Special Education and Teaching Commons^™

Increasing Self-Determination Skill Through Behavioral Skills Training For Individuals With Extensive Support Needs To Examine Reversible Contraceptive Choices., Jennifer Pollard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is a long history of individuals with extensive support needs (ESN) being sterilized without their knowledge and consent. Students with ESN are defined as individuals who need continuous and widespread supports necessary for academic, communication, and/or daily living skills. These individuals typically have more than one diagnosis including a developmental disability (DD), intellectual disability (ID), and/or traumatic brain injury (Kurth et al., 2019; Taub et al., 2017). Part of the reason this is able to occur is due to a lack of education about sexual development and a lack of interventions to build skills related to self-determination or informed …

K-5 Elementary Alternative Program: A Case Study, William E. Scheuer Iv

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to examine how the K-5 elementary alternative program All Students Can Thrive (ASCT) used student-centered learning practices to influence the whole child. There is a lack of research on K-5 elementary alternative programs, such as ASCT, and specifically those that integrate student-centered learning practices to influence the whole child. Literature does not contain universally accepted interventions that are effective in the elementary alternative setting to help students return to the mainstream classroom setting better prepared to display appropriate behaviors when a student is removed from a mainstream classroom setting due to disruptive behaviors. …

Teaching Life Skills Communication To Students In Special Education, Sara Sang

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Effective communication for High School Students with disabilities are important for when they are in their teen years and post graduation. Communication helps these students gain better relationships and conversations for their future.

Using Markup Languages For Accessible Scientific, Technical, And Scholarly Document Creation, Jason J.G. White

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

In using software to write a scientific, technical, or other scholarly document, authors have essentially two options. They can either write it in a ‘what you see is what you get’ (WYSIWYG) editor such as a word processor, or write it in a text editor using a markup language such as HTML, LaTeX, Markdown, or AsciiDoc.

This paper gives an overview of the latter approach, focusing on both the non-visual accessibility of the writing process, and that of the documents produced. Currently popular markup languages and established tools associated with them are introduced. Support for mathematical notation is considered. In …

Barriers When Implementing A Multi-Tiered System Of Supports, Chelsea R. Norton

All NMU Master's Theses

This mixed-methods study investigated the perceptions educators have during the initial stages of implementing the Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) model. A survey and semi-structured interviews were collected to identify if the perceived barriers found in a rural context were consistent with prior research. Quantitative survey data indicated that participants felt confident about their practicing foundational skills of MTSS, and felt MTSS will benefit both staff and students. However, quantitative survey results also indicated a discrete difference in the data between the answers regarding participant confidence, knowledge, and the answers regarding attitude regarding time, resources, and leadership. Qualitative analysis from …

Goal Setting: Impacting Teacher Candidate Growth In Residency Practicum Prior To Student Teaching, Shantel Farnan, Victoria Seeger, Sue Wood, Greg Rich

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

Educator preparation programs and school districts continue to strive to meet their commitment to better prepare future teachers for entry into the field of education. For more than 100 years, beginning as a normal school, a midwest university has had a strong reputation for the preparation of teachers. After a significant revision to the curriculum to one driven by competencies, this university increased field experiences for teacher candidates, including a culminating year out called Residency Practicum and Student Teaching. Over the course of the undergraduate program, candidates work toward achievement of competencies assigned throughout the coursework and aligned to state …

Trauma-Informed Practices For Test-Taking Anxiety At The Elementary Grade Level, Kate Campbell, Shalini Mathew

Journal of Research Initiatives

Test -Taking Anxiety (TTA) is a challenging experience for children of all ages. Childhood exposure to trauma and adverse experience has been increasing. Fortunately, trauma-informed practices, such as mindfulness activities have become more widespread in schools throughout the last few years. Existing school counseling literature offers limited perspectives on how school counselors can support elementary students for TTA. This conceptual article explores the effects of trauma-informed practices on elementary-age students' test anxiety and overall academic success in schools and offers implications for practice.

Evaluating Phonemic Proficiency And Oral Reading Fluency In Middle School Students, Cara Mcquaid

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

Research on reading performance in both public and private schools in the United States notes that students’ reading skills are declining compared to previous years, and there is a need for effective identification of skills and interventions to bridge the gap between current performance and the target skill level. While some research on reading instruction and reading skills primarily focuses on initial skills such as phonological awareness only in early grades, other research suggests that as reading skills develop and become more advanced, foundational skills such as phonological awareness also develop.

