Education Commons^™

Developing A Written Language Inventory For Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Students: A Systemic Functional Grammar Approach, Jennifer Renée Kilpatrick

Doctoral Dissertations

Deaf and hard of hearing (d/hh) students are extremely diverse in language development due to vast differences in residual hearing, response to hearing technologies, and exposure to American Sign Language. Writing is a struggle for these students who have delayed and limited access to English. Studies have found that d/hh students continue to lag behind their hearing peers in syntactic development. Unfortunately, current methods of writing assessment do not provide teachers with sufficient information regarding the syntactic development of d/hh students. This dissertation responds to the need for an assessment that is able to provide this information that is necessary …

Effectiveness Of Proloquo2goTm In Enhancing Communication In Children With Autism During Aba Therapy, Taylor Eastin Krcek

Doctoral Dissertations

Autism is a bio-neurological developmental disorder presenting in early childhood that has a profound effect on an individual's ability to communicate. The iPad® with the Proloquo2Go^TM app is a multilingual Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) solution designed to assist people who have difficulty speaking or cannot speak at all. This study examines the effectiveness of the Proloquo2Go^TM app delivered via iPad® to enhance the tacting, manding, and verbal completion repertoires of children with autism. Participants included five children between the ages of three and four years old diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and with low to …

The Relationship Between Demands And Resources And Teacher Burnout: A Fifteen-Year Meta-Analysis, Tammy Marie Stewart

Doctoral Dissertations

This meta-analysis explored the phenomenon of teacher burnout— the biggest contributor to teacher attrition (Owens, 2013; Unterbrink, 2014; Yu, 2015). The focus of this study was to use meta-analytical procedures to explore the relationship between burnout dimensions (i.e., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of personal accomplishment) and specific demand and resource correlates. Demand correlates included work overload, role conflict, role ambiguity, and student misbehavior. Resource correlates included peer support, supervisory support, and decision-making. This meta-analytical research method encompassed fifteen years of published and unpublished studies from January 2000 through January 2015. A total of 116 studies met the following inclusion …

Augmented Reality On Mobile Devices To Improve The Academic Achievement And Independence Of Students With Disabilities, Donald Douglas Mcmahon

Doctoral Dissertations

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that overlays digital information on a live view of the physical world to create a blended experience. AR can provide unique experiences and opportunities to learn and interact with information in the physical world (Craig, 2013). The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate uses of AR on mobile devices to improve the academic and functional skills of students with disabilities.

The first chapter is a literature review providing a clear understanding of AR and its connections with existing learning theories and evidence-based practices that are relevant for meeting the needs of individuals with …

General And Special Education Teachers' Perspectives Of Full Membership For Students With Disabilities, Pamela S. Morgan

Doctoral Dissertations

The idea of full membership (FM) for students with disabilities (SWD) originated with the 1975 Education for all Handicapped Children Act which required equal educational access for these students. Full membership has evolved from mainstreaming to focusing on acceptance and belonging in a school community where all stakeholders have a voice and the culture is reflective of these values and beliefs. Despite American public education policy, there appears to be minimal progress for SWD in gaining FM. This phenomenological qualitative study was conducted to gain insight into the perceptions and lived experiences of teachers. Comparing two high schools in the …

Teachers Adapting Common Core Informational-Text Writing Instruction For Students With Mild To Moderate Disabilities, Diana Hawley

Doctoral Dissertations

With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards, students must now become skilled at using different types of writing to help them critique text and process information. They also are required to write informational text. Informational-text writing is challenging for students with mild to moderate disabilities, including students with language-learning disabilities, who often struggle with aspects of language necessary for learning to read and write. These students show striking challenges with productivity, grammatical and spelling accuracy, and sentence complexity, with differences in performance by genre (Koutsoftas & Gray, 2012; Scott & Windsor, 2000; Troia, Lin, Cohen, & Monroe, 2011). …

The Effects Of The Read 180 Program On Oral Reading Fluency, Linguistic Comprehension, And Reading Comprehension With Secondary Special Education Students, David Lyon Teja

Doctoral Dissertations

There is great concern about secondary special education students reading achievement in decoding, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension. The READ 180 Program is an evidence and scientific based reading program that includes direct instruction, computer aided instruction, and reading materials that are high interest and implement the common core. The purpose of this study was to see the differences in oral reading fluency, linguistic comprehension, and reading comprehension in a pretest posttest model over a fourteen-week testing period. Ten ninth grade secondary students who were reading below the 25th percentile were instructed with the READ 180 Program with fidelity (90 …

Effective Reading Interventions For Spanish-Speaking English Learners With Reading Disabilities, English Learners Who Struggle With Reading, Or Both: A Meta-Analysis Of Second Through Fifth Grades, David Stephens

Doctoral Dissertations

This meta-analysis synthesized research on effective instructional practices and strategies in second through fifth grade for Spanish-speaking English Learners (ELs) who have reading disabilities and English Learners who struggle with reading. The central research problem is the dearth of research addressing literacy instruction for ELs with reading disabilities, making identification of effective reading interventions difficult. The inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis resulted in 15 quasi-experimental or single-subject empirical research studies that used reading interventions to improve the reading comprehension performance of ELs. The overall average effect size for the meta-analysis, not based on homogenous studies, was 1.15. When outliers were …

