<p>Response to Intervention (RtI) is a prevention-oriented approach to helping all students succeed academically. It is a framework that, when applied properly, influences all decision-making within a school building and/or district. Currently, most American school districts report using an RtI framework. Specifics regarding implementation, however, are unknown at this time. Given that RtI is a systems-wide approach which is philosophically disparate from traditional ways of viewing students struggling academically, it has the potential to shift traditional school psychological roles. Our knowledge regarding the degree to which RtI has changed school psychologists&rsquo; practices is incomplete at this time. Additionally, there is extremely limited information regarding school psychologists&rsquo; self-efficacy for RtI-related tasks, yet the literature highlights that school psychologists should be prepared to take an active role in RtI implementation efforts. The current study attempted to a gain a broader understanding of current RtI implementation, by surveying a national sample of 392 school psychologists working in elementary school buildings. The results suggest that most schools are using an RtI framework, but are still in the beginning stages of implementation. A large percentage of participants (33&ndash;50%) were unable to identify whether the foundational components of RtI were in use. School psychologists described RtI as an effective method to help students succeed academically. They also reported being more often involved in data-based decision making activities within an RtI framework, as opposed to data-gathering activities. Furthermore, respondents indicated RtI was related to a decrease in assessment-related school psychological activities and an increase in intervention and consultation-related tasks. Most school psychologists reported that they are either not involved in RtI program evaluation and/or there was no program evaluation in their schools. Those surveyed perceived administrators as more heavily invested in teacher evaluation processes than in RtI processes currently. Most participants reported moderate-to-high levels of self-efficacy for all school psychological practices, including RtI-related tasks. Respondents also delineated those things that are likely to both facilitate and impede RtI implementation. The findings from this study have implications for university trainers; educational professionals; and, school psychologists. </p>

<p>The purpose of this study was to assess comparable or differential effects of a therapeutic art (AT) intervention, a cognitive behavioral (CBT) intervention, and no treatment (NT) on levels of Mood, Stress, and perceived Quality of Life in a sample of adult women. Positive results could add to the empirical research on the use of expressive arts in the therapeutic setting. Fifty four non clinical adult women from the Northern Arizona University community were randomly assigned to one of the three treatment groups. Data were collected electronically through questionnaires pretreatment, post treatment, and at three week post treatment follow up. Measures used were the International Positive and Negative Affect Scales - Short Form (IPANAS-SF), for mood, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales - 21 (DASS-21) for stress, and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief Form (WHOQOL-BREF) for quality of life. All three measures are reliable and have been validated in numerous studies with thousands of subjects. Mixed ANOVAs were calculated with General Linear Model in SPSS on raw scores and on Change Scores by group over time. Overall findings show that, for a one time brief intervention, art provided an immediate improvement in mood, stress, and perceived quality of life for the participants and was comparable to (or exceeded) the effects of the CBT intervention and the results from the NT group. Longer studies with other non-clinical adult women are recommended to further substantiate the findings.

<p> Factors Influencing Preschool Teachers&rsquo; Perceptions of Behavior Support Strategies for Addressing Young Children&rsquo;s Emotional and Behavioral Problems Preschool teachers play an important role in the process of early identification and intervention for young children who are at-risk for or have emotional and behavioral problems. However, various factors may impede or promote preschool teachers in initiating the process of early identification and intervention for emotional and behavioral problems. This study focused on positive behavior support (PBS) as a system approach to preschool teachers&rsquo; identification and intervention for emotional and behavioral problems in young children. </p><p> This study used quantitative methods to investigate early childhood education factors that influence preschool teachers&rsquo; perceptions of the importance and feasibility of behavior support strategies for addressing young children&rsquo;s emotional and behavioral problems. Participants were 141 early childhood general and special education teachers who taught 3-5 year-old classrooms in a large, middle Atlantic state during the 2014-2015 school years. The teachers completed a paper-based comprehensive survey that consisted of demographic sections and several validated measures including the Behavior Support Questionnaire. Data were analyzed to examine relative relations among program, teacher, and child factors and the teachers&rsquo; perceptions of behavior support strategies, to identify which potential factors (program setting, teaching beliefs, and severity of problem behaviors) best predict the teachers&rsquo; perceptions of behavior support strategies, and to determine whether there were significant differences in the perceptions of general education teachers and those of special education teachers regarding behavior support strategies. </p><p> Statistically significant findings revealed that preschool teachers across early childhood education settings perceived behavior support strategies as important more than feasible, and that special education teachers perceived behavior support strategies as more important than general education teachers. The findings also showed that professional development, teacher age, and years of teaching experience seemed to influence teachers&rsquo; perceptions of the feasibility of behavior support strategies. Program setting appeared to influence teachers&rsquo; perceptions of the importance of behavior support strategies. Furthermore, the findings suggested that teaching beliefs tended to influence the teachers&rsquo; perceptions of both the importance and feasibility of behavior support strategies, and that the teaching beliefs by far were the strongest predictors of the teachers&rsquo; perceptions of the importance and feasibility of behavior support strategies.</p>

