This study attempted to improve upon previous qualitative research by conducting a large scale, quantitative study on the parental experience in special education. 76 parents of children receiving special education services were surveyed regarding their communication with school personnel, the focus of their child’s education, involvement in the IEP meeting, and satisfaction. It was found that parental perception of involvement did not predict active IEP involvement, more communication with school personnel, more satisfaction with services received, or the belief the child is benefiting. An active role in the IEP meeting, though, did predict more satisfaction with the last IEP meeting, more satisfaction with the time the child spends in the educational setting, and the parent believing the child is benefiting. Other findings include the focus of the child’s education changing depending on the age of the child, and that leading the IEP discussion has no relationship to perceived parental involvement or active IEP involvement. Conclusions can be made that parental perception does not result in what is actually happening and that an active parental role in the IEP meeting benefits the child the most.

This study discussed past research, litigation, and legislation that pertained to the topics of parental involvement in special education. Past barriers were discussed that kept parents from interacting and suggestions were provided for future help in overcoming these barriers. In particular, parental perceptions of their roles as communicators and decision makers in the special education process were examined in terms of ethnicity and child’s educational level. Very few items found differences between the perceptions of Hispanic parents when compared to the perceptions of white parents; and some items found as children advance academically, there is less agreement among parents that they were able to be good communicators and good decision makers. Still, this research study showed that, overall, parents in Texas perceive that schools are allowing them to at least adequately fulfill these roles. Thus, the results of this study are much more positive than past research, which indicated that parents felt left out of their children’s education. This more positive perception could be a result of legislation passed to ensure parental roles in educational decision making; it could be a result of actions taken by the state of Texas to monitor the enactment of this legislation; or it could be because schools are taking a more active role in providing best practice services to students and parents in terms of communication and decision-making opportunities; or it could be because the parents who answered the survey were particularly compliant or complacent.

Throughout the history of English Language teaching, the pendulum of L1 use has shifted drastically depending on the method that had gained prominence during a particular period of time. Today, that pendulum has yet to settle and the use of a learner's first language during instruction in a second language classroom continues to be an issue of serious debate. This study aimed to examine the effect of L1 use in instruction on the performance of low proficiency level learners on a grammar task of the present and progressives tenses in an ESL/IEP environment. To determine its effect, the 24 Arabic speaking English learners participating in the study were divided into two groups, an English-Only instruction group and an English & Arabic instruction group and an instrument with three item types (items with adverbials, non-action verbs and context clues that determined tense use) was created. The participants were given the instrument as a pre-and post-test before and after instruction on present and progressive tense use in either English only or English and Arabic according to the group. After the post-test, the students took a survey intended to ascertain their perceptions of the instruction they received. The quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and independent and dependent t-tests to draw comparisons between the means of the performance scores of both groups and within each group over the pre- and post-tests. Additionally, the quantitative data from the survey underwent content analysis to discover themes for student preference for instructional language use in the classroom. The resultant findings showed that the participants in the English & Arabic Group performed better on the grammar task and had greater percent increases from the pre-test to the post-test than the English-Only Group. The means of the total performance score and of the question types exhibited these same increases. The surveys indicated that the participants in the English & Arabic Group understood their instruction better and a majority of the participants preferred the use of both English and Arabic during grammar instruction irrespective of language instructional group during the treatment. This study showed that the use of L1 in the classroom has measureable positive effects on the learning of the students. Moreover, it has contributed to the growing body of research in favor of L1 use in the classroom and has considerable implications for the field of second language teaching.

