Specialist in Education, Miami University, 2022, School Psychology

This study examined the relationship between preservice special education teachers' attitudes toward inclusion and their level of perceived self-efficacy in teaching inclusive practices. The data collected was analyzed with Rasch to determine which aspects of attitudes toward inclusion and self-efficacy of inclusive practice components are easier or harder to agree with. This hierarchy highlighted that the preservice special education teachers surveyed are well versed in collaboration with other professionals, new teaching models, and setting expectations for students. However, it is harder for preservice teachers to endorse having training or knowledge of specific special education laws to effectively support students with disabilities. Preservice teachers also indicated lacking prevention and management strategies for students with interfering behaviors in the classroom. The comparison outcomes suggest that there is a weak positive correlation between how preservice teachers responded on the TATIS and TEIP scales. The current professional role of the preservice teachers had no significant impact on their responses for both the TATIS and TEIP scales. However, the study highlighted some implications for teacher training having a focus on special education laws, interfering behavior prevention and classroom management, and individualized instruction models for students with specific needs.

Committee: Jason Abbitt (Advisor); Kevin Bush (Committee Member); William Boone (Committee Member); Sarah Watt (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Psychology; Special Education

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2023, Educational Leadership

In the United States, racial or ethnic minorities make up more than half of the nation's children under age 15; and within 10 years, no racial or ethnic group will constitute a true majority (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019). Students of Color benefit when their teachers are racially representative, yet decreasing numbers of Teachers of Color are trained, hired, employed, and retained in districts all over the United States. Within the last decade, K-12 institutions are increasing their efforts to improve interactional diversity between staff and students by offering diversity training to teachers and staff members. The primary purpose of this interpretive phenomenological study was to examine teacher perceptions of one diversity, equity, and inclusion presented over two years within a school. The data for this study was collected within in-depth, semi-structured individual interviews, surveys, and memos. The interviews consisted of thirteen questions with nine educators from a non-unionized charter school– a school with a 98% Black student population. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, and both were coded and examined for patterns and contradictions. Ultimately, three main themes emerged from the data: (1) Diversity efforts are enhanced by providing small groups with a focus on multi-perspectival and intersectional lenses from which teachers can glean knowledge; (2) safe spaces which offer the opportunity for an expansion of cultural knowledge are inherent to improving diversity efforts in schools; and (3) classroom strategies tied to student perspectives, data analysis, and curriculum must be implemented within the trainings.

Committee: Pamela Young (Committee Chair); Mary Ziskin (Committee Member); David Dolph (Committee Member); Patty Alvarez (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Secondary Education; Teaching

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2022, Educational Leadership

Special education within urban, public schools does not always look the same from state to state, district to district, or teacher to teacher. More specifically, teacher knowledge, abilities, and experiences also oftentimes differs in inclusive classrooms that service both students with disabilities as well as students without disabilities. These differences can present problems of practice between co-teachers as well as within the classroom procedures and practices. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the lived experiences of special education teachers in urban schools with experience in both co-teaching and independent teaching of students with disabilities. The findings revealed the following themes reported by special education teachers: teacher-assistant role playing, communication replacing co-planning, and desire to share input.

Committee: Corinne Brion (Committee Chair); John Jackson (Committee Member); Carol Rogers-Shaw (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Secondary Education; Special Education; Teacher Education; Teaching

