Special Education and Teaching Commons^™

A Comparison Of Perspectives Of Special And Regular Education Teachers On Inclusive Education, Bryanan Stefanie Salita Callicutt

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Many teachers feel unprepared to meet the educational needs of students with disabilities in the general education classroom setting. Presently, limited information exists about the separate viewpoints general and special education teachers hold about providing inclusive education. The purpose of this causal-comparative study is to compare the perspectives of inclusive education held by general and special education teachers located in the state of North Carolina. The perspective about inclusive education will be measured using the Multidimensional Attitudes toward Inclusive Education Scales (MATIES). The framework guiding this study is the Ajzen theory of planned behavior which explains that one’s beliefs, attitude …

Classroom Teachers And School-Based Mental Health Professionals: A Multi-Case Study, Andrea Spangler Leonard

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative, multiple-case study was to understand the pedagogy and attitudes of teachers when faced with the presence of school-based mental health professionals in the classrooms in two schools in southwestern Virginia. Semi-structured interviews, with open-ended questions, document analysis, and participant observations were utilized to collect data. The theory that guided this study was Bandura’s (1993) theory of perceived self-efficacy as it related to an individual teacher’s sense of how capable he or she is of creating an environment conducive to learning. The research centered around understanding how a teacher addresses necessary changes to pedagogy and attitude, …

The History Of Learning Disabilities And The Hidden Stories Of Students, Parents, And Teachers: How Traditional Classrooms Can Improve, Gabriella G. Catania

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This research will differentiate between the various learning disabilities and their history of when they were first discovered. This research reveals how classrooms have improved and what needs to be changed in order to guarantee every student can receive an equal education despite their learning disability. This paper is constructed through research and interviews with parents, teachers, and students about why the education system needs to move against conformity and standardization. This research demonstrates each learning disability and its effect on students learning. The main focus is on what issues need to be improved in the traditional education system to …

The Impact Of A Multisensory Intervention On Literacy Attitudes Of Students With Dyslexia, Lorena De La Cruz

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the impact of a pull-out multisensory reading intervention on the attitudes towards reading and writing of fourth-grade students identified with dyslexia. Students identified with dyslexia must receive an evidence-based reading intervention as required by Texas educational state law. The multisensory reading intervention utilized in this study and known as Structured Literacy, included explicit instruction in phonological awareness, sound-symbol association, syllabication, orthography, morphology, and reading comprehension. The researcher focused on a variety of data sources including field notes, audio-recorded interviews, reading interest survey responses, and spelling assessments. The data collected …

Using Self-Monitoring And Positive Reinforcement To Increase On-Task Behavior And Independence., Jon Scott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Off-task behavior is a major challenge. Various interventions have addressed this problem. Self-monitoring interventions are very effective, including the MotivAider, a self-timer that silently signals the student to observe his/her own Academic Engagement Time (AET). Studies of the MotivAider have reported increased AET., (Legge, DeBar, & Alber-Morgan, 2010; Morrison, McDougal, Black, & King-Sears, 2014) systematically faded the MotivAider to sustain increased AET. The present study replicated and extended this research using a response-dependent fading (Fox, Shores, Lindeman, & Strain, 1984) of the MotivAider to sustain the observe AET of a 6^th grade student with Learning Disabilities. A single …

The Effects Of Self-Regulated Strategy Development Instruction On Argument Writing Skills Of Adolescents With Mild Disabilities., Stacy Crawford Bewley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics (2012) indicates that a large majority of students with disabilities continue to perform at basic proficiency or below in the area of writing, which has serious implications for post-secondary academic endeavors and successful transition into the workforce (US Department of Labor, 2014; Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017). Therefore, it is imperative to identify and implement effective writing interventions for this population of students. Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) has been widely researched in elementary and middle school settings, but much less research has been conducted with high school students. The purpose of …

Difference Between Principals’ Attitudes And Beliefs Of Their Preparedness To Support Students With Disabilities In The General Education Setting, Debra Delaine

