Dissertation, Publications and Conference Presentations
Kong, X. (2014). Trajectory of medical students' research interest by gender, race/ethnicity, research experience, and program: A longitudinal analysis (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://libra.virginia.edu/
In this dissertation, I conducted longitudinal data analyses on 39,839 medical school students in the United States to address the three research questions:
(1) Does medical students’ reported research interest differ among students with different characteristics of gender, race/ethnicity, previous research experiences, or matriculated program prior to their entry to medical schools?
(2) Does medical students’ reported research interest change in general across time from prior to their entry to medical schools, to when they are matriculated in medical schools, and to when they graduate from medical schools?
(3) Are patterns of change in medical students’ reported research interest across time associated with gender, race/ethnicity, previous research experiences, or matriculated program?
Kong, X., Dabney, K. P., & Tai, R. H. (2014). The association between science summer camps and career interest in science and engineering. International Journal of Science Education, 4(1), 54-65. doi: 10.1080/21548455.2012.760856
In this study, we examined whether the middle school students who reported having participated in science focused summer camps were more likely to report a career expectation in the science and engineering field than the students who did not.
Kong, X., Chakraverty, D., Jeffe, D. B., Andriole, D. A., Wathington, H. D., & Tai, R. H. (2013). How do interaction experiences influence doctoral students’ academic pursuits in biomedical research? Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 33(3-4), 76-84. doi: 10.1177/0270467613516754
In this study, we explored doctoral students reported experiences of their interactions with people (familial and professional) that they believed may influence (facilitate or impede) their academic progress in biomedical research.
Wyss, V. L., Dolenc, N. R., Kong, X., & Tai, R. H. (2013). Time on text and science achievement for high school biology students. American Secondary Education, 41(2), 49-59.
In this study, we examined the relationship between the amount of time high school students spent reading biology texts and their learning outcomes.
Kong, X., Tai, R. H., & Fan, X. (2014, April). Parental involvement and students’ science achievement: A longitudinal study. Paper presented at the annual meeting of American Education Research Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In this study, we investigated how was the pattern of change in students' school science performance over time related to the different dimensions of parental involvement (i.e., science-related parent-child communication, school participation, educational aspiration for children, and science-related home supervision).
Kong, X., Chakraverty, D., Dolenc, N. R., Jeffe, D. B., Andriole, D. A., Wathington, H. D., & Tai, R. H. (2014, April). Interaction influences on doctoral students’ academic pursuits in biomedical research: An exploratory qualitative study. Paper presented at the annual meeting of American Education Research Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In this study, we explored doctoral students reported experiences of their interactions with people (familial and professional) that they believed may influence (facilitate or impede) their academic progress in biomedical research.
Read, D. M., Tai, R. H., Mitchell, C. E., Hall, M. T., Kong, X., Jeffe, D. B., Andriole, D. A., Wathington, H. D. (2014, April). Medical students’ early interaction with research: Exposure and experiences that matter. Paper presented at the annual meeting of American Education Research Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Kong, X., Almarode, J. T., Maltese, A. V., & Tai, R. H. (2014, March-April). Activity-based science learning style preferences. Paper presented at the annual meeting of National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
In this study, we validated a newly developed survey instrument measuring students’ seven activity-based science learning style preferences—collaborating, competing, creating/making, discovering, presenting, caretaking, and teaching; and investigated whether these factors were significantly associated with students’ career interest in science and engineering.
Dolenc, N. R., Kong, X., & Tai, R. H. (2014, March-April). Success on a losing robotics team. Paper presented at the annual meeting of National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Kong, X., Jeffe, D. B., Read, D. M., Andriole, D. A., Wathington, H. D., & Tai, R. H. (2013, November). Importance of research, prestige, and altruism in medical-school applicant’s decisions to study medicine: Differences by gender and race/ethnicity. Abstract presented at the annual meeting of Research in Medical Education, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In this study, we examined potential differences by gender and race/ethnicity in medical-school applicants’ attitudes about the importance of several factors in their decisions to study medicine.
Kong, X., Tai, R. H., & Fan, X. (2013, April-May). The relationships between students’ perceptions of science and STEM career aspirations. Paper presented at the annual meeting of American Education Research Association, San Francisco, California.
In this study, we investigated the underlying factors of students’ reported perceptions of science, and whether those factors were associated with students’ STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) career interest.
Kong, X., & Tai, R. H. (2012, March). The influence of science summer camps on STEM career interest among sixth-eighth graders. Paper presented at the annual meeting of National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Indianapolis, Indiana.
This study addressed the association between students' reported participation in science summer programs and their reported expectation of a career in the science and engineering field in the subsequent year.
Tai, R. H., Kong, X., & Ryoo, J. (2013, December). Considering youths’ interest and engagement through a framework for examining youths’ learning activity preferences. Project study presented at the Assessing the Outcomes of Informal Science Learning Experiences Meeting, Palo Alto, California.
In the meeting, we presented a newly developed survey instrument assessing students' students’ seven activity-based science learning style preferences—collaborating, competing, creating/making, discovering, presenting, caretaking, and teaching, and discussed how this measurement could be utilized in evaluating the outcomes of science focused out-of-school time activities and programs.