<p> Many forms of distance clinical supervision (DCS) have been used in the last decade, but a sparse amount of research addressing (DCS) in counselor education exists to date. The author used random and snowball sampling to survey American Counseling Association members, with a analytic sample total of 96 participants. In the sample, 54.2% of participants were licensed counseling professionals and 39.6% were student or post-masters level interns. The average participant age was 43, ranging from 23 to 74 years. Participants had a mean of 8.1 years of experience. A total of 37.5% of participants had used DCS at some point for supervision sessions. Overall, participants have a positive attitude toward DCS, agreeing most that DCS is a valid form of supervision and that they are interested in learning about DCS. Overall, participants are being minimally exposed to DCS (<i>x&macr;</i> = 1.61). A moderate, negative relationship (<i>r</i> = -.39, p &lt; .001) exists between individuals whom have used DCS and attitudes toward DCS (Cohen, Cohen, West, &amp; Aiken, 2003, p. 52). Also, a weak, negative relationship (<i>r</i> = -.23, p &lt; .05) was found between individuals who have used DCS and their level of exposure to DCS. There is a limited amount of literature related to DCS and counseling professionals are being minimally exposed to distance clinical supervision. Despite limited exposure and literature, professionals are still using DCS to conduct supervision sessions. Therefore, it would seem important to increase research focused on DCS and develop relevant practices in order for DCS to be an effective form of supervision.</p>

Word processors are being increasingly used as writing tools during writing instruction for novice writers in all levels of school. However, the research on the use of word processors by novice writers indicated that while using the word processor for writing has a positive impact on writing attitudes of novice writers, their writing quality was not necessarily improved. Research on the writing process indicated that what was missing from the word processor-writer partnership was support, both memory and procedural, during the writing process. The focus of the study, the Writing Partner computer tool, was designed to supply such support by providing expert-like metacognitive guidance in the form of procedural facilitation during the writing process. In addition, research indicated that those students who mindfully engaged in using such a computer tool were more likely to internalize the guidance provided by such a tool, exhibiting improved performance in partnership with the tool as well as without it. The purpose of this study was to investigate empirically the effects of the Writing Partner on writing quality, writing attitudes, writing perceived self-efficacy and perceptions of the classroom environment. Data were collected in the form of writing samples, questionnaires and interviews and observations. Two conditions were examined: (1) Students who wrote with the Writing Partner, and (2) students who wrote with the Writing Partner and were induced to mindfulness by being told they would later tutor others in the use of the tool. It was hypothesized that students who wrote with the Writing Partner computer tool (WP2) would have more positive effects than students who wrote with the Works word processing program (Works) and students who wrote with the Writing Partner and had the induced mindfulness condition (WP2 IM) would have more positive effects than the Works group and the WP2 group. Writing effects with the computer tool and effects of the computer tool were examined in light of the two conditions. The results of this study indicated that the induced mindfulness condition was essential for the effective use of the Writing Partner computer tool. Students in the induced mindfulness condition wrote better in the absence of the tool, had a qualitatively different learning environment and used the features of the Writing Partner program more consistently.

