📖 My research centers on exploring the impact of educational factors on children’s self-regulation skills. These factors encompass teachers, classrooms, learning activities, and curriculum. I work with neurodiverse and typically-developing students across early childhood and elementary school stages, as well as educators from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Aim: To examine Chinese kindergarten teachers' perceptions of and instructional practices related to children’s attention.
Method: Semi-structured interview
& Observation.
Mao, X. Z. & Grammer, J. G. (2024, July). “Paying attention gets twice the result with half the effort”: Teacher's perception of children's attention in Chinese kindergarten classrooms. Poster presented at the International Mind, Brain and Education Society (IMBES) biannual conference, Leuven, Belgium.
Paper under review.
Aim: To understand the function of attention control system in real learning situations (e.g. in-person teaching, online instruction, independent work) in children with high or low ADHD symptoms.
Method: Electroencephalography (EEG) & Behavioral coding.
Mao, X. Z., Grammer, J. G., & Lenartowicz, A. (2023, March). Exploring Student Attention Tracking (SAT): a New, Integrated Behavioral Coding Protocol for Student Attention. Presentation given at the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) biennial conference, Salt Lake City, UT.
Paper in preparation.
Aim: To explore the impact of teachers' views of school readiness on children's academic gains using a large national dataset.
Method: Statistical modeling (confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling).
Mao, X. Z. (2023, April).
Teachers’ School Readiness Views and Kindergarteners’ Academic Gains:
Structural Equation Modeling with ECLS-K 2011. Poster presented at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual conference, Chicago, IL.
Aim: To understand pre-service and in-service teachers' needs and wants, in order to innovate digital tools and resource platforms to help them better serve diverse students.
Method: Survey, Interview, & Focus groups.
[Research-Practice-Policy Partnership with the UC-CSU California Collaborative on Neuroscience, Diversity, and Learning]
Ongoing Project
Aim: To investigate how underrepresented and marginalized families of young learners use resources, in order to set a prototype of family-centered activity for other state-wide partners.
Method: Focus groups.
[Research-Practice-Policy Partnership with the Virginia Department of Education]
Aim: To investigate and compare leading early childhood and elementary-level social-emotional learning (SEL) programs in the U.S. and produce a practical resource for teachers and schools.
Method: Content analysis.
Jones, S. M., Brush, K., Ramirez, T., Mao, X. Z., Marenus, M., Wettje, S., Finney, K., Raisch, N., Podoloff, N., Kahn, J., Barnes, S., Stickle, L., Brion-Meisels, G., McIntyre, J., Cuartas, J., & Bailey, R. (2021). Navigating social and emotional learning from the inside out; Looking inside and across 33 leading SEL programs: A practical resource for schools and OST providers (revised and expanded 2nd edition; preschool and elementary school focus). New York, NY: Wallace Foundation.