Conrad Oh-Young

A meta-analysis of the effects of placement on academic and social skill outcome measures of students with disabilities

This study involved an investigation of differences between outcome measures of students with disabilities placed in more integrated settings with those of students placed in less integrated settings. A meta-analysis was conducted using the findings from 24 studies published in peer-reviewed journals from 1980 through 2013. Results from the analyses suggest that there were significant differences (p<0.0001) between placement settings with the majority of students with disabilities in more integrated settings outperforming those in less integrated settings on both academic and social outcome measures. Overall these findings, combined with those from two prior meta-analytic studies, provide evidence spanning over 80 years suggesting separate settings are not as beneficial as are more integrated settings. Implications related to practice and policy, as well as avenues for future study, are discussed.

A Comparison of Peer Network and Peer Video Modeling to Increase Positive Verbal Social Interactions in Young Children With Disabilities

The ability to engage in positive social interactions is an important goal for young children with developmental disabilities (DDs). Peer-mediated intervention (PMI), one category of interventions often employed with those who show social skill deficits, involves use of typical peers who live model appropriate behaviors. A second frequent category uses videos of actors who model appropriate behaviors, video modeling (VM). There were two purposes of this study. The first was to compare the relative effectiveness of peer networking (PN), a type of PMI, and peer video modeling (PVM), a type of VM, to determine which was better at increasing the number of positive verbal social interactions performed by young children with DDs. The second was to determine whether the positive effects of the best treatment generalized to the playground. Mixed findings revealed that PN was more effective than PVM for a child with autism and for a child with language delays with evidence of generalization and that both were equally effective for a third child. Neither was effective for the fourth and fifth participants.

Meta-Analytic Procedures for Career and Technical Education Post-secondary Researchers and Practitioners

Meta-analytic studies are syntheses of literature in which researchers use statistical means to summarize the findings presented across primary studies. They are of great interest in the fields of medicine and social sciences with numerous examples published in peer-reviewed journals. However, it appears that career and technical education (CTE) researchers are either not performing these research syntheses, or are not publishing their findings. Thus, there are three purposes to this manuscript. The first is to present CTE researchers and practitioners with a rationale as to why meta-analyses should be performed. The second is to provide guidelines that researchers and practitioners use to perform their own meta-analyses. The third is to provide suggestions that researchers and practitioners can use to disseminate the results of their meta-analyses. The manuscript concludes with a listing of suggested areas for future research.