<p> The purpose of this study was to determine the student outcomes of implementing schema-based instruction on students in grades 3-8 identified with an educational disability and ascertain how students&rsquo; developed mathematical problem solving skills. After special education teachers in a metropolitan school district in the Midwest administered a pre-assessment, the researcher used the results to select 21 students with an educational disability to participate in the mixed-methods study. Special education teachers implemented Asha K. Jitendra&rsquo;s (2007) educational program titled, Solving Math Word Problems: Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities Using Schema-Based Instruction, during the 2013-2014 school year and taught participants using these techniques. The researcher measured student achievement by using both a pre and post-assessment and M-CAP benchmark scores on mathematical problem solving. In addition, the researcher gathered perceptions of schema-based instruction via surveys and interviews with special education teachers, general education teachers, and student participants. The analysis of quantitative data from the pre and post-assessments of students participating in the schema-based program as well as the analysis of qualitative data from student participant surveys supported a positive outcome on the use of schema-based instruction with students with an educational disability; the findings of this study reinforced the then-current literature. However, the student participants' M-CAP assessment data did not demonstrate the same amount of growth as the assessment data from the schema-based program. In addition, the analysis of survey and interview data from the two teacher groups also displayed discrepancies between special education teachers&rsquo; and general education teachers&rsquo; overall perceptions of the schema-based instructional program. Despite this, the preponderance of evidence demonstrated most students who participated in the study did learn as a result of the schema-based instruction and developed mathematical problem-solving skills. Therefore, the findings of this study corroborated the then-current literature and supported the continual use of the researched program; Solving Math Word Problems: Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities Using Schema-Based Instruction, by Jitendra (2007). The researcher concluded this program a valid research-based intervention to increase mathematical problem solving skills for students with an educational disability.</p>

<p> At a time when state standards and assessments drive educational policy and literacy is defined as print-based, students who don&rsquo;t meet external benchmarks for developing skills along what is considered to be a &ldquo;normal trajectory&rdquo; are often seen as &ldquo;at-risk&rdquo; or diagnosed with learning disabilities. While there may be real variations in the ways that individuals learn, schools have a responsibility to offer a variety of pedagogical approaches in order to meet the needs of all children within an inclusive setting. This practitioner research dissertation seeks to better understand the ways that students identified as having learning disabilities create and communicate using a variety of modes including narrative writing, dance, and digital composition. Using qualitative data collected over the course of a school year while teaching full-time at an urban school with a folk arts focus, the author looks closely at the multimodal writing practices of four Black middle school girls identified as having learning disabilities. Drawing upon a theoretical framework rooted in Disability Studies/ Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) and New Literacy Studies, this study investigates the ways that students use multimodal composition to construct identities as able learners, thereby challenging deficit orientations at the intersection of race, gender and ability. By examining the artifacts that these students created over the course of an academic year as well as their reflections, and by extending a definition of literacy to include multimodal representations of knowledge, the relationships between curriculum and identity are explored. Findings reveal a complex interplay between multimodal composition and collaboration, and suggest that curriculum embedded with multiple modes for representing knowledge can create pathways to culturally relevant and inclusive pedagogy, and contribute to the construction of powerful writing identities.</p>

<p> Function-based assessments and interventions are routinely used in school settings as an effective method to address problem behaviors that impede the learning of the student or others. When function-based interventions are not successful, it is often due to problems with treatment integrity (TI). Using an ABCBC single subject design, this study examined whether function-based teacher supports could improve TI. The results demonstrated that the function-based supports provided to the teacher resulted in higher levels of TI and improvements in student behavioral outcomes. Using function-based intervention concepts to develop teacher intervention support, limitations to the study, and directions for future research are discussed.</p>

