Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Special Education and Teaching Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Theses and Dissertations

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication Year

Articles 511 - 540 of 709

Full-Text Articles in Special Education and Teaching

Service-Learning: A Case Study Approach To Understanding Cross-Age Tutoring With Junior High Students At-Risk For Behavioral And Emotional Disabilities, Megan S. Pratt Jul 2008

Service-Learning: A Case Study Approach To Understanding Cross-Age Tutoring With Junior High Students At-Risk For Behavioral And Emotional Disabilities, Megan S. Pratt

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to investigate the effects a service-learning tutorship had on the Social and Personal Responsibility Scale scores of middle school students identified as at risk for emotional and behavioral problems and enrolled in a one hour class that focused on social skills, self-management, and emotional resilience. Eight students identified through school-wide screening measures as at-risk for emotional and behavioral problems were involved in a pre/post quantitative survey, pre/post exploratory interviews, and a post focus group to analyze their level of growth in relation to social and personal responsibility. Currently, there is a limited amount …

Go to article

Planning School Memorials: Feedback From The Columbine Memorial Planning Committee, Rebecka Dawn Bingham Jul 2008

Planning School Memorials: Feedback From The Columbine Memorial Planning Committee, Rebecka Dawn Bingham

Theses and Dissertations

On April 20, 1999, twelve students and one faculty member were shot and killed at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The two shooters also died. Today, over nine years after the tragedy, the community continues to heal and cope with their loss. Rather than investigating the actual tragedy, this study focused on perceptions of three leaders representing the Columbine Memorial Planning Committee, summarizing their responses to 9 questions related to planning the Columbine Memorial. Now completed, the memorial invites students; families; the community of Littleton, Colorado; and the world to never forget this loss or precious life. This memorial …

Go to article

Teachers' Perspectives On Positive Behavior Support In Secondary Schools, Veronica Maria Gorgueiro Jul 2008

Teachers' Perspectives On Positive Behavior Support In Secondary Schools, Veronica Maria Gorgueiro

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate teachers' perspectives regarding the social validity of the Positive Behavior Support (PBS) model implemented at a middle school and a junior high school. Qualitative data were collected through teacher focus groups and categorized then analyzed in order to summarize teachers' opinions regarding PBS and its' effectiveness. Both qualitative and quantitative results revealed that teachers perceived evidence of social validity in the areas of social appropriateness and social importance of effects. Four factors were also identified as the most influential areas to influence the success of PBS implementation. These included (a) administrative support, …

Go to article

Non-Pedophilic Heterosexual Male Response To Affinity 2.0, Charles D. Crosby Jul 2008

Non-Pedophilic Heterosexual Male Response To Affinity 2.0, Charles D. Crosby

Theses and Dissertations

Given that the Affinity 2.0 is a largely untested instrument that purports to measure sexual attraction, it was unknown whether or not the instrument is temporally stable and would provide a characteristic response curve for normal heterosexual male sexual interest. This study examined the Affinity 2.0, a newly standardized viewing time (VT) instrument that purports to measure sexual interest. More specifically, the Affinity 2.0 was examined in regard to its temporal stability and ability to generate a characteristic curve for non-pedophilic, exclusively heterosexual male interests. This examination was carried out by administering the Affinity 2.0 twice on a sample of …

Go to article

Predicting Sixth Grade Performance On Criterion-Referenced Reading Tests With Third Grade Test Scores, Michael Sean Gallacher Jul 2008

Predicting Sixth Grade Performance On Criterion-Referenced Reading Tests With Third Grade Test Scores, Michael Sean Gallacher

Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzed the correlation between students' third grade reading ability and sixth grade reading ability. The data were collected from an urban school district, and the participants were students whose records contained information from their third grade school year and their sixth grade school year. The Utah English Language Arts Criterion-Referenced Tests (ELA-CRT) administered in third and sixth grade were used to determine reading ability. Additional demographic data, including race, gender, special education identification, free/reduced lunch, and English Language Learner (ELL), was assessed and controlled for in the data analysis and provided important information concerning the overall findings. Analysis …