O Programa de Enriquecimento Instrumental (PEI) é um programa psicoeducativo que busca, por meio de instrumentos apropriados, estimular funções cognitivas de forma que o aluno otimize seu pensamento e torne-o mais reflexivo. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi realizar uma avaliação da influência do Programa de Enriquecimento Instrumental sobre algumas funções cognitivas dos idosos, quais sejam: resolução de problemas, memória, atenção e concentração. Participaram 66 indivíduos voluntários de ambos os sexos, com idade igual ou superior a 60 anos, fisicamente independentes e saudáveis, com escolaridade mínima 4ª série do ensino fundamental I (atual 5º ano) e máxima 8ª série do ensino fundamental II (atual 9º ano), sem restrições quanto ao nível socioeconômico, subdivididos em dois grupos: experimental e controle. Os sujeitos de ambos os grupos foram avaliados antes do início do programa de intervenção (fase pré-teste) e ao seu final (fase pós-teste) por meio dos seguintes testes: Teste Wisconsin de classificação de cartas versão para idosos, subescala memória do Exame Cognitivo de Addenbrooke, Teste de Memória de Lista de Palavras, Teste de Repetição de Pseudoplavaras, subescala atenção e orientação do Exame Cognitivo de Addenbrooke e teste de Trilhas parte A e parte B. Com o objetivo de rejeitar a hipótese de que a melhora do desempenho do grupo experimental, que recebeu a intervenção cognitiva, pudesse ser devida a aprendizagem dos testes na primeira fase em que foram aplicados, outros testes para avaliação das mesmas funções investigadas foram realizados nas fases pós e reteste, esta última realizada após três meses do término do programa de intervenção. Os testes com este objetivo foram: subteste cubos da Escala Wechsler Abreviada de Inteligência, testes de extensão de dígitos em ordem direta e em ordem inversa da Escala de Memória Wechsler de Inteligência para Adultos, Bateria Psicológica para Avaliação da Atenção. A escala de autoestima foi aplicada nas fases pré, pós e reteste apenas para o grupo experimental. As aulas do Programa de Enriquecimento Instrumental foram ministradas ao grupo experimental pela pesquisadora durante cinco meses e meio, uma vez por semana com a duração de 90 minutos cada, totalizando 21 aulas. A avaliação dos resultados mostrou que o Programa de Enriquecimento Instrumental levou a um maior desempenho do grupo experimental quando comparado ao grupo controle em todas as funções cognitivas analisadas, as quais ou se mantiveram ou apresentaram melhoras no desempenho mesmo após três meses do término do programa. Na discussão dos resultados procurou-se identificar e relacionar os instrumentos do PEI com as funções cognitivas avaliadas / The Instrumental Enrichment Program (IEP) is a psycho-educative program that seeks, through appropriate instruments, to stimulate cognitive functions so the student optimizes her/his thinking and makes it more reflective. The objective of this research was to conduct an assessment of the Instrumental Enrichment Program influence on some cognitive functions of the elderly, such as: problem solving, memory, attention and concentration. Sixty-six volunteers from both sexes participated, aged 60 years or older, physically independent and healthy, schooled until the 4th grade of elementary school (currently 5th year) at minimum and until the 8th grade of secondary school (currently 9th year) at maximum, without restrictions on the socioeconomic level, subdivided into two groups: experimental and control. The subjects from both groups were assessed before the intervention program (pre-test phase) and its ending (post-test phase) through the following tests: Wisconsin Card Sorting Test version for the elderly, memory subscale of Addenbrookes Cognitive Examination, Word List Memory Test, Pseudowords Repetition Test, attention and guidance subscale of Addenbrooke\'s Cognitive Examination, and Trails Test parts A and B. In order to reject the hypothesis that improvement in the experimental group performance, that received cognitive intervention, could be due to the learning of tests during the first phase in which they have been applied, other tests for evaluation of the same investigated functions were performed in post-test and retest phases, the latter performed after three months of the intervention program completion. The tests used for this purpose were: Wechslers Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence cubes subtest, digit extension tests in direct and in reverse order from Wechslers Adult Intelligence Memory Scale, and Psychological Battery for Attention Assessment. The self-esteem scale was applied in the pre, post and retest phases only for the experimental group. The Instrumental Enrichment Program classes were given to the experimental group by the researcher for five and a half months, once a week, lasting 90 minutes each, totaling 21 classes. Evaluation of the results showed that the Instrumental Enrichment Program has led to a higher performance by the experimental group compared to the control group in all cognitive functions analyzed, which either remained or showed improvement in performance even after three months of program completion. The discussion of results sought to identify and relate the IEP instruments with the assessed cognitive functions