MA, Kent State University, 2015, College of the Arts / School of Art

This research focuses on the motivation of adolescent students, including several with special needs, in an art classroom to create artworks through the use of digital and Visual Culture experiences. Action research was conducted in two different classroom settings over several months in a public school. Each class period was recorded with audio and video to analyze the students' responses to Visual Culture stimuli with structured discussion questions and relevant studio production. To blend this study with Narrative inquiry, other field texts collected as data included research notes, written and audio-recorded critical reflections on teaching, and photographs of students' artworks. Students involved in the study were part of inclusion classrooms including students with special needs, and students who are identified as gifted. All the students went through a unit of lessons that centered on artworks created as responses to Visual Culture experiences from the student's lives. Interpretations of student art production indicated that all of them were similarly motivated, though students had different responses to Visual Culture experiences that ranged from strong likes and dislikes of celebrity images and enjoyment of humorous personified animal images. Capitalizing on their fascinations with popular images such toys, video games, and animals, Visual Culture can serve as a bridge between students of varying cognitive and academic backgrounds, allowing them to create art as a community rather than as individuals. Research findings concurred with a pilot study which also found that students both collect Visual Culture as a way to construct their identity, and that Visual Culture can be a language through which students can communicate. Though in this study the Visual Culture studied was carefully curated to benefit the lessons taught, the students showed their interests in many other varied experiences that surfaced during the implementation of this pedagogy. One of the (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Koon-Hwee Kan PhD (Advisor); Linda Hoeptner-Poling PhD (Committee Member); Juliann Dorff MAT (Committee Member); Jeanne Ruscoe-Smith PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education

EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2009, Education : Special Education

An observation code was utilized to study how children with mild to moderate hearing loss participate within inclusive classroom settings. Participation was considered as active engagement as well as following routines and directions. Prevalence of behavior, responses to practice and prompt opportunities, levels of prompting required to follow classroom directions and engagement were analyzed across students with impaired hearing and those with normal hearing ability. One student had more responses to practice and prompt opportunities presented in the classroom than his normally hearing peers while the other students had rates of responding similar to their peers' data on this variable. A consistent finding was that children with hearing impairment required more levels of prompting and were less accurate at the level of class-wide verbal prompts than their normal hearing peers, and that variation occurred by types of activities. Engagement data indicated that four of the children with hearing loss had similar rates of engagement to their peers. One student had lower rates of engagement in the classroom than his normally hearing peers. Agreement data on all coded variables ranged between 82.76% and 98.99% for all variables except prompting at the individual level (73.50%) and visual level (50%). Social validity judgments by parents and teachers indicated that the information gleaned in this study was useful and important. They also indicated that the information addressed concerns and would be helpful with educational planning. Direct observation is used idiographically for intervention purposes, and students with hearing impairment may have been well placed in the selected inclusionary classrooms limiting observable differences. Still, potential uses for data derived from direct observation include consultation with teachers regarding interventions to increase student engagement and impact student learning within the inclusive classroom context. By repeated observat (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Anne Bauer EdD (Committee Chair); David Barnett PhD (Committee Member); Stephen Kroeger EdD (Committee Member); Susan Wiley MD (Committee Member) Subjects: Special Education

Master of Education (MEd), Bowling Green State University, 2011, Curriculum and Teaching

Diversity in the classroom is growing rapidly with students reflecting differences in race, religion, disabilities, interests, backgrounds, and abilities. Differentiated instruction has been researched to successfully increase student performance and engagement in these diverse classrooms. This study aims at enriching the knowledge base centered on differentiated instruction and its effect on engagement. The research question guiding this study was: What is the nature of engagement for teachers and students in a differentiated instruction classroom? This research study investigated a 5th grade classroom in an urban area grade school in the Midwest. This is a full inclusion 5th grade classroom, with 11 typically developing students and 11 students with special needs. In addition, this classroom is co-taught by a general education teacher and a special education teacher. The participants for this study included the 22 students and two teachers in this classroom. The research conducted for this study is qualitative in nature and utilized phenomenology as the research method. Findings of the study indicated that differentiated instruction can be an invaluable tool utilized to increase engagement and motivation in the classroom while accommodating for student differences. Furthermore, cooperating teachers participating in the study emphasized the need for teacher's willingness to accept students at their different ability levels and try to reach them so they succeed in the classroom.

Committee: Mohammed Darabie PhD (Advisor); Nancy Patterson PhD (Committee Member); Tracy Huziak-Clark PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education