<p>Forming positive teacher-student relationships with students has been identified as a protective factor for students. However, many teachers struggle to form and maintain a positive relationship with students diagnosed with an emotional disturbance. It is essential that teachers have tools to help build and maintain positive teacher-student relationships.</p><p>This study focused on investigating licensed special education teachers that have taught seventh through twelve grade students with emotional disturbances. Out of the nine individuals who were sent the survey, all nine participants completed it. The survey was conducted to identify common negative behaviors and to identify what strategies teachers would like more information about to help them form positive teacher-student relationships. The survey consisting of short answer questions, multiple choice questions, yes or no questions, and questions that ask them to explain their answers.</p><p>The findings from the literature review and the survey data supported a need for a handbook to be created in order to inform special education teachers of ways to develop and maintain positive teacher-student relationships with students diagnosed with an emotional disturbance. Strategies are included in the handbook for teachers to reduce negative behaviors with students diagnosed with an emotional disturbance.</p>

<p><strong>ABSTRACT</strong></p> <p>The majority of native English-speaking students who have difficulties in reading do not have a strong foundation in phonemic awareness skills which causes their overall reading ability to be hindered. Phonemic awareness is the knowledge that words are made up of different sounds and being able to manipulate those sounds in a variety of ways. About 70 to 80% of these students have difficulty recognizing the words on the page (Moats & Tolman, 2019). A master’s degree final project was created to address this reading issue.</p> <p>The master’s project had two major parts. The first part was a survey study on the evaluation of the newly developed reading lesson and assessment materials and the second was the training handbook for teachers working with students with disabilities in reading. The specific purpose of the survey was to obtain teachers’ evaluation of newly developed phonemic awareness lesson materials. The lesson materials that were evaluated by the participants included the Phonological Awareness Screening Test (PAST), reading passages, one and two-syllable word lists, and four example lesson plans.</p> <p>The following questions that guided this survey study were (1) How do the teachers evaluate the phonemic awareness lesson materials in regard to oral reading fluency, accuracy, and decoding of third-grade special education students with disabilities? (2) What lessons and activities are elementary teachers currently implementing for phonemic awareness instruction? (3) How do phonemic awareness lesson materials align with the goal of supporting third-grade special education students’ fluency, accuracy, and decoding skills? The measurement tool used in this study was a Qualtrics survey. The survey consisted of eleven rating scale questions with open-ended questions. The rating scale was a Likert scale (one being strongly disagreed to four being strongly agreed). Each rating scale question had the option for participants to explain the reason for their rating in an open-ended question. The last five questions were open-ended questions seeking teachers’ current practices and recommendations.</p> <p>A total of 22 teachers were recruited from one elementary school in a mid-western state. The results of the survey (N=1) indicated a need for the development of systematically designed phonemic awareness teaching materials for special education teachers and their third-grade students with disabilities. Based on the extensive review of the previously published phonemic awareness materials, this author found there is no comprehensive teacher training guide that includes key information on phonemic awareness, assessments, and intervention materials. A handbook on phonemic awareness instruction was developed to provide a guide for teachers providing reading intervention to students on what phonemic awareness and related literacy components (i.e., fluency, accuracy, and decoding) are, how to assess phonemic awareness needs in students with disabilities, and how to implement direct instruction of phonemic awareness skills to improve student learning. The handbook this author created also included a section on how to prepare an IRB application for teacher candidates/teachers who are interested in conducting IRB-approved studies in their own classrooms in order to fulfill their master’s or doctoral degree requirements. </p>