Go to article

Males' Ipsative Score Distortion On Affinity 2.0, Jeffrey Brian Madsen Jul 2008

Males' Ipsative Score Distortion On Affinity 2.0, Jeffrey Brian Madsen

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the frequency of distortion that occurs when raw score patterns of Affinity 2.0, a viewing time measure designed to assess sexual interest, are converted to ipsative scores. Eighty-eight percent of a sample of ninety-nine non-pedophilic, exclusively heterosexual males' profiles sustained some degree of distortion. The study also applied Brown's (2005) approach to predicting distortion with this sample of males' responses. Brown's techniques were largely ineffective in predicting males' distortion scores.

Go to article

Body Shape Dissatisfaction: Patterns Of Concern Among Subgroups Of College Freshmen Women, Kristina S Withers Hansen Jul 2008

Body Shape Dissatisfaction: Patterns Of Concern Among Subgroups Of College Freshmen Women, Kristina S Withers Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to determine if there are patterns of differences according to college major in terms of the percentage of freshmen women who score in the clinically significant range on a measure of attitude toward body shape. Participants (N = 1,982) completed a demographic questionnaire and the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) and were divided into subgroups according to their stated college major. Descriptive statistics regarding BSQ scores were calculated for the total sample and subgroups. Results indicated that a greater percentage of participants in Theater, Communications, Psychology, Dance, Business, and Dietetics majors scored within clinically significant ranges on the …

Go to article

Secondary Intervention For Students At Risk For Emotional And Behavioral Disorders Within A Positive Behavior Support Model, Jennifer Anne James Jul 2008

Secondary Intervention For Students At Risk For Emotional And Behavioral Disorders Within A Positive Behavior Support Model, Jennifer Anne James

Theses and Dissertations

Mentoring is an intervention growing in popularity with a weak research foundation. This study combines mentoring and social skill training within a positive behavior support framework. Targeting a fourth-grade, Latino student at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders, this single-subject study looks at his ability to master a specific social skill. The mentor served to reinforce social skill learning through practicing, role-playing, and goal setting. The student was chosen using the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders and the social skill was created using the School Social Behavior Scales that identified social skill strengths and weaknesses. Student demonstration of the social …

Go to article

Effects Of In-Home Positive Behavior Support Training On Parent Perceptions Of Parent-Child Relationships And Maladaptive Behavior, Elisha K. Kamalu Jun 2008

Effects Of In-Home Positive Behavior Support Training On Parent Perceptions Of Parent-Child Relationships And Maladaptive Behavior, Elisha K. Kamalu

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the effects of the positive behavior support program Family HOPE conducted in homes of families of children with disabilities. Graduate students conducted an 8-10 week collaborative method of training for parents of children with disabilities to reduce problem behaviors of their child with a disability. The Parent-Child Relationship Inventory (PCRI) and Scales of Independent Behavior-Revised (SIB-R) were given to both experimental and control group families to investigate the program effects on parents' perceptions of limit setting, parental support, frequency and severity of problem behaviors. Results indicated that there was not a significant pre-post difference for either group …

Go to article

Assessing Item And Scale Sensitivity To Therapeutic Change On The College Adjustment Scales: Working Toward A Counseling Center Specific Outcome Questionnaire, Christian L. Wimmer Jun 2008

Assessing Item And Scale Sensitivity To Therapeutic Change On The College Adjustment Scales: Working Toward A Counseling Center Specific Outcome Questionnaire, Christian L. Wimmer

Theses and Dissertations

Many college counseling centers use outcome measures to track therapeutic change for their clientele. These questionnaires have traditionally looked primarily at a client's symptom distress (e.g. depression, anxiety, suicidality, etc.) and are used to detect changes in the client's life that are due to therapy. Unfortunately, there is no measure that has been exclusively created and validated for use with college students. The College Adjustment Scales (CAS) form a multidimensional psychological measure designed specifically for use in college and university settings. Even though the CAS was created as a screening tool, it contains items that provide insight into changes that …