<p> A nationwide survey of school psychologists across the four NASP regions was conducted in order to discern if school psychologists&rsquo; community setting related to school psychologists&rsquo; role and function as well as job satisfaction. Community setting was operationalized using a zip code database to precisely define urban, suburban, and rural. Two thousand schools were sent surveys for distribution to school psychologists; 220 school psychologists participated. Respondents completed a researcher created survey called the Regional Role and Function Survey (RRFS) and the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire &ndash; Short Form (MSQ &ndash; SF). The respondents answered questions pertaining to personal demographics, demographics about their workplace, their roles and functions as a school psychologist, and their job satisfaction. The findings indicated that school psychologists across community settings engage in assessment related to special education for the highest percentage of time out of all possible roles and functions. School psychologists in suburban community settings were more likely to engage in supervision and to have lower job satisfaction than school psychologists in all other community settings. School psychologists who were stationed in one school building or a K-12 campus were more likely to spend time in roles and functions other than special education assessment. The importance of school psychologist community setting is discussed; additionally the varying roles and functions of school psychologists, boundary-spanning, factors influencing job satisfaction, as well as methodology associated with rural research were explored.</p>

Challenging behaviour continues to be portrayed by the media, politicians and educationalist as a cause for concerns in UK secondary schools (DfE 2015, NASUWT, 2014). In recent years, there has been a shift in thinking amongst some researchers (Graff, 2009, Pomerantz, 2005) about how to view challenging behaviour in the classroom, recognising its idiographic nature. By drawing upon other disciplines, alongside psychology, social constructionist thinking has emerged as a helpful position from which to view challenging behaviour. From this position, challenging behaviour is socially constructed through language and action in the classroom. This study explored challenging verbal behaviour in the secondary classroom from a social constructionist perspective. A series of observations of three Key Stage 3 pupils and their teachers were completed. These observations were supported by audio-recording and qualitative observation records. To analyse the data, two approaches to Discourse Analysis, namely Conversation Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis, were used to explore pupil-teacher interaction. This analysis focused on the ways micro and macro features of classroom talk created potential for the construction of challenging verbal behaviour. The institutionally defined asymmetry in pupil-teacher roles impacted upon the range and use of linguistic devices used by teachers and pupils. Teachers used a broader range of sophisticated strategies to maintain their authority control of the discourse. Pupils would then seek to address this asymmetry through talk, sometimes impulsively, leading to the construction of situations related to behaviour. As such, challenging verbal behaviour emerged when there was conflict between the pupil and teacher roles in the interactional space in the classroom. This study has several implications for the practice of Educational Psychologists and teachers. It highlighted the importance of considering the micro-level features of pupil-teacher talk in the classroom, recognising their idiographic nature. Dominant discourses, power and institutional talk can make certain things ‘thinkable’ and ‘sayable’ therefore highlighting the importance of reflexivity and criticality around the language that is used when talking about challenging behaviour. Finally, the potential value of Discourse Analysis and social constructionist thinking in understanding challenging behaviour was also identified as a possible way forward, both for the evidence base and for practice.

Department for Education statistics (DfE, 2016b) report an increase in permanent exclusion rates with exclusion also being associated with feelings of stigmatisation, rejection and shame (Harris, Vincent, Thomson, & Toalster, 2006) crime (Vulliamy & Webb, 2000) and social exclusion (Daniels, 2011). Research relating to inclusion has focused upon excluded boys, who form the vast majority of the official exclusion figures, with girls being overlooked in school prevention strategies and research (Osler, Street, & Lall, 2002). This research aimed to explore the stories told by permanently excluded young females in relation to their school experience. Attributions for prior misbehaviour and exclusion(s) were also explored alongside possible future selves. An adapted version of Hiles and Cermak’s (2008) model of ‘Narrative Oriented Inquiry’ (NOI) was employed. Guided narrative interviews, supported by the use of a visual life path tool, were conducted with 3 female adolescents attending Pupil Referral Units (PRU) within a rural Local Authority. Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach and Ziber’s (1998) holistic-form and categorical content perspectives were applied to the data collected. Holistic form analysis considered the overall form of the story and was used to consider narrative plot lines whilst categorical content analysis permitted the identification of themes, informed by the research questions. Narrators were found to reflect upon the transition from child-centered primary to perceived impersonal secondary settings whilst also reflecting upon the transition to PRUs. Key themes in relation to attributions emerged including feeling misunderstood and let down by their school settings, a critical period of distress at home and peer related factors such as bullying, conflict and peer pressure. The research also highlighted the potential impact of experiences and attributions upon future selves alongside the potential gender differences in the experience of school and exclusion. The current research informs potential adaptations to education policy and procedures in order to address gender specific social, emotional and mental health difficulties. It is hoped that the research presented promotes further interest into the marginalized group of permanently excluded young females alongside promoting the practical, ethical and epistemological reasons for researching the perspectives of young people.

