According to the U.S. Department of Education, in 2015, Texas special education programs were rated among the lowest in the nation. School districts in the state have a substantial need for effective and efficient staff training. In this study, researchers implemented TAPS: A Talk Aloud Problem Solving Approach Packet to teach active listener qualities to staff members in a life skills special education classroom. A multiple baseline across staff members was used to evaluate the effects of the TAPS training on the presence and absence of the staff members' active listener qualities during a pre-test, a post-test, and probes. The staff members that underwent TAPS training acquired all of the active listener qualities as a function of the TAPS training, and the effects of the training maintained during probe sessions. Additionally, TAPS training appeared to improve staff members' scores on the Whimbey Analytical Skills Inventory (WASI) Test and anecdotally improved the quality of staff and student tutoring interactions. Several areas of potential research and improvement are discussed.

Text in Afrikaans / In hierdie studie is die opvoedingspraktyke van verskillende samelewings met betrekking tot verstandelik erg gestremde kinders histories-analities ondersoek. Die tendense wat telkens onderliggend aan veranderinge was, is geidentifiseer en aan die hand van pedagogiese kriteria geevalueer. In die antieke Griekse en Romeinse beskawings is 'n praktyk van uitwissing gevplg. Die Christelike godsdiens bet 'n meer verdraagsame houding meegebring, maar in die Middeleeue bet onkunde en bygeloof nog steeds hoogty gevier. Eers vanaf die agtiende en negentiende eeu bet groter kennis en 'n nuwe kindbeeld tot 'n meer rasionele benadering tot die verskynsel van verstandelike gestremdheid gelei. Pioniers, veral medici, bet na vore getree en die weg gebaan vir 'n beter bedeling vir hierdie kinders. Dit was egter eers in die tweede helfte van die twintigste eeu dat onderwys aan verstandelik erg gestremdes 'n werklikheid geword bet. Die beginsel van normalisasie is toenemend op dienste wat aan hierdie kinders verskaf is, toegepas en het tot gevolg gehad dat wetgewing met betrekking tot die onderwys aan verstandelik erg gestremde kinders tans in die toonaangewende lande en in SuidAfrika op 'n handves vir menseregte geskoei is. Hierdie bevindings bet segwaarde vir die huidige situasie ten opsigte van die beplanning van onderwysvoorsieninge vir verstandelik erg gestremde kinders in die Republiek van Suid- Afrika. / In this study the education practices with regard to severely mentally handicapped children of various societies have been investigated from a historic-analytical perspective. The trends related to a certain anthropologic view and a specific child image, which have been the cause of certain changes have also been identified and were evaluated according to pedagogic criteria. In the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations a trend of infanticide influenced the education of severely mentally handicapped children. The Christian religion brought a more tolerant attitude, but during the Middle Ages superstition and ignorance were still at the order of the day. It was only from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that more knowledge and a new child image brought about a more rational approach to this problem. Pioneers, mostly medical surgeons, came to the fore and paved the way for a better dispensation for these children. In the latter part of the twentieth century education for the severely mentally handicapped had for the first time become a reality. The normalization principle was increasingly applied to all services rendered to these children and this resulted in legislation regarding the education of severely mentally handicapped children in all leading countries and in South Africa being based on a declaration of human rights. These findings have an important meaning for the present situation with reference to the planning of education services for severely mentally handicapped children in South-Africa. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Historiese Opvoedkunde)

Thesis (MEdPsych (Educational Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / According to the latest available statistics, 9 million people in South Africa are illiterate. A large number of these people did not attend school. This can be attributed to a number of factors, amongst others no entry to any form of schooling, economic realities and a expectation of low quality of life It is especially after 1994 that Adult Basic Education and Training was scrutinized in order to address the backlogs. A more closer investigation has shown that the adult education centres at a convenient sample of 3 secondary schools in the Western Cape (N = 18) are merely an extension of mainstream education, without taking into account the notion of the Andragogy (The Teaching of Adults). This study aims to determine guidelines to assist the educator of adults on the path to empowerment, in order to help to ensure the above scientific accountability

