College of Education
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item The Effects of Explicit Instruction with Dynamic Geometry Software for Secondary Students with ADHD/Learning Disabilities(2015) Toronto, Allyson Patricia; De La Paz, Susan; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The current study examined the effect of an instructional package on the ability of secondary students with mathematics difficulties to solve geometric similarity transformations. The instructional package includes a blend of research-based instructional practices including explicit instruction, the CRA sequence, and Dynamic Geometry Software. A multiple probe design across four participants was used to evaluate the intervention. The participants were four students with a history of mathematics difficulty in a suburban mid-Atlantic high school. Results of the study demonstrated that all four students improved their accuracy on geometric similarity transformations and maintained those skills four weeks after the completion of the intervention. Furthermore, providing multiple visual representations, including technology such as dynamic geometry software, as well as concrete manipulatives, allowed participants to make connections to geometric content and enhanced their metacognition, self-efficacy, and disposition toward geometry. This study supports the use of integrated instruction utilizing explicit instruction and visual representations for high school students with MD on grade-level geometry content.Item Cognitive and Noncognitive Predictors of Academic Performance for College Students with Learning Disabilities(2013) Scarfone, Melissa Delores; Strein, William O; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to investigate if there are differences in how cognitive and noncognitive variables predict academic performance for college students with learning disabilities. In particular, this study examined the extent to which the cognitive variables of high school grade point average and SAT (combined verbal and math) or ACT score as well as noncognitive variables, contribute to cumulative college grade point average at the end of students' freshman, sophomore, and junior years of college. Participants were 88 college students with learning disabilities at a large, public university and a private, mid-sized, university located in the mid-Atlantic area of the United States. Using Sedlacek's (2004) Noncognitive Assessment method as a conceptual framework for this study, participants completed the Noncognitive Questionnaire (NCQ), an instrument that was developed to assess eight noncognitive variables. Hierarchic multiple regression analyses were performed on the data in order to determine the variables that best predict the academic performance of college students with learning disabilities. The findings of this study could not be used make a determination as to whether or not the noncognitive variables of the NCQ predict college performance alone or add to the prediction of college performance beyond the HSGPA, beyond the SAT, and beyond both HSGPA and SAT due to the poor internal consistency that was found for the eight NCQ subscales. At the same time, support was found that while HSGPA is a good predictor of academic performance for this population of students, not standardized test scores were notItem EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL OF ART-BASED EDUCATION FOR ADOLESCENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES: A CASE STUDY OF ENGAGEMENT IN LEARNING THROUGH THE ARTS(2010) Abedin, Golnar; Spreen, Carol Anne; Weible, Thomas; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to explore the benefits of arts-based education for adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) placed in an inclusion program. The goal was to examine the potential of arts education as an inclusive curricular component that enhances students' engagement in learning. The study is framed within the education policy context in which many LD adolescents are at risk of dropping out of school due to the large gap between their basic skills and the expectations of standards-based curriculum. A quality arts program at a public charter school was chosen as the site for this case study that involved investigating seven LD adolescents' engagement in their music and drama classes during an eight-week curriculum unit through qualitative research methods. Based on the application of the social-constructivist theoretical framework, students' individual learning profiles, as well as environmental aspects of learning in the arts such as teachers' pedagogical styles and the classroom context informed the findings of this study. Students' narrative accounts regarding their learning experiences in arts education classrooms served as the primary source of information for the themes in the findings. Interviews with parents, teachers, and the school director were used to gain a comprehensive understanding of students' strengths and weaknesses in learning and to gain insights into the place of the arts in their overall educational opportunities. Qualitative methods of analysis were used to derive three over-arching themes based on students' experiences learning in the arts. The themes included 1.) "It feels like you open up to yourself," (The Importance of Nonverbal, Embodied Engagement in Learning); 2.) "You get to create what's your own;" "it has some thought part of it centered near you," (Student Ownership of the Learning Process); 3.) "In arts there is no wrong answer;" "it's a safer social environment," (Social and Environmental Context of Learning). These themes showed the importance of successful learning experiences for adolescents with LD within a diverse school curriculum that offers them multiple modes of engagement and expression. Participation in arts education classes enhanced LD students' self-efficacy beliefs and motivation, providing them with inclusive and meaningful educational opportunities.Item The Effectiveness of a Color-Coded, Onset-Rime Reading Intervention With First Grade Students At Serious Risk For Reading Disabilities(2007-04-25) Hines, Sara Jane; Speece, Deborah L.; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Beginning readers who are weak decoders usually continue to fall behind in reading as they progress through school, negatively affecting their overall academic performance, self-esteem, and motivation. Therefore, it is imperative to develop instructional practices to assist the acquisition of effective decoding skills. Although existing remedial approaches have proven effective with a number of students with reading problems, they have not been successful with those students most at risk and have generally not resulted in transfer of skills to decoding novel words not targeted in instruction. I used a single-subject multiple probe design across participants to investigate the effectiveness of a color-coded, onset-rime based decoding intervention. The participants were first grade students determined to be at serious risk for reading disabilities based on their performance on screening measures. All four of the students made strong progress in learning the instructional