Search results
Search Results
Displaying (1 - 2 of 2)
- Title
- Assistive Technology to Enhance Written Expression of Struggling Writers in Elementary School: A Tablet-based Literacy Intervention Project
- Contributor
- Heather R. Stace-Smith (author), Kenneth Pudlas (thesis supervisor), Katrina Korb (second reader), Julie Corkett (external examiner), Trinity Western University SGS (Degree granting institution)
- Discipline/Stream
- Educational Studies - Special Education
- Abstract
- Using a switching replications quasi-experimental design, this study investigated the effectiveness of the application Clicker Docs and tablet accessibility features as a 6 week alternating intervention tool for improving writing. Aspects of writing included writing quality, writing output, and attitudes of struggling writers. Two groups of 11 students from grades 2-7 who were identified with a disability or as a struggling writer, alternated participation in this intervention program. A mixed 2x2 repeated measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with pre-test scores as covariate was used. Results showed a large significant effect on writing quality at Post-test 2. On average, those in the iPad intervention group demonstrated better writing quality than those in the control group. In addition, a medium significant effect was found for writing output. On average, those in the iPad intervention group wrote less overall than those in the control group. No effect was found for attitude towards writing.
- Publication Year
- 2017
- Title
- Universal Screening for Social Emotional Competencies: Is Dibels an Option?
- Contributor
- Catherine M. Lorenz (author), Kenneth Pudlas (thesis supervisor), Dave Carter (second reader), Christina Belcher (external examiner), Trinity Western University SGS (Degree granting institution)
- Discipline/Stream
- Educational Studies - Special Education
- Abstract
- To be successful in school and in life students need to possess academic as well as social emotional competencies (Bridgeland, Bruce, & Hariharan, 2013; Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011; Zins & Elias, 2007). Academic skills include the ability to read, write and count whereas social and emotional competencies refer to skills that allow an individual to get along with others by being in control of their own behaviors (Zins & Elias, 2007). For social emotional and academic programming to be effective, schools need to have a data-driven system to facilitate and monitor student progress. A screening and progress monitoring system allows educators to pinpoint students who require targeted social emotional and/or academic learning opportunities and would inform on the effectiveness of intercessory programming. Such a system would ensure that students’ learning opportunities are optimally effective. Whereas academic assessments are plentiful, a stumbling block has been the lack of measurement tools for social emotional competencies, necessary for the identification of students in need of intervention (Maras, Thompson, Lewis, Thornburg, & Hawks, 2014; Nese et al., 2012). This study investigates the viability of utilizing an established measure of literacy skill, which is widely used in school systems, to provide insight into students’ social emotional competence. The author suggests that a reading fluency assessment may lend itself to inform on social emotional competence because both domains are processed in a similar area of the brain. The statistically significant results of the hierarchical regression analysis used in this study suggest that further research into measures of affective skills should explore the correlation between academic skills and social emotional competency.
- Publication Year
- 2016