The Instructional Characteristics of Inclusive Classes for Elementary Students with Severe Disabilities: An Exploratory Study

This exploratory study examined several instructional characteristics of elementary classrooms serving students with severe disabilities including the individuals who provided instruction to students, the instructional behaviors of these teachers, and grouping structures. The analysis focused on the impact of these variables on the academic responding of students and the extent to which they were the exclusive target of instruction by the various teachers. Observation data were collected on six students with severe disabilities participating in general elementary classrooms for reading or math, and at least one other subject area. The academic responding of students was similar across general education teachers, special education teachers, paraprofessionals, and peers; and the instructional behaviors of each of these groups of instructors was similar. Students had higher rates of academic responding during one-on-one and small group instruction, but they also were engaged in instructional tasks during whole class instruction. Finally, academic responding was positively associated with instruction focused on the student, one-on-one instruction, and instructional interactions with teachers. Academic responding was negatively correlated with whole class instruction and instructional behaviors that were not directed at the student.     

Instructional ecology and academic responding time for students at three levels of teacher-perceived behavioral competence

Thirty third and fourth grade students, ages 8-10 years, were observed systematically over two entire school days to examine the nature of instruction and academic responding time for students at varying levels of teacher-perceived behavioral competence. Data were recorded on six categories in 10-sec intervals. While the amount of time spent in active academic responses (about 45 min in a typical school day) did not differ significantly between groups, it was found that students perceived to be lower in behavioral competence spent more time engaged in certain inappropriate behaviors and received more teacher disapproval. Yet, students grouped on the basis of teachers' perceptions of their behavioral competence did not differ on the majority of instructional or student responding variables. Findings related to the relationship between responding times and achievement also are presented. Implications of findings for understanding the classroom ecology for students exhibiting behavior problems are discussed.     

TEACHING BRAIN—BEHAVIOR RELATIONS ECONOMICALLY WITH STIMULUS EQUIVALENCE TECHNOLOGY

Instructional interventions based on stimulus equivalence provide learners with the opportunity to acquire skills that are not directly taught, thereby improving the efficiency of instructional efforts. The present report describes a study in which equivalence‐based instruction was used to teach college students facts regarding brain anatomy and function. The instruction involved creating two classes of stimuli that students understood as being related. Because the two classes shared a common member, they spontaneously merged, thereby increasing the yield of emergent relations. Overall, students mastered more than twice as many facts as were explicitly taught, thus demonstrating the potential of equivalence‐based instruction to reduce the amount of student investment that is required to master advanced academic topics.     

Introduction to the Special Issue: The Influence of Cultural and Linguistic Variables on Student Behavior and Academic Performance

Although focus on linguistic and cultural variables in education has been a priority at the federal level, few empirical papers reporting experimental analyses of the influence of these variables have been published. The goal of this special issue is to highlight recent experimental analyses of cultural or linguistic variables on student behavior or academic performance and to illustrate the challenges in translating an applied behavior analytic approach across languages and cultures. The special issue is comprised of studies that address three issues relevant to behavioral education: (1) comparative effects of providing academic instruction or addressing challenging behavior of children with intellectual and developmental disorders in English or their home language of Spanish, (2) delivering effective instructional practices with students from diverse racial and cultural groups, and (3) considerations regarding the translation of applied behavior analysis in education for adoption in a different language and culture.     

TEACHING MEMORIZED SPELLING WITH A MICROCOMPUTER: TIME DELAY AND COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTION

A computer-assisted instruction program was evaluated that used a constant time-delay procedure to teach 5 students 18 spelling words. In addition to delivering the instructional procedure, the program managed the presentation of training content based on individual student responding and collected instructional data on individual student performance. The procedure was effective at teaching 4 of the 5 students the words, and generalization occurred from the computer-delivered keyboard response format to a teacher-delivered hand-written response format. Maintenance data varied among the students. The study demonstrated the feasibility of using microcomputers to deliver time-delay instruction in special education classrooms and suggested several research questions related to specific features of microcomputer-delivered time-delay instruction.     

TEACHER-VERSUS PEER-MEDIATED INSTRUCTION: AN ECOBEHAVIORAL ANALYSIS OF ACHIEVEMENT OUTCOMES

In three experiments, we compared the effects of instructional arrangements that varied in: (a) teacher versus peer mediators, (b) methods used, (c) levels of student academic responding generated, and (d) content taught and tested. Instructional arrangements (i.e., tasks, structure, teacher position, teacher behavior) and students' levels of academic responding were measured by an observation system which served as an index of the independent variables. Students' accuracy on weekly spelling, arithmetic, and vocabulary tests and pre- and post-standardized achievement tests (Experiments 2 and 3 only) were the dependent variables. Results indicated that the classwide peer tutoring, compared to the teacher's procedure, produced more student academic responding and higher weekly test scores, regardless of treatment order or subject matter content (Experiment 1). The four lowest performing students in each class, in particular, benefited from peer tutoring, often performing as well as the other students. These findings were replicated in Experiments 2 and 3 wherein content taught/tested was also manipulated. Standardized test score gains were higher in those areas in which peer tutoring was used longest. Issues related to the functional analysis of instruction and achievement gain are discussed.     