An Investigation Of Special Education Teachers' Perceptions Of The Effectiveness Of A Systematic 7-Step Virtual Worlds Teacher Training Workshop For Increasing Social Skills, Natalie Christina Nussli

Doctoral Dissertations

This study describes how a systematic 7-Step Virtual Worlds Teacher Training Workshop promoting inquiry, experiential learning, and sociocultural theory guided the enculturation of 18 special education teachers into three-dimensional virtual worlds. The main purpose was to enable these teachers to make informed decisions about the usability of virtual worlds for students with social skills challenges, such as students with autism. Mixed-methods data analysis and triangulation were based on the analysis of seven instruments. Six of the seven steps of the intervention received high ratings indicating its viability for teachers' professional development opportunities

Using Mobile Technology To Improve Autonomy In Students With Intellectual Disabilities In Postsecondary Education Programs, Catherine Caudle Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

Nationwide there are approximately 200 postsecondary education programs that provide inclusive college experiences for young adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) (Grigal & Hart, 2010). To navigate college campuses, the greater surrounding community, and ultimately competitive employment, young adults with ID need literacy, communication, and navigation skills. The purpose of these two studies was to investigate the effects of mobile technology to improve the autonomy of students with ID enrolled in a postsecondary education program. The purpose of experiment I was to examine the effectiveness of three different communication applications (i.e., text, audio, and video) to send and receive text messages …

Early Identification And Improvement Of Variables Related To Course Success, Carolyn Anne Blondin

Doctoral Dissertations

The process of identifying and improving factors related to early exam success or failure in an undergraduate setting (Ed Psych 210) was divided into 2 separate studies. The first study was a retrospective analysis of 2 years’ of data that compared high and low performers on the first course exam with respect to their subsequent success in the course. Mean comparison between initially high (N = 158) and low (N = 163) performers revealed significantly higher means for those in the former group across several academic variables (i.e., critical thinking, grade point average, subsequent exams, practice exams, quiz …

Changes In Perceived Teacher Self-Efficacy And Burnout As A Result Of Facilitated Discussion And Self-Reflection In An Online Course Designed To Prepare Teachers To Work With Students With Autism, Monica Boomgard

Doctoral Dissertations

A growing number of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) who display complex learning needs present challenges to educators who struggle to meet their educational needs. Teaching is stressful and additional instructional challenges may increase teacher vulnerability to burnout, leading to a greater likelihood of attrition. Increasing teachers' knowledge of strategies specific to students with ASD within online professional development may create needed support networks increasing self-efficacy and decreasing perceived stress. The purpose of this study was to examine the changes special and general education teachers' perceived self-efficacy and burnout as a result of facilitated discussion and self-reflection embedded in …

Effect Of A Classwide Peer-Mediated Intervention On The Social Interactions Of Students With Low-Functioning Autism And The Perceptions Of Typical Peers, Lisa A. Simpson

Doctoral Dissertations

Students with autism often display significant challenges when acquiring friendships and participating in ongoing relationships with typical peers. The social interaction deficits that characterize students with autism are further exacerbated by the severity of the disorder, such that students with low-functioning autism require significantly more support to successfully participate in peer interactions than students with high functioning autism. This study used mixed methodology to examine the effects of a classwide peer-mediated intervention on the social interactions of students with low-functioning autism and typically-developing peers. A single subject ABAB design was employed in which students with low-functioning autism were grouped with …

Effects Of Rap Paraphrasing And Semantic-Mapping Strategies On The Reading Comprehension Of English Learners And Fully- English-Proficient Students With Mild-To-Moderate Learning Disabilities, Terry Halterman Jr

Doctoral Dissertations

This study, using a repeated measures design with alternating treatments, measured the effectiveness of traditional instruction, the RAP Paraphrasing Strategy, the semantic-mapping strategy, and a combination of these strategies on the reading comprehension skills of 11 English learners (ELs) with learning disabilities and 8 fully English-proficient students (FEPs) with learning disabilities (LD) in two high-school, mild-to-moderate, special-day, English classes. The students were taught each of these strategies for 540 minutes in 9 days of instruction. The same teacher taught all three strategies to both classes. Data were gathered from the IDEA Oral Language Proficiency Test, alternate forms of the Comprehension …

Educator's Perceptions Of The Implementation And Effectiveness Of Response To Intervention Measures, Sheila Stepp Nugent

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers' and administrators' perceptions of the implementation and effectiveness of Response to Intervention (RTI) strategies in their schools. The study used a mixed-methods research design. Data were collected through multiple-choice and open-ended surveys administered to elementary English language arts general education teachers, special education teachers in Kindergarten through fifth grade, and administrators in seven elementary schools. Quantitative data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis Analysis of Variance of Ranks. Qualitative data were analyzed by the researcher to determine similarities and differences among the written responses. All data were gathered during …

