Education Commons^™

Inclusive Special And General Education Secondary Teachers’ Attitudes Towards The Inclusion Of Students With Disabilities In The General Education Setting, Barbara Portwood

Dissertations

The passage of The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act (2002), formerly known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, sparked a significant rise in the number of students with disabilities receiving their instruction in the inclusive setting. While previous legislation mandated that students with disabilities be included in standardized testing, NCLB called for closing the achievement gap between students with disabilities and their nondisabled peers. Research indicated the success of students with disabilities in the general educational setting was influenced by teacher attitude. This qualitative study addressed secondary general and special education teacher attitudes and beliefs surrounding the practice …

Strengthening The Teacher Toolkit: Effective Autism Inclusion Methods, Roxanne Guel

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project is on Autism inclusion methods. This is an important issue for teachers because they are often not given the tools and resources to effectively include their students with Autism Spectrum Disorders into a general education classroom. It is argued that some of the most effective methods include peer-mediated instruction, antecedent procedures, and school-wide organizational change. Considerations of the issue, should include the perspectives of both Special Education and General Education teachers. Three themes/action options emerged from an analysis of the data and were explored as ways to address the issue presented. Antecedent procedures are …

Slipping Through The Cracks: A Look Into Special Education Referrals, Courtney Musselman

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Special Education is offered in many schools today and more and more students are being referred to this type of education. For this capstone project three local special education teachers were interviewed about the referral process and what could be done to improve it. This is an important issue because many students are slipping through the cracks when it comes to be identified and others are being overly identified. The referral process is important because it provides students with an equal opportunity for education. Findings from the interviews and information from a relevant literature review were used to develop an …

Advancing Communication And Collaboration Between Multilingual And Special Education Departments: A Web-Based Model To Serve Dual Eligible Students, Stacy Severson

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

There was at the time the project commenced, an unmistakable chasm not only between the two departments within the author’s school district, but also in literature in general, and the author’s goal was to create a living document where the two areas of expertise converged. The research question asked in this project was, how can communication between ESL (English as a second language) teachers and special education staff be improved to better serve dual eligible students? It documents one teacher’s creation of a website designed to assist ESL teachers who work with students who qualify for both ESL and special …

How Self-Regulated Strategy Development In Writing Eases The Transition From Special Education To Regular Education For Students With Learning Disabilities, Charlene K. Irvin-Brown

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The author’s own and her students’ struggles with writing encouraged her to research best practices in teaching written language in order to ease the transition of students with learning disabilities to the regular education classroom. She found that Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) along with teaching the writing as a recursive process had the highest effect size. She narrowed her research by focusing on the stages of SRSD and best practices for teaching writing. She also reviewed the Minnesota writing standards for third through fifth grade. The author created an eight-lesson curriculum that incorporated the stages of SRSD for teaching narrative …

Bridging The Communication And Collaboration Gap: A Project On Improving School Culture And Student Achievement, Sophia Raffaelle

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The purpose of this project was to analyze the impact communication and collaboration between special and general educators have on student achievement and school culture through a literature review. Additionally, the project was implemented to evaluate how different forms of communication can be used to begin to bridge the communication and collaboration gap that currently exists in a large-scale suburban school setting. The literature review defines and examines communication and collaboration and their implications in various settings, further specifying an educational setting. Furthermore, this project establishes meaning for the author, both professionally and personally, and its applications as well as …

English Language Learner Considerations For Equitable Identification Of Needs And Referrals To Special Education, Melissa Persons

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Identifying learner needs for an English learner (EL) student has various factors to consider that a non-EL student may not. To explore what is needed to be analyzed prior to determining an EL student’s learner needs, the question being researched is: What are considerations to take into account when an EL student begins the Student and Teacher Assistance Team (STAT)? The framework the research was performed was analyzing resources from school districts and state departments of education, as well as guidance from personal communication with professionals in related fields. Taking all of the data from literature and information from currently …

What Alternative Reading Curriculums Are Available For Students Who Have Not Made Adequate Progressing Using Tier 1 And Tier 2 Interventions?, Lorinda Unger

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The research question addressed in this project was: What alternative reading curriculums are available for students who have not made adequate progress using Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions? The purpose of this inquiry was to create a system to provide students who are below their grade level peers in reading an intervention that matches their specific reading need. Current research confirms there are five essential reading elements that students need to master to become efficient readers. Each reading element is explored with curriculums, interventions, and learning activities provided.