Teachers' perceptions of remediation possibilities of Dutch students in special education

Background. Research suggests that referral practices of teachers in regular education are not only affected by the level of learning difficulties but also by student behaviour and the level of students' parental involvement in education. It was hypothesized that teachers maintain a notion of the ‘ideal’ student, who has relatively good academic skills, is well behaved and has highly involved parents. Aims. The main question of this study was whether special‐education teachers' perceptions regarding remediation possibilities are similarly affected by student behaviour and the level of students' parental involvement. Sample. Nineteen experienced Dutch school teachers in special education each evaluated four students: two with relatively high and two with relatively low academic performance. Methods. Three questionnaires to assess learning difficulties, behavioural problems and the level of parental involvement were developed. Results. Teachers' perceptions of remediation possibilities were related to the severity of the learning difficulties and academic skill. Academic skill, in turn, was strongly related to the perception of the children's behavioural problems and parental involvement, which, in turn, links the perception of remediation possibilities indirectly to children's behavioural problems and parental involvement. Conclusions. Special education teachers may also hold an image of the ‘ideal’ student. Students with high academic achievement levels are perceived as having fewer behavioural problems and more highly involved parents than students with low academic achievement levels. Whether this is due to justified or unjustified teachers' perceptions is a matter for future research. What is important is that stereotyping of students (justly or not) poses a serious problem for the Dutch reintegration policy.     

Developing Reading Comprehension and Academic Vocabulary for English Language Learners Through Science Content: A Formative Experiment

This formative experiment explored the extent to which two instructional frameworks that varied in the explicitness of academic vocabulary instruction, comprehension strategy instruction, and supports for student autonomy influenced reading comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, perceptions of autonomy supports, and reading engagement in fourth-grade English-language learners (ELLs). In the contextualized vocabulary instruction (CVI) framework, four reading comprehension strategies were integrated with two autonomy-supportive (motivation) practices and implicit instruction of academic science vocabulary. In the intensified vocabulary instruction (IVI) framework, students experienced explicit instruction of academic science vocabulary in relation to reading, without explicit strategy instruction or attention to autonomy supports. Results indicated that the IVI framework increased students’ academic vocabulary even 3 weeks after the intervention was over, whereas CVI benefited students’ reading comprehension as well as their perceptions of autonomous learning in the classroom. Both quantitative and qualitative results are interpreted under the lens of formative experiments.     

特殊教育师范生感知班级氛围对学习投入的影响:专业认同的中介作用与未来取向的调节作用

探讨特殊教育师范生感知班级氛围与学习投入的关系,考察专业认同在两者之间的中介作用,以及未来取向的调节作用。采用学生感知班级氛围量表、学习投入量表、大学生专业认同量表和未来取向问卷对582名特殊教育师范生进行调查。结果发现：（1）特殊教育师范生感知班级氛围对学习投入具有正向预测作用;（2）专业认同在感知班级氛围与学习投入的关系中起着重要的中介作用;（3）未来取向显著调节特殊教育师范生感知班级氛围对学习投入的直接路径,也调节中介效应的后半段即特殊教育师范生专业认同对学习投入的影响。本研究结果丰富了特殊教育职前教育理论,对提升特殊教育师范生培养质量具有实践意义。     

Intrinsic motivation among regular, special, and alternative education high school students.

This study examined motivationally related variables among three types of high school students. In particular, students' perceptions of competence, control, parental autonomy support, teacher autonomy support, peer autonomy support, and academic coping were investigated. Two hundred fifty-one juniors and seniors (104 regular education, 93 alternative education, and 54 special education) from a large Southern California school district participated. Significant group differences were found on measures of perceived competence, academic coping, and parental autonomy support. Specifically, regular education students had a higher level of self-reported academic competence than did special education students. Further, regular education and special education students reported that their parents were more involved in their lives as compared with alternative education students. Finally, regular education students reported a higher level of academic anxiety than did special education and alternative education students; however, regular education students had the highest level of positive coping. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Use of response cards with a group of students with learning disabilities including those for whom English is a second language

The current study compared the effects of hand raising and response cards during a writing instruction class in a middle-school resource classroom with students who were learning English as their second language. Response cards increased the rate and accuracy of academic responding, increased weekly quiz scores, and had mixed effects on off-task behavior, but most students reported that they preferred hand raising.     

