This study addresses the problem of: Are there identifiable differences between learning styles and personality characteristics of a group of achieving gifted elementary students and those of a group of underachieving gifted elementary students? / From a population of 636 gifted elementary students as identified by Florida State criteria as a mental development of two standard deviations or more above the mean, a group of 97 underachieving gifted elementary students was identified as part of a rural North Florida community's gifted program for grades four to six. The criteria for underachievement were falling eight months below expected attainment on two of the four major sub-categories of the California Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) as prescribed by national norms. Differences among learning style characteristics and personality characteristics were determined by administering two instruments to both sample groups: The Learning Style Inventories of Dr. J. S. Renzulli and Linda Smith, and the Children's Personality Scales of Karyn B. Coisol, Thomas J. Jones, and Stanley R. Cohen. / The scores from these two instruments were analyzed with three two-way analysis of variance according to performance level, sex, grade level and economic levels. The personality inventory showed these significances: personality type T (Thinking) shows significance due to performance level; there were significances due to sex for personality types T (Thinking) and F (Feeling); there were significances due to grade level for personality types E (Extrovert) and I (Introvert); and there were significances due to economic levels and performance levels for personality type S (Sensing) and N (Intuitive). / Significant findings of the Learning Style Inventory were: there were significances due to sex and performance level for learning styles 2 (Simulation), 4 (Peer Teaching), and 7 (Independent Study); there were significances due to grade level for learning style 5 (Discussion). With reference to learning styles, additional findings showed that a definite ranked preference for certain learning styles appeared to exist for both achieving and underachieving gifted students which may be used to improve curriculum planning for gifted elementary students. / No dominant differences were identified which produce a complete profile of an underachieving gifted student. Further research and development of refined instruments may achieve the desired results. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-09, Section: A, page: 3993. / Thesis (Educat.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

The purposes of this study were: (1) to develop a descriptive profile of the Georgia Governor's Honors Program participants using 1975 as a base year; (2) to determine to what extent the participants were representative of the population of Georgia in regard to place of residence, family size, ethnic background, and parental educational and occupational levels; and (3) to compare the descriptive profiles of the 1975 GHP participants to that of the 1981 participants to determine the effect of the expansion of the program between 1971 and 1981. / The subjects were selected on the basis of exceptional ability and achievement. The 1975 subjects were given a questionnaire and two values surveys. Comparative data on Georgia citizens can from official 1970 census records. Additional data were compiled on the 1981 subjects using the same questionnaire administered to the 1975 subjects. / Most of the participants were Christian and Caucasian, coming from stable home environments with well educated parents in high level occupations. Most had experienced some acceleration in school. / The subjects described themselves positively as friendly and intelligent, and negatively as shy and lazy. Their perceptions of how active their parents were in community participation were about average, and their perceptions of the economic status of their families were above average. / The subjects were different from the normal population of Georgia, since they experienced more family stability, and the parental educational and occupational levels were much higher. Inequities occurred in that fewer participants were represented in native state residency, rural areas, and ethnic groups than was average for the general population of Georgia. / The changes which occurred in the expansion of the program between 1975 and 1981 had no real effect on the descriptive profiles of the subjects. / To acquire a more equitable representation of the citizens of Georgia, whose tax monies support the GHP, there must be more representation in geographic areas, of nonwhites, and in a cross section of parental educational and occupational levels. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-09, Section: A, page: 3946. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.

Recent research has demonstrated that vigorous exercise is effective in curbing subsequent inappropriate behavior of behaviorally disordered and autistic children of elementary through middle school levels (Evans, Evans, Schmid & Pennypacker, 1985; Kern, Koegel, Dyer, Blew, & Fenton, 1982). The research described in this dissertation examined effects of vigorous exercise on behavior in mildly handicapped preschool children served under the Emotionally Handicapped (EH) category. / Four subjects were selected for this study. They met the following criteria: (a) They were exceptional students receiving special education services in a pre-k EH classroom, but (b) had no physical impairments, and (c) received parental permission to participate. / The treatment entailed fifteen minutes of continuous vigorous exercise including jogging, jumping, hopping and other physical movements incorporated in an outdoor exercise trail. A paraprofessional conducted the exercise treatment. Three treatment conditions were compared: (a) no exercise--subjects participated in normally on-going classroom activities, (b) vigorous individual exercise and (c) vigorous group exercise. / A repeated measures multi-element baseline design (rapidly alternating treatments within subjects) (Barlow & Hersen, 1984; Sidman, 1960) was used to evaluate if a functional relationship exists between treatments and the subjects' behavior. The dependent measures, positive and negative social interactions, were directly observed daily via a partial interval recording system. Observation periods lasted 20 minutes and began exactly ten minutes after the treatment period had ended. Inter-rater reliability measures as well as procedural reliability on trainers were obtained. / The results of this research revealed the following. For one subject, solitary positive behavior decreased as a function of vigorous exercise conducted on a one-to-one basis with the paraprofessional. Although exercise appeared to differentially affect other behaviors, differences were not of great enough magnitude to substantiate a functional relationship between exercise and subsequent behavior of preschool children with behavior problems. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-03, Section: A, page: 0664. / Major Professor: Mark A. Koorland. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

