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Teachers are experiencing heightened levels of stress throughout the school day the impact of which may be seen in increased absenteeism, turnover, poor performance and waste. This study taught classroom teachers cognitive-behavioral methods to reduce and manage their professional stress comparing a Group Counseling (GC) approach with a Cooperative Professional Development (CPD) approach.;Participating classroom teachers were randomly selected for each treatment condition. The participants in the GC approach met for ten 2-hour consecutive weekly sessions. The CPD treatment initially met as a group for a {dollar}6{lcub}1\over2{rcub}{dollar} hour inservice. at the end of the inservice, the participants formed dyads which met for nine 90 minute consecutive weekly sessions. Both treatment conditions received the same information, strategies, and activities. A follow-up session was held for each treatment condition one month after the conclusion of the program.;All participants, including those in the Waiting-List Control Group, completed two self-report inventories (Teacher Stress Index and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) three times during the course of the study (pretest, post-test, and one-month follow-up). Additionally, a demographical questionnaire was completed at the beginning of the study and a Course Evaluation Form was completed at the end of the study.;It was predicted that both treatment groups would demonstrate significantly less of an increase in their measured stress and anxiety levels compared to the control group. It was also predicted that there would be no significant difference between the three conditions in their measured levels of "Trait" anxiety.;A MANOVA design was employed to analyze whether significant differences existed for each dependent variable. When analyzed, none of the hypotheses were supported. However, the data were suggestive of a number of trends.;This study re-affirmed the efficacy of delivering stress management techniques to teachers through a "traditional" counseling group method. The efficacy of the Cooperative Professional Development model was also demonstrated. This study also found that teachers valued the flexibility, independence and enhanced feelings of professionalism the latter model offered, suggesting that staff development programs capitalizing on these components may have a greater positive impact on participants and may present a cost-effective way to increase a participant's level of motivation and willingness to implement new techniques.

A theory is presented to explain the reading patterns found among dyslexics through a single process of encoding representations binding phonology and orthography of units of varying numbers of letters within the lexical repertoire. Dyslexia is explained as a function of lack of clarity in the phonological input, resulting in more tenuously bound orthographical-phonological representations. With extensive exposure to the proper phonological input such bound representations can be formed, but the process is very effortful compared to that among unimpaired readers. In order to demonstrate this claim it is necessary to show that errors among dyslexics occur more frequently in low-frequency words, that more sound-related errors are made, that substitution errors are phonetically close to the proper sounds and that the LATAS intervention, which involves memorization of lists of words, would cause the word parts contained on the memorized lists to have correspondingly fewer errors when they are contained in words read by the individuals than other, non-practiced word parts. The paper proposes ways in which to test these claims.

Formative assessment measures are commonly used in schools to assess early literacy skills as indicators of reading acquisition and to design instruction accordingly. The purpose of this research was to investigate the incremental predictive validity of formative assessment measures of reading comprehension. It was hypothesized that formative measures of reading comprehension will contribute more to our understanding of students' overall reading abilities than simply Oral Reading Fluency (ORF). It was also hypothesized that these measures can be modeled in a meaningful way to explain student performance on criterion measures of academic competence. Four formative measures of reading comprehension---Maze (MZ), Retell Fluency (RTF), Written Retell (WRT), and Sentence Verification Technique (SVT)---were used to measure unique aspects of reading comprehension through production-type responses in an efficient and instructionally meaningful way. The Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE) was used as a measure of overall reading proficiency while the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) was used as a measure of academic competence. Data were collected from 111 fourth grade students from two Western Massachusetts elementary schools. Four multiple regression equations were computed to test the hypothesis that measures of reading comprehension will contribute more to our understanding of reading proficiency than ORF alone. Each measure significantly predicted performance on GRADE above and beyond that predicted by ORF. A larger multiple regression equation was used to evaluate which measure predicted a unique and significant proportion of the variance in reading proficiency. The MZ, SVT and WRT were significant predictors in the model. Using the measures found to be significant with ORF, a logistic regression analysis was computed to evaluate how reliably the newly constructed model predicted a pass or fail status on the fourth grade English Language Arts section of MCAS. None of the predictors were significant. An additional multiple regression analysis was computed to predict MCAS performance and the newly constructed model of reading proficiency. This model predicted approximately .66 of the variability in MCAS performance.

