Education Commons^™

Preservice Teachers' Referral Of Students For Special Education, Annie Maclachlan

Honors Scholar Theses

The purpose of this study was to understand which students teachers nominate for special education services, and what student qualities influence the nomination. Specifically, in this study, we investigated whether a student’s ethnicity and classroom behavior influence his or her nomination for special education. We created six profiles in which we varied ethnic names and classroom behaviors, and asked juniors and seniors in a selected teacher preparation program to evaluate the profile they were given. They were then asked to indicate whether or not they would refer their given hypothetical student for special education services, and to provide justification for …

Post – Doctoral Education Research Project, John A. Henschke Edd, Suwithida Charungkaittikul

IACE Hall of Fame Repository

No abstract provided.

Post – Doctoral Education Research Project, John A. Henschke Edd, Suwithida Charungkaittikul

IACE Hall of Fame Repository

No abstract provided.

Promoting Content Knowledge Of Secondary Students With Learning Disabilities Through Comprehension Strategies, Apryl L. Poch, Erica S. Lembke

Special Education and Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

Students with learning disabilities struggle with basic comprehension skills across all content areas. By pairing comprehension strategies with content instruction, secondary content area teachers can strengthen students’ reading skills and content knowledge. This article provides an overview of two comprehension strategies, anticipation guides and double entry journals, that align with research-based recommendations in adolescent literacy and that can be employed across the primary content areas (i.e., English language arts, social/global studies, mathematics, and science).

Deafblind Pocket Communicator: No-Tech Innovation Using 3-D Printing, Amy T. Parker, Susan Sullivan

Special Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

For many deafblind people, having a simple, low-tech tool is beneficial when traveling in the community or interacting with members of the public. This presentation will explain the tool called the DeafBlind Pocket Communicator, which is a slim, pocket-sized, no-tech device which displays the braille alphabet embossed beneath the corresponding raised print letters, numbers and symbols. This is a conversation tool for the deafblind with those who cannot fingerspell, and it can be used for writing limited braille messages and teaching the beginnings of braille. Prototypes on a 3-D printer were created and further innovation is possible.

The School Connection Program: Strengths, Challenges, And Next Steps, Luchara Wallace

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Award (FRACAA)

The School Connection Program originally began as a WMU-initiated, community engaged effort to develop and implement an off-site alternative to school suspension for high-need Middle School students in southwestern Michigan county. The original purpose of the program was (a) to provide an off-site location for academic, social, and emotional supports to students separated from their K-12 school setting due to suspension and (b) to ensure that when the student returns to school, they are returning with tools that will help them stay better connected to school and less likely to be suspended again while addressing academic deficits in the areas …

The Effects Of Cyberbullying In Elementary School On Students With And Without Disabilities, Ashlee Punte

Education: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

The purpose of this research was to determine the effects of cyberbullying on elementary aged children in both general and special education settings. Cyberbullying is an intentionally harmful act through the use of the internet or an electronic device. There is a significant amount of research done on bullying and cyberbullying at the middle school and high school levels, but the research at the elementary level is very limited. There is also a large amount of research already done on students in general education, but there is a gap in special education. Because of these gaps in the research, it …

Examine The Relationship Between Effective Classroom Communication And Student Behavior And Classroom Efficiency Or Loss Of Instruction Time, Kirstin Blass

Education: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Special education teachers and paraprofessionals work together on a daily basis during school hours to assist individuals with disabilities. Throughout the school day, these coworkers interact directly and indirectly with each other. The conversations and interactions between these individuals could have an effect on the students within the classroom either positively or negatively, depending on the interaction. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between effective classroom communication and student behavior and classroom efficiency or loss of instruction time. This mixed methodology study included input from two different special education teachers from two schools in Pennsylvania …

Placement Of Young English Language Learners’ (Ells’) In Reading Support : A Question Of Ell Status Or Learning Disability, Samantha Gehly

Education: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Across the United States, increasing numbers of children whose first language, culture, and/or heritage is not English are being served in classrooms where English is the primary language in instruction. English Language Learners (ELLs) represent more than 5 million students in the United States, of which seventy-five percent are only Spanish-speaking. Many ELLs are facing the challenge of overcoming a language barrier to be academically successful, causing a risk of failure in increasing literacy demands. For educators working with ELLs in general education-related settings, their mission is to identify the root cause of their ELL student’s reading difficulties before they …