Research has documented cultural adjustment as an important issue influencing international students and other sojourners in their success abroad (Foster, 1962; Lysgaard, 1955; Oberg, 1960; Smalley, 1963). Few studies, however, have investigated particular variables influencing the cultural adjustment process of ESL learners enrolled in intensive English programs (IEPs). This mixed method study was designed to better understand the individual complexity of IEP learners' cultural adjustment by looking for patterns of variables that aid or hinder these students' experiences. Using the Culture Shock Questionnaire (CSQ), Index of Social Sojourners Support Survey (ISSS), and language-specific focus groups, this study investigated the individual cultural adjustment experiences of Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish-speaking students enrolled in an intensive English program attached to a large private university in the United States. Statistically significant results were found when comparing students' demographic variables with the survey results. Students who identified themselves as having high levels of social support were more likely to experience low levels of culture shock. While, female students were more likely to experience higher levels of culture shock compared to male students. Additionally, qualitative data gathered from the open-ended survey questions and focus groups revealed three common variables that appeared to aid as well as hinder the students' cultural adjustment process: social support, self, and environment. Findings from this research have implications for the development of cultural adjustment training materials which might aid ESL students attending intensive English programs in the United States in their cultural adjustment process.

The history of incorporating students with disabilities in the general education classroom is driven by parents and advocates of children with disabilities. The push has been to educate all children in the least restrictive environment (LRE), changing the role of general education teacher from a subject matter specialist to include the responsibility of educating students with a wide range of special needs. While most agree that educating children with disabilities in the general education classroom alongside their non-disabled peers is better than excluding them from academic and social opportunities, general educators have been a noticeably absent voice in regards to these changes. The purpose of this qualitative study was to give general educators the opportunity to provide this missing voice. In order to collect data for this phenomenological study, open-ended interviews were conducted with 22 teachers in Northeast Tennessee. The subjects were purposefully sampled to gain maximum variation in terms of school setting, years of experience, and subject matter taught. Using constant comparative analysis, incidents were classified into teacher perceptions regarding incorporating students with disabilities in their classroom, the efficacy of this practice, and facilitators and barriers to this practice. Within each of these categories, sub-categories emerged. The data collected in this study supported the notion that general educators were excluded from the decision making process in regards to special education, and that they viewed the rules and regulations as mandates handed to them by superiors as opposed to joint decisions made in the best interest of their students. Respondents also voiced their opinions regarding the efficacy of incorporating students with disabilities in the general education classroom, as well as facilitators and barriers to success with the practice. This study is important to parents, teachers, and administrators who are interested in a better understanding of the phenomenon of incorporating students with disabilities in the general education classroom from a general education teacher's perspective. It also serves to provide the missing voice of the general educator in regards to this topic.

No description available.

A person’s microcultures—including various traits, values, experiences, and beliefs—influence identities and help individuals make sense of the world. The intersection of an individual’s microcultures (how microcultures interact and influence each other), such as disability, race, language, gender identity, sexuality, and religion, plays a key role in educating students with disabilities.

<p>Children with disabilities are more than ever placed in the general education class settings. While special educators are responsible for drafting and writing the IEP, General education teachers are responsible for implementing the IEP in the general education class setting. Studies show that general education teachers lack knowledge, support, and training of the IEP, which affects their attitudes toward inclusion. The purpose of this study was to identify what teachers know about the IEP and the challenges that they face with implementing them in their classrooms. In this study, data was collected from general education teacher surveys, and the results of the data were analyzed. From the data, it was determined that teachers face many challenges with the implementation of the IEP in their classes. From the data collected a handbook was created for general education teachers to utilize as a guide to overcome these challenges that they face when implementing the IEP in their classrooms was completed.<u></u><u></u></p><div><br></div>

No description available.