The purpose of the current study was to assess …

Implementing Tactile Learning To Aid Students Understanding Of The Bohr Model, Christin B. Monroe, Andrew B. Stein, Cindy Tolman

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

It is essential for introductory level chemistry students to understand atomic models and how atoms interact to form chemical bonds. The tactile model in this article utilizes marbles to represent subatomic particles, a cup to represent the nucleus and wooden rings to simulate the electron orbitals. These inexpensive items can be combined to construct models in which students can build foundational knowledge of atomic structure and how subatomic particles interact. Students were asked to provide feedback comparing the use of this tactile model to atomic computer simulations, videos and their textbook regarding the method they felt was most useful to …

Teacher's Self-Efficacy For Data Driven Decision Making, Bettie Fisher Perry

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

The present study used a sequential mixed method design to compare special education and general education elementary teachers’ self-efficacy for data-driven decision making. Participants were 127 teachers from several school divisions in a mid-Atlantic state in the United States. Dunn et al.’s (2013a) The Data-Driven Decision Making Efficacy and Anxiety Inventory (3D-MEA) was used for this study along with Tschannen-Moran and Hoy’s (2001) The Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES), specifically the subscale on the efficacy of instructional strategies. According to the quantitative findings, there was a statistically significant difference between special education and general education teachers’ efficacy for …

Effectiveness Of Music-Infused Aba Strategies On Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Josephine A. Sodano

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Given the nationwide increase in the diagnosis of autism, particularly in the pediatric population, there is obvious value in examining the effectiveness of intervention methods. This research sought to examine the effectiveness of a music-infused approach combined with Applied Behavioral Analysis methodology. The exploratory mixed method design pilot study examined and comprehended the narratives of special education early childhood teachers assigned and trained to deliver a music-infused intervention program within a natural self-contained Applied Behavioral Analysis program, five days a week, 20 minutes a day, for a duration of 6 weeks to a population of ten preschool students, ages 3-5, …

Overview Of The Proceedings Of The 2021 Inclusion In Science, Learning A New Direction, Conference On Disability (Island), Cary Supalo, Jasodhara Bhattacharya, Daniel Steinberg

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

No abstract provided.

Faculty Perspectives On Online Teaching In Higher Education: A Qualitative Approach To Understand Faculty Members’ Challenges And Experiences, Felix O. Quayson

Journal of Research Initiatives

This study explored faculty members' perspectives on online teaching in higher education and described, analyzed, and interpreted faculty members challenges and experiences of teaching online courses. Participants were twelve (12) faculty members who have taught online courses or currently teach online courses. Data was collected from 60-minutes semi-structured interview sessions, 78 open-ended questions, three research driving questions, background questionnaire, and personal artifacts from faculty members. Five major themes with subthemes, 15 code categories, and code co-occurrences emerged from the data collection, field notes, memos, and data analysis. However, not all of the code categories were replicated by all of the …

Finding Correlations Among Academic Performance, Demographic Influences And Clinical Competency Utilizing Predictive Variables In An Associate Degree Nursing Program, Rebecca Montz, Brett Welch, Neil Faulk, Clementine Msengi

Journal of Research Initiatives

A nonexperimental, quantitative, correlation study was utilized as the research design to explore the relationship between multiple academic and demographic variables on the final clinical assessment score and Health Education Systems, Inc., (HESI) Exit Exam (E²) score from a South Texas ADN program. The research was conducted to address the nursing workforce shortage and effective ways to predict academic and clinical achievements for associate degree nursing (ADN) programs. The academic variables for the research consisted of preadmission grade point average (GPA) and Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) I prerequisite GPA. Age and gender were used as the demographic variables …

English Teachers' Opinions On Challenges Face In Teaching English As Foreign Language: The Case Of Jalalabad Selected Secondary Schools, Fahim Rahimi, Hangama Samadi

Journal of Research Initiatives

One important goal of teaching is to achieve learning outcomes. It has been observed in universities that many students have different levels of English language proficiency. However, they study in the same English courses at the school level. The main objective of this study is to learn the challenges that exist in teaching the English language as a foreign language in secondary schools that affect the English proficiency of students. In addition, ways in which these challenges will be overcome is reviewed. The data collection tools were questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to collect data from English language teachers in selected …