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Several empirical studies have suggested that self-monitoring is an effective strategy to increase appropriate behavior in children and adults with developmental disabilities. Results of a comprehensive review of self-monitoring research with people who have developmental disabilities revealed that 71% of the participants were trained by researchers. However, researchers are not typical intervention agents. To ensure that people who are typically in the participant’s environment (e.g., teachers, parents, caregivers) can effectively teach people with developmental disabilities to self-monitor and that this in turn will change the participant’s behavior, it is important that research examine the effectiveness of self-monitoring when the training is provided by typical intervention agents. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation study was to investigate the effects of a self-monitoring intervention package on both teacher and student behavior in the classroom. The self-monitoring intervention package consisted of training teachers to use self-monitoring, providing feedback on the self-monitoring intervention developed by the teacher, providing feedback to teachers while training the student to self-monitor, and providing feedback to teachers while they implemented the self-monitoring intervention in the classroom. During intervention, the researchers provided feedback to teachers to ensure that teachers were correctly instructing the students to self-monitor. Teachers then implemented the self-monitoring intervention without researcher feedback (maintenance). Teachers required very little to no feedback after the self-monitoring training, feedback on the self-monitoring intervention they developed, and student self-monitoring training. The researcher provided immediate feedback during the first session when the self-monitoring intervention was implemented in the classroom to ensure the teachers implemented the self-monitoring intervention with fidelity. Rate of inappropriate sitting decreased for all students after the self-monitoring intervention was introduced, and the percentage of non-overlapping data metric values indicated that the self-monitoring interventions were highly effective for three participants and effective for one participant. Some teachers and some students generalized the use of self-monitoring interventions to other activities, students, and target behaviors. Social validity measures indicate that self-monitoring interventions for young children with developmental disabilities are socially important. / text

Collaboration between general and special education teachers is essential for students with disabilities to have access to general education curriculum and instruction, and improved outcomes in school. The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), and No Child Left Behind Legislation, include mandates that increase demands for collaboration. However, many general and special education teachers report not feeling prepared to step outside traditional roles to collaborate to meet the needs of this population. Collaboration is also a strong element of teaching and special education standards for teacher preparation. Yet, research shows many teacher education programs lack coursework and field experiences that focus on collaboration. The purpose of this study was to explore experiences special education teacher candidates had in collaboration with general education teachers during student teacher field placements. The research questions include: (a) To what extent are special education student teachers expected to collaborate with general education teachers during field placements; and (b) How are perspectives on collaboration with general education teachers different between special education student teachers and their mentor teachers? The study used qualitative multiple-case study design and content analysis. Data were collected across three different school contexts (elementary, middle school, and high school) in which special education candidates were placed for student teaching. Participants included special education student teachers and their mentor teachers from each setting. Data sources included interviews, a survey of collaborative practices, text analysis of teacher work samples, and field-placement evaluations. Results of the study show many collaborative practices occur across different special education settings to various extents, and special education candidates have opportunities to learn about perspectives on collaboration and collaborative practices with general education teachers from mentor teachers. However, the standards-based student teaching performance measures did not guide or document the learning and experiences of special education student teachers in relation to collaboration with general education teachers. Recommendations are made for adding guidelines and performance measures in teacher education programs that prepare special education teacher candidates for collaborative roles in schools.

The problem of this study was to obtain the professional opinion of male physical education graduates of North Texas State University with respect to appropriateness of their professional preparation in association with their teaching experiences. An opinionated questionnaire was developed and used to collect the data. Standard and Advanced First Aid and Safety Education, Teaching Physical Education in Secondary Schools and Foundations of Health were the required courses found to be most valuable to the participants in their teaching experiences. Basketball, track and field, football and volleyball were the activities most often used by the participants in their teaching activities.