Childhood Trauma And Implications For Teaching Young Students Who Have Experienced Trauma, Samantha M. Zarzaca

Education: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

A traumatic event that was experienced at an early age can affect an individual’s ability to form relationships, brain development, and ability to learn. Research methodology included interviews with school professionals in a variety of roles in a rural Pennsylvania school district. Parents of four students completed a semi-structured questionnaire and observations of the students took place in a classroom setting. Results from this qualitative study included insight into the types of training professionals receive, level of support from administration, and behaviors exhibited from students. Four themes emerged from this mixed-methods research: lack of trauma training, high caseloads, compassion fatigue, …

Eds 743 Behavioral Assessment, Management, And Change, Danielle Magaldi

Open Educational Resources

The study of theories and techniques for managing the behavior of students with disabilities and for promoting development of positive social interaction skills. Specific applications of a variety of techniques for behavior management across home, school, and community settings with an emphasis on collaboration.

Effectiveness Of Autism Education In Accredited Dental Hygiene Programs, Stephanie M. Riehn

Dissertations

The increase in the prevalence of individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has increased dramatically over the last few decades, causing an increase in the exposure of dental professionals to patients with the disorder in a clinical setting.

The purpose of this study is to understand the influence of the licensed dental hygienists’ professional attitude towards treating a patient with ASD, and the level of accommodations provided to patients with ASD during a routine dental visit, based on the amount of knowledge provided about the disorder during an accredited dental hygiene program. Survey data were collected from 78 registered …

Examining The Effectiveness Of Video Instruction On Teaching Daily Living Skills To Adolescents And Young Adults With Intellectual Disability, Annemarie L. Horn

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

Independently performing essential daily living skills enables individuals to become more self-sufficient adults. Those with intellectual disability (ID) tend to require direct instruction and repetition to successfully aquire everyday tasks. Many adults with ID continue to show deficits in this domain, affecting independent living abilities (Luftig & Muthert, 2005). Video-based instruction holds promise in increasing autonomous functioning while decreasing reliance on staff. This review of the literature examines the effectiveness of using video instruction (VI) to teach daily living skills to adolescents and young adults with ID. Acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of target skills are examined across the literature. A …

A Non-Invasive Brain-Computer Interface For Real-Time Speech Synthesis: The Importance Of Multimodal Feedback, Jonathan S. Brumberg, Kevin M. Pitt, Jeremy D. Burnison

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

We conducted a study of a motor imagery brain-computer interface (BCI) using electroencephalography (EEG) to continuously control a formant frequency speech synthesizer with instantaneous auditory and visual feedback. Over a three-session training period, sixteen participants learned to control the BCI for production of three vowel sounds (/ℹ/[heed], /ɐ/[hot], and/u/[who’d]) and were split into three groups: those receiving unimodal auditory feedback of synthesized speech, those receiving unimodal visual feedback of formant frequencies, and those receiving multimodal, audio-visual feedback. Audio feedback was provided by a formant frequency artificial speech synthesizer and visual feedback was given as a two-dimensional cursor on a graphical …

Parent Implemented Adapted Dialogic Reading With Preschoolers With Autism, Mckenzie Ward

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The current study examined the role of a novel, adapted dialogic reading curriculum and its impact on preschoolers with autism and their interactions with their parents during shared book reading. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of the curriculum on the effects of child social reciprocity and parents’ feelings of competence and confidence when trained on implementation strategies. Pre- and post-test measures were conducted for four parent-child dyads to measure the impact of adapted dialogic reading on child social reciprocity and parents’ feelings of competence and confidence. Although the sample size was small, clear trends were …

Parents And Educators Of A Special School: Their Perspectives On Inclusive Education For People With Down Syndrome In Navi Mumbai, India, Jennifer Peterson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The topic of this study is centered on students with intellectual disabilities; in particular, its focus is on those individuals who have Down syndrome. One of the primary debates revolving around the treatment of people with intellectual disabilities is whether or not they should be educated in separate, special schools. According to the current academic consensus, and the government of India’s new policies, inclusion within mainstream schools is the most beneficial practice for students with Down syndrome to grow socially and academically; however, the perspectives of parents and staff is often left out of the equation when determining the impact …

Ua10/1 Cec Newsletter, Wku Suzanne Vitale Clinical Education Complex

WKU Archives Records

Newsletter created by and about the WKU Suzanne Vitale Clinical Education Complex.