Theses and Dissertations

The transformative role of the school principal has been the topic among several states for almost 40 years. Researchers have documented the disconnect between educational leadership programs and real-world experiences for principals. The push continues for principals to move away from solely focusing on the managerial aspects of the job to becoming the instructional leaders of their building with an emphasis on student outcomes, which has caused a sense of urgency among principals and educational leadership preparation programs. Students with disabilities were typically the responsibility of the special education director, until the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act. …

Exploring The Attitudes Of Students Enrolled In A Teacher Certification Program Through A Disability Awareness Documentary Film Intervention, Eunhye Choi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Negative attitudes towards individuals with disabilities can lead to a lack of opportunities in society as well as educational settings. Therefore, it is essential to promote positive attitudes to provide equal opportunities and rights to individuals with disabilities. However, there have been insufficient attempts to explore the attitudes of students enrolled in teacher certification programs. Diverse disability awareness programs have been utilized to enhance positive attitudes, and documentary films are frequently used to deliver such interventions. The current study implemented a series of documentary films as an intervention tool and examined the effects of the disability awareness documentary film intervention …

Examining Grit With Middle Schoolers In Diverse General Education Classrooms – Validating The Grit Scale, Cristina Liliana Reding

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Educators and researchers are still attempting to narrow the achievement gap for students in diverse needs general education classrooms. In this quest, non-cognitive skills are being researched for their potential to influence behavioral changes and to increase the academic success of diverse needs students. Grit, a newly defined non-cognitive skill, is defined as perseverance and passion for long term goals. This construct has been explored in a variety of settings but not in diverse general education classrooms, with participants from culturally, linguistically and ability diverse groups. The validity of instruments is paramount for successful studies, and current scales measuring non-cognitive …

Using Standing Desks On Students With Adhd To Determine Its Effects On Task Engagement In The Classroom, Caitlin Paolucci

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the effects of a standing desk on academically engaged time during instruction. The study was conducted with two male students with a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The first participant was in first grade and the second was in eighth grade. The target behaviors for these participants were on-task engagement with academic content during instructional periods in the classroom. The intervention took place in the students’ general education classrooms by introducing a standing desk into the classroom. A traditional ABAB reversal intervention design was used for the first grader, while the eighth grade participant had an …

Working Memory And Syntactic Processing In Bilingual And Monolingual Children, Carla I. Orellana

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between complex auditory working memory, syntactic knowledge, and complex sentence comprehension in bilingual and monolingual children using both offline (behavioral) and online (eye-tracking) measures. There were 19 children in the monolingual group and 19 children in the bilingual group with an average age of 11 years. The children listened to sentences, while looking at a screen with three images of the three nouns in the sentence. They were instructed to select the doer of the action (agent). Their eye movements were recorded as they completed this task. The four sentence …

A Grounded Theory To Explain Parent Prioritization Of Hearing Care When Children Have Down Syndrome, John J. Whicker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to describe the decision-making process parents experience when prioritizing hearing care while caring for children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing with Down Syndrome. To achieve this, parents of children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing with Down Syndrome were recruited, and in-depth interviews were conducted to develop a grounded theory that may explain the decision-making process for how parents prioritize effective hearing care and management. The resulting theory indicated that the higher the extent of professional engagement, parent perception of benefit, parent activation, and engagement of family support, the higher the priority for hearing care …

Teacher Questions In The Classroom: The Effects Of Using A Low- To High-Level Questioning Sequence On The Text-Based Reading Comprehension Outcomes Of Low-Performing Students, Shannon Harris Brown

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Teacher questioning may be an effective instructional procedure for building students’ reading comprehension. Strategically asking questions at two different levels, low-level (text explicit) and high-level (text implicit), may be needed to assist students to engage in higher order thinking skills.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a low- to high-level questioning sequence without or with linking prompts on the text-based reading comprehension outcomes of fifth-grade students who evidenced poor reading comprehension. A secondary analysis was used to determine whether the questioning sequence was effective regardless of students’ interest in the narrative …