The thesis reports a cross cultural study investigating some aspects of anxiety and social perception in British and Nigerian students. Five main questions were considered: 1. The level of social perception in both groups. 2. The level of anxiety in both groups. 3. The relationship between anxiety and social perception.4. The level of social perception and anxiety in the Nigerians as compared with a 'more favoured' foreign student group, viz. the Australians. 5. The levels of social perception and anxiety within the Nigerian group. Method Social perception is generally defined as every manner of social awareness of the Other. The area of 'awareness' under study in the present research involved specific opinions previously established as characteristics of the two groups. In measuring social perception, a more inclusive score was derived in place of the usual 'accuracy' score. This new score considered the 'inaccuracies' as well as the accuracies in a formula that gave credit to a willingness to suspend judgement in predicting the response of the Other. The Anxiety level was measured by the Cattell IPAT Anxiety Scale. This test measures Cattell's factorially independentanxiety response pattern,by combining five personality components that were found to be significantly related to the pattern. Findings The findings are as follows: The Nigerians score significantly lower on social perception and significantly higher on anxiety than the Australians and the British. Nigerians who have been in Britain for more than three years score significantly higher on social perception and significantly lower on anxiety than Nigerians who have been in Britain for three years and less. The relationship between social perception and anxiety is discussed in terms of Rokeach's view on the relationship of 'openess' and 'threat' to cognitive efficiency. It is argued that if the higher anxiety scores of the Nigerians indicate a greater sense of threat, then they are more 'closed' in their approach to cognitive problems, and this results in significantly lower social perception scores. The comparative results on the Nigerians and the Australians are in the predicted direction. The analysis of the cross sectional anxiety scores of the Nigerians reveals some differences from the usual pattern found in 'foreign' students, and some possible reasons for these differences are discussed.

The thesis reports studies of adolescent boys of I.Q. 135 and above, with relatively low school achievement. Twenty-three Subjects were submitted to a questionnaire and interview which were designed to reveal their reactions to various aspects of school routine and the degree of their dependency on their home environment. And equal number of Controls were chosen from the tops of classes and the same number of teachers were asked to give their forecasts of the answers to the questions. The Subjects' responses showed that, contrary to theoretical expectations, these adolescent boys showed few feelings of resentment against authority, and that they were almost unanimous in blaming factors within themselves, such as lack of intellectual ambition or plain laziness, for their failure at school. The Controls, too, showed little sign of the rebelliousness usually associated with adolescence, although the teachers had anticipated that this problem would be paramount. Work, however, conducted at equal levels through daily psychotherapy or once-weekly Child Guidance revealed that lack of ambition and laziness were largely a result of feelings of resentment against teachers or parents, who were blamed in one way or another for the boys' failure at school. This would tend to confirm that the feelings of adolescents are so mixed that it is impossible for them to decipher them clearly and give them expression. Although the majority of both Subjects and Controls were without manifest resentment against their parents and teachers, it was noticeable that disagreements between the two parents or between parents and teachers in such areas as ambition for the child were much more in evidence among the Subjects than among the Controls. The questionnaire itself was designed in three sections, with the same questions being asked in various contexts in each of them. This was to give the adolescents a chance to display their legendary inconsistency. But, as has already been stated, the inconsistency turned out to be indeed a legend, except in areas which dealt directly with school procedures, such as examinations and homework.