words, increasing on average 73% over baseline (range 66%-78%). In addition, for novel words from instructed rime patterns, students increased their scores from baseline to post-intervention by an average of 56% (range 50% to 62%). There was limited transfer at the vowel level to uninstructed rime patterns, with students improving their scores by an average of 29% (range 17% to 50%). All students maintained their improvement in decoding skills for both instructional and transfer words at one week and one month maintenance. The fact that the children were able not only to master instructional words but also to use their knowledge of rime patterns to decode uninstructed words is important given the difficulty of students most at-risk for reading disabilities to master instructional words and transfer decoding gains. Furthermore, the three participants with the lowest performance prior to instruction showed strong improvement on a standardized measure of reading achievement (Woodcock-Johnson Reading Mastery Test-Revised, Normative Update). The effectiveness of the program in improving the decoding skills of readers who are significantly at-risk is a promising first step in finding an instructional approach that is successful with students who have been left behind not just by traditional classroom instruction but by remedial approaches as well.Item A Narrative Inquiry into Perceptions of the Development of Self-determination by Community College Students with Learning Disabilities(2006-05-03) Faber, Alice B.; Mawhinney, Hanne B.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of Document: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY INTO PERCEPTIONS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-DETERMINATION BY COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES Alice B. Faber, Doctor of Education, 2006 Directed By: Associate Professor Hanne B. Mawhinney, Department of Education Policy and Leadership Individuals with disabilities have not traditionally had the same freedom of choice and control over their own lives as non-disabled individuals have had. This is especially true in the realm of education, but in the past thirty years both educational leaders and advocates for individuals with disabilities have stressed the need for persons with disabilities to develop self-determination. This study describes the factors that effected the development of self-determination by three individuals who formerly received special education services for learning disabilities. The research question was: How do community college students with learning disabilities who received special education services in school describe the influences on their capacity to be self-determining? Narrative methods of inquiry were used to explore the descriptions of three young adults who had been identified as having a learning disability, were currently enrolled in a community college, and had received special education services in school. They described influences they perceived on their capacity to be self-determining. In addition, I followed the theoretical perspective of Bronfenbrenner on the ecology of the developing person, of the environment, and especially of the evolving interaction of the two. I also explored the concept introduced by Wehmeyer that self-determination is an educational outcome. The findings highlighted the importance of the role of families, friends, educational setting, and religion on the development of self-determination. The findings also emphasized the concept of the individual with self-determination as a causal agent of his/her life who displayed the essential elements of decision-making, self-advocacy, self-awareness, goal-setting, goal-attainment, problem-solving, locus of control, and never settling for less. Implications for policy and practice included establishing better communication between the home and educational setting and helping parents with questions regarding their child's disability. School personnel need to develop additional skills in helping students become self-determining and in working with students with learning disabilities. Further research needs to develop a better understanding of families with children who are not self-determining to learn what supports would be effective for them in encouraging their children to grow in this area.Item The Writing Processes of College Students With and Without Learning Disabilities: A Protocol Analysis(2005-11-15) Edwards, Cynthia Ann; Graham, Steve; Azevedo, Roger; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: THE WRITING PROCESS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS WITH AND WITHOUT LEARING DISABILITIES: A PROTOCOL ANALYSIS. Cynthia A. Edwards, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation directed by: Professor Steve Graham Department of Special Education The number of students with learning disabilities attending college has increased. Nevertheless, evidence shows that many college students with learning disabilities have difficulty completing their education. One of the most significant factors that affect the performance of college students with learning disabilities is difficulties with written language. A study was conducted to analyze the written product as well as cognitive processes college students with and without learning disabilities used while completing a writing task. This included analyzing the holistic quality of writing, number of words written, and planning and revising strategies used during writing. Twenty-three self-regulatory variables in the processes in planning, monitoring, and revising were used to identify the cognitive processes college students with and without learning disabilities applied while composing. Think-aloud protocols, written essays, and videotapes were used to examine the writing processes of two groups of college students, ten students in each group. College students without learning disabilities wrote essays that were qualitatively better (more appropriate to the writing task in terms of content, organization, style, and grammar) than college students with learning disabilities. In addition, college students without learning disabilities showed statistically significant positive correlations between holistic writing scores and the planning variables of generating ideas, prior knowledge activation, and self-instruction; the monitoring variables of monitoring content, process control, and self-questioning, as well as the reviewing variables of rereading plans, rereading essay, evaluating text and revising text. These results are consistent with the position that self-regulatory behaviors influence writing quality. Moreover, college students with learning disabilities showed no statistically significant positive correlation between holistic writing scores and any of the planning, monitoring, and reviewing variables. The correlations obtained revealed that students who did more planning, monitoring, and reviewing of their writing were more likely to have higher writing scores. There were no statistically significant differences by group in the number of words written, or the amount or types of written planning and actual revising done while composing.