Go to article

The Effects Of Self-Management Strategies For High School Students With Disabilities, Michael Mccoach May 2008

The Effects Of Self-Management Strategies For High School Students With Disabilities, Michael Mccoach

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of self-management strategies to reduce the inappropriate calling out behavior and replace with an appropriate behavior, raising hands. A total of nine high school students attending a math class in the special education classroom participated in the study. A single subject research design with ABC phases was used. During Phase A, the observer recorded student calling-out behavior in each math class for four weeks as baseline data. During Phase B, students were given instruction on self-management to record their own behavior for four weeks. During Phase C, the self-management strategy …

Go to article

A Study Of The Effects Of The Verbal Behavior Approach In Teaching Young Children With Autism, Laura Salvitti May 2008

A Study Of The Effects Of The Verbal Behavior Approach In Teaching Young Children With Autism, Laura Salvitti

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the implementation of the Verbal Behavior approach with young children with autism. The participants included eight boys between the ages of three and five who are currently placed in a self-contained classroom for students with autism. Using the Verbal Behavior protocol, baseline data was collected for all participating students in the area of verbal communication. Data was also taken for three students with violent or aggressive behaviors. During the intervention, when the Verbal Behavior approach was provided, goals were developed for each student and their performance data were collected …

Go to article

Teachers' Attitudes Towards The New Jersey's Alternate Proficiency Assessment For Students With Severe Disabilities, Rachel L. Cranin May 2008

Teachers' Attitudes Towards The New Jersey's Alternate Proficiency Assessment For Students With Severe Disabilities, Rachel L. Cranin

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers' attitudes towards the New Jersey's Alternate Proficiency Assessment (APA) for students with severe disabilities. A total of 25 special education teachers, who had experiences in the APA portfolio implementation, participate in this study. A survey including 25 questions on a five point Likert scale was provided to all participating teachers as well as an interview for six teachers to obtain their feedback in depth. Surveyed teachers reported that they were trained to prepare for their students' portfolios as required by the state. However, many concerns were raised by the teachers in …

Go to article

The Effects Of Social Skills Training For High School Students With Disabilities, Tracy Pellegrino May 2008

The Effects Of Social Skills Training For High School Students With Disabilities, Tracy Pellegrino

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the social skills program "Social Skills Training" for high school students with disabilities. Six high school students with multiple disabilities, attending a private special education school, participated in he study. Social skills training was provided in 12 sessions, 20 minutes per session, one session per day, three days a week for four weeks, and a follow-up of review activity for four weeks. A single subject designed with ABC phases was used. The student behaviors were observed and recorded prior to training as Baseline, during the training as Intervention, and …

Go to article

An Investigation On Emergent Literacy Skills Of Preschool Children With Disabilities, Susan Biesz May 2008

An Investigation On Emergent Literacy Skills Of Preschool Children With Disabilities, Susan Biesz

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between home literacy activities provided by parents and their children's emergent literacy skills. A total of 11 parents and their preschool children with disabilities participated in the study. A survey was provided to obtain parents' strategies used during parent-child joint reading activities in the home. The Emergent Literacy Skills Assessment was administered to participating children to evaluate their emergent literacy skills in six areas including identifying primary shapes and colors, letter identification, reciting the alphabet, identifying the parts of a book and identifying their own name in print. The surveyed …

Go to article

Effects Of Positive Behavior Support Training On Maladaptive Behavior, Parenting Skills, And Parental Support Of Families With Children With Disabilities, Alla Sergeyevna Jones Mar 2008