Esl Teachers And School Leaders Perspectives: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy In Elementary And Middle Grades Social Studies, Matthew John Wynne, Landon Hadley

Journal of Research Initiatives

The American public education system is undergoing significant changes. This is in regard to what students should be learning and how teachers should deliver quality instruction. English language learners (ELLs) are a group that demands time, attention, and special consideration. This is due to their increasing population in public schools and their low academic performance when compared to their native English-speaking students (Samson & Collins, 2012). English language learners are one of the fastest-growing student populations in the United States, with over 4.6 million students as of 2015 (McFarland et al., 2017). This qualitative study with a narrative inquiry approach …

7 Hands-On Strategies For Struggling Readers, Elise Murray, Stacey Murray

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

Struggling readers are found in almost every classroom across the world. With differing learning styles and abilities, teachers are encouraged now, more than ever, to be innovative when teaching foundational reading strategies. Within this article, readers are provided with a literature review of research and educational literature that discusses how multisensory, hands-on activities promote engagement and active learning for all students. The recommended seven hands-on learning strategies that can promote learning and support for struggling readers during literacy instruction include Build the Words, Feel the Words, Whole Body Letters, Five Finger Retell, Sight Word BINGO, …

De Bono's Six Hats Thinking Strategy For All Content Areas, Jamie Mahoney, Lynn Patterson, Carol Hall

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

Problem-solving and collaboration require people to compromise, negotiate, and brainstorm to understand, create, manage, judge, and be intuitive and remain positive and calm while working as a team to address problems. Teachers can teach students to collaborate and problem-solve in any content area using de Bono's Six Thinking Hats Strategy. Using de Bono's strategy, university students in this study explored learning hats and ways to apply learning hat properties to collaborate and problem solve in group activities. Researchers employed a mixed-method study enlisting both general education and special education pre-service undergraduate and in-service graduate teachers to discover personal thinking hat …

Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions And Knowledge Of Response To Intervention/Multitiered Systems Of Support, Alexandra J. Taylor, Tommy Wells, Amy E. Lein

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

There has been considerable research that establishes the need to improve teachers’ knowledge of and ability to effectively implement response to intervention (RtI)/multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), and there is a scarcity of research examining interventions addressing these concerns. In a mixed methods study, we examined the perceptions and knowledge of the RtI/MTSS frameworks of undergraduate preservice teaching candidates enrolled in a dual certification program at a small, private Catholic university in Kentucky, before and after participating in a semester-long, experiential learning project. The project involved monitoring both the reading and mathematics progress of struggling elementary or middle school-aged students …

A Qualitative Study On Nurse Facilitators Of Mind-Body Skills Groups, Paula D. Blake-Beckford

Mindfulness Studies Theses

The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM), founded by Dr. James Gordon, provides communities with evidence-based Mind-Body Skills Groups (MBSGs) that foster self-care, self-awareness, and self-expression. MBSGs range from 8 to 12-week series on various mind-body practices wherein group members meet, practice, and reflect on the impact of mind-body skills in their lives. Research has demonstrated that participants in MBSGs have positive outcomes. Healthcare professionals (HCPs), especially nurses, gain resiliency from MBSGs. As facilitators of MBSGs, nurses develop essential skills transferable to clinical and educational settings. MBSGs are therapeutic for adult participants with chronic stress. Prior to this thesis, only one …

Collaborative Teaching And Inclusion In Northeast, Tn, Sherianne Pigeon

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract

Collaborative teaching is a commonly used, research-based method to support inclusion of students with disabilities in the general education classroom. However, there is a lack of research describing current teachers’ experiences with and perceptions of collaborative teaching and inclusion. Results from a survey disseminated to teachers in Northeast TN school systems revealed that 64.3% of respondents have either never co-taught a class or have co-taught only one or two classes. Additionally, respondents agree that collaborative teaching is beneficial to support inclusion, enhance delivery of instruction, improve teacher relations and improve classroom management. However, teachers expressed collaborative teaching is more …

Thinkmed: Inspiring The Future Of Stem, One Project At A Time, Steven Trinh, Lauren Dudley

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

ThinkMED is a nonprofit initiative offering a four-week curriculum specifically designed to develop critical thinking and encourage evidence-based decision making. Each week’s content material revolves around the use of a ThinkBOX science kit containing four (4) wet-lab experiments designed to supplement the curriculum. Each experiment is formulated to be inclusive of all California Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) K-5. At the end of each week, students get the opportunity to speak with university professors & scientists from a multitude of subject areas including chemistry, anatomy, computer science, physiology, and bioengineering. ThinkBOXes are donated to children and families who do not …

