Faculty

Alena Esposito

CV

Professional Website URL

Alena Esposito

Associate Professor, Psychology

Dr. Esposito earned her B.I.D. in Industrial Design from North Carolina State University, College of Design. Her program of study focused on educational material design. She then earned an M.A.T. in elementary education at East Carolina University and went on to teach elementary school, including within a bilingual education program. She completed her Ph.D. in Lifespan Developmental Psychology at North Carolina State University and went on to a postdoctoral research fellowship at Emory University. She joined the Clark faculty in 2018.

Dr. Esposito is a developmental scientist with a focus on cognitive development. Her research concentration is malleable factors influencing learning and subsequent academic achievement, especially for emerging bilingual students. The current application of her research is in dual-language education, where she is examining cognitive and academic outcomes for both language minority and majority students. As part of this project, she is also investigating the process of building a knowledge base both within and across languages with the long-term goal of informing educational policy and practice. This investigation entails examining the encoding and manipulation of semantic memory as well as conceptual representation across languages. The work is inherently interdisciplinary and includes both laboratory and classroom work.

Dr. Esposito is currently teaching courses on cognition and lifespan development.

Degrees

  • Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, North Carolina State University, 2014
  • M.A.T. in Elementary Education, East Carolina University, 2003
  • Bachelor of Industrial Design in Educational Environments, North Carolina State University, 2002

Affiliated Department

Psychology

Scholarly and creative works

  • Article in Refereed Journal

    Knowledge Organization of Discretized Non-Symbolic Fractions and Mathematics Achievement

    Journal of Cognition and Development
    2025
    Sangmi Park, Alena G. Esposito
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    Learning as retention; an examination of retention of self-derived knowledge through memory integration in a diverse sample of elementary students.

    Learning and Individual Differences
    2025
    Vol. 119
    Alena G. Esposito
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    Building Knowledge across Language Systems: The Role of Audio and Visual Supports in Bilingual Learning through Self-Derivation.

    Education Sciences
    2024
    Vol. 14
    Issue #10
    Alena G. Esposito, Kathryn Lee, Brandan Gunarathne
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    Adult Learners Self‐Derive New Knowledge through Integration of Novel Information and Prior Knowledge and Are more Successful with Reactivation

    Mind, Brain, and Education
    2024
    Jayantika Chakraborty, Alena G. Esposito
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    Self-derivation through memory integration predicts memory integration and academic performance one year later

    Cognitive Development
    2024
    Vol. 69
    Issue #101416
    Alena G. Esposito, Patricia J. Bauer
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    Rational Number Representation and Algebra Performance in College Students

    Cognitive Development
    2024
    Vol. 69
    Issue #101417
    Sangmi Park, Alena G. Esposito
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    Do executive functions gained through two-way dual-language education translate into math achievement?

    International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
    2023
    Vol. 26:4
    Issue #457-471
    Sangmi Park, Lital Dotan, Alena G. Esposito
  • Presentations

    Doing the work; Retention of knowledge self-generated in the classroom predicts academic performance

    Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development
    Salt Lake City, Utah
    March
    2023
    Alena G. Esposito
  • Presentations

    Memory integration in the classroom predicts future memory integration and academic performance.

    Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development
    Salt Lake City, Utah
    March
    2023
    Alena G. Esposito, Patricia J Bauer
  • Chapters In Books


    Chapter: Bilingual Education

    Alena G. Esposito, Sangmi Park
  • Presentations

    Antiracist Teaching in Higher Education: Transforming Ourselves and Our Classrooms Through Praxis.

    American Education Research Association annual conference
    San Diego, CA
    April
    2022
    Sponsored by American Education Research Association
    Jie Y Park, Laurie B. Ross, Eric DeMeulenaere, Alena G. Esposito, Sarah A. Michaels
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    Does executive functions gained through two-way dual-language education translate into math achievement?

    International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
    Sangmi Park, Lital Dotan, Alena G. Esposito
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    Rational Number Representation Predicts Mathematics Achievement: Quantity Matters

    Cognitive Development
    2022
    Sangmi Park, Alena G. Esposito
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    Determinants of elementary-school academic achievement: Component cognitive abilities and memory integration

    Child Development
    2022
    Alena G. Esposito, Patricia J. Bauer
  • Presentations

    A Mechanism for Advanced Math Achievement in Bilingual Education: Executive Functions Mediate the Relation Between Educational Program and Math Performance

    Society for Research in Child Development
    virtual
    April
    2021
    Sangmi Park, Alena G. Esposito
  • Presentations

    Rationale of Rational Numbers: Semantic Organization of Rational Numbers Relates to Mathematics Achievement

    Society for Research in Child Development
    virtual
    April
    2021
    Sangmi Park, Alena G. Esposito
  • Presentations