Rate as a Measure of Academic Success for Mildly Handicapped Students

In large numbers, students variously categorized as learning disabled, behavior disordered, or mentally retarded, are being educated in the "least restrictive environment" (LRE). The article examines the relationship between carrying out instruction in the LRE and traditional versus contemporary assessment practices. It is shown that the selection of performance measures, i.e., measures of frequency, percent, or rate of academic responding, should be linked ot the learning stage of the student(s), i.e., acquisition to proficiency. An argument is made for wider use of rate measures and establish peer-referenced standards for guiding decisions regarding functional performance criteria. Impliactions for the increased use of rate standards within and across special and mainstream classroom settings are discussed.     

USING HIGH-PROBABILITY INSTRUCTION SEQUENCES WITH FADING TO INCREASE STUDENT COMPLIANCE DURING TRANSITIONS

Making efficient transitions from one instructional activity to another has been shown to increase academic learning time and therefore student achievement. Because compliance with teacher instructions is a prerequisite for efficient transitions, we sought to determine if high-probability (high-p) instruction sequences issued by a classroom teacher would increase student compliance and decrease latency to comply during transitions. Three children in a regular second-grade classroom participated. Each day at the beginning of morning calendar time, the teacher issued five instructions to the class as a group while compliance data were recorded for the 3 target students. Following baseline, a multielement design was used to examine the effects of the high-p instruction sequence. We then systematically faded the number of instructions included in the high-p sequence as a means of transferring stimulus control to low-probability instructions. The procedure was effective for 2 of the 3 participants, and the results were maintained at 2-and 3-week follow-up. The implications of these findings for group applications of the high-p instruction sequence in regular education classrooms are discussed.     

Effects of task difficulty and type of contingency on students' allocation of responding to math worksheets

This study investigated students' allocation of responding as a function of task difficulty and type of reinforcement contingency (i.e., accuracy based or time based). Four regular education fourth-grade students were presented with two identical stacks of easy and then difficult math worksheets using a reversal design. Regardless of condition, completing problems from each stack of worksheets was reinforced according to a different contingency; one required correct completion of math problems (accuracy based) and one required on-task behavior (time based). Results suggested that 3 of the 4 students preferred the accuracy-based contingency when given easy material and the time-based contingency when given difficult material. One student allocated more responding to the accuracy-based contingency when given easy problems but did not show a clear preference for either contingency with difficult problems. The implications of these findings for designing reinforcement-based programs for tasks of varying difficulty are discussed.     

TRAINING PEERS TO TUTOR: EVALUATION OF A TUTOR TRAINING PACKAGE FOR PRIMARY LEARNING DISABLED STUDENTS

Peer tutoring—academic instruction given by a student to a same-aged classmate—can be a cost-effective way of providing needed instruction in the typical classroom where one teacher must deal with many students of varying ability levels. This study evaluated an instructional package as a training method for increasing the use of selected tutoring behaviors by peer tutors. Nine male students, aged 7 to 9 years, from a learning disabilities resource room served as subjects; four subjects served as tutors, four as students, and one as a generalization student who was assigned to all tutors during generalization testing. Subjects were assigned to tutor-student pairs based on their performances on a pretest of the 220 Dolch Basic Sight Words, with the subjects scoring highest on the pretest serving as tutors. Each tutor worked with his assigned student throughout the study, except for pre- and posttest sessions with the generalization student. During daily sessions, tutors trained their students to recognize sight words using 10 flash cards, each with 1 of the Dolch words printed on it. Training was conducted with all four tutors in a group and was evaluated using a multiple baseline design across three classes of tutoring behaviors: Preparation Behaviors, Prompting Behaviors, and Praising Behaviors. Training consisted of: (a) verbal instructions on how to perform the tutoring behaviors; (b) charts illustrating the appropriate tutoring behaviors with stick figures; (c) role playing with each tutor with the experimenter playing the part of the student and giving feedback and verbal reinforcement to the tutor for performance of the appropriate tutoring behaviors; and (d) verbal testing of each tutor by asking him to state orally the behaviors he was to perform. Training sessions took approximately 30 minutes for each of the 3 classes of tutoring behaviors. Results showed an increased use of tutoring behaviors by tutors as a function of the instructional package. Increases in tutoring behaviors were also observed during postintervention generalization testing of tutors instructing their regular student in new subject matter (math). Data taken from pre-, mid-, and postintervention testing of the 220 Dolch Words showed an increase of identifiable sight words by both students and tutors after completing the peer tutoring program. This study demonstrates that a simple tutor training package can be employed to teach young, special education students to serve as effective tutors for their peers. In addition, the academic gains evidenced by the subjects lend positive support to the effectiveness of peer tutoring programs and specifically to the research of Dineen, Clark, and Risley (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1977, 10 , 231–238) which demonstrated the educational benefits of tutoring incurred by the tutor as well as by the student.     

