Teachers’ responses as well as the children’s types of disabilities have a great impact on how often and in what ways the children will communicate with the teachers. (Lee, 2001; Wu, 2003). Limited research on teacher-student interactions in special education classroom settings raises a series of questions regarding the teachers’ perspectives, teacher training, children’s communication behaviors and their learning of social communication skills. The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of interactions between teachers and young children with developmental disabilities including severe/multiple developmental disabilities (SMDD) during communication interventions and how both were mutually influenced by such interactions. Specifically, the guiding questions were: (a) How did teachers interact with young children with developmental disabilities during interventions? (b) Why did the teachers choose certain types of responses and strategies/techniques during interventions? and (c) What were the outcomes of the communication interventions for young children with developmental disabilities including SMDD? Using naturalistic inquiry as the research method, and drawing on sociocultural theory, this research constructed a case study of teacher-student interactions during communication intervention in one classroom in south Taiwan. Participants included three special educators and four students with developmental disabilities. Data sources included classroom observations, interviews with teachers, and document analysis. Data were analyzed using the constant-comparative method and discourse analysis. The findings revealed that the three teacher participants made efforts to shape the young children’s learning attitudes and behaviors. Yet, how they responded to the individual child was varied in terms of the young children’s disabilities, their capabilities for communication, and their specific challenging behaviors. The communication interventions resulted in some positive outcomes of the children’s social communication skills. However, the teachers’ lack of knowledge and training of implementing assistive technologies limited their ability to carry out effective communication interventions for the child with SMDD. Further, the teachers’ concerns for the children’s utilization of appropriate social communication manners were influenced greatly by their own their professional training and perspectives which might be influenced by Chinese culture and Confusion’s philosophy. These findings have implications for further research, classroom practice, and teacher education. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1996. / Issued also on microfilm. Includes tables. Sponsor: Franceska Smith. Dissertation Committee: Kathleen Loughlin. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 235-245).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 869-898).

Across grade levels, students with learning disabilities (LD) experience challenges with aspects of their academic learning in terms of reading and writing. In many cases, these challenges can be addressed by utilizing assistive technology (AT) applications as a potential solution. According to the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 2004, AT should be "considered" in the development of the Individualized Education Program (IEP) to meet the requirement of providing a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) and to assist students in accessing the general education curriculum. The law requires IEP teams to consider AT to determine whether AT devices and services are necessary; therefore, IEP team members play an important role for considering AT and how AT should be specified in the IEP (Golden, 1998). The IEP team members include school administrators, teachers, and professionals who are responsible for developing, reviewing, and revising the IEP for students with disabilities. Thus, the IEP team members should have essential knowledge to inform AT decisionmaking (Bowser, 2003). The Technology and Media Division (TAM) of the Council of Exceptional Children (CEC) lists standards and teacher competencies regarding knowledge and skills of AT for practitioners and related professionals to follow. The standards include obtaining knowledge about AT legal foundations, students' characteristics, instructional content, technology applications, and related services for providing technology. In order to know whether IEP team members possess knowledge for considering AT for students with LD, the purpose of this study was to examine IEP team members' knowledge regarding characteristics of students with LD, AT legislation, AT devices, and AT services for considering assistive technology in the IEP development for 3rd grade to 5th grade students who have been identified as having learning disabilities in reading and writing. Participants (N=1050) including school administrators, general education teachers, special education teachers, diagnosticians, and speech/language pathologists from three school districts in a southern state were surveyed. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to analyze the data. The results showed that participants were somewhat knowledgeable about the characteristics of students with LD, AT legislation, AT devices, and AT services when considering AT in the IEP development. Training in terms of quality and quantity was suggested by researchers to provide IEP team members who are serving students with LD better preparing for considering AT in the IEP team meetings. Future research should focus on conducting a similar study with different IEP team members and with different disability groups rather than just learning disability.

