Anya S. Evmenova

An Exploratory Study of Universal Design for Teaching Chemistry to Students With and Without Disabilities

In this exploratory study, students in four co-taught high school chemistry classes were randomly assigned to a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) treatment or a comparison condition. Each co-teaching team taught one comparison and treatment class. UDL principles were operationalized for treatment: (a) a self-management strategy (using a mnemonic, IDEAS) for the multi-step mole conversion process; (b) multi-media lessons with narration, visuals, and animations; (c) procedural facilitators with IDEAS for conversion support; and (d) student workbooks mirroring video content and containing scaffolded practice problems. All students completed a pre-test, post-test, and a 4-week delayed post-test. There were no significant differences between conditions; however, there was an interaction effect between students with and without disabilities for post-tests. Social validity indicated students found IDEAS helpful. Implications for future research include continued focus on disaggregated learning outcomes for students with and without disabilities for UDL interventions, and refinements for UDL interventions that benefit students with and without disabilities.

Trends in Autism Research: A Systematic Journal Analysis

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a lifelong disability for which prevalence rates continue to increase. Persons with ASD vary widely in both severity of disability and services required. Therefore it is important to identify trends in research and evaluate progress in the field. The current study uses a journal analysis to evaluate research over a 12 year period in three prominent autism focused research journals: Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, and Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Findings include identification of trends in research designs, sample characteristics, and interventions.

Strategic Persuasive Writing Instruction for Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities.

Expressive writing is important for school and life success, but remains challenging for many students with emotional and behavioral disabilities. Emerging evidence reveals promise for teaching students with learning and behavioral issues to improve written expression with self-regulated strategy development instruction. In that research, students are taught to criterion performance (e.g., demonstrating mastery performance for each lesson) for instructional periods sometimes as long as 50 days (see Mastropieri et al., 2009). What is unknown, however, is given the more limited time constraints within a school setting, whether students with emotional disabilities, many with comorbidity, can successfully improve within a schools allocated time for teaching persuasive essays. The current study used a waitlist comparison condition and randomly assigned 32 eighth graders to either an immediate intervention or a waitlist delayed intervention condition during which an organizational and planning strategy for writing persuasive essays was taught. Findings revealed students were able to successfully learn and apply the strategy within a reduced time period as evidenced by statistically significant higher quality essays that contained more essay elements, words, sentences, and transition words. Student interviews revealed positive attitudes toward instruction and strategy use. Two months following posttesting, surprise maintenance measures were administered that yielded equivocal results suggesting periodic review sessions may be appropriate. Implications for the classroom practice are discussed.

Providing Access to Academic Content for High-School Students With Significant Intellectual Disability Through Interactive Videos

There has been a slight increase in the number of studies focused on the strategies used to introduce content-based instruction to students with moderate/severe disability. However, interventions for students with significant intellectual disability (ID) are lacking adapted materials to make instruction available in all major academic areas including social studies. This multiple baseline study examined the effects of adapted videos for improving factual comprehension of non-fiction clips by four high school students with significant ID. Video adaptations included picture/word-based closed captions and interactive video searching for answers. According to the visual analyses, students performed better with adapted and interactive video clips. Furthermore, social validity interviews revealed that all students enjoyed the adapted and interactive videos and found them beneficial. Limitations and directions for future research in the area of adapted and interactive video instruction are discussed.

Using Technology for Accessible Chemistry Homework for High School Students with and without Learning Disabilities

High school students with and without learning disabilities in two chemistry classes accessed technologically-enhanced worksheets, called Pencasts, when completing homework assignments. In this action research study, feedback from students was gathered via questionnaires and interviews. Students most frequently used Pencasts to figure out how to solve homework problems, and all students expressed satisfaction with using Pencasts. Students shared other ways they used Pencasts, such as studying for chemistry tests, and shared how they could benefit if Pencasts were available in other classes. According to the teacher, students with and without disabilities completed the majority of homework when Pencasts were available, and almost all students earned “A” grades on homework. Teacher reflections about Pencasts, implications for practice, and future research are described.

Creating Content Acquisition Podcasts (CAPs) for Vocabulary: The Intersection of Content, Pedagogy, and Technology.