Co-Teaching And Its Effect On Student Growth, Troy Weiss

All Capstone Projects

With the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1990 and again in 2004 Congress stated that students with special needs were to be educated in the least restrictive environment to the greatest extent possible. In order to meet the federal mandate many districts used co-teaching as a service delivery option for special needs students who are in a general education classroom. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of co-teaching on academic growth, particularly for students with an Individualized Education Plan. When reviewing the literature it was found that co-teaching has been studied and …

The Relationship Between Exposure To Specialized Staff In A Classroom Setting And Observable Behaviors Among Students With Special Needs, Rachel Marie Prisco

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to identify differences in the later integration of children with mild to moderate special needs based on their exposure to specialized staff regardless of the type of preschool they attended. This is done by observing the behaviors exhibited by those students with special needs and the proportion of the student’s day in a traditional classroom. One of the most noted issues with students who have special needs is their lack of appropriate early intervention with specifically-trained staff. This may attribute to those students delay in social emotional skills, and cognitive skills. Transitions, specifically those from one classroom …

What Influences School-Based Occupational Therapists’ Decision-Making? A Qualitative Study, Cynthia Helen Clough

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Occupational therapists in school-based practice make daily service delivery decisions about when, where, and how to provide interventions to children with disabilities. The services provided by these occupational therapists have the potential to support or limit a child’s access to general education curriculum and environments which, in turn, impacts vocational, financial, social, and community life outcomes. Service delivery decisions about pulling children out of classrooms, pushing services into classrooms, and / or providing consultation are made based on the ways therapists define and differentiate their role from that of other school personnel, how they interpret Individual Education Plans for …

Administrator And Teacher Attitudes Toward Inclusion, Heather N. Lemay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to examine the attitudes of teachers and administrators toward inclusion in the classroom. Specifically this study analyzed grade level, years of teaching experience, and levels of education to examine the manner in which these factors relate to attitudes of teachers and administrators toward inclusion.

Participants in this study were located in 3 school districts in East Tennessee. All data were collected through an online survey distributed to prek-12 teachers by way of email from school principals. The analysis of data was based on the responses of 183 teachers and administrators from these 3 school districts. Findings …

Promoting Self-Determination Skills Of Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities Participating In The Inclusive Concurrent Enrollment Initiative Programs Throughout Massachusetts, Lyndsey Nunes

Doctoral Dissertations

There are currently 15 Inclusive Concurrent Enrollment Initiative (ICEI) Programs throughout Massachusetts. Each program is different in its day-to-day planning but all adhere to the mission, full inclusion of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The purpose of this evaluative research study was to examine and understand the functional components of postsecondary education programs that promote self-determination for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities and to differentiate programs that include or do not include these components. To answer the five research questions data were collected from Students, Educational Coaches, ICEI Program Coordinators, Transition Liaisons, Statewide Coordinator, observations, and record reviews. …

Learning Style Patterns Among Special Needs Adult Students At King Saud University, Abdulrahman Alshuaibi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Few studies of learning styles among adults with special needs exist worldwide. Even though there are large numbers of adults with special needs, this population in university education has been largely ignored in educational research. Therefore, this study aimed to gather and analyze learning styles of adult special needs students and to provide data for researchers interested in the fields of learning styles, adult education, and special education. This study examined the learning style patterns among special needs adult students at King Saud University as measured by the dimensions of the Index of Learning Styles, which include active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, …

Using Repeated Oral Assisted Reading To Improve The Fluency Of Students With Learning Disabilities, Angela J. Leyk

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the research question: How much does repeated reading improve the reading rate, accuracy, and prosody of students with learning disabilities in fifth grade? Three key topics: learning disabilities, fluency, and repeated reading are discussed. The author was greatly influenced by Timothy Rasinski and his work in the area of fluency. Repeated Oral Assisted Reading was administered to monitor and document accuracy, rate, and prosody utilizing both daily instructional-level reading probes and monthly grade-level reading probes as well as prosodic reading rubrics and a daily journal. The improvement in rate was compared to scores on nationally normed fluency …

Teaching Outside To Engage Student Learning, Juliane T. Chapman

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

I conducted action research as a way to focus on how teaching outdoors benefits students in special education. This action research answer the question, “Does teaching academic subjects outdoors help Level IV special education students with increased attention, active engagement, and decreased negative behaviors?”. It used hands on learning in the outdoor environment to measure students engagement in their own learning. Students did activities in several instructional areas including science, math, reading, and social skills. Both teachers and students were interviewed at the end of the study to obtain results. Teaching academic subjects in an outdoor setting does have a …