Inclusion And Collaboration: Impact Of Preservice Teachers’ Experiences On Their Knowledge, Attitudes And Perceived Sense Of Efficacy, Tamara Mcmahan Bowlin

Doctoral Dissertations

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA, 2004) requires students with disabilities be educated in the least restrictive environment (LRE). As students with disabilities are educated alongside their non-disabled peers, there are increased demands placed on general education teachers. Because of the shift in educational responsibilities, it is important for preservice teachers to acquire the knowledge, dispositions and instructional strategies necessary to succeed in educating students with disabilities before they enter the classroom. The purpose of this study was to examine whether preservice teachers’ knowledge, attitudes and perceived abilities (sense of efficacy) toward teaching students with disabilities would be …

Exploring The Concerns Of Teachers And Principals Implementing Response To Intervention In A Pilot Project: Where Policy And Practice Collide, Lisa Michele Bilton

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-methods, multi-site study was to identify and explore the concerns of teachers and principals implementing a pilot Response to Intervention (RTI) model in three elementary schools in the southeast United States and to determine whether these concerns differed significantly from the beginning to the end of the first year of implementation. The Stages of Concern from the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (George, Hall, & Stiegelbauer, 2006; Hord, Rutherford, Huling, & Hall, 2004) served as the theoretical framework for the design and analysis of this study.

Between Fall 2008 and Spring 2009, 18 participants, including six administrators and …

The Discursive Construction Of Autism: Contingent Meanings Of Autism And Therapeutic Talk, Jessica Nina Lester

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation was a discourse analysis study, drawing upon discursive psychology, poststructural understandings of discourse, conversation analysis, and a social relational model of disability. The purpose of this study was to explore how autism was performed as an interactional event among children with autism labels, the therapists who work with them, and their parents, in the context of a pediatric therapy setting. I interrogated how the participants’ everyday discursive practices were shaped and, at times, constrained by the social and political institutions that often work to define autism and the related, official plans of treatment. A total of 12 families …

Developing Students’ First Language Through A Second Language Writing Intervention: A Simultaneous Approach, Hannah Marie Dostal

Doctoral Dissertations

Deaf and hard of hearing (d/hh) children often acquire an L1 after age 3, thus are arguably more diverse than that of the general bilingual population. A unique problem therefore exists among d/hh late language learners—they often do not have an L1 to later develop an L2. This study investigated the impact of an English writing intervention (Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction, SIWI) that incorporates support for the development of American Sign Language in an effort to illustrate the necessity of explicitly addressing the proposed interdependence of language learning.

The research involved providing 23 upper elementary and middle school d/hh …

Teacher Morale: Perceptions Of Deaf/Hard-Of-Hearing Teachers And Hearing Teachers In Residential Schools For The Deaf, Steven E. Farmer

Doctoral Dissertations

With increasing state and federal mandates to improve student performance, teachers everywhere are struggling with maintaining positive morale—particularly in residential schools for the deaf. Teacher morale serves as a critical component in promoting positive teaching and learning environments for students. Also, the dwindling number of Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing teachers and staff in Deaf Education severely limits the provision of positive language models for Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing children.

The study sought to answer two research questions:

(1) What is the overall teacher morale at five residential schools for the deaf in the southeastern United States? (Quantitative)

(2) How does the morale of Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing teachers compare …

Predictors Of High School Graduation In Foster Youth, Clifford A. Stewart

Doctoral Dissertations

Academic achievement in foster youth can be influenced by factors related to the foster care experience. The purpose of this study was to determine if gender, ethnicity, time in placement, type of placement, number of placements, and special education status could predict high school graduation in foster youth. To conduct the study a group of foster youth that graduated from high school (n=390) was compared to a group of foster youth that did not graduate from high school (n-400). Sample data were fit to a logistic regression prediction model on the independent variables of gender, ethnicity, time in placement, type …

Walking In Their Shoes: Parents' Journeys Through Early Childhood Special Education Transitions, Lucanne Marie Kachmarik

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain an understanding of the experiences of parents as they transitioned their children from an early intervention program to an early childhood special education program. This study was conducted in a rural area of Virginia and participants included thirty parents from several school divisions. Four primary themes were derived through individual interviews and focus groups, and included: parents received information and services from programs; parents experienced barriers (lack of knowledge and experience with schools, differences in programs and services, communication issues among parties, dealing with own emotions, and fears for children); parents …

The Effects Of Structured One-On-One Tutoring In Sight Word Recognition Of First-Grade Students At-Risk For Reading Failure, Laureen Goers Mayfield

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of an alternative reading program on the performance of at-risk first graders. Sixty first graders from three north Louisiana public elementary schools with high poverty rates, who were determined by their teachers and principals to be functioning in the bottom 20 to 30% of first grade reading students, were purposefully selected. Students were pretested on three subtests of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised (WRMT-R), Form G: Letter Identification, Word Identification, and Word Attack. Participants were randomly assigned to either a control or an experimental group. Experimental group students received 15 …