EDU 675 DQ 1
Nicolelove
week_6_presentation_0_1.pptxAction Research Proposal
Student’s Name:
Professor’s Name:
Course Title:
Date of Submission:
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Area of Focus
Working with parents to improve IEP process.
Significance of IEP process.
The purpose of the study is to work with the parents to improve the IEP process and also to help IEP team members to be aware of the significance of individualized assessments. “It is important to find ways of improving the IEP process in order to meet the needs of each individual student” (Mills, 2014). IEP process is important for the children with special needs and therefore it is important to use IEP that fits the needs of each student.
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Explanation of the Problem
Generalized IEP process
Little attention for individual student
Failure to meet student’s needs
Failure of students to explore their potentials
The IEP is important for all the students with disabilities since the process helps them to learn and succeed in their education goals and also in achieving their post-school goals. “Without developing IEP, teacher-student interaction may not help a student in achieving his or her life goals because all the needs of each student” (Laal & Ghodsi, 2012).
Through the observations that I have made, observing the students with disabilities in the school context, I have noticed that IEP process that is used for most of students with special needs is usually generalized process. In the IEP process used, there is very little attention that is being paid to individual student. Since the generalized process does not fully meet the needs of each individual student, they not fully explore their potential and does not achieve al, their life goals. From this personal experience, I feel that to truly be individualized, the needs, interests and preference, hopes and desires of each student must be taken into consideration.
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Variables
Student’s performance
Teaching strategies
Student’s attitudes
Environmental factors
Student’s abilities
In the study, the different variables that are to be studied includes; student’s performance, teaching strategies, students attitudes, environmental factors and the students abilities. The variables of the proposed study are; student’s performance (DV), teaching strategies (IV), and student’s attitude (IV). The defined factors include the parental influence, teacher influence and peer influence. The context of the study and implementation of the study will be school environment. The students who are to be studied are the students with different special needs.
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Research Questions
Strategies used with special needs students
Effects of collaborative learning
In order to understand strategies that will be used when working with students who have special needs, it is important to collect data. The questions that will be used in collecting data during research include;
What individualizing strategies can I use to increase the quality of working with students with special needs?
What are the effects of collaborative learning on the performance of students with special needs?
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Locus of Control
Varying teaching and learning strategies
Changing student’s attitudes
Improving student’s performance
Locus of control is the believe in one’s ability to control events affecting a person. some of the events that can be controlled in research and implementation of the intervention is teaching and learning strategies. In this varying teaching and learning strategies will affect the performance of the students. The strategies that are used in teaching can either increase or decrease student’s performance (Boyle & Scanlon, 2010).
Changing student’s