Matching Items (69)
Description
Preschool children with language delays often struggle to learn new concepts. Proven strategies such as modeling, prompting, reinforcing responses, direct teaching, and hands-on experience matter to young children with language delays. Also important are social interactions and shared experiences with more knowledgeable persons. Within a cultural context Funds of Knowledge, that is the talents, traditions, and abilities families possess and pass down to their children may be a context for these. However, despite their importance the value Funds of Knowledge have has not been explored with parents of children with special needs. This action research study used a mixed-methods design to understand if Funds of Knowledge could be used as context to improve communication between parents and their children and build trust between parents and a teacher. Seven families participated in the study. Quantitative data were gathered with surveys and were analyzed with descriptive statistics. Qualitative data consisted of transcripts from home-visit interviews, parent presentations, and a focus group, and were analyzed with a grounded theory approach. Results indicate parents entered the study with trust in the teacher especially in terms of having competence in her abilities. Data also show that parents used the language strategies provided to improve communication with their children. Data also indicate that the use of a Funds of Knowledge activity allowed parents to share their knowledge and interests with their children and children in the classroom, feel empowered, and express emotions. From these findings, implication for practice and further research are provided.
ContributorsGonzalez, Alissa Quintero (Author) / Zambo, Debby (Committee member) / Hansen, Cory (Committee member) / Villamil-Rubin, Aura (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
ABSTRACT
This study intended to provide people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder a creative outlet to experience dance and other art forms as a way of expressing themselves. Other potential benefits were observed throughout the exploration, including social interaction, coordination, and confidence. An interpretive phenomenological research model analyzed participant and parent verbal reflections, written feedback, and video recorded movement sessions to understand and interpret the participant's experience and the potential value of creative movement. The study was conducted over a seven-week period, which included 13, 30-minute movement sessions held biweekly along with interviews, discussions, surveys, and journaling. The research revealed dance empowered each participant to explore his/her creativity and exercise personal expression. The feedback received from the participants and parents through interviews and reflections revealed the participants did exercise and discover social, physical, emotional, and creative expression throughout the study.
This study intended to provide people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder a creative outlet to experience dance and other art forms as a way of expressing themselves. Other potential benefits were observed throughout the exploration, including social interaction, coordination, and confidence. An interpretive phenomenological research model analyzed participant and parent verbal reflections, written feedback, and video recorded movement sessions to understand and interpret the participant's experience and the potential value of creative movement. The study was conducted over a seven-week period, which included 13, 30-minute movement sessions held biweekly along with interviews, discussions, surveys, and journaling. The research revealed dance empowered each participant to explore his/her creativity and exercise personal expression. The feedback received from the participants and parents through interviews and reflections revealed the participants did exercise and discover social, physical, emotional, and creative expression throughout the study.
ContributorsFinlayson, Kelsey (Author) / Fitzgerald, Mary (Thesis advisor) / Murphey, Claudia (Committee member) / Brown, Karen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Effectively educating students with autism is a necessary element in providing all students with a free and appropriate public education, and as the number of students diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder continues to increase in both public and private educational settings, providing successful and satisfactory professional development opportunities in the area of autism is becoming increasingly essential. This study explored the experiences of twenty-three educators in a suburban southwest K-12 public school district, as they participated in a fifteen-hour professional development course in an online or face-to-face format, and collaboratively problem-solved their challenges in educating students with autism. Qualitative data was collected from participants' weekly written reflections and comments from a pre- and post-survey on attitudes, to determine quality of and satisfaction with collaboration in relation to course format. Results indicated that the online format produced higher-quality collaboration when it came to presenting one's own situation(s) to the group, finding group discussions helpful, having enough time to collaborate, providing feedback/suggestions to group members, and perceiving suggestions for one's own situation as helpful (as evidenced by the number of suggestions that participants said they would likely implement). The face-to-face format produced higher-quality collaboration when it came to in-depth problem-solving regarding a situation, implementing suggestions for one's own situation, and relating course content to collaborative activities. Participants' attitudes about using technology as a means of collaboration showed little change overall from pre- to post-survey. Though slight increases in positive attitudes concerning technology were found in various areas, many participants still thought highly of a face-to-face format for collaborative purposes, even after participating in the online professional development course. Findings may be of use to educational institutions developing online or face-to-face professional development opportunities in the area of autism.