The problem in this study was to examine the relationship between health education and physical education as areas of specialization as perceived by selected health and physical educators in five southwestern states. Data for the study were obtained by use of a questionnaire. Surveyed educators consisted of college and university department chairmen, secondary curriculum directors, and secondary instructors. The data were presented in such a manner to indicate opinions of the total group of respondents as well as those of each of the three categories. The findings of the study indicate that health education and physical education are related historically and are substantially related at the current time, and that specialization in teacher preparation and instruction in each area is desirable.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-09-28T12:24:16Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernanda Souza de Oliveira.pdf: 1081647 bytes, checksum: 332200063308e70b72772f26c78e765c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-28T12:24:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernanda Souza de Oliveira.pdf: 1081647 bytes, checksum: 332200063308e70b72772f26c78e765c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-29 / When dealing with topics such as the inclusion of students with special educational needs or special education, we usually attribute such concepts to students with physical, intellectual, or syndrome-related disabilities, most of whom are not people with High Abilities / Giftedness (HA/GN). This work is based on the observation at the HA/GN provided by Joseph Renzulli, theorist present in Brazilian documentation and guidelines. People with HA/GN are those who, in interaction with the environment, present superior abilities compared to the general population. HA/GN can be of the academic type, in which the skills are concentrated in the linguistic or logical-mathematical areas, and, therefore, are more observable in the school environment; or the productive-creative type in which artistic expressions and divergent thinking stand out. Theorists differentiated the categories only for didactic purposes, as it is often possible to find people with characteristics of the two types. The Brazilian legislation referenced in different national documents, as well as in the specific legislation of the State and Municipality of São Paulo on the subject, understands people with HA/GN as a target audience of special education and provides specialized educational assistance (SEA) to all students who need it. However, among teachers, the topic seems to be unknown and it can be observed that there are almost no proposals in which curriculum and/or service issues are discussed in multifunctional resource rooms. In theory, I realize that SEA occurs for students with disabilities, but there are few proposals for serving students with HA/GN. Considering the problem of the lack of teacher training that makes students with HA/GN invisible, the present research was developed to understand how teacher training has contributed to the identification and care of these students in the municipal teaching network. The relevance of this research problem is perceptible both from the theoretical and from the social point of view. As for the first, I understand that the studies about continuing education of teachers in special education and with a specific focus on students with HA/GN have appear more recently and more frequently after 2013, thus showing that it is a silenced topic. Regarding the second point, identifying and analyzing teachers' conceptions about continuing education in special education and directed to students with HA/GN can be of great help both for the improvement of such courses and for teachers who work in this area. The research will be carried out with teachers from the city of São Paulo involved with the presented theme. As a methodological choice for this qualitative research, we propose the reflexive interview mode. The guiding hypothesis of the work is: students with HA/GN do not reach SEA care because they are not easily identified in the regular school classrooms and, therefore, end up with a disadvantage in school / Quando tratamos de temas como inclusão de alunos com necessidades educativas especiais ou educação especial, normalmente atrelamos tais conceitos a alunos com deficiências físicas, intelectuais ou com alguma síndrome, não sendo consideradas, na maioria das vezes, as pessoas com Altas Habilidades/Superdotação (AH/SD). Este trabalho tem como base o olhar para as AH/SD fornecido por Joseph Renzulli, teórico presente nas documentações brasileiras. São denominadas pessoas com AH/SD aquelas que, em interação com o ambiente, apresentam habilidades superiores se comparadas com a população geral. As AH/SD podem ser do tipo acadêmico, no qual as habilidades se concentram nas áreas linguística ou lógico-matemática e, portanto, são mais observáveis no ambiente escolar; ou do tipo produtivo-criativo no qual as expressões artísticas e pensamento divergente se destacam. As categorias foram diferenciadas pelos teóricos apenas para fins didáticos, é possível, com frequência, encontrarmos pessoas com características dos dois tipos. A legislação brasileira referenciada em diferentes documentos nacionais, bem como na legislação específica do Estado e Município de São Paulo sobre o assunto, entende pessoas com AH/SD como público alvo da educação especial e prevê o atendimento educacional especializado (AEE) a todos os alunos que dele necessitarem. Porém, entre os professores, o tema parece ser desconhecido e se pode observar que quase não há propostas nas quais se discute questões curriculares e/ou de atendimento nas salas de recursos multifuncionais. Por empiria, percebo que o AEE ocorre para os alunos com deficiência, mas são poucas as propostas para atendimento dos alunos com AH/SD. Considerando a problemática da falta de formação de professores que leva à invisibilidade os alunos com AH/SD, desenvolveu-se a presente pesquisa que tem como objetivo compreender como a formação de professores tem contribuído para a identificação e atendimento destes alunos na rede municipal de ensino. A relevância deste problema de pesquisa é perceptível tanto do ponto de vista teórico como do social. Quanto ao primeiro, entendo que os estudos sobre formação continuada de professores em educação especial e com foco específico nos alunos com AH/SD aparecem mais recentemente e com maior frequência a partir de 2013, mostrando assim, que se trata de um tema silenciado. Já no que tange ao segundo ponto, conhecer e analisar as concepções dos docentes a respeito da formação continuada em educação especial e dirigida a alunos com AH/SD pode ser de grande ajuda tanto para o aprimoramento de tais cursos como para professores que atuam nessa área. A pesquisa será realizada com professores da Prefeitura de São Paulo envolvidos com a temática apresentada. Como escolha metodológica, para esta pesquisa de cunho qualitativo, propomos a realização de entrevista na modalidade reflexiva. A hipótese norteadora do trabalho é: os estudantes com AH/SD não chegam ao atendimento nas SRM, pois não são facilmente identificados nas salas de aulas da escola regular e, por isso, acabam prejudicados em seu percurso escolar

The primary question for this dissertation was: Does online professional development increase novice itinerant Teachers of Students with Visual impairments' (TVI) efficacy for assessing learning and literacy media for students with multiple disabilities including visual impairments? The literature suggested novice TVIs might experience low efficacy when implementing strategies unique to their job after leaving teacher-training programs. Working in an itinerant position can intensify perceptions of low efficacy. One area of low efficacy was conducting and reporting on the assessment of learning and literacy media (ALLM). Using a quasi-experimental pre/post-design, data were collected from pre/postintervention knowledge questionnaires about the assessment process and pre/postintervention written ALLM reports. Eleven participants with 1-5 years of experience as TVIs were divided into control and intervention groups. Four online modules were delivered to the intervention group. The data were analyzed using two dependent and two independent sample t tests. The results indicated the change scores between the control groups pre- and post-submissions did not improve. The change scores between the intervention groups pre- and post-submissions did significantly improve after participation in the online modules. The change scores overall between the intervention and control groups' pre/post submissions were statistically significant. The intervention group completed an acceptability rating scale regarding the feasibility of the modules and the results had an average score of 3.5 (4 = strongly agree). The primary limitation of this study was the small sample size and, therefore, did not allow for generalization.