The purpose of this study was to identify and compare the effects of educational treatment programs for emotionally disturbed students. In addition, the study explored whether programmatic or demographic variables interacted with the treatment programs to affect the outcome measures.;Two hundred twenty studies were integrated using the meta-analysis technique. The analysis involved more than 2,300 research subjects and yielded 235 measures of effect size, which were calculated on outcome areas of general achievement, mathematics achievement, reading achievement, and social skills. Variables investigated were age, diagnosis, SES, IQ, length of program, program setting, and program facilitator.;It was hypothesized that (1) there are significant differences in the overall effects of educational treatment programs for emotionally disturbed students, (2) there are differences in the effects of these treatment programs upon the specific outcome measures of mathematics achievement, reading achievement, general achievement, and social skills, (3) program elements and student demographics interact with the treatment programs to significantly affect the outcomes.;Data analysis involved: (a) descriptive statistics for the data base, (b) analysis of variance to test the effectiveness of the treatment programs, and (c) regression analysis where the effect sizes were regressed onto the variables.;No statistically significant differences in the total effect sizes of the eleven treatment programs were found. There were statistically significant differences among the treatment programs upon specific outcome measures. Programmatic and demographic variables were found to significantly affect outcome areas when interacting with structured-behavioral treatment.;It was concluded that no one treatment program was superior to another in overall effects. However, a short term structured behavioral treatment program in the lower elementary grades would yield the greatest gains in both academic and social skills achievement. Further study is needed to evaluate the variable relationships.

The affective meanings, defined by a semantic differential, that special educators of the mentally retarded, learning disabled and emotionally disturbed in Virginia public schools assign to their concepts of certain exceptional students, regular students, special educators, and themselves personally were explored. In addition, relationships between these affective meanings and the age, race, sex, endorsements, and experience of teachers were examined.;Mailed survey data were returned by 152 special educators from a 10% stratified random sample of Virginia public school systems. Data were analyzed using a multivariate analysis and a series of multiple regressions, and the following conclusions were drawn: (1) Virginia special educators perceived each concept studied as distinctive, with affective meanings in the moderate positive range. The exceptions were the concepts "learning disabled student" and "regular class student" which did not differ in their affective meanings. (2) The concept "emotionally disturbed student" was significantly higher on potency and significantly lower on evaluation than all other concepts. (3) The concept "educable mentally retarded student" was significantly lower on activity and potency than other concepts. (4) The concepts "special educator" and "me (myself)" were significantly higher on evaluation and activity than other concepts, but comparatively low on potency. (5) Special educators perceived exceptional students as significantly lower on activity than the non-handicapped. (6) The predictor variables (1) age, (2) race, (3) type of service delivery, (4) special education endorsement, and (5) size of employing school system were significantly correlated with several of the affective meanings studied, while level of education, length of teaching experience, sex and level of service delivery were not found to be important predictors.

The purpose of this study was to determine if participation in a cognitive training program administered by teachers within their classrooms would significantly improve the academic achievement, attentional responding styles and auditory and visual attention and memory skills of elementary self-contained learning disabled students.;Subjects were thirty-six elementary age self-contained learning disabled students 8-0 to 11-11 years of age and with total I.Q. scores on the Wechsler intelligence Scale for Children-Revised of 80 or greater from the Virginia Beach City Public Schools in Virginia Beach, Virginia.;Three instruments were used to measure the dependent variables in this study: the reading, mathematics, and written language clusters of the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery; the auditory and visual attention and memory subtests of the Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude; and the Matching Familiar Figures Test to measure impulsive vs. reflective responding styles.;The research design was the Pretest-Posttest Control Groups Design. The data was analyzed using a 2 x 2 analysis of variance with the hypotheses being tested at the .05 level of confidence.;The findings indicated that participation in a program of cognitive training procedures administered by self-contained learning disabilities teachers in their classrooms did significantly improve the reading and math achievement test scores, the auditory memory and attention test scores and the reflective attending style test scores of the students involved in the training. No significant improvement was noted in the students written language test scores on the Woodcock or in the visual attention and memory test scores on the Detroit.;Future research is suggested with larger samples of both self-contained and resource learning disabled students.

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of parental intervention on the self-esteem, degree of coping, and stress levels of parents of developmentally delayed or handicapped infants involved in an infant intervention program.;The research design for this study was a posttest-only control group design. The samples consisted of 48 parents who had infants enrolled in an infant intervention program. Sixteen subjects were assigned to each of the following treatment groups: Support, Counseling, and Control. The Support groups were structured as self-help groups. The Counseling groups were primarily affective, but also included a didactic component based on the Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP) model. Three self-report instruments: The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory, The Parenting Stress Index, and the Coping with Loss Scale were used to assess changes in the dependent variables (self-esteem, stress, and coping.).;The results of the research revealed that there were significant differences noted between the self-esteem scores of the support group parents and the counseling group parents, with self-esteem scores higher in the support group. Similarly, a significant difference was found between the stress indexes of support group parents and counseling group parents with the support group parents experiencing less stress. No significant difference was noted between any of the groups in respect to the degree of coping, nor were any significant differences noted between treatment groups and the control group on any of the variables. The subscales on the Coping with Loss Scale proved to significantly discriminate between each other.;In conclusion, support groups may be more effective than counseling groups for this population due to the lack of cohesiveness in groups as a result of absenteeism. Measures to eliminate absenteeism were offered. Replication of this study with a larger sample was recommended along with some possible design changes. Further research on the Coping with Loss Scale was suggested.