Perceptions Of Secondary School Special Education Teachers Of Their Preparation For Coteaching, Vicki Zands

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative multicase study was to describe and explain how secondary school special education teachers perceived that their special education teacher education programs prepared them to work as part of a coteaching team and how secondary special educators described the benefits and challenges of working as part of a coteaching team and sought secondary special education teachers’ recommendations for how teacher education programs could better prepare candidates to serve as members of a coteaching team.

Methodology: A qualitative multicase study was used. The researcher conducted semistructured, in-depth interviews with 12 secondary-level special education teachers who were …

Examination Of Online Accommodation Information For College Students With Disabilities In New England, Emily Rakers

Honors Scholar Theses

The purpose of this study is to report on the status of information available to college students with disabilities on the websites of New England colleges’ centers for students with disabilities. Primarily, this study focused on information about the application process for a student to receive accommodations. Data was generated by compiling a list of common factors on the websites of centers for students with disabilities at colleges not in New England, and then searching the New England websites to see if they included these factors on their own websites. Three separate categories of schools were included in the study: …

The Role Of Emotional Intelligence On Occupational Stress And Longevity As Perceived By Special Education Teachers Who Teach Students In Special Day Classes With Moderate To Severe Disabilities, Chukwuka Bandele

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to describe the perceived occupational stressors experienced by moderate to severe teachers of special day class (SDC) in Riverside and San Bernardino counties and how these stressors affect teacher longevity. An additional purpose of this study was to discover the perceptions of moderate to severe teachers of SDC setting on the importance of (EI) characteristics-self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management on their management of occupational stressors and longevity in the teaching profession.

Methodology: The study used a qualitative phenomenological research design to explore the occupational stressors of special education …

Stories We Carry Into Classrooms: The Literacy Narratives Of Teachers Of Students With Complex Support Needs, Sharon L. Head

Special Education ETDs

In this study, I used a case-based narrative inquiry to investigate the literacy narratives and the thinking about instructional practices of four teachers of students with complex support needs (CSN) from a small, rural school district in the Southwestern United States. I conducted initial and follow-up interviews and facilitated two focus groups across an eight-week period using a process designed to look at teacher narratives across time and after interactions with peers. My data were in the form of transcripts of all interviews and focus groups that I analyzed using two analytic processes: thematic and narrative (Polkinghorne, 1995). I described …

Theory To Practice: Perceptions Of School Psychologists, Special Education, And General Education Teachers On Social Skills Instruction In The Least Restrictive Environment, Dusty G. Low

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

Social-Emotional Learning for students with disabilities is an important topic in education. Currently, over 13% of students in schools K–12 have a documented disability, of which many are faced with deficits in social-emotional development. Furthermore, there appears to be a gap between the research literature and how instructional practices are used to support students with social-emotional deficits. This case study design aimed to understand how three general education teachers, four special education teachers, and three school psychologists implemented social-skills instructional practices for students with high-incidence disabilities in the LRE. These participants represented 12 different schools from four school districts within …

Using Choral Reading To Improve Reading Fluency Of Students With Exceptionalities, Harriet J. Bessette

Georgia Journal of Literacy

Despite the existence of a continuum of modeling reading methods (e.g., sustained silent reading, paired reading, repeated reading, and others), the goal of modeling strategies continues to be to prepare learners to read with ease and enjoyment, while gaining content knowledge for academic success. Moving to increasingly more reading independence on the part of the student is a critical goal for emergent readers, and those with exceptionalities. Reducing modeling by the teacher and increasing modeling by other students may lead to greater reading fluency and overall reading achievement and satisfaction. In this paper, the author suggests that choral reading, a …

Application Of Ideal Binary Masking To Disordered Speech, Sarah Yoho Leopold

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.