Student - College of Education

Yiqiu "Echo" Yan is a 5th-year Educational Psychology doctoral and Quantitative Method master student at UT Austin. Growing up in Shenzhen, China, she attended high school in San Diego as a junior (also obtained a high school diploma at Shenzhen Middle School). She went across states for her undergraduate education in Indiana. She graduated from Purdue University in May 2020. During her time at Purdue, she was involved in multiple research projects, including a longitudinal closed relationship research study advised by Dr. Ximena Arriaga and Dr. Christopher Agnew, Corpus & Repository of Writing Research, and Transculturation lab with Dr. Bradley Dilger at the College of Education.

In Fall 2020, she joined UT as a Ph.D. student in the HDCLS program Educational Psychology Department. She works with (and is advised by) Dr. Katherine Muenks in the Learning and Motivational Beliefs Lab. She is also involved in a joint lab, Science of Learning and Metacognition Lab, that Dr. Veronica Yan and Dr.Muenks have together.

She is interested in studying field-specific ability belief (FABs), perceived mindset (e.g., perceptions of peers, professors, and parents' beliefs), cultural competence, gender differences (e.g., women in STEM), and motivation in context.

Her teaching philosophy is to induce students' motivation and academic achievements and take a step beyond to prepare students for a professional career by implementing good learning strategies. She needs to be an attentive and caring mentor and foster positive teacher-student relationships to help students succeed.

Beyond academic life, she is a portrait photographer. She has been in choir for 16 years (alto I & soprano II). She sometimes teaches music theory and vocal lessons for fun.

She is interested in studying field-specific ability belief (FABs), perceived mindset (e.g., perceptions of peers, professors, and parents' beliefs), cultural competence, gender differences (e.g., women in STEM), and motivation in context.

Katherine Muenks (Supervisor)
Focuses on motivation and how individual beliefs and social-contextual factors influence students achievement and academic behaviors.

Mentor, Mentorship Committee, Society for Advancing Gender Equity in STEM at UT(2022)

Departmental Representative, Educational Psychology, Graduate Student Assembly(2021 - Present)

Curriculum Measurement Advisor, Student Advisory Board, The Collaborative for Access and Equity: Microsoft - UTexas Partnership(2021)

Graduate Student Ambassador, APA Division 15, The American Psychological Association(2021 - 2023)

Graduate Student Assembly Representative, C-12 Responsibilities, Rights, and Welfare of Graduate Student Academic Employees Committee, Faculty Council(2021 - Present)

Undergraduate Research Assistant Mentor, LAMB Lab, University of Texas at Austin(2020 - Present)

Alumna Advisor, National Retail Federation Student Association - Purdue Chapter, Purdue University(2020 - Present)

SPSP Writing Group Leader, Graduate Student Division, Society for Personality and Social Psychology(2020 - 2021)

Mentor; Group Leader, GirlStrong Mentorship Program, YouStrong Academy(2020 - 2021)

Officer, International Student Committee, Reformed University Fellowship(2020 - 2021)

Sievers, J., Mata, R., Cawthon, S., Vielma, A., Yan, Y., Lama, D., Ge, E., Ramesh, G. & Aldaco, S. (2024). Take a Deep Breath and Re-Center the Students Perspective: Partnering Instructors and Disabled Students for Accessible Teaching. Teaching of Psychology. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/00986283241269435.

Muenks, K. & Yan, Y. (2024). Do my peers have a fixed or growth mindset? Exploring the behaviors associated with undergraduate STEM students perceptions of their peers mindsets about intelligence.. Motivation and Emotion, 48(1735). doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-023-10049-8.

Hutson, J., Jensen, A., Malloy, H., Yan, Y. & Figueroa, M. (2023). A Personalized Writing Experience for Middle School English Language Arts Teachers and Students: The Criterion Interactive Alpha v0 Study.. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Services. (View)

Yan, Y., Muenks, K., Mata, R. & Yang, Y. (2023). How do undergraduate students perceptions of professor cultural competence and growth mindset relate to motivation to engage in intercultural interactions?. Social Psychology of Education. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-023-09840-9.

This study investigates the impact of social comparisons (deliberate and exposure) in different environments on college students self-esteem.

Space and place are crucial features of the postcolonial experience. As empires collapse, new nations are formed, and the experience for people occupying the land during these times of world-historical transition produces a wide range of literary response. Our project aims to collect and curate these depictions of space and place for scholars, students, and readers of the postcolonial novel.

Oliver H. Bown Endowed Fellowship, University of Texas at Austin (2022 - 2023)

College of Education Graduate Student Research Award, The University of Texas at Austin (2021 - 2021)

DDCE Graduate Student Professional Development Award, Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, The University of Texas at Austin (2021)

Reimagining Professional Development Award, Texas Career Engagement (2021)

Texas New Scholar Fellowship, University of Texas at Austin (2020 - 2021)

Accelerated Graduation Award (Degree in 3 years), Purdue University (2017 - 2020)

Dean's List, Purdue University (2017 - 2020)

Perceptions of Professor Cultural Competence and Mindset Predict Students Belonging and Motivation for Cross-Cultural Interactions, American Educational Research Association 2022, San Diego, CA (2022)

Does Social Media Make Comparisons More Painful? Investigation of Comparisons Among College Students, American Psychological Association - Division 8, Virtual (2022)

Readiness for Team-Based Community Interventions: Preparing Learners Using an Interprofessional Virtual Simulation, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy 2022, Grapevine, Texas (2022)

Motivation, Mindsets, and Metacognition Seminar, College of Pharmacy: Fundamental of TA, Austin, TX (2021)

Women Engineering Graduate Students Sense of Belonging, Perceived Inclusiveness, and Self-efficacy: A Mediation Model, Harvard Women in Psychology, Virtual (2021)

Cultural Competency and Mindset Theory, Science of Learning and Metacognition Lab, AUSTIN, TX (2020)

Transculturation in Introductory Composition, Science of Learning and Metacognition Lab,, AUSTIN, TX (2020)

Mapping postcolonial literature. (Presentation & Poster), Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference & Poster Symposium, West Lafayette, IN (2020)

Linking A Corpus & Repository for Research, Teaching, & Professional Development. (Workshop.), Purdue Digital Futures Symposium, West Lafayette, IN (2020)

Transculturation in Introductory Composition. (Conference session), Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference, Baltimore, MD (2019)

Space and place are crucial features of the postcolonial experience. As empires collapse, new nations are formed, and the experience for people occupying the land during these times of world-historical transition produces a wide range of literary response. Our project aims to collect and curate these depictions of space and place for scholars, students, and readers of the postcolonial novel.

Yiqiu Yan