Evidence-based educational policymaking has become a global phenomenon (Wiseman, 2010). According to the Institute of Education Sciences, evidence-based education is "an integration of the professional wisdom and the best available empirical evidence on making decision about how to deliver instructions" (IES, US Department of Education, 2012). This suggests that best practice requires teachers to ensure that instructional strategies and programs implemented in their classroom have been studied in scientific experiments to determine their effectiveness. The general public, as well as practicing teachers, holds an assumption that educators have knowledge as to what is evidence-based education. However, this is not always the case. The objective of this these include: to document how pre-service teachers access research findings and what types of findings they use in their practice, to identify the purposes of its utilization, to identify the factors that influence research utilization, and to ensure the accessibility of the findings of this study. The population for this study will be pre-service teachers at a large public higher education institution and one state college. In order to meet these objectives I conducted a survey, a pre-service teacher focus group, and an interview with faculty. Research findings will impact pre-service teacher preparation programs and increase our understanding of the link between the researchers and educators.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-26T18:49:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao.pdf: 351240 bytes, checksum: 9a133e09ba3c76f152c0dc95109002f0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-03-22 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / RESUMO A formação humana do aluno é um tema importante dentro de nossas preocupações atuais enquanto educadores. Ironicamente, a violência individual e sua manifestação grupal, a guerra, vêm sendo praticadas por pessoas que tiveram acesso à educação formal, revelando que a formação intelectual em si mesma não tem garantido um comprometimento com as questões sublimes e éticas do processo civilizatório. Com isso, torna-se necessária um posicionamento do educador, em relação aos aspectos filosóficos e pedagógicos, para promover uma interferência concreta na formação dos educandos. Este trabalho tem o intuito de propor uma reflexão sobre estes aspectos filosóficos e pedagógicos na obra de Viktor Emil Frankl, através de um estudo de suas principais obras. O autor Viktor E. Frankl vive durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, passando por campos de concentração e, frente esta realidade desumanizadora, produz uma teoria chamada logoterapia. Inicialmente, a logoterapia esteve voltada à psicoterapia através do sentido da vida, porém seus postulados tomaram proporções maiores sendo utilizados em outros campos de conhecimento, como por exemplo a Educação. Cabe ressaltar que foram encontradas poucas obras que relacionam diretamente os pensamentos de Frankl à Educação, e isto se constituiu um dos desencadeadores da realização deste trabalho. Frankl escreveu mais de trinta e dois livros, sendo possível extrair de suas obras fundamentos educacionais que têm como suportes filosóficos a fenomenologia, o existencialismo e o humanismo existencial. Segundo o autor, a existência humana vacila, desmorona, se não for vivida no cotidiano com sentido e com qualidade de auto-transcendência.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-18T17:54:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao.pdf: 351240 bytes, checksum: 9a133e09ba3c76f152c0dc95109002f0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-03-22 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / RESUMO A formação humana do aluno é um tema importante dentro de nossas preocupações atuais enquanto educadores. Ironicamente, a violência individual e sua manifestação grupal, a guerra, vêm sendo praticadas por pessoas que tiveram acesso à educação formal, revelando que a formação intelectual em si mesma não tem garantido um comprometimento com as questões sublimes e éticas do processo civilizatório. Com isso, torna-se necessária um posicionamento do educador, em relação aos aspectos filosóficos e pedagógicos, para promover uma interferência concreta na formação dos educandos. Este trabalho tem o intuito de propor uma reflexão sobre estes aspectos filosóficos e pedagógicos na obra de Viktor Emil Frankl, através de um estudo de suas principais obras. O autor Viktor E. Frankl vive durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, passando por campos de concentração e, frente esta realidade desumanizadora, produz uma teoria chamada logoterapia. Inicialmente, a logoterapia esteve voltada à psicoterapia através do sentido da vida, porém seus postulados tomaram proporções maiores sendo utilizados em outros campos de conhecimento, como por exemplo a Educação. Cabe ressaltar que foram encontradas poucas obras que relacionam diretamente os pensamentos de Frankl à Educação, e isto se constituiu um dos desencadeadores da realização deste trabalho. Frankl escreveu mais de trinta e dois livros, sendo possível extrair de suas obras fundamentos educacionais que têm como suportes filosóficos a fenomenologia, o existencialismo e o humanismo existencial. Segundo o autor, a existência humana vacila, desmorona, se não for vivida no cotidiano com sentido e com qualidade de auto-transcendência.

Primary school teachers in Zimbabwe tend to face a number of challenges that need to be overcome if they are to handle learners with diverse needs effectively. The main problem has been failure by teachers to deal with gifted learners. The objective of this qualitative study focused on answering the key research question, ‘What are the teacher education initiatives undertaken by Teachers Colleges to prepare trainee teachers in handling gifted learners in primary schools in Zimbabwe?’ The problem is mainly attributed to preparation of teachers during pre-service training. Primary school education in Zimbabwe has tended to ignore gifted learners as compared to learners who experience academic barriers. It has been observed that records kept by trainee teachers on teaching practice reflect some serious planning considerations given to remedial cases in which gifted learners are completely ignored. This suggests that the trainee teachers are not deliberately ignoring gifted learners but have an inherent assumption that they do not need extra attention. The research was grounded in the constructivist paradigm to gain a full understanding of the social life-world of the initiatives by teacher education in the preparation of trainee teachers to handle gifted learners. A phenomenological design was employed to collect data through qualitative methods, namely semi-structured interviews, observation and focus group discussion. The respondents to these data collection methods were lecturers from two teachers colleges, qualified teachers and trainee teachers from two primary schools. The main finding was that gifted education was missing in the teacher preparation to enable trainee teachers to handle gifted learners. The researcher made some recommendations from the conclusions drawn from the research findings. The recommendations included that there is need for a national policy on gifted education to provide guidelines for teacher education programmes and that teacher training colleges should review their curriculum specifically in Theory of Education and Professional Studies to include gifted education. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

Primary school teachers in Zimbabwe tend to face a number of challenges that need to be overcome if they are to handle learners with diverse needs effectively. The main problem has been failure by teachers to deal with gifted learners. The objective of this qualitative study focused on answering the key research question, ‘What are the teacher education initiatives undertaken by Teachers Colleges to prepare trainee teachers in handling gifted learners in primary schools in Zimbabwe?’ The problem is mainly attributed to preparation of teachers during pre-service training. Primary school education in Zimbabwe has tended to ignore gifted learners as compared to learners who experience academic barriers. It has been observed that records kept by trainee teachers on teaching practice reflect some serious planning considerations given to remedial cases in which gifted learners are completely ignored. This suggests that the trainee teachers are not deliberately ignoring gifted learners but have an inherent assumption that they do not need extra attention. The research was grounded in the constructivist paradigm to gain a full understanding of the social life-world of the initiatives by teacher education in the preparation of trainee teachers to handle gifted learners. A phenomenological design was employed to collect data through qualitative methods, namely semi-structured interviews, observation and focus group discussion. The respondents to these data collection methods were lecturers from two teachers colleges, qualified teachers and trainee teachers from two primary schools. The main finding was that gifted education was missing in the teacher preparation to enable trainee teachers to handle gifted learners. The researcher made some recommendations from the conclusions drawn from the research findings. The recommendations included that there is need for a national policy on gifted education to provide guidelines for teacher education programmes and that teacher training colleges should review their curriculum specifically in Theory of Education and Professional Studies to include gifted education. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)