ContributorsWozniak, Renee M (Author) / McCoy, Kathleen M. (Thesis advisor) / Puckett, Kathleen (Committee member) / Gehrke, Rebecca (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
One of the critical imperatives for the development of inclusive school systems is the capacity to nurture and develop teachers who have the skills, critical sensibilities, and the contextual awareness to provide quality educational access, participation, and outcomes for all students; however, research on teacher learning for inclusive education has not yet generated a robust body of knowledge to understand how teachers become inclusive teachers in institutions where exclusion is historical and ubiquitous. Drawing from socio-cultural theory, this study aimed to fill this gap through an examination of teacher learning for inclusive education in an urban professional learning school. In particular, I aimed to answer the following two questions: (a) What social discourses are present in a professional learning school for inclusive education?, and (b) How do teachers appropriate these social discourses in situated practice? I used analytical tools from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Grounded Theory to analyze entry and exit interviews with teacher residents, principals, site professors, and video-stimulated interviews with teacher residents, observations of classroom practices and thesis seminars, and school documents. I found two social discourses that I called discourses of professionalism, as they offered teachers a particular combination of tools, aiming to universalize certain tools for doing and thinking that signaled what it meant to be a professional teacher in the participating schools. These were the Total Quality Management like discourse (TQM-like) and the Inclusive Education-like discourse. The former was dominant in the schools, whereas the latter was dominant in the university Master's program. These discourses overlapped in teachers' classrooms practices, creating tensions. To understand how these tensions were resolved, this study introduced the concept of curating, a kind of heuristic development that pertains particularly to the work achieved in boundary practices in which individuals must claim multiple memberships by appropriating the discourses and their particular tool kits of more than one community of practice. This study provides recommendations for future research and the engineering of professional development efforts for inclusive education.
ContributorsWaitoller, Federico R. (Author) / Artiles, Alfredo J. (Thesis advisor) / Kozleski, Elizabeth B. (Committee member) / Gee, James P (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine which social-emotional skills may predict postsecondary enrollment for students with disabilities. Students with disabilities are less likely to enroll in any form of postsecondary education and in turn experience poorer post-education outcomes than their general education peers. Using data from the second National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS2), a classification tree analysis was conducted on teacher-rated social-emotional behaviors in an attempt to determine which social-emotional skills were the strongest predictors of postsecondary enrollment. Items assessing social-emotional skills were selected from the second wave of teacher surveys based on their alignment with the broad taxonomy of social-emotional skills created by Caldarella and Merrell. The results of the classification tree analysis showed that one of the selected social-emotional items, teacher rated ability to follow directions, was the most significant predictor of postsecondary enrollment for students with disabilities. In general, the results suggest that compliance and, to a lesser extent, peer-relations skills, in addition to family income, predict postsecondary enrollment for students with high-incidence disabilities. This finding suggests that social-emotional skills play an important role in postsecondary enrollment for SWD, providing support for the use of social-emotional skills interventions in improving postsecondary enrollment rates and potentially post-educational outcomes for SWD.
ContributorsKaprolet, Charles M (Author) / Sullivan, Amanda L (Thesis advisor) / Caterino, Linda C (Committee member) / Yu, Chong Ho (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Over the past two decades, substantial research has documented the increase of students with disabilities enrolling in post-secondary education. The purpose of the study was to examine factors identified as significant in preparing individuals who fall on the autism spectrum for post-secondary experiences. The study was exploratory in nature and designed to identify perceived critical program elements needed to design successful post-secondary transition programs for students with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study used archival research and grounded theory to look at expectations of parents with young adults with an ASD and young adults with an ASD on post-secondary transition and to discern whether expectations impact the successful post transition of young adults. More than likely, due to an overall increase in the prevalence of ASDs, many more students with an ASD will be attending a post-secondary educational setting in the near future. Understanding expectations and particular challenges faced by students with an ASD will be necessary for colleges to meet the unique needs of this population.
ContributorsFox, Catherine (Author) / McCoy, Kathleen (Thesis advisor) / Mathur, Sarup (Committee member) / Olsen, Morgan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The critical-thinking skill of problem solving needs to be part of the curriculum for all students, including those with learning disabilities living in poverty; yet, too often this is not the case. Too often students in poverty and students with learning disabilities are provided a curriculum that is watered down, focused on the basics, and aimed at managing their behaviors instead of helping them learn to think critically about their world. Despite their challenges, these students can learn to problem solve. Educators need to help students make connections between the critical-thinking skills learned in school and the problem-solving skills needed for life. One solution might be to use literature with characters facing similar problems, hold grand conversations, and teach them a problem solving method. Together, these three parts have the potential to motivate and lead students to better thinking. This action research study explored whether literature with characters facing similar problems to the study's participants, grand conversations, and the I SOLVE problem solving method would help students with disabilities living in poverty in the Southwestern United States develop the problem-solving skills they need to understand and successfully navigate their world. Data were collected using a mixed methods approach. The Motivation to Read Profile, I SOLVE problem-solving survey, thought bubbles, student journals, transcripts from grand conversations, and researcher's journal were tools used. To understand fully how and to what extent literature and grand conversations helped students gain the critical thinking skill of problem solving, data were mixed in a convergence model. Results show the I SOLVE problem-solving method was an effective way to teach problem-solving steps. Scores on the problem-solving survey rose pre- to post-test. Grand conversations focused on literature with character's facing problems led to an increase in students' motivation to read, and this population of students were able to make aesthetic connections and interpretations to the texts read. From these findings implications for teachers are provided.