Effects Of Positive Behavior Support Training On Maladaptive Behavior, Parenting Skills, And Parental Support Of Families With Children With Disabilities, Alla Sergeyevna Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Family stress is affected by a child's challenging behavior and by the disruption of family routines as a result of the child's disability. Therefore, families with children with disabilities need professional support as they work with their children to decrease their children's behavior problems and to reduce the level of parental stress. This study examines in-home training in Positive Behavior Support using the model of parent-professional collaboration. Parents of 35 children with disabilities and challenging behaviors participated in this research. All participants were on the state of Utah's Family Support waiting list. Graduate students provided behavioral education to families by …

Go to article

Characterization Of Autism Spectrum Disorders In Children's Picture Books, Charlene Weaver Mar 2008

Characterization Of Autism Spectrum Disorders In Children's Picture Books, Charlene Weaver

Theses and Dissertations

Forty-two children's picture books portraying characters with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) were evaluated to determine how symptoms of ASD are being portrayed as well to determine common themes found in these books. Books were evaluated using behavioral checklists created using symptoms found in common ASD diagnostic rating scales for both autism and Asperger Syndrome (AS). Of the 42 books, 35 books had characters with autism and 7 had characters with AS. The most commonly found symptoms were relating to people, verbal communication, and taste, smell and touch responses. Personal characteristics such as gender and race were identified as well as …

Go to article

The Role Of Inspiration In Scientific Scholarship And Discovery: Views Of Theistic Scientists, Kari Ann O'Grady Dec 2007

The Role Of Inspiration In Scientific Scholarship And Discovery: Views Of Theistic Scientists, Kari Ann O'Grady

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative research study examined the ways those who identify themselves as theistic scientists and scholars experience inspiration, as defined as divine guidance or influence, in their scientific scholarship and discovery. It also explored participants' beliefs about how scientists and scholars can seek and prepare to receive inspiration in their work. Open-ended surveys of 450 participants from the behavioral and natural sciences and from a variety of religious backgrounds were analyzed for content themes in the areas of experiences with inspiration, preparing to receive inspiration, and further thoughts on inspiration in science. The themes extracted indicated that these scientists and …

Go to article

Women's Perceptions Of Parents, Peers, Romantic Partner And God As Predictive Of Symptoms Severity Among Women In Treatment For Eating Disorders At An Inpatient Facility, Samuel B. Tobler Dec 2007

Women's Perceptions Of Parents, Peers, Romantic Partner And God As Predictive Of Symptoms Severity Among Women In Treatment For Eating Disorders At An Inpatient Facility, Samuel B. Tobler

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined whether perceptions of parents, peers, romantic partners and God were predictive of eating disorder symptom severity among women in treatment for eating disorders. The sample included 417 women (ages 12 to 56 years) at an inpatient treatment facility for eating disorders. Participants completed a battery of assessment measures at intake and discharge. Change scores were also computed on all measures. Measures included indices of eating disorder symptomology, parental relationships, peer relationships, romantic partner relationships, and religious well-being. Multiple regression analysis showed perceptions of peers and romantic partner to be significant predictors in all analyses; however perceptions …

Go to article

Existing Practice And Proposed Changes In Cognitive Assessment Of Utah Students Identified As Deaf And Hard Hearing, Leah Voorhies Dec 2007

Existing Practice And Proposed Changes In Cognitive Assessment Of Utah Students Identified As Deaf And Hard Hearing, Leah Voorhies

Theses and Dissertations

This study presented the past, current, and proposed practice of intelligence testing with a unique population, students identified as deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH). As a basis for describing the cognitive ability of Utah's D/HH students and to improve practice guidelines, 61 D/HH students served by Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind (USDB) were administered the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT) standard battery and the Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI) subtests from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV). Based on these data, composite score distributions were described and compared with national standardization samples. Participants' WISC-IV PRI …

Go to article

Description Of The Trio/Upward Bound Students' Construction Of Vocations Using George Kelly's Rep Test Method, Maraia Sokia Weingarten Dec 2007

