and T score) means across the retest interval were found to be either not statistically different or yielded small effect sizes. The implications for use of the LBS given stable LBS scores and the stability of learning behaviors as a construct were discussed. Results provided support for the relative stability of LBS Total and LBS subscale scores over a period of two months.

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