    Scales Means Reptile: The Role Of Essentialist Thinking As A Barrier To Integration

    Society for Research in Child Development
    virtual
    April
    2021
    Jayantika Chakraborty, Matt Swanat, Alena G. Esposito
  • Presentations

    A 3-year Longitudinal Investigation of Elementary Students’ Self-derivation and Metacognition

    Society for Research in Child Development
    virtual
    April
    2021
    Jessica A. Dugan, Alena G. Esposito, Patricia J. Bauer
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    Advantages of dual-language education: Executive function and academic performance among rural, low-income children

    Bilingual Research Journal
    January
    2021
    Alena G. Esposito
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    The gap between a picture and a 1000 words: Self-derivation through integration within and across presentation formats

    Journal of Cognition and Development
    2021
    Alena G. Esposito, Jillian J. Lauer, Patricia J. Bauer
  • Chapters In Books


    Chapter: Strategies and self-derivation: Means of maintaining and extending knowledge

    2021
    Alena G. Esposito, Patricia J. Bauer
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    BLC mini-series: Tools to document bilingual experiences

    Bilingualism: Language and Cognition
    Gigi Luk, Alena G. Esposito
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    Self-derivation through memory integration: A model for accumulation of semantic knowledge

    Learning and Instruction
    2020
    Vol. 66
    Patricia J. Bauer, Alena G. Esposito, J. J. Daly
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    The case for measuring and reporting bilingualism in developmental research

    Collabora: Psychology
    2019
    Vol. 5
    Issue #1
    Katheryn Byer-Heinlein, Alena G. Esposito, Adam Winsler, Veronica Marian, D. C. Castro, Gigi Luk
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    Self-derivation through memory integration under low surface similarity conditions: The case of multiple languages

    Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
    2019
    Vol. 187
    Alena G. Esposito, Patricia J. Bauer
  • Presentations

    Self-derivation through memory integration: A model for accumulation of semantic knowledge

    Biennial Meeting of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition
    Cape Cod, MA
    June
    2019
    Alena G. Esposito, J. J. Daly, Patricia J. Bauer
  • Presentations

    Dual-language education: Executive functions and academic performance among rural low-income children

    annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association
    Toronto, Canada
    May
    2019
    Alena G. Esposito
  • Presentations

    Dual-language education and special education

    annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association
    Toronto, Canada
    May
    2019
    Alena G. Esposito
  • Presentations

    Cognition in Context: Knowledge accumulation and organization

    Invited talk, Northeastern University
    Boston, MA
    October
    2019
    Sponsored by Coley Research Lab
    Alena G. Esposito
  • Presentations

    Dual-language education: Learning Across Languages

    Carolina Consortium on Human Development
    University of Chapel Hill, NC
    October
    2019
    Sponsored by Center for Developmental Science, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
    Alena G. Esposito
  • Presentations

    The rationale of the rational number: Children’s organization of fractions and decimals

    Biennial Meeting of the Cognitive Development Society
    Louisville, KY
    October
    2019
    Sangmi Park, Aryana Kubiak, Julia Orlov, Alena G. Esposito
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    Cognitive correlates of memory integration across development: Explaining variability in an educationally relevant phenomenon.

    Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
    2019
    Vol. 148
    Issue #4
    Nicole L. Varga, Alena G. Esposito, Patricia J. Bauer
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    From bench to classroom: Collaborating within a dual-language education model

    Journal of Cognition and Development
    2019
    Vol. 20
    Issue #2
    Alena G. Esposito, Patricia J. Bauer

Awards and grants

  • Understanding individual and contextual factors that support language learning and academic performance in bilingual classrooms

    National Science Foundation

    clock icon Sep. 1, 2024 – Aug. 31, 2028

  • An examination of factors that support language learning, cognitive development, and academic performance in bilingual education classrooms

    Institute of Education Sciences

  • A Clark collective approach to participant recruitment in our community

    Clark University

  • Building science knowledge over time and medium with diverse learners

    Institute of Education Sciences

  • Measurement of Parent and Teacher Critical Consciousness

    Spencer Foundation

  • Language Practices for Promoting Learning in Bilingual Education

    James S. McDonell Foundation

  • Promoting accumulation of scientific knowledge in diverse samples of elementary school students

    Institute of Education Sciences

  • Programming and practice to promoting achievement of English Learner students; bilingual education and language use

    William T. Grant Foundation

  • Understanding the mechanisms supporting knowledge integration in traditional and dual-language classrooms

    Institute of Education Sciences

    clock icon Aug. 1, 2019 – Jul. 31, 2020

  • Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Programs; Cognitive development, academic achievement, and anxiety

    Spencer Foundation

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