Description Of The Trio/Upward Bound Students' Construction Of Vocations Using George Kelly's Rep Test Method, Maraia Sokia Weingarten

Theses and Dissertations

The Information Age is revolutionizing the way we communicate, acquire knowledge, and perform work. Society is shifting from occupations rooted in industrial production to those associated with knowledge and information, requiring the development of new skills for changing occupations and updating old educational methods. Educators need to be aware of economic and social changes and have a vision for how to design career education to respond to those changes. Individuals must also be prepared to learn on their own as careers evolve and change. The training necessary to adapt to the changing career culture needs to be made available to …

Go to article

Dreamwork With Children: Perceptions And Practice Of School-Based Mental Health Professionals, Rosalia Rodriguez Huermann Nov 2007

Dreamwork With Children: Perceptions And Practice Of School-Based Mental Health Professionals, Rosalia Rodriguez Huermann

Theses and Dissertations

Forty nine public school mental health practitioners (i.e., school counselors, school psychologists, and school social workers) completed a survey about working with dreams when counseling students. Most practitioners in this sample reported having at least one student bring up dreams during counseling and spent some time in counseling working with students' dreams. Practitioners addressed dreams more frequently in situations where the student was having troubling dreams or nightmares, and/or was dealing with death and grief. They also acknowledged working with dreams with students who were diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, were emotionally disturbed, suffered from recurrent dreams, were depressed, …

Go to article

A 17-Year Longitudinal Study Of Spiritual Development And Psychological Correlates In A Sample Of College Students, Jeremy Daniel Bartz Sep 2007

A 17-Year Longitudinal Study Of Spiritual Development And Psychological Correlates In A Sample Of College Students, Jeremy Daniel Bartz

Theses and Dissertations

In 1984, 1987 and 2001 data were collected on a religiously devout group of college students in an effort to better understand the process of religious development and the relationship between religiosity and mental health. This study analyzes that data by examining the stability of two different religious development styles that were identified in 1984, the stability of religious motivations over the course of adulthood, and the relationship between devoutness and psychopathology. This study found that (a) the religious developmental styles did not remain consistent from 1984 to 2001, (b) the participants' religious motivations remained stable over the course of …

Go to article

Diverse Students' Perceptions Of Cultural Congruity And Environment At A University, Effie J. Thacker Aug 2007

Diverse Students' Perceptions Of Cultural Congruity And Environment At A University, Effie J. Thacker

Theses and Dissertations

The Culturally Responsive Special Education/English as a Second Language (ESL) program was designed to assist students from diverse backgrounds in being academically successful in a large western private university. Utilizing the Cultural Congruity Scale (CCS) and University Environment Scale (UES), this study analyzed the perceptions of 28 students who are ethnically diverse and enrolled in the Culturally Responsive Special Education/ESL Program. The data will be used to evaluate the program's success in addressing the barriers that have historically kept students who are ethnically diverse from succeeding in higher education. Participating students completed CCS and UES surveys questioning their perceptions regarding …

Go to article

Longitudinal Course Of Body Dissatisfaction In Undergraduate Females At Brigham Young University, Joy Wiechmann Jul 2007

Longitudinal Course Of Body Dissatisfaction In Undergraduate Females At Brigham Young University, Joy Wiechmann

Theses and Dissertations

This research project examined the longitudinal course of body dissatisfaction among undergraduate females at Brigham Young University (BYU) using the Body Satisfaction Questionnaire (BSQ).The research also examined what percentage of undergraduate females have BSQ ratings in the clinically significant range and whether body dissatisfaction ratings varied based on the environment in which the student lived. Results indicate that no significant change in body dissatisfaction occurred over time, nor did living environment appear to play a role in BSQ scores. Results also showed that at any given time over 34% of women on BYU campus have BSQ scores in the clinically …

Go to article

The Relationship Between Family Composition And Social Behavior For Students With Mild Disabilities In Schools, Amanda Clark Jul 2007