The purpose of this study was to examine the interrelatedness of cognitive, role-taking, and moral judgment abilities. The problem of this study was to determine whether there was a significant difference between the cognitive, role-taking and moral judgment skills of emotionally disturbed adolescents when compared with their normal peers.;While studies investigating this relationship have been few in number, there is an apparent positive relationship among the three variables with cognitive development providing the foundation for the role-taking and moral judgment development. Role-taking abilities also seem to be necessary for the development of one's moral judgment skills.;A sample of nine emotionally disturbed adolescents and their matched normal peers were drawn from the pupil population of two school systems in the Tidewater area of Virginia. Each subject was assessed on four measures: The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test to obtain a near IQ; the Binet-Simon Absurd Sentences Test to obtain a cognitive level of functioning; Flavell's Picture Story Role-taking Task to determine each subject's level of role-taking abilities; and Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Interview Form A to assess the level of moral judgment development.;The general hypothesis is emotionally disturbed adolescents, when matched to normal adolescents for age, sex, race and intelligence, will score significantly lower on tests of cognitive, role-taking and moral judgment development.;Results of this study indicated no difference between the two samples for mental and chronological ages or for intellectual abilities. A notable difference was present between the groups for level of cognitive functioning. A significant difference was found between the role-taking abilities of each sample and only a slight difference noted between the moral judgment skills of both groups with the emotionally disturbed adolescents being the weaker in each category.;In pointing out the strong relationship among the cognitive, role-taking and moral judgment skills of adolescents in general and of emotionally disturbed adolescents in particular, this study points out the need for education and treatment programs for emotionally disturbed adolescents to provide some intervention strategy that would include training in the cognitive and role-taking areas.

Thesis (M.Ed.) --University of the North, 1990 / Refer to the document

This ethnography examines many different components of my coming to the teaching profession as well as my first year within the field. Through research and an in depth analysis of my students and their environment, my teacher effectiveness and abilities have also been defined. This ethnography is composed of four cohesive parts, each detailing a different part of my teaching practice. Part A explains the reason why I chose to become an educator, Part B follows the journey of three focus students within my first classroom and the action plan I created for them to find success, Part C details the different communities in which I work and my students live, and Part D is a final comprehensive analysis of my teacher effectiveness within my first year of teaching. The purpose of this ethnography is to clarify my teacher’s ambition as well as provide research and data on my students as a whole as well as three focus students. In addition, by examining these students and their growth throughout the year, another purpose of this ethnography is to provide an analysis of my effectiveness as a first year teacher as well as create a goal and plan for my future in the education field.

As a young and dynamically evolving discipline, statistics evokes many conceptions about its purpose, the nature of its development, and the tools and mindset needed to engage in statistical work. While much research documents the perceptions of statisticians and experts on these matters, little is known about how the disciplinary perspectives of statistics instructors may interact with the work of teaching. Such connections are likely relevant since research has shown that teachers’ and instructors’ views about the discipline they teach inform their instructional approaches. This work specifically focuses on the disciplinary views of graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), who continue to serve a critical role in undergraduate instruction. Using multiple case study design, I document the views, experiences, and teaching practices of four statistics GTAs over the course of a full year—from their induction into the department in the fall, until their first solo-teaching opportunity the following summer. From the literature, I organized important disciplinary themes in statistics, including disciplinary purpose, epistemology, and disciplinary engagement. Targeting issues and questions stemming from these areas, I documented the various perspectives, models, and tensions that characterized the disciplinary views of the participants. I also documented the relevant experiences and influences that motivated these views. Additionally, I explored the GTAs’ pedagogical views and vision for teaching introductory statistics while looking for possible connections (and glaring disconnects) between these views and their disciplinary views. Finally, I observed their instruction and considered the participants’ teaching reflections as I looked for alignment between their expressed views and actual instructional decisions. From the data, I found that several of the GTAs expressed sophisticated views and expert notions about the discipline. There was a clear disconnect, however, between their perceptions of disciplinary work and the work of students in an introductory statistics course. Despite recognition that statistical questions typically do not have right answers, that statistical methods are often quite flexible and contextually-driven, or that many disciplinary elements developed through community negotiation rather than discovery, the GTAs struggled to bridge these considerations to the tasks being posed and the practices being emphasized in introductory courses. The participants also expressed a basic desire to engage students in practice problems and activities, yet their instructional visions were not specific and well-grounded in rich classroom experiences that modeled student-centered pedagogy. As a result, all four GTAs converged on a singular vision for introductory statistics. This vision involved focusing on “the basics,” acquainting students with a wide array of procedures, honing students’ computational abilities, and emphasizing statistical problem-solving as a pursuit for right answers. This dissertation study provides insights into disciplinary tensions that may be of value in developing an instrument for assessing the disciplinary views of instructors and students alike. GTAs without well-developed views may need opportunity to engage in rich, open-ended tasks that serve to develop their disciplinary perspectives. Additionally, this work reveals how GTAs may struggle to bridge their perceptions of advanced disciplinary work to the work of their own students. Acquaintance and experience engaging in tasks that promote informal inferential reasoning or exploratory data analysis, coupled with connections to situated and constructivist learning theories, may enrich GTAs’ instructional visions as they see how disciplinary and instructional spaces may interact and inform one another. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2019. / March 28, 2019. / Disciplinary Views, Epistemology, Statistics Education, Teaching Assistants / Includes bibliographical references. / Ian Whitacre, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Elizabeth M. Jakubowski, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Eric Chicken, University Representative; Lama Jaber, Committee Member; Jennifer J. Kaplan, Committee Member.