<p dir="ltr">Motivation is a driving force to get a task done. It is no different for students. In order to graduate with a high school diploma, students need to be motivated to complete the required assignments. Students with Emotional Disabilities (ED), who often have behaviors that make it harder for them to be engaged in class need something more than their same age peers to be motivated to work through their daily schoolwork. The investigator conducted a needs-assessment survey that gave further insight of what teachers currently know about motivating students with ED, their attitudes towards students with ED and motivational strategies they are aware of. The major findings from this research stressed that teachers do not have all the tools they need to successfully motivate students with ED. These results led to a handbook that provided strategies to use and materials to go along with the research.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Special education students are entitled to access the rigor of the general education classroom, which has created environments where special education teachers are co-teaching with general education teachers. Co-teaching has become the most common method for supporting students with disabilities while providing the same rigorous education that their non-disabled peers receive. This study aimed to understand what general education and special education teachers perceived as strengths and challenges in co-teaching.</p><p dir="ltr">Co-teaching is a common model used in public schools today to address the inclusion of students with disabilities into the general education classroom. Although research suggests that Co-teaching has positive effects, the outcomes are often not as successful as hoped.</p><p dir="ltr">Research has shown that there are many challenges with implementing coteaching, such as lack of common planning time, special education teachers' lack of content knowledge, control or “turf” issues, differences in teachers’ personalities, differences in teaching Philosophy, and disagreements about discipline and behavior management (Chitiyo, 2017, Scruggs & Mastropieri, 2017, Shin et al., 2016). Successful co-teaching requires general education teachers, special education teachers, and administrators working together for the greater good.</p><p dir="ltr">This research was conducted by a survey to identify what the teachers perceived as the biggest challenges with co-teaching. This study was based on a peer-reviewed literature review of scholarly journals about co-teaching perceptions in other middle schools. Data was collected from special education and general education teachers using a needs assessment survey. This research provided strategies for special education and general education teachers to collaborate successfully, share responsibilities, and choose the most effective co-teaching method in their classrooms.</p><p dir="ltr">This research provided a greater understanding of the strengths and challenges of co-teaching in two middle schools compared to previous research. The survey questions explored the perspectives of the general education and the special education teacher on the roles of co-teaching and preservice/in-service preparation. The survey data was organized looking for the themes or patterns to emerge, making note of each one. This process was completed using Qualtrics online survey software.</p><p dir="ltr">The results of the survey show that although co-teaching is the most common method used to support the inclusion of students with disabilities, the teachers need additional training. The number of years of teaching did not change the responses of the teachers. The survey results also showed that most of the teachers felt they needed adequate time together to plan effective co-teaching strategies in the classroom but were not given that planning time currently.</p><p dir="ltr">The findings of this study provided educators strategies for effective co-teaching collaborative learning teams. One strategy that is important to effective co-teaching is having the teachers gain knowledge of each other on a personal level. This will allow the teachers to understand the personalities within the co-teaching team. This helps build the mutual trust that is required for co-teaching to be successful.</p><p dir="ltr">One strategy for the administrators is to investigate the areas in which teachers may require additional training to increase the effectiveness of co-teaching collaboration.</p><p><br></p>

<p dir="ltr">Researchers have developed Evidence-Based Practices (EBPs) to enhance student math outcomes within the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) framework. However, these EBPs often fail in real school settings due to poor implementation practices. Concerns about whether educators implement EBPs with sufficient fidelity persist. Implementation Fidelity (IF) measures how closely program delivery aligns with its intended design. This study investigated the effects and implications of an IF intervention package designed to equip general education majors with the necessary skills to implement a mathematics word problem-solving (WPS) intervention—the Conceptual Model-Based Problem-Solving (COMPS) intervention—with appropriate fidelity. Additionally, the study explored the real-world experiences encountered by education major college students when implementing the intervention in schools and examined practical factors influencing the implementation of mathematics EBPs in rural educational settings. The findings provide insights into effective strategies for improving IF in educational interventions and highlight the challenges and successes of implementation in real-world contexts.</p>

This study investigated postsecondary disability service providers' (DSP) perceived usefulness of an example of a well-developed SOP. This example SOP was included in a 22 question survey, administered electronically to DSPs who are members of the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD). The participants (n=298) were asked to rate the usefulness of the test scores, rationale for accommodation, history of use or success of accommodation, report writer's recommendations, and student input included in the example SOP for making accommodation decisions. ANOVAs were used to determine if the perceived usefulness of the parts of the Model SOP varied as a function of the DSPs' highest degree, disciplines or fields of study, training for the interpretation of disability documentation, and/or years of experience in postsecondary disability services. DSPs with less than five years of experience (M=1.85, SD = .87) found the report writer's recommendations more useful than DSPs with greater than 10 years of experience (M=2.24, SD = 1.02). DSPs with 5-10 years of experience did not differ significantly from either of the other groups. Additionally, statistical significance was approached (p = .085) suggesting that DSPs with doctorate degrees compared to DSPs with a master's degree or a bachelor's degree may find the history of use or success less useful for accommodation decisions. Overall, the average usefulness ratings for all DSP groupings for the identified parts of the SOP were in the extremely useful or very useful range. / School of Education; / School Psychology / PhD; / Dissertation;

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Thesis (ED. D.)--University of Toronto, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-06, Section: A, page: 2054. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 206-222).