The Effect Of Constant Time Delay And Sentence Frames On Correct Word Selection For Sentences Constructed Using Technology-Aided Instruction During A Story-Based Lesson, Thai Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of an intervention package that included constant time delay (CTD) and sentence frames on correct word selection for sentences constructed using technology-aided instruction (TAI) during and following a story-based lesson (SBL) for participants ages 6-8 who have intellectual disability, developmental delays, and autism (IDD). A multiple probe across participants design was used to evaluate the efficacy of the intervention. Probes were conducted during baseline, intervention, generalization, and maintenance phases to determine the effectiveness of the intervention on correct word selection for sentence construction. Results indicate a functional relation between the …

From The Editors..., Todd Pagano

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

No abstract provided.

Early Childhood Intervention Curriculum Creation: Using Playful Project-Based Learning, Hannah Shullenberger Million

Masters Theses/Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to present an early intervention curriculum incorporating Project-Based Learning (PBL) and opportunities for play. The project aims to answer the questions: What does a Project-Based Learning curriculum model look like in high quality early childhood special education? How does PBL curriculum work in conjunction with play? The created curriculum answers these questions based on a review of research and guidance from three theoretical frameworks: a Vygotskian Tools of the Mind approach (Bodrova & Leong, 1996), implementation of PBL in early childhood (Lev et al., 2020) and the early intervention Building Blocks framework (Sandall et …

The Confidence Of High School Special Education (Sped) Teachers To Deliver Instruction In A 100% Virtual Learning Environment Due To Covid-19, Darius E. James

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic had substantially altered others' daily social interactions and the delivery of education globally. From preschool to universities, educational institutions worldwide temporarily closed their brick-and-mortar facilities to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The transition from in-person to virtual learning was very abrupt, and the transition forced teachers of all experience levels to adapt to a new normal of virtual instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions of high school special education teachers’ confidence to deliver virtual instruction to students within a school district that was …

Intervening In The School To Prison Pipeline For Students With Dis/Ability, Miruna Ouatu-Lascar

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

This workshop will explore the intersection of disability and ethnicity in order to assist workshop participants in analyzing the inequity present both within the construct of disability and race and how this intersectional inequity manifests within the special education system for students of color with disabilities and how such inequities contribute to the over representation of students of color with disabilities in the school to prison phenomenon. Furthermore, the workshop aims to give participants an understanding of Dis/Crit theory and how incorporating Dis/Crit pedagogy within the larger framework of Critical Pedagogy practice serves the needs of our most underserved students …

Executive Function In The Classroom, Dr. Kaylin Coody Coody

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Do you have students in your classroom who have difficulty with working memory, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility? These are indicators of struggling with executive function. This session will cover the brain-implications and concrete strategies to work with students at all grade levels.

A Study Of K-12 Classroom Teachers' Concerns And Perceived Self-Efficacy In Implementing Inclusive Teaching Practices To Instruct Students With Disabilities, Pankaj Khazanchi

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Research over the past decade suggests teachers have low instructional self-efficacy/confidence and more concerns about implementing inclusive teaching practices. This quantitative correlational study explored whether reported concerns and demographic variables (gender, age, education, and years of teaching experience) predicts teachers’ instructional self-efficacy with students with disabilities. The Concerns about Inclusive Education and the Teachers’ Efficacy in Implementing Inclusive Practices scales were administered to 123 K-12 classroom teachers in Georgia. Data were subjected to hierarchical linear multiple regression to examine whether systematically adding select demographic variables and teachers’ concern scores to the overall model significantly improved the model’s ability to predict …

Special Education Teacher Burnout: Examining The Role Of Educator Preparation Programs In Prevention, Brittany L. Straub

Dissertations

Teacher burnout is increasingly problematic, especially for special education teachers who have a unique set of job responsibilities. Survey and interview data was used in this phenomenological study to examine how the educator preparation program (EPP) experience and self-authorship journey of early career special education teachers impact their potential to experience burnout. Data findings regarding level of self-perceived burnout, recollections of being or not being taught stress management and coping strategies in their EPPs, recollections of the self-authorship journey, and intentions for remaining in the career are shared in this dissertation. The essence of this phenomenon can be summed up …