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of modified schema-based instruction (MSBI) on teaching post-secondary adolescents with extensive support needs (ESN) mathematical problem solving in a multiple probe across participants design. Participants were taught to self-monitor through the steps of problem solving using a task analysis and with the support of a schema and calculator solved multiplicative comparison word problems. Generalization was also measured within the context of a real-world activity. This study utilized a novel self-monitoring system to facilitate student goal setting and self-graphing of progress to contribute to student self-determination skills. Before and after implementation of the MSBI, three dependent variables were measured: independent steps completed accurately, problems solved, and generalization. Visual analysis indicated a functional relation between MSBI and two of the three dependent variables (primary and secondary). Results and future implications for research are discussed. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Fall Semester 2018. / November 14, 2018. / modified schema based instruction, multiplication, multiplicative compare, secondary, severe disabilities, students with exceptional support needs / Includes bibliographical references. / Jenny Root, Professor Directing Thesis; Kelly Whalon, Committee Member; Mary-Frances Hanline, Committee Member.

<p> The purpose of this quantitative study was to analyze the impact of three predicting factors, low socioeconomic status (SES), participation in community based work experience (CBWE) programs, and the presence of multiple disability diagnoses, on postsecondary outcomes of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The case study specifically analyzed postsecondary outcomes of 70 high school students with an educational diagnosis of ASD, who graduated from public, self-contained special education secondary schools during the 2014-2017 academic years. Postsecondary outcomes were measured through data gathered by the school district&rsquo;s Graduate Six Month Follow Up questionnaire.</p><p> Study results found no statistically significant impact of any predictor variables on postsecondary outcomes. Results also indicated no significant relationship between the three predictor variables. Limitations of the study include sample size, qualification for free and reduced lunch, data collection tools, and time frames. Implications for practice and future research opportunities are discussed.</p><p>

<p> Approximately one-third of school-age children have been identified as students with learning disabilities. As a result, teachers are confronted with the challenge of providing quality instruction to students with diverse learning needs. Challenges and benefits abound in the inclusive classroom. Therefore, the study, considered quantitative, non-experimental, and survey research in nature, explored variables that influence teacher perception and participant-perceived satisfaction of inclusion. The cross-national study consisted of 112 participants hailing from public and private schools in Africa, Europe, and the United States. Differentiated instruction, social skills development, pre-service preparedness, and classroom culture represented the most statistically significant correlates in predicting teacher perception of inclusion as superior in meeting the comprehensive educational needs of students with mild to moderate learning disabilities.</p><p>

Two studies were conducted on the effects of different reinforcement contingencies on the emission of verbal operants by preschoolers. Six participants, 3 females and 3 males, 3- to 4-years old, were selected to participate in Experiment I. Six participants, 5 females and 1 male, 2- to 4-years-old, were selected for Experiment II. In Experiment I, the effects of contingent tokens versus contingent adult attention were tested on the number of tacts emitted in three different experimental settings, using an alternating treatment design. In Experiment II, the effects of contingent tokens versus contingent adult attention were tested on the number of tacts per minute and the percentage of peer-to-peer conversational units. The results from both experiments showed that these participants emitted tacts more frequently with contingent social attention than with contingent tokens. In addition, in Experiment II, peer-to-peer conversational units were low when adult attention was available and increased when adult attention was withheld. Implications of these results include, tacts are maintained specifically by social reinforcers, not simply generalized conditioned reinforcers (i.e., tokens). Thus, special attention must be paid when selecting reinforcers for teaching tacts so that the desired function is taught. Moreover, deprivation of adult-attention appears to function as a motivating operation for enhancing the value of attention from peers.

