Special Education and Teaching Commons^™

Vocational Special Education: The Educators' Perceptions Of Program Benefits, Restrictions, And Future Implications., Suzanne V. Pruess

Theses & Honors Papers

The purpose of this study was to investigate the benefits, restrictions, and future implications of vocational education. Using a self developed questionnaire, eight teachers in two south-central Virginia counties were interviewed. The data were analyzed and placed under themes. From the data obtained it was found that these vocational and special education teachers varied on certain areas they think are pertinent in vocational education. Areas that differentiated focused on the value of vocational programs, or how beneficial they are (responses of special educators emphasized this 33% and vocational teachers 66%), and the emphasis of community based instruction as a component …

An Analysis Of Curricular Options Currently Used In High School Resource Rooms For Students With Learning Disabilities In Virginia, Dana Harrison

Theses & Honors Papers

This study examined the curricular approaches for students with learning disabilities in high school resource rooms in the state of Virginia . Sixty-five resource room teachers participated in the study. Subjects completed a 25 item likert-type scale survey which reflected the five basic ·curricular opt ions for students with learning disabilities. Subjects were required to indicate the extent to which he or she emphasized the statement in the classroom. Descriptive Statistics, an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and a Tukey Test of Multiple Comparisons were used to analyze the data. The results of the ANOVA revealed that Curricular Options (the Within …

The Attitudes Of Children With Specialized Language-Learning Needs Toward Process Writing, Kara M. Mcalister

Masters Theses

Students with specialized language-learning needs, who had participated in a computer-based writing lab at Western Michigan University, were interviewed regarding their knowledge about and attitudes toward a process approach to writing instruction. The students orally answered questions posed by the researcher in individual thirty-minute interviews. A Likert-type scale was used to measure the students' attitude toward process writing along with open-ended questions to investigate the students' knowledge about process writing. Qualitative techniques were used to analyze the data.

Responses to the knowledge questions indicated that the students have a better understanding of the meaning and purpose of author groups than …

A Formative Analysis Of The Full Integration Of Students With Severe And Profound Disabilities In Age-Appropriate Elementary School Classrooms, Nancy Cheshire Rosenblatt

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

This research was conducted in a large urban elementary school where six students with severe and profound disabilities (SPD) were integrated fully in age-appropriate classrooms. The purpose of the research was to collect evidence regarding the effectiveness of this full-integration program. The results were as follows: (1) Reading and math achievement scores were not affected by the presence of an SPD student in the classroom except for in grade 4 where apparently math achievement was affected adversely. (2) Fourth graders in classes with a fully-integrated SPD student had more positive attitudes about persons with disabilities than students in the control …

Curriculum Packet Serving Autistic, Educable, And Trainable Students With Mental Impairments, Amy E. Upham

Masters Theses

The education of the special needs population has been an ongoing debate since the creation of special education classes. While some educators feel that a slower version of the regular education curriculum is appropriate others feel that there is no room for the regular curriculum in the education of the autistic, educable, and trainable mentally impaired population.; In this thesis the research reviewed will support the need for a functional curriculum which emphasizes the areas of; self care/ personal development, basic math and language arts. The research will stress that a watered down regular education curriculum will not meet the …

Positive Reinforcement Versus Aversive Therapy Techniques When Dealing With Tantrum Behaviors Of Mentally Retarded Individuals, Cynthia A. Simmons

Theses

This thesis examines the comparative effectiveness of positive reinforcement and aversive therapy techniques in managing tantrum behaviors among mildly mentally disabled adults residing in group homes in Marshall, Missouri. The study involved twenty-one participants, ages thirty-one to sixty, who regularly exhibited tantrum behaviors. Data were collected from historical records spanning 1992–1994, as well as from ongoing observations during the research period. Six trained staff members documented the frequency, duration, and responses to both therapeutic approaches.