The Relationship Between Perceived Sense Of Community And Self-Efficacy In Special Education Teachers: A Quantitative Correlational Study, Laura Sinkonis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Teacher attrition is a worldwide problem. Teachers leave education for reasons other than retirement, and many retire before the generally accepted retirement age of 65. Further, special education teachers are at an even higher risk of premature exit than their general education counterparts. Self-efficacy is related to teacher burnout and other reasons for leaving the profession. One missing piece in the literature is role of sense of community in special education on teachers’ self-efficacy. The purpose of this correlational study is to investigate possible predictive relationships between sense of community and self-efficacy in special education teachers. Further, relationships between group …

Special And General Education Teachers’ Assessment Of Their Participation In A Peer Assistance And Review (Par) Program, Alexandre Lopes

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Traditional teacher evaluation systems have failed to (a) show variations in teacher effectiveness, (b) determine teachers’ professional development needs, and (c) align evaluation of teacher effectiveness with compensation, retention, and dismissal. Furthermore, traditional teacher evaluation systems have failed to establish teaching practices that positively affect student learning - an issue of critical importance for students with disabilities.

The literature indicates that Peer Assistance and Review (PAR), grounded in social network theory, is regarded by many as a viable option to compensate for the disadvantages of traditional teacher evaluation systems. PAR has the potential to provide (a) frequent and meaningful observations, …

Evaluating The Effects Of Utilizing A Mobile Device By Transitioning High School Students With Intellectual Disability To Locate Items From A Grocery List And Improve Their Independence, Vanessa Gil

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with Intellectual Disability (ID) struggle to learn daily living skills (DLS) required for independent living. One specific skill set that is challenging for individuals with ID is grocery shopping. The current study is one of two investigations that have been undertaken entirely in the community and without the use of booster session simulations in a classroom.

This study investigated the effects of using least-to-most prompting and mobile technology as a tool to assist 18 to 22-year-old adult students with ID to find six items from a grocery-shopping list. Dependent measures included the number of task steps completed correctly, selecting …

Early Uneven Ear Input Induces Long-Lasting Differences In Left-Right Motor Function, Michelle W. Antoine, Xiaoxia Zhu, Marianne Dieterich, Thomas Brandt, Sarath Vijayakumar, Nicholas Mckeehan, Joseph C. Arezzo, R. Suzanne Zukin, David A. Borkholder, Sherri M. Jones, Robert D. Frisina, Jean M. Hébert

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

How asymmetries in motor behavior become established normally or atypically in mammals remains unclear. An established model for motor asymmetry that is conserved across mammals can be obtained by experimentally inducing asymmetric striatal dopamine activity. However, the factors that can cause motor asymmetries in the absence of experimental manipulations to the brain remain unknown. Here, we show that mice with inner ear dysfunction display a robust left or right rotational preference, and this motor preference reflects an atypical asymmetry in cortico-striatal neurotransmission. By unilaterally targeting striatal activity with an antagonist of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), a downstream integrator of striatal …

Study Of A Regional Approach For Delivering Special Education Programs And Services In Maine, Janet C. Fairman Ph.D., Mary Ellen Seymour M.Ed.

State of Education

A study of school districts’ use of a regional approach for delivering special education programs and services in Maine.

Brain–Computer Interfaces For Augmentative And Alternative Communication: A Tutorial, Jonathan S. Brumberg, Kevin M. Pitt, Alana Mantie-Kozlowski, Jeremy D. Burnison

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Purpose--Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) have the potential to improve communication for people who require but are unable to use traditional augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices. As BCIs move toward clinical practice, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) will need to consider their appropriateness for AAC intervention.

Method--This tutorial provides a background on BCI approaches to provide AAC specialists foundational knowledge necessary for clinical application of BCI. Tutorial descriptions were generated based on a literature review of BCIs for restoring communication.