In three experiments I sought to experimentally test a source of emergent relations defined as transitivity by Stimulus Equivalence theory or as combinatorial entailment in Relational Frame Theory. In Experiment I, the participants were 4 children diagnosed with autism who also demonstrated significant cognitive and language delays, who were selected for the experiment because of their inability to demonstrate emergent/derived relations during baseline. A time-lagged multiple probe design was utilized to determine the effects of training of a frame of symmetry through the use of a cross modal matching procedure requiring the participants to match auditory stimuli to visual stimuli and conversely visual stimuli to auditory stimuli using a computer program. The dependent variables were the participant's responses to the emergent relations of transitivity/combinatorial entailment, post intervention, with a probe set and a novel set of stimuli, as well as the participant's rate of learning for tacts and textual responses. Three of four participants were able to demonstrate emergent relations following intervention. The participant who did not demonstrate derived relations lacked an echoic repertoire. In Experiment II, I built on the findings of Experiment I to determine if derived relations could be taught visually, without the use of language. Three males with severe language disorders, who did not display emergent relations during baseline, participated in the experiment. A time-lagged multiple probe design, with counterbalanced probes was used to determine the effects of multiple exemplar training across visual relations. The dependent variable was the participant's responses to emergent relation probes following intervention. None of the participants were able to demonstrate derived relations after visual symmetry training. In the third experiment, the same participants and materials were used as Experiment II, however, in Experiment III, a tact was taught for each of the stimulus sets in order to determine the role of the tact in emergent relations. A time lagged multiple probe design, with counterbalanced probes was used. The dependent variable was again participant's responses to emergent relation probes following tact training. All 3 participants were able to demonstrate derived relations with the probe and novel set of stimuli following intervention. Results of all three experiments suggest that both bi-directional/symmetrical relations and verbal operants are necessary for derived relations.

In Experiment I, the experimenter selected 13 developmentally delayed preschool students without Naming to test for speaker and listener vocabularies. This affirmed the independence of speaker and listener vocabularies, as evidenced by a significantly larger listener vocabulary than speaker vocabulary. Six participants were selected from Experiment I to participate in Experiment II. None of the participants had the full Naming capability at the onset of the study. Multiple exemplar instruction across speaker and listener responses was implemented to induce Naming in these participants. A non-concurrent multiple probe design across participants was implemented to test for the emergence of speaker responses for stimuli the participants could only respond to as a listener prior to the acquisition of Naming. Within this design was a nested non-concurrent multiple probe design to test the effect of multiple exemplar instruction on the induction of Naming. Following the acquisition of Naming the experimenter re-tested listener and speaker responses finding that the participants could respond as a speaker to the stimuli they previously could only respond to as a listener. Five of six participants acquired approximately 70% or greater untaught responses following the acquisition of Naming. One participant acquired approximately 30% of untaught speaker responses following the acquisition of Naming.

The present research focuses on the possible relation between observing responses and language acquisition. In the first of three experiments, preschool aged participants with and without disabilities were presented with the opportunity to observe multiple aspects of a stimulus. A Naming experience was created in which the stimulus was presented with visual and auditory characteristics, such that the participant heard the name of an object while observing an action demonstrated with the object. The dependent variables measured which of those aspects selected out the participant's observing responses. The participants consistently acquired the actions associated with the objects, but produced fewer names as a speaker. The second experiment used alternating treatments with single case design to analyze the responses to stimuli presented with and without actions. Unconsequated probe trials of the dependent variables measured whether the participant acquired listener and speaker responses for the name of a stimulus, and whether the presence of an action improved or hindered acquisition of those responses to the stimulus. In the experimental action condition, participants acquired fewer speaker and listener responses to the stimuli. The results indicated that the visual-motor (action) aspects of the stimuli selected out the participants observing responses over the auditory (name) aspects of the stimulus. Consequently, the presence of an action hindered rather than facilitated incidental acquisition of names, suggesting the dominance of visual stimuli over auditory stimuli. In the third experiment, participants were selected who acquired listener responses to the stimuli in the experimental action condition, but did not readily acquire the speaker responses. The participants were presented with multiple exemplar instruction (MEI), which provided rotated opportunities to receive reinforcement for responding to the stimuli with action imitation, listener responses, and speaker responses to the stimuli. Following mastery of the MEI intervention, participants acquired both speaker and listener responses to novel sets of stimuli in the experimental action condition. The results suggest that rotated opportunities to emit multiple responses to a single stimulus in the presence of reinforcement can result in a shift of stimulus control such that new observing responses emerge that were not present before. The results are discussed in terms of conditioned reinforcement, observing responses, and incidental language acquisition. Evaluated as a whole, the findings from these experiments indicate that when an individual is provided with a specific instructional history, he or she can acquire additional responses to a stimulus, beyond the speaker and listener, as a result of the Naming experience.