ContributorsWells, Sheila (Author) / Zambo, Debby (Thesis advisor) / Hansen, Cory (Committee member) / Davidson, Carter (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
African American students are one of the historically disadvantaged groups by the public education system. Related to this phenomenon is the overrepresentation of African American children in special education due to disability diagnoses, which has been referred to as disproportionality. It has been hypothesized that disproportionality is due to poverty or a cultural mismatch between primarily white, middle-class teachers and African American students. Using a sample of African American children in special education from Memphis, Tennessee, this secondary data analysis explored the relationship between children's behavioral and educational outcomes and their environment, efficacy beliefs, and the impact of an intervention, the Nurse-Family Partnership. This study also explored differences in children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors by self-report, children's mothers and children's teachers. Using multiple imputation and regression analyses, the results indicated the following: 1) children's self-efficacy and number of hours in special education were associated with children's academic achievement, 2) mothers' and teachers' ratings of children's behaviors differed from children's self-report of their behaviors, 3) African American boys are more likely to experience acting-out behaviors, while African American girls are more likely to experience anxiety and depression, 4) children were less likely to experience anxiety and depression if their mother believed that she had control over circumstances in her life. These findings are discussed in light of Brofenbrenner's ecological systems theory and Bandura's social cognitive theory.
ContributorsBean, Kristen (Author) / Segal, Elizabeth (Thesis advisor) / Arcoleo, Kimberly (Committee member) / Gerdes, Karen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This study investigated the link between the cognitive clusters from the Woodcock–Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJ III COG) and Broad Math, Math Calculation Skills, and Math Reasoning clusters of the Woodcock–Johnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ III ACH) using data collected over seven years by a large elementary school district in the Southwest. The students in this study were all diagnosed with math learning disabilities. Multiple regression analyses were used to predict performance on the Broad Math, Math Calculation Skills, and Math Reasoning clusters from the WJ III ACH. Fluid Reasoning (Gf), Comprehension–Knowledge (Gc), Short–Term Memory (Gsm), and Long–term Retrieval (Glr) demonstrated strong relations with Broad Math and moderate relations with Math Calculation Skills. Auditory Processing (Ga) and Processing Speed (Gs) demonstrated moderate relations with Broad Math and Math Calculation Skills. Visual–Spatial Thinking (Gv) and Processing Speed (Gs) demonstrated moderate to strong relations with the mathematics clusters. The results indicate that the specific cognitive abilities of students with math learning disabilities may differ from their peers.
ContributorsBacal, Emily (Author) / Caterino, Linda (Thesis advisor) / Stamm, Jill (Committee member) / Sullivan, Amanda (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
The Culture-Language Interpretive Matrix (C-LIM) is a new tool hypothesized to help practitioners accurately determine whether students who are administered an IQ test are culturally and linguistically different from the normative comparison group (i.e., different) or culturally and linguistically similar to the normative comparison group and possibly have Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) or other neurocognitive disabilities (i.e., disordered). Diagnostic utility statistics were used to test the ability of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) C-LIM to accurately identify students from a referred sample of English language learners (Ells) (n = 86) for whom Spanish was the primary language spoken at home and a sample of students from the WISC-IV normative sample (n = 2,033) as either culturally and linguistically different from the WISC-IV normative sample or culturally and linguistically similar to the WISC-IV normative sample. WISC-IV scores from three paired comparison groups were analyzed using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve: (a) Ells with SLD and the WISC-IV normative sample, (b) Ells without SLD and the WISC-IV normative sample, and (c) Ells with SLD and Ells without SLD. Results of the ROC yielded Area Under the Curve (AUC) values that ranged between 0.51 and 0.53 for the comparison between Ells with SLD and the WISC-IV normative sample, AUC values that ranged between 0.48 and 0.53 for the comparison between Ells without SLD and the WISC-IV normative sample, and AUC values that ranged between 0.49 and 0.55 for the comparison between Ells with SLD and Ells without SLD. These values indicate that the C-LIM has low diagnostic accuracy in terms of differentiating between a sample of Ells and the WISC-IV normative sample. Current available evidence does not support use of the C-LIM in applied practice at this time.
ContributorsStyck, Kara M (Author) / Watkins, Marley W. (Thesis advisor) / Levy, Roy (Thesis advisor) / Balles, John (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012