Positive reinforcement techniques included verbal praise, token economies, and the Premack principle, while aversive methods consisted of ignoring behaviors, time-out procedures, scolding, and overcorrection. The …

Parent Preference Of Time Allocations For Academic Skills, Functional Skills, And Social/Friendship Development For Students Who Are Moderately Or Severely Impaired, Lois Denise Fischer Cranston

Theses and Graduate Projects

Parents of students with moderate and severe/profound impairment were asked to indicate preferences of how educational time should be allocated to the skill clusters of academic skills, functional skills, social/friendship skills, and other educational activities. This study is a replication of two studies conducred by Dr. Susan Hamre-Nietupski at the Universiry of Iowa in 1992 and 1993. The 1992 study was conducted with Dr. John Nietupski and Marlene Srrathe, and rhe 1993 study with the cooperation of the State Department of Iowa. The parents were asked to complete a survey consisting of three components. The components included demographic data, a …

Establishing A Positive School Climate On The Playground For Students With Serious Behavioral Disabilities: A Collaborative Effort, Mildred Carol Fletcher Garcia

All Graduate Projects

Social skills deficits of students with serious behavior disabilities are often an obstacle to integration into the regular education system. Many of the most troublesome problems occur outside the classroom on the playground due to the lessened structure constraints of the playground environment. As a result, the students are labeled "bad kids" by the teachers and paraprofessionals, are socially rejected by nondisabled peers, and the downward spiral of a negative social "trap" is begun.

The purpose of this study was to create an inservice training packet promoting collaboration between teachers and paraprofessionals providing students with serious behavior disabilities a positive …

Utilizing Applied Behavior Analysis: A Handbook For Teachers Who Are Dealing With Developmentally Delayed Children, Cleresse Sprague

All Graduate Projects

The author's perception is that a need exists for a classroom behavior management handbook targeting developmentally delayed children ages three years through first grade. Several occurrences have prompted this perception: 1. Approach by other teachers asking how to handle certain behaviors 2. Author's own experiences and frustrations 3. Participation in group discussions regarding behaviors The author has chosen to do this study and develop a handbook to meet this perceived need.

The Effect Of A Structured Narrative Programme On Language Disordered Children, Rosemary J. Simpson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study examined the effectiveness of a structured narrative programme which had been developed to improve the narrative skills of children attending a Language Development Centre in Western Australia. The research was conducted over an eight week period with eight Year One (ie -6 years old) boys who had been diagnosed as having severe language disorders. A single subject research design was used to investigate the narrative development of the students. The design followed the ABAB format (baseline experimental design-baseline-experimental design) as outlined in Tawney and Gast (1984). The number of words used by each subject, the number of adverbials …

Parental Attitudes On Sign Language Systems Used With Children With Hearing Impairments, Debra Marie Williams

Masters Theses

In the field of educating children with hearing impairments there has been a continuous debate over which is the most beneficial method of communication to use both in the classroom and in the home environment. The current debate concerns two main methods of communication through sign language, American Sign Language and Manually Coded English. The importance of the family in the decision over which sign language system to use in the child's environment has been documented throughout the research in this field. This study was designed to examine the attitudes of parents with no hearing loss who have children with …

An Evaluation Of Special Education And Remedial Services Within South Wisconsin District - Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod Elementary Schools, Jennifer S. Pflueger

Masters Theses

The availability of special education and remedial services within the South Wisconsin District-Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod elementary schools was investigated. A teacher and the principal from fifty-three schools were surveyed. The schools represented urban, suburban, and rural areas. Thirty-eight principals and thirty-seven teachers responded to the questionnaire. The principal questionnaire consisted of fifteen fill-in-the-blank questions and addressed information regarding remedial and exceptional education programs. The teacher questionnaire was a thirteen item rating format addressing the teacher's perceptions of his/her skills in remediation and exceptional education. The results indicated that a higher percentage of students received remedial services than exceptional education services. …

Front Matter, Alice G. Brand (Editor)

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Editor's Message

The prospect of bringing off a new journal is character building, I have come to believe—particularly when it is published only once a year and by a fledging organization. The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning (JAEPL) had to be good, very good, especially the inaugural issue. That this was the first issue also meant, I hoped, that readers would tolerate mistakes. Surely, mistakes could be corrected with the next issue. But on second thought, that was a long year away.

Nonetheless, I celebrate the occasion of the inaugural issue of JAEPL. …

Strictly Ballroom? Dancing Along The Borders Of Movement And Writing, Tim Doherty

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Multiple intelligences are exercised when movement and writing intersect in the composition curriculum.

Emotional Implication: Performing Within Emotional Gaps, Kristie S. Fleckenstein

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The role of emotional implication is a process by which writers leave and fill emotional gaps within a text, thus creating their readers, text worlds, and themselves.

Mental Imagery, Psychology, And Rhetoric: An Examination Of Recurring Problems, Linda T. Calendrillo

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The parallel debates on mental imagery in contemporary psychology and classical rhetoric have led to its marginal status in composition studies.

Mastery: Or, Where Does True Wisdom Lie?, Martha Goff Stoner

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Zen philosophy and contemporary physics heighten awareness of wisdom as a process not a product.