Results--The tutorial responses directly address 4 major areas of interest for SLPs who specialize in AAC: (a) the current state …

Effective Instruction For English Language Learners With A Learning Disability In Higher Education In Egypt, Rania M Rafik Khalil

English Language and Literature

There is a large number of students with learning disabilities (LD) today in many private higher education institutions in Egypt. It is fair to say that their challenges although have gained some attention from academics and researchers that they are still under-studied. Many of those students also happen to be English language learners (ELLs). This complicates matters even more not just for the student with the learning disability, but for the untrained instructor in the classroom. Research indicates that ELLs with LD are less likely to engage actively in classroom tasks and are more prone to failing. Providing an inclusive …

Transforming The Embodied Dispositions Of Pre-Service Special Education Teachers, Gene Fellner, Helen Kwah

Publications and Research

Teacher education programs seek to foster dispositions that welcome student differences in race, culture, language and ability. However, pre-service teachers’ dispositions are difficult to transform because they tend to be aligned with the field of schooling where differences are punished or excluded. This study examines an activity for transforming pre-service teachers’ communicative habitus that was inspired by Bourdieu’s theory that habitus or dispositions are unconsciously embodied and therefore require a bodily counter-training for change. The activity instructed 17 pre-service Special Education teachers to communicate an experience through sound alone rather than words in order to challenge teachers’ deeply embodied communicative …

Early Career Special Education Teachers Perceived Value Of Being Mentored By General Education Teachers, Kyena E. Cornelius, Karin N. Sandmel

Special Education Department Publications

Special education induction research has examined mentor support and working conditions of early career special education teachers (ECSETs) for over 20 years. Recently researchers provide specialized professional development to mentors based on suggestions of special education induction research. Drawing on quality indicators of single-subject research and the belief that social validity data is valuable, we used qualitative methods to discover ECSETs’ perceptions of the intervention and the helpfulness of the mentors. We then compared responses of the participants with the existing research in special education induction. Findings indicate the participants appreciated the specialized training for their mentors and perceived their …

Effects Of Parent Implemented Visual Schedule Routines For African American Children With Asd In Low-Income Home Settings, Samantha E. Goldman, Carrie A. Glover, Blair P. Lloyd, Erin E. Barton, Maria P. Mello

Education Department Faculty Works

Low-income, minority families are underrepresented in the literature on parent training for school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although the use of visual supports, such as visual schedules, is considered to be an evidence-based practice for children with ASD in school, it is not known whether this strategy is effective for minority, low-income families when implemented by the parent in the home setting. This study used a multiple-baseline across routines design replicated across two African American child-mother dyads to examine the effects of a parent-implemented visual schedule procedure on child independent schedule use and between-activity transitions. Parent participants were …

Structured And Critical Intercultural Programming: Faculty And Staff Collaborate To Put Research Into Action, Emily Spitzman, Michael Waugh

Special Education Faculty Publications

This article describes the origin and curriculum of Identity Dialogues, a program which facilitates conversations about power and privilege among international and domestic students. It was developed as a result of findings from an ethnographic study of an unstructured conversation partner program at the same institution. The study found that power-laden issues were influencing the interactions and confirmed that intercultural competence development has to be actively facilitated (Bennett, 2009). Identity Dialogues sessions start with an examination of participants’ own cultural histories and then they are guided to analyze stereotypes and microaggressions. Finally, participants create action steps for fostering intercultural competence …

The The: The Definit(Iv)E Article On Idea, Mark Weber

College of Law Faculty

A wry look at the use of "the" before the acronym for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in the Supreme Court's special education law decisions.

Examining The Variability In General Education Placements For Students With Intellectual Disability, Meghan Cosier, Julia M. White, Qiu Wang

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Despite the overwhelming body of research suggesting that students with intellectual disability benefit from access to general education placements, students with intellectual disability continue to be educated primarily in segregated settings. Furthermore, the percentage of students with intellectual disability included in general education classrooms varies greatly among and within states across the United States. In an effort to explore such variability in New York State, we examined trends in general education placement rates of students with intellectual disability across districts and possible predictors of placement in regular classes. Results suggest that although descriptive patterns of placement exist, a more definitive …