The research described in this dissertation examined the effects of a self-instructional strategy training program on the ability of secondary educable mentally handicapped (EMH) students to transfer social skills from the setting in which they were learned to other environments. The six subjects selected for this study were students enrolled in a public school secondary program for students who are educable mentally handicapped. Subjects were selected based on teacher referral, parental permission, and student consent. The purpose of the training was to teach subjects to respond appropriately in situations that might occur outside the training environment when they interact with authority figures in school or work settings. Observational settings during baseline and transfer probes were the subjects' special education classroom(s), vocational workshop area, and mainstream classroom(s). Training, conducted by the researcher, consisted of a board game activity that used role-play and modeling to teach appropriate responses to interactions with authority figures, and a self-instructional strategy to help subjects remember the correct words and affects to use in these situations. Dependent measures, social skills responses, were directly observed during baseline and transfer, and recorded on the Social Skills Checklist (SSC). Results were assessed based on the number of correct social responses transferred to non-trained settings. Research procedures provided for interobserver and procedural reliability. The design for the study was multiple baseline across subjects. Data were analyzed by visual inspection of SSC scores displayed on graphs. Results indicated that all subjects demonstrated increases in overall correct social responses in non-trained settings during the transfer phase. All subjects save one demonstrated increases in the three skill areas individually targeted for them. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-04, Section: A, page: 1197. / Major Professor: Gideon R. Jones. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect that systematically designed instruction had on behavioral disordered (BD) students' academic achievement and inappropriate behavior. There were two levels of the independent variable: systematically designed instruction and traditional or non-systematically designed instruction. / The academic achievement and inappropriate behavior of sixteen high school students enrolled at a school for the severely emotionally disturbed were monitored over an eighteen-week period. All students received systematically designed instruction for nine of the weeks and non-systematically designed instruction for the remaining nine weeks. / A time-series analysis was run to identify changes in academic achievement and inappropriate behaviors. The correlation between the students' academic achievement and amount of inappropriate behavior was determined, and qualitative methods were also used to help establish the causal path between instruction, achievement, and behavior. / Results indicated that there were no significant differences between groups regarding the amount of objectives mastered or the amount of inappropriate behaviors displayed. Also, the correlations between students' academic achievement and amount of inappropriate behavior were not significant. Finally, students receiving systematically designed instruction and non-systematically designed instruction tended to experience success, and the behaviors that they displayed during and after instruction were on-task and appropriate. / While the study showed no significant differences between treatments, the outcomes were still encouraging in light of the fact that both treatments closely fit the definition of systematically designed instruction. Implications from the findings are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-11, Section: A, page: 3470. / Major Professor: Walter Dick. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

Research indicates that reciprocal social interactions between parents and children are important to the development of social/communication skills. The role of the parent within reciprocal social interactions is to facilitate the development of social/communicative responses by the infant. / Parents with young children who are disabled are less facilitative within social interactions. The research described in this dissertation describes the effects of an intervention in which parents were taught to use facilitative strategies when interacting with their children who are severely/profoundly handicapped. / A multiple probe design (Horner & Baer, 1987) across three subjects was used to assess the relationship between the intervention and subject behavior. Dependent measures included parent use of choice, elaboration, social games and imitation. Child dependent measures are child social behavior including behaviors directed to parent and behaviors directed to objects with parent, and child isolate behaviors including behaviors directed to self and behaviors directed to environment. / Play interactions were videotaped for five minutes and the dependent variables later measured using a partial interval recording system. A mealtime interaction was also evaluated with two of the parent/child dyads to assess if parent use of facilitative strategies generalized to a nontraining situation. / The results of the research indicated the following. There was a functional relationship between the training a parent received and their increased use of facilitative strategies when interacting with their children within the training and nontraining situation. In two of the three subject dyads, parents increased use of facilitative strategies were clearly related to child's increased frequency of social behavior. Two of the parents reported positive differences in the quality of their interactions after the intervention. Professionals, expert in early childhood special education, examined a set of the videotaped observations and rated posttraining tapes higher than baseline tapes on interaction quality. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-03, Section: A, page: 0662. / Major Professor: David L. Westling. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two prompting techniques for teaching multiplication facts to learning disabled elementary students. A response prompting technique, i.e., constant time delay, and a stimulus manipulation procedure, i.e., prompt fading, were used. / Four subjects were selected for this study, specifically third and fourth grade learning disabled students enrolled in summer school for remediation in math. Subjects had not mastered all X0 through X9 basic multiplication facts. Each student received instruction in X0 through X9 multiplication facts unknown to them. / Constant time delay was the response prompting technique employed in this study. Constant time delay involved delaying the prompt stimulus (the answer) by 4 seconds after the task stimulus (the multiplication fact card) was presented. / Prompt fading was the stimulus manipulation prompting procedure used in the study. Prompt fading involved gradually fading the answer to a multiplication fact presented on stimulus cards. Five progressive fading levels of the answer were presented. / To determine the teaching method producing the greatest accuracy and fluency for each student, a variation of the multielement baseline design was employed. The procedure combines measures used in precision teaching, median frequencies of correct and incorrect responses, accuracy multipliers, and celeration of correct and incorrect responses over time, with the multielement baseline research design (Koorland, 1983). Direct, daily recordings of students' oral responses were used. / Rate data for each subject were graphed daily. Visual inspection of the graphed data indicated acquisition of multiplication facts for Subject 1 was a function of the prompt fading teaching approach. Graphed data for Subject 2 and Subject 3 indicated more accurate and fluent performance during acquisition of multiplication facts unknown to them as a function of the constant time delay teaching technique. Graphed data for Subject 4 was interpreted with great caution. / Follow-up studies were conducted with Subject 1 and Subject 2. Follow-up probe data substantiated each subject's accurate performance of multiplication facts as a function of the preferred teaching method during training for each subject. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-11, Section: A, page: 3547. / Major Professor: Mark A. Koorland. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-06, Section: A, page: 3234. / Thesis (Educat.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 35-05, Section: A, page: 2816. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1974.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 37-06, Section: A, page: 3546. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1976.