Inquiry-oriented teaching is a specific form of active learning gaining popularity in teaching communities. The goal of inquiry-oriented classes is to help students in gaining a conceptual understanding of the material. My research focus is to gauge students’ performance and conceptual understanding in inquiry-oriented linear algebra classes. This work is part of a broader NSF funded project; Teaching Inquiry-Oriented Mathematics: Establishing Support (TIMES) (Grant # 1431393), and TIMES project was designed to support instructors to shift towards inquiry-oriented instruction/teaching. Being part of the TIMES team, a broader goal of my dissertation is pragmatic to the project that is to measure the effectiveness of inquiry-oriented teaching on students learning of linear algebra concepts. Through my research, my contribution to math education field is the development of a valid and reliable assessment instrument for instructors teaching linear algebra concepts in their classes. My dissertation is a mixed method research and follows a three-paper format, and in these papers I discuss (1) the development and validation of a reliable linear algebra assessment tool, (2) comparison of performance of students in inquiry-oriented classes with the students in non-inquiry-oriented classes by using the tool developed in the first paper, and (3) development of research-based choices and distractors to convert the current open-ended assessment into a multiple-choice test by looking into students’ ways of reasoning and problem-solving approaches. The first paper is a quantitative study in which I establish the validity of the linear algebra assessment, and I also measure the reliability of the assessment. In the second paper, I use the linear algebra assessment to measure students’ conceptual and procedural understanding of linear algebra concepts and to compare the performance of students in inquiry-oriented classes with the students in non-inquiry-oriented classes. In the final paper, I focus on the analysis of patterns in student responses, particularly to open-ended response items, to inform the multiple-choices and distractors for the open-ended questions on the linear algebra assessment. This analysis will help me to convert the existing linear algebra assessment into a multiple-choice format research tool that linear algebra researchers can use for various comparisons to gauge the effectiveness of interventions. Additionally, the multiple-choice format of the assessment will be easy to administer and grade, so instructors can also use the assessment to measure their students’ conceptual and procedural understanding of linear algebra concepts. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2018. / October 18, 2018. / Assessment Validation, Inquiry-Oriented Teaching, Linear Algebra / Includes bibliographical references. / Christine Andrews-Larson, Professor Directing Dissertation; Giray Ökten, University Representative; Ian Whitacre, Committee Member; Russell Almond, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a vocabulary tutoring intervention with defining key vocabulary terms and algebraic problem-solving skills of students who struggle with mathematics. Literature shows that there is a need to further explore how students with mathematical learning difficulties learn mathematics vocabulary at the post-secondary level. The participants for this study included five college-aged students, 18 years or older, who self-identified as struggling with mathematics. Each participant completed two vocabulary tutoring sessions each week and complete layered-look books during each session. The layered-look books included the vocabulary word, definition, an example, and non-example. The dependent variable was the percentage of correct answers on a six-question test. Each test will contain three vocabulary short answer questions and three multiple-choice algebraic exercises. The researcher used a multiple probe across behaviors, replicated across participants design to determine what effect mathematics vocabulary tutoring has on a student’s ability to define vocabulary terms and what effect mathematics vocabulary tutoring has on a student’s algebraic problem solving. The study included three phases: baseline, vocabulary tutoring (intervention), and maintenance. The researcher followed a modeling and guided practice teaching strategy to tutor the student. Based on the results of this study, it was concluded that the vocabulary tutoring intervention did help students learn the vocabulary. Three of the five participants showed a functional relationship between the vocabulary intervention and defining key vocabulary words. However, the vocabulary tutoring intervention did not help participants with the algebraic problem-solving examples. None of the five participants had three demonstrations of effect. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2019. / March 7, 2019. / Mathematics, Tutoring, Vocabulary / Includes bibliographical references. / Elizabeth M. Jakubowski, Professor Directing Dissertation; Robert A. Schwartz, University Representative; Kelly J. Whalon, Committee Member; Jenny Rose Root, Committee Member.