Mastering content vocabulary is critical to the success of students with high-incidence disabilities in the general education curriculum. General education classrooms often do not offer the opportunities necessary for these students to master important vocabulary. Teachers often look to technology to help. Several studies have indicated that content acquisition podcasts (CAPs) may have an impact on the vocabulary learning of secondary students with high-incidence disabilities. In this study, 37 in-service teachers enrolled in a master’s program in special education were taught to create CAPs for vocabulary terms in a course focused on methods for secondary-level instruction. Teacher-created podcasts were assessed on the presence of Mayer’s instructional design principles as well as evidence-based practices for vocabulary instruction. Although teachers were able to include many instructional design principles related to technology in their CAPs, their use of instructional principles and evidence-based practices was inconsistent. Implications are discussed.

Dwelling in the Question: Professional Empowerment Through Complex Visual Self-Study

We live immersed in an image-based world, where digital devices and visual media inform our daily lives. This emerging environment for innovative teaching demands that faculty engage with this visually rich digital environment, not merely as a toolbox from which to replace traditional teaching tools but as a pathway to develop new models of engagement with teaching, learning, and scholarship. Self-study of teaching provides an apt pathway for this kind of holistic change because it encourages teachers to reengage in their profession and requires “willingness to publicly problematize teaching and learning … be open to, and act upon, the curiosities, surprises, and challenges of everyday teaching practice; and to actively seek out alternative perspectives on practice” (Berry M: Self-study of teacher education practices (S-STEP). In: Gunstone R (ed) Encyclopedia of science education, Springer, Dordrecht, pp 964–965, 2014, p. 964). This community of inquiry triggered self-sustaining reciprocal faculty development and generated support for intellectual risk and a Rilkean dwelling in the question in ways more conventional collaborations could not. Participants both rediscovered and renewed the idealism and activism that first drew them to the academy, confirming the regenerative potential of transformative learning as well as its accessibility to all.

Designing a Wearable Technology Intervention to Support Young Adults With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Inclusive Postsecondary Academic Environments

In response to the increasing number of young adults with intellectual and development disability (IDD) in inclusive postsecondary settings, a wearable technology application was designed to support students’ learning, participation, and independence. This article describes the design research process leading to the development of the technology prototype. An app for a smart watch has been conceptualized, designed, and refined following the two initial phases of the Integrative Learning Design Framework (ILDF; Bannan-Ritland, 2003). The design principles that emerged from the study include multiple prompting and reward systems to encourage students’ self-regulation and positive behaviors. The findings identify ways wearable technology can support young adults with IDDs in inclusive college courses without overreliance on the support staff. Having major stakeholders involved in the design research process from the very beginning resulted in high levels of acceptance of the developed technology-based intervention prototype by the target population and by the support staff members. Plans for the next two phases of the ILDF, which are beyond the scope of this publication, are discussed.

Persuasive Writing with Mobile-Based Graphic Organizers in Inclusive Classrooms across the Curriculum.

As writing instruction expands beyond the language arts classroom, students with disabilities, English language learners, and others who struggle with writing continue to need support with written expression. A timely practice to support student writing is the use of technology. This study used a quasi-experimental group design to examine the effects of a mobile-based graphic organizer (MBGO) with embedded self-regulated learning strategies and strategy instruction on the persuasive writing of middle school students in an inclusive classroom. After given opportunities to practice writing in the content areas, students with and without disabilities who used the MBGO on an iPad to compose persuasive essays significantly outperformed students with and without disabilities in the control group for number of transition words and writing quality. Limitations of the study and future research suggestions are discussed.

Supporting Struggling Writers With Class-Wide Teacher Implementation of a Computer-Based Graphic Organizer

ABSTRACT Following professional development, 4 teachers implemented instructional lessons designed to improve the written expression of 6th- and 7th-grade struggling writers in inclusive, self-contained, and co-taught classrooms. A multiple-baseline study investigated the effects of a computer-based graphic organizer (CBGO) with embedded self-regulated learning strategies on the quantity and quality of persuasive essays by students struggling with writing. We collected data on the numbers of words, sentences, and transition words and on writing quality scores across baseline (writing without the CBGO), CBGO use (writing with the CBGO), and maintenance (writing on the computer without the CBGO) phases. Visual analysis of group average performance revealed that all students improved the quality of their writing, and the majority of students also increased the quantity of their writing. Despite teacher adherence to intervention fidelity, we discuss the quality of teacher implementation to inform future educational practice. We also discuss the relationship between student learning outcomes, classroom context, and teachers’ professional development.