Effects of modeling versus instructions on sensitivity to reinforcement schedules

This study examined the effects of modeling versus instructions on the choices of 3 typically developing children and 3 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) whose academic responding showed insensitivity to reinforcement schedules. During baseline, students chose between successively presented pairs of mathematics problems associated with different variable-interval schedules of reinforcement. After responding proved insensitive to the schedules, sessions were preceded by either instructions or modeling, counterbalanced across students in a multiple baseline design across subjects. During the instruction condition, students were told how to distribute responding to earn the most reinforcers. During the modeling condition, students observed the experimenter performing the task while describing her distribution of responding to obtain the most reinforcers. Once responding approximated obtained reinforcement under either condition, the schedules of reinforcement were changed, and neither instruction nor modeling was provided. Both instruction and modeling interventions quickly produced patterns of response allocation that approximated obtained rates of reinforcement, but responding established with modeling was more sensitive to subsequent changes in the reinforcement schedules than responding established with instructions. Results were similar for students with and without ADHD.     

An Experimental Analysis of Phoneme Blending and Segmenting Skills

In this 2-experiment study, experimental analyses of phoneme blending and segmenting skills were conducted with four-first grade students. Intraindividual analyses were conducted to identify the effects of classroom-based instruction on blending phonemes in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, the effects of an individualized intervention for the student who failed to improve in the first experiment were examined. Stimulus materials were drawn directly from the classroom curriculum, making it possible to monitor students’ response to classroom instruction and intervention over time. Generalization of responding to unique letter combinations was measured. A multiple-probe across tasks designs was used in both studies. Results indicated that all students improved their phoneme blending skills and are discussed in terms of the need for evaluation methods that are sensitive enough to identify individual differences in responding between students and to detect within-student performance increases in critical early literacy skills.     

Using Curriculum-Based Measurement to Evaluate Intervention Efficacy

SUMMARY

The use of Curriculum-Based Measurement for evaluating treatment efficacy is described and discussed. The basic methods and applications of Curriculum-Based Measurement are described, followed by examples of its application in two intervention program evaluation projects. The first project involved one individual student experiencing academic difficulties. The second project focused on evaluating a reading instruction program for a group of students. In both examples, the use of Curriculum-Based Measurement contributed significantly to monitoring student progress in response to educational program variables and making treatment evaluation decisions.     

The Effects of Partner Learning During Spelling for Students with Severe Disabilities and Their Peers

A multiple baseline across subjects design was used to examine the effects of partner learning on the spelling performance, academic responding, and competing behavior of three students with severe disabilities and three of their classmates without disabilities. The students were enrolled in different general elementary classes. All students in these classes were assigned to partner learning triads by the general education teacher. One triad in each class included the student with severe disabilities and two classmates without disabilities. All students in the class received two, 20 min partner learning sessions each week. During partner learning, each member of the triad was asked to spell words, present words to be spelled, provide feedback to the speller, and check the spelling accuracy. These roles were rotated among the members of the triad after each trial. These roles were adapted as necessary to accommodate the academic and communication skills of the students with severe disabilities. The effects of partner learning on spelling accuracy were assessed through weekly spelling tests. The effects of partner learning on academic responding and competing behavior were assessed using the MS-CISSAR (Carta, Greenwood, Schulte, Arreaga-Mayer, Terry, 1988). Results of weekly spelling indicated that partner learning led to improved spelling accuracy for students with severe disabilities and did not negatively affect the spelling accuracy of their peers. Partner learning also led to improved rates of academic responding and reduced rates of competing behavior for 5 of 6 students. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for practice and future research.     

Measuring Readiness and Success at a Higher Education Institution

This study investigated readiness as a correlate of academic success among beginning university students. A total of 829 first-time entering students from a large business sciences faculty were participants (males = 319, females = 510, mean age = 19, SD = 0.50 years). They completed the Academic Readiness Questionnaire (Lemmens, 2010) during the first-year orientation week. Data on academic success, consisting of subject marks and credits were collected in 2009 after a results verification process. Data were analysed with three separate multiple regression analyses. The first analysis consisted of the overall student sample, the second and third consisted of the black and the white students separated from the overall student sample. The main findings reveal that high school marks, the number of subjects in first year (credits registered), goal orientation, race, learning-efficacy, gender and the geographical area of high school have a direct relationship with academic success. The variables that predict academic success for black students are high school marks, credits registered, and parental education. The variables that predict academic success for white students are high school marks, goal orientation, credits registered, learning-efficacy, gender, and parental education.