The purpose of the current study is to examine the effects of the Caught Being Good Game (CBGG) on students’ classroom behaviors. The CBGG is a positive variation of the Good Behavior Game, which has been identified as an evidenced-based intervention designed for managing classroom behavior across students, behaviors, and settings. In the current study, the effectiveness of the CBGG intervention was examined within 2 high school special education classrooms located at two school districts in rural southeastern United States. Using a multiple baseline design, the data were analyzed using visual inspection and calculation of non-overlapping data. Results revealed that the percentage of intervals in which on-task behavior occurred increased during the implementation of the CBGG game, while the students’ level of off-task behavior decreased. Acceptability of the intervention of both teachers was favorable. Given the results, the implications of this classroom management tool are positive. Future directions are discussed and the literature base regarding the CBGG was expanded.

The participants in this study were referred by the teacher or the teacher support team for a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) and development of a positive behavior support plan to address disruptive behavior and academic skills deficits. Therefore, the purpose of Experiment I was to examine the ability of FBA procedures to identify students with reading difficulty who demonstrated problem behavior potentially maintained by escape from academic demands. Each environmental variable introduced during the brief functional analysis was manipulated via a multiple element design (Cooper, Wacker, Sasso, Reimers, & Donn, 1990; Derby et al., 1992; Northup et al., 1991). Experiment II sought to empirically evaluate the effectiveness of the Reading to Read (RTR) intervention package in addressing the oral reading fluency and comprehension deficits of referred elementary students. Experiment II also examined the generalized effects of the reading intervention on reducing the identified escapemaintained problem behaviors (i.e., off-task) during the reading class. For Experiment II, a multiple baseline (MBL) across participants design was used to evaluate the impact of the RTR intervention on addressing both academic and problem behaviors (e.g., identified on the FAIR-T). Results from descriptive and functional analysis procedures in Experiment I revealed that all of the participants were performing at least one grade level below expectations in regarding to reading fluency. In addition, all of the participants exhibited more off-task behavior during the difficult task demand versus the easy task demand conditions of the brief functional analysis. The participants also obtained lower scores on comprehension questions during the difficult task demand versus the easy task demand conditions. This pattern of responding suggested the off-task behavior was potentially maintained by escape from academic demands in reading. Results from Experiment II revealed that all participants increased their oral reading fluency levels on intervention probes in comparison to the baseline levels. In addition to the increase in oral reading fluency, there was an increase in their percentage of correct responses in reading comprehension when compared to baseline data. In regards to generalization reading probes, all of the participants evidenced overall increases in their reading skills in comparison to baseline data. In fact, all of the participants increased from frustrational to near mastery levels. Finally, results from Experiment II revealed that all participants’ experienced reduction in their off-task behavior while partaking in the RTR intervention in comparison to baseline levels. This notable decrease extended throughout the study for all participants. Overall, the present results revealed that the RTR intervention was effective in addressing the reading fluency and comprehension deficits of identified students. In addition, remediation of reading skills appeared to have assisted in the reduction of social problem behavior performed during reading instruction in the general education classroom. Important implications for practice and inclusion of the procedures used in this study within applied settings are discussed. In addition, important limitations and considerations for future research are outlined.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

By the second decade of the twenty-first century, the preponderance of scholarship examining oil paintings made on stone slabs or metal sheets in Western Europe during the early modern period (fifteenth–eighteenth centuries) had settled on an interpretation of these artworks as artifacts of an elite taste that sought objects for inclusion in private collections of whatever was rare, curious, exquisite, or ingenious. In a cabinet of curiosities, naturalia formed by nature and artificialia made by man all complemented each other as demonstrations of marvelous things (mirabilia). Certainly small-scale paintings on stone or metal exhibited amidst these kinds of rarities aided in aggrandizing a noble or bourgeois collector’s social prestige. As well, they might have derived their interest as collectables because of the painter’s fame or increased capacity for miniaturization on copper plates, or because the painter left a slab of lapis lazuli, for example, partially uncovered to reveal its visually arresting stratigraphy or coloration. Nonetheless, while the lithic and metallic supports might have added value to the oil paintings it was not thought to add meaning. A totalizing theory about this type of artwork, based on a perception of them as if they had only served as conspicuous consumables, therefore overlooks that in other circumstances the stone and metal supports did contribute to the iconographic substance of the paintings. As this dissertation will argue, the introduction of metal and stone supports allowed patrons and painters literally to add another layer of meaning to an oil painting’s imagery. These materials mattered not just as passive receptacles of meaning but as active shapers of significance. Evidence for this hypothesis exists in the historical record in at least three identifiable contexts: Leonardo da Vinci’s Portrait of Ginevra de’Benci (ca. 1474–1478) in relation to the epistemological debate known as the Paragone; funerary monuments in Roman churches inclusive of painted portraits in relation to theories about color and lifelikeness; medallion-shaped, chest plates known as Escudos de monjas (Nuns’ Shields) worn by nuns of some religious orders in Colonial Mexico in relation to pre-Hispanic sacral materials. All three of these case studies ultimately concern the paradoxical materialization of the immaterial fame of the painter, the soul of the deceased, and the Christian divine. Observing them in tandem provides an outline of the origins and development of the technique of painting with oils on stone and metal, and consequently broadens our understanding of this wider, early modern phenomenon. / Art History

This study sought to describe the current implementation of behavioral strategies across Tiers 1, 2 and 3 of the preschool Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports (PBIS) model by preschool special education professionals in the state of Pennsylvania (PA). Both federal and state mandates have urged and required the use of PBIS in early childhood settings to alleviate issues of challenging behavior, while simultaneously reducing suspension and expulsion at the early childhood level. As such, the current study attempted to outline the level of preparation and training received by preschool special education professionals, across all disciplines, in the area of PBIS by higher education entities, as well as through their preschool special education employers. Furthermore, the study looked to analyze the reported implementation of PBIS strategies across tiers by the special education professionals within early childhood settings across regions of PA. Approximately 780 preschool special education professionals were surveyed and a total of 248 responded, resulting in a 31.8% response rate. A descriptive survey approach was utilized and univariate analyses, as well as one-way ANOVA and correlational analyses were conducted. Results showed the current state of PBIS implementation in PA through preschool special education professionals remains variable, inconsistent and possibly under-supported by employers and higher education entities. A large percentage of the overall population, 62%, reported having taken 0 credits in PBIS-related content at the higher education level. Approximately 65% reported two or fewer trainings offered by their employer in the past two years, however, 70% of the respondents reported being offered coaching in PBIS. Behavior Support Specialists, Special Education Teachers and Occupational Therapists are among the top three defined professional roles that consistently report implementing strategies with higher frequencies than other defined disciplines. Tier 1 strategies are implemented at higher frequencies than Tier 2 strategies and Tier 2 strategies are implemented with higher frequencies than Tier 3 strategies. Specific, targeted areas of global PBIS requirements can be increased to possibly result in an overall increase in the fidelity of PBIS strategy implementation and a decrease in reported suspensions and expulsions, these include the use of preschool special education professionals on early childhood-based PBIS leadership teams and an increase in the frequency of data collection and analysis. There are also a number of reported barriers, including capacity of early childhood program staff and parental and familial involvement that reportedly inhibit preschool special education professionals from successfully and consistently implementing PBIS in early childhood settings. / Special Education