Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
Browse
3 results
Search Results
Item AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF THE ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND NEEDS AMONG SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS AND RELATED SERVICE PERSONNEL(2011) Marsters, Aaron Edward; Burke, Philip J; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Federal legislation, professional standards, and school district initiatives mandate or support the consideration and application of assistive technology (AT) devices and services for students with disabilities. It is not known if practitioners in the field have the knowledge and skills required to successfully implement AT and AT services as intended. This was an exploratory study to describe and compare the level of AT knowledge among special education professionals and related service providers, identify AT training needs, and determine staff perceptions of the availability and effectiveness of AT technical assistance and support within a school system that serves a large number of parents serving in the military. The study was implemented with descriptive and inferential statistical techniques employed through a self-administered web-based questionnaire. Of the 87 professionals randomly selected, 42 participated. Special education professionals indicated a lack of essential skills and knowledge on selected AT knowledge and skill measures and current AT practices do not meet established AT quality indicators. Each professional had AT knowledge specific to their profession, but the quality and depth of the AT knowledge was similarly limited. The findings question the current effectiveness of existing AT training, policy, and supports across professional disciplines. Results suggested this is in part due to a lack of operational device knowledge and skills compounded by uncertainty of district AT procedures and policy for low and high assistive technology. Timely technical support and professional access to AT Lending Libraries were identified as interventions currently working. The results support a growing body of research in the field of AT regarding the lack of knowledge and skills of special education and related service providers. These results have implications for pre-service AT preparation programs, in-service trainings, and district policy and infrastructure support.Item AN EXAMINATION OF THE LEVEL OF LEADERSHIP KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS OF SCHOOL DISTRICT SPECIAL EDUCATION COORDINATORS(2011) Gurley, Susan A; Burke, Philip J; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to examine the level of leadership knowledge and skills of district special education coordinators in a school system that serves a large number of parents serving in the military. Using the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) six professional standards, special education administrators ranked how essential the CEC identified knowledge and skills are to their everyday performance on the job. CEC Standards for leadership knowledge and skills were ranked as to how essential they were to day-to-day needs on the job in support of students with disabilities. This study also explored the relationship among teachers, administrators, and special education coordinators on what they identify as essential to their day-to-day job performance. All respondents provided a self-assessment of their perceived level of knowledge and skills by completing an on-line web-based survey yielding a return rate of 81.5%. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected for this study. After investigating the perceived ratings and the ranking of essential levels of the CEC standards, it was found that coordinators viewed all six standards as essential and ranked their highest level of competency as Program Development and Organization. Coordinators ranked themselves as least knowledgeable in terms of Evaluation. Coordinators identified Program Development and Organization as the most essential skill to day-to-day performance and viewed Research and Inquiry as the least essential skill to daily performance. There was no significant difference among the coordinators on their perceived level of competency across the geographic regions of the system. The degree to which the ratings of essential skills matched among the coordinators, teachers, and administrators revealed both coordinators and teachers viewed Program Development as more essential to day-to-day job performance whereas administrators indicated Leadership and Policy and Program Development were the two most essential standards for serving students with disabilities in the school. The standard reported as least essential to the day-to-day performance of serving students with disabilities was Evaluation.Item Essays on the Role of Specific Human Capital(2007-06-04) Hu, Xiaohan; Hellerstein, Judith; Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Human capital theory states that workers' knowledge and skills increase their productivity and thus raise their earnings. An important dimension of human capital theory distinguishes between general human capital and specific human capital. Chapter Two and Chapter Three of this dissertation examine two groups of individuals who encounter interruptions in their work careers and cannot completely transfer their specific human capital to their new jobs. Chapter Two investigates displaced workers who lose jobs due to mass layoffs by their employers. Their success in job transition depends partially on the extent to which their human capital can be carried over across jobs. The Chapter Two analysis adds to the extensive literature on the earnings cost of displacement by distinguishing the earnings losses between high technology (hi-tech) displaced workers and low-tech displaced workers. Earnings losses are estimated using a generalized difference-in-difference model which compares the earnings patterns of displaced workers with a comparison group of non-displaced workers. The empirical results demonstrate that earnings decline substantially upon displacement and then recover gradually. Hi-tech displaced workers suffer larger initial earnings losses and have faster recoveries than other displaced workers. Chapter Three examines female immigrants to the U.S. whose entry wages fall short of those of comparable natives because their human capital accumulated in foreign countries is not completely transferable to the U.S. labor market. The entire literature on immigrant skills has focused almost exclusively on male immigrants. Chapter Three extends the previous research to the population of female immigrants by examining changes across cohorts in their labor market skills, as measured by their English proficiency, educational attainment and wages. The results show that, across successive cohorts of female immigrants, English proficiency at entry stays constant and average education level increases. After controlling for human capital and demographic characteristics, predicted wages are lower for female immigrants upon entry relative to female natives. Compared to male immigrants in the same period, female immigrants exhibit faster growth across cohorts in educational attainment and in predicted wages. Overall, this dissertation provides further evidence of the role of specific human capital in explaining multiple dimensions of workers' earnings patterns.