Reading is a skill that unlocks the doors of learning and success. It is commonly accepted that reading is a foundational skill that plays a major role in a child's academic success. The history of teaching reading includes many theories about the development of reading, the source of reading difficulties, and interventions for remediation. A large body of research has demonstrated that reading difficulties stem from a phonological basis and interventions that target this area are generally beneficial in helping improving reading skills (National Reading Panel, 2000; Shaywitz, 2003; Stanovich, 1986). However, there are some who even with extensive intervention continue to struggle to read. Helen Irlen (2005) proposed that these people may experience visual-perceptual distortions when reading high-contrast text (black on white background). Irlen claims that symptoms of this disorder, termed Scotopic Sensitivity or Irlen Syndrome, can be alleviated by the use of color overlays or filters (tinted glasses). Research into the existence of this syndrome and the effectiveness of the overlays and filters to remediate reading problems has been inconsistent and criticized for lacking scientific rigor and heavy reliance on subject report of improvement. The present study seeks to evaluate differences that may exist in eye movements and reading fluency when subjects diagnosed with IS read text with and without color overlays. Participants were screened with the Irlen Reading Perceptual Scale (IRPS) to determine whether or not they suffered from the syndrome. From this screening, participants chose an overlay reported to alleviate distortions or discomfort they experienced when reading. They were then asked to read 18 passages under three conditions—with a clear overlay, with their chosen overlay, and with a random overlay—while their eye movements were recorded. Results indicated that participants showed no improvement in eye movement or reading fluency when they read passages with an optimum (chosen) overlay verses a clear overlay or a random overlay.

The purpose of this project was to develop an instructional packet designed to help instructors create effective product assessment projects for use in assessing students' understanding of course material. The specific audience for this packet was instructors of courses offered at Brigham Young University who rely on product assessment to evaluate students' understanding and skills in any content area. The packet I prepared explains the principles of effective product assessment as they are currently understood by assessment specialists and models how to implement these principles during the creation of a product assessment project. I assembled this packet based on the current thought on product assessment and created instructions to guide instructors in developing effective product assessment projects. This instructional packet was given to a few instructors to guide them as they created product assessment projects for their courses. The packet was then improved based on their feedback so that it can best help instructors create effective product assessment projects as they assess their students.

The problem addressed by this study is the insufficient information in the professional literature which describes the personal experience of therapists as they endeavor to incorporate spirituality into their therapeutic work. Fourteen practitioners, in various counseling and psychotherapy modalities were interviewed about their work in the field, in an effort to fill that gap. In all cases subjects reported that they were working actively in their professions with an interface of spirituality and psychotherapy. Many common themes and experiences emerged and at the same time, each story was unique. The research included a literature review of both psychological and spiritual texts as well as review of the researcher's own experience of twenty years of work in the dual worlds of spirituality and psychotherapy. Data gathered was coded for the emergent categories and themes. The categories included: the participants' personal journey as it lead them to their current work and the interface in that work of spiritual and psychological perspectives, the spiritual views and beliefs of the participants, their general experience of work with people, their understanding of clients' spiritual issues, the techniques and strategies of a spiritual nature that the subjects use in their work, and the problems that they experience as a result of the interface of spirituality and psychotherapy. Case illustrations were offered by subjects to illustrate their work. Profiles of each participant, organized through these categories, and presented in their own words, offered an expression of the lived, subjective experience that each shared with the researcher. Thematic analysis of each category further refined the elements of subject experience and offered a data base for emerging implications. The implications include: the need for greater openness between the fields of spirituality and psychotherapy, the need for greater educational and clinical inclusion of spirituality as a valid topic for consideration, the need for clients to be able to actively pursue, with their helping professionals, the spiritual issues in their lives, the need for spiritual traditions to open themselves more fully to an inclusion of psychological components, the need for more literature from practitioners practicing at this interface, and the the larger need in this culture for inclusion of spirituality in all aspects of life.

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