Inclusion Of Students With Mild To Moderate Disabilities In Grades 1-5 Mainstream Language Arts Classrooms, Jodi Lyn Smith

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The research question addressed in this capstone project was what are best practices for creating an inclusive language arts program in grades 1-5 in an elementary school? It documents the history of special education and inclusion in the United States, least restrictive environment (LRE), benefits and barriers to inclusion as well as strategies to create an inclusive language arts setting. The author uses research to prepare and present a PowerPoint presentation to licensed teachers to be used as staff development. The PowerPoint presentation addresses the history of special education and inclusion, how LRE is determined, benefits and barriers to inclusion, …

How Can A Modified Teacher Child Interaction Training (Tcit) Program Decrease Problem Behaviors In Pre-K To First-Grade Classrooms By Supporting Positive Student-Teacher Interactions?, Jill Bradford

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This Capstone Project will describe a behavior modification program inspired by Teacher Child Interaction Training (TCIT) to help reduce behavior problems in the classroom and help support positive student-teacher interactions. The program called TCIT-lite, uses the skills of Praise, Reflection, Imitation, Description, and Enthusiasm (PRIDE) to increase positive student-teacher relationships in Pre-K to first-grade classrooms. A PowerPoint presentation was created in order to train teachers on how to take data on a specific behavior and implement a five-minute Child Directed Interaction (CDI) session the three times a week for six weeks to decrease the frequency of that behavior.

Self-Management As A Class-Wide Intervention: An Evaluation Of The “Self & Match” System Embedded Within A Dependent Group Contingency, Andrew J. Bulla

Dissertations

The U.S. Department of Education (2015) indicated that about 95% of students with special education eligibility receive some form of education in the general education setting. Students with disabilities tend to engage in more disruptive behaviors than their non-disabled peers (e.g., Murphy, Beadle-Brown, Wing, Gould, Shah, & Homes, 2005). If teachers are spending more time managing disruptive behaviors, time allocated to instruction is lost. Self-management is one evidence-based intervention that has shown consistent effects on increasing on-task behavior and decreasing disruptive behaviors. Although feasible at the individual level, previous research has identified that class-wide self-management interventions may be efficacious but …

The Effect Of Classwide Peer Tutoring On The Academic Performance And Critical Thinking Of Students With Learning Disabilities In An Urban Middle School Inclusion Social Studies Classroom, Andrew Robert Goulburn

Theses and Dissertations

This single subject study utilized an ABAB design to investigate the effect of Classwide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) on vocabulary acquisition and critical thinking. Three special education students in an urban middle school social studies classroom participated in the study. During the intervention phases of this ten week study, students participated in CWPT sessions prior to taking ten questions quizzes consisting of eight vocabulary and two critical thinking questions. Students took turns performing the roles of tutor and tutee. The results of the present study demonstrated small growth in the group means for both vocabulary and critical thinking. Individual results varied …

Hire, Train, Retain: Addressing The Arkansas Special Education Teacher Shortage, Cody Lee Chatman

Theses and Dissertations from 2017

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to identify factors affecting special education teacher recruitment and retention throughout the Northwest Arkansas/River Valley region. This study contains both quantitative and qualitative survey data from 30 public school districts and 401 special education teachers currently serving in the field. The survey, deployed over a 30-day period, contained a series of multiple choice, Likerttype, and open-ended questions that were analyzed by the researcher to answer seven research questions. The results of this study indicate that perceptions of job commitment do not differ significantly based on the demographic characteristics of special educators. Yet, …

The Impact Of Choice On Students With Disabilities, Justin T. Kelly

Culminating Projects in Special Education

A comprehensive research of the impact of choice on students with disabilities.

Special Education Teacher Perceptions Of Effectiveness And Knowledge In Literacy Instruction: Implications Of Literacy Coaching, Sarah J. Papineau

Culminating Projects in Education Administration and Leadership

Students with reading disabilities need explicit and systematic instruction provided by teachers knowledgeable in effective literacy instruction (Foorman & Torgesen, 2001; Moats, 1999; Piasta, Connor, Fishman, & Morrison, 2009). The National Reading Panel report (2000) outlines five areas necessary for effective reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Knowledge in these five areas is imperative to providing explicit instruction for students’ struggling with reading (IDA, 2010; Moats, 1999). However, special education teachers often report being ill-prepared to provide the necessary instruction needed by students with reading disabilities (Amendum, 2014; Kennedy & Sheil, 2010).