The Relationship Between Family Composition And Social Behavior For Students With Mild Disabilities In Schools, Amanda Clark

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research identifies significant differences in children's problem behavior across various family structures, particularly noting more challenging behaviors in children from single parent families. Utilizing a pre-existing data set of Behavioral Objective Sequence (BOS) scores, this study investigated teacher ratings of social behavioral skills in students with mild disabilities, focusing on differences between groups of students from a variety of family compositions. Results indicated no significant difference in social behavioral skills among children from different family groups, taking into account the student's age. The covariate of age was significant on each of six BOS subscales, suggesting that children develop and …

Go to article

The Effect Of Video Self-Modeling On The Compliance Rates Of High School Students With Developmental Disabilities, Jacob Ammon Aukai Figueira Jul 2007

The Effect Of Video Self-Modeling On The Compliance Rates Of High School Students With Developmental Disabilities, Jacob Ammon Aukai Figueira

Theses and Dissertations

People with developmental disabilities must develop the ability to maintain socially acceptable behavior in order to become contributing, accepted members of society at large. Research indicates that compliance, or following directions, is a keystone behavior, which, if learned, may significantly decrease the occurrence of behavior difficulties in students. Many studies of individuals with disabilities have shown a dramatic increase across a wide range of academic and social skills using video self-modeling (VSM), a technique in which students watch edited videos of themselves performing skills correctly or at high rates. Despite the importance of compliance for individuals with disabilities and the …

Go to article

Factors Contributing To The Shortage Of Speech-Language Pathologists In Utah Schools, Stephanie Harris Jul 2007

Factors Contributing To The Shortage Of Speech-Language Pathologists In Utah Schools, Stephanie Harris

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined factors contributing to Utah's critical shortage of school-based speech-language pathologists. Specifically, this study focused on the following three constructs: (a) stress levels among professionals currently in the field, (b) attrition and the reasons professionals leave their positions, and (c) factors at the university level. Stress among Utah's speech-language pathologists was assessed using the Speech-Language Pathologist Stress Inventory (Fimian, Lieberman, & Fasteneau, 1991). Of the 230 potential participants, 97 completed and returned questionnaires. Results indicated that Utah's school-based speech-language pathologists experience less overall stress than a normative sample of speech-language pathologists throughout the United States; however, Utah's professionals …

Go to article

Teacher Perceptions Of The Social Validity Of The Peaceable Schools Model, Rachelle Marie Pieper Jul 2007

Teacher Perceptions Of The Social Validity Of The Peaceable Schools Model, Rachelle Marie Pieper

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the social validity of the Peaceable Schools model, which includes positive behavior support and social skills training. Data were collected through subjective evaluation using an open-ended survey given to teachers at two secondary schools. Results show that teachers perceived evidence of social validity in the areas of social significance, comprehensiveness, relevance, treatment integrity, and social acceptability. While weaknesses were also expressed in the areas of social acceptability, feasibility, and practicality, teachers perceived overall improvement in students' social skills and saw more strengths than weaknesses. Outcomes suggest that the Peaceable Schools model has …

Go to article

The Impact Of Video Self-Modeling On Conversational Skills With Adolescent Students With Severe Disabilities, Megan Elizabeth Sangster Jul 2007

The Impact Of Video Self-Modeling On Conversational Skills With Adolescent Students With Severe Disabilities, Megan Elizabeth Sangster

Theses and Dissertations

Video self-modeling has been found to be effective in increasing appropriate behaviors, increasing task fluency, and decreasing inappropriate behaviors. During video self-modeling, a student is filmed completing a task and then mistakes, prompts, and negative behaviors are edited from the video. When the edited video is viewed by the subject student, the student views a perfect model of him or herself successfully completing the given task. Video self-modeling has been used predominately with participants with autism spectrum disorder. This study is a replication of a previous study in which the effectiveness of video self-modeling and video peer modeling was compared …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last