The Found Play: Learning And Teaching The Value Of Interpretive Reading And Writing, Randi Patterson, Kim Jernigan

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The "found" play is designed to make explicit the interpretive strategies that students use in everyday life, in a literary work, and in critical reading and writing.

Jaepl, Vol. 1, Winter 1995-1996, Alice G. Brand (Editor)

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Essays

Mary C. Doane. Writing Reality: Constructivism, Metaphor, and Cosmology. Two philosophies of metaphor are contrasted in constructing discourse and reality.

Derek Owens. Earthworm Hermeneutics. As an alternative to recent misreadings of boundary politics, a more responsible, outsider pedagogy needs to be cultivated.

Tim Doherty. Strictly Ballroom? Dancing Along the Borders of Movement and Writing. Multiple intelligences are exercised when movement and writing intersect in the composition curriculum.

Ellen W. Kaplan. The Subversive Play: Using Play, Dream, and the Body in the Classroom. The as-if world of play brings body-centered knowledge into the expressive writing class. …

The Subversive Element Of Play: Using Play, Dream And The B Ody In The Classroom, Ellen W. Kaplan

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The as-if world of play brings body-centered knowledge into the expressive writing class.

A Plea For Re-Form: Aesthetics In The Writing Classroom, Anne Mullin

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The emphasis on meaning and ideas should be refocused on form as an important aesthetic element in writing.

Writing Ritual And The Cultural Unconscious: The Great Mother Archetype In The Composition Classroom, Cramer Cauthen

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Jungian theory and feminist epistemology can be synthesized through their mythopoetic ways of making knowledge.

Writing Reality: Constructivism, Metaphor, And Cosmology, Mary C. Daane

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Two philosophies of metaphor are contrasted in constructing discourse and reality.

Images At The Heart Of Things: The Writer's Unconscious Speaking, Hildy Miller

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Two case studies depict ways in which mental imagery from a Jungian perspective influences writing.

Subjectivity And Academic Discourse: Apples, Cupcakes, And Beige, Frances Jo Grossman

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The relationship between intentional autobiographical reference and academic research yields a discourse called the writer-scholar's story of knowing.

Back Matter, Alice G. Brand

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

No abstract provided.

Reviews, Zoe Keithley, Gerd Bräuer, Larry Anderson, Deborah F. Van Hoorn, Susan Becker

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Reviews

Zoe Keithley. The Peaceable Classroom. (Mary Rose O'Reilley, 1993).

Gerd Bräuer. Presence of Mind: Writing and the Domain Beyond the Cognitive. (Alice G. Brand and Richard L. Graves, Eds., 1994).

Larry Anderson. A History of the Mind: Evolution and the Birth of Consciousness. (Nicholas Humphrey, 1992).

Deborah F. Van Hoorn. Writing from the Inner Self. (Elaine Farris Hughes, 1994).

Susan Becker. Reclaiming the Tacit Dimension: Symbolic Form in the Rhetoric of Silence. (George Kalamaras, 1994).

The Utilization Of Music Therapy Strategies For Increasing Prosocial Skills In Students With Behavioral Disorders, Marlene Lennia Anunson

All Graduate Projects

A representative sample of music therapy strategies was developed for use by general music teachers in elementary schools. A literature search was conducted in effective social skills training methods and music therapy techniques. The strageties developed can be used by elementary general music teachers to help improve prosocial skills in students with behavioral disorders.

Parent Involvement In The Education Of Their Children With Special Needs, Cindy Ann Cole

All Graduate Projects

The intent of this project is to develop an information packet teachers may use to encourage and enhance parental involvement, in ways that are suited for each child's and parent's needs. Analysis of literature, relevant to parents of children with special needs, has been used to draw conclusions and recommendations regarding appropriate techniques teachers may use to encourage parent involvement in their child's education. The packet includes the following: 1) a questionnaire to assess parents' preferred method of involvement; 2) a parent involvement evaluation form; 3) telephone numbers of support services and resources for parents; 4) recommended activities to help …

School To Work: Community Based Transition Of 18-21 Year Old Students With Mild Disabilities, Jammie Caryle Axon

All Graduate Projects

A community based service delivery plan was developed to meet the individual transition needs of 18-21 year old students with mild disabilities. The transition service was designed to ease the movement of students into post-secondary community life by providing prepatory experiences and community linkages. Students may receive services in the areas of recreation and leisure, vocational, and independent living activities depending on individual need.