Literacy coaching is an effective …

Enhancing Teacher Efficacy And Pedagogical Practices Amongst General And Special Education Teachers, Michael E. Coleman

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this action research project was to collect both qualitative and quantitative data to acquire information in teacher efficacy from the viewpoint of teachers themselves so that pedagogical practices could be enhanced to better serve the special needs student population. In this study, the relationship between teachers' perception of their pedagogical knowledge and beliefs and teachers' sense of self-efficacy was examined. This particular study was aimed at helping general and special education teachers understand, develop, and implement pedagogical practices that would increase their ability to educate students with special needs. The findings from this study revealed a substantial …

Culturally Responsive Grammar: Utilizing Contrastive Grammar Analysis To Support Knowledge Of Modern Dialects In The High School Classroom, Katie Corrigan

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

Varying dialects are spoken depending on the speaker’s location and community. While each one of these dialects has very clear patterns and rules, only one dialect, Standard American English, is regarded as “correct grammar” according to academic and professional associations. For this reason, students learn the rules of Standard American English in school. However, this practice leaves students who speak other dialects at a significant disadvantage. This capstone addresses this dichotomy by providing curriculum that includes grammar instruction using a contrastive approach. Students are simultaneously taught grammatical rules in both Standard American English and African American Vernacular English in order …

Applied Behavioral Analysis Therapy And Social Interactions Within Families And Their Child With Autism, Christina Latterner

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to answer the question, in what ways does ABA therapy impact social interactions between the parents and their child with autism? It also addresses past studies which focused on autism, ABA therapy and the family dynamics with a special needs child. The research included one family, with a five-year old child diagnosed with autism. Mixed method research was used, focusing on interviews with parents and data collection. Interviews were conducted with the mother and father which focused on their family’s social interactions before, during and after one year of therapy. Data collection tools …

Understanding The Impact Of The Student-Teacher Relationship In Relation To Special Education Needs, Kristina Marie Hall

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2012, more than six million students in the United States were identified as having an educational disability and receiving special education services. Students with disabilities are more likely than their general education peers to experience low grades, class failure, and suspensions. Positive student-teacher relationships have been associated with increased academic achievement and school connectedness, as well as associated with decreased negative behaviors. Research indicates that students value teachers who are caring, accessible to students, open and honest, and display a sense of humor. Through this literature review and application materials, the following reviews the impact of student-teacher relationships and …

Ace’S And Trauma In Education, Richard Santangelo

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The author of this paper has worked in special education since 1988, primarily with Emotional and Behavioral Disordered (EBD) students. Throughout the author's career there have been many conversations about why some students display EBD behaviors. Through many years of teaching and numerous professional conferences, it was not until January 2016 that the author heard about ACES. This piqued the author's curiosity. Dr. Felitti spear-headed a study in the mid-1990s out of a clinic in Southern California. As a practicing physician focusing on weight loss he began questioning clients about their social history. Felitti found that his clients experienced trauma …

Youth In Special Education: The Risks And Implications Of Entering The Juvenile Detention System, Natalie M. Sell

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Students who are serviced under the umbrella of special education are disciplined more frequently and with more exclusionary methods compared to their general education peers. A higher numbers of minority students than represented in the general population are in special education, specifically, the Emotional and Behavior Disorder category. The differences in discipline and the disproportionate number of minority students in special education lead to a negative impact on learning and achievement, an increase in anti-social behavior, and ultimately a higher likelihood of entering the juvenile justice system. Systems such as an ecological approach to classroom management, tiered behavior support interventions, …

Effective Literacy Instruction For Struggling Readers And Students Receiving Special Education Services, Lauren S. Van Gomple

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Small group interventions provide struggling readers and students who are learning- disabled with additional literacy instruction designed to facilitate literacy growth. The purpose of this systematic review is to determine if literacy group size directly affects the effectiveness of instruction relative to literacy growth for struggling readers. The participants studied in this literature review include students receiving special education services as well as students identified for Tier II interventions. Evidence-based practices gathered from empirical research studies, alongside qualitative and quantitative studies, seek to explore grouping and how group size affects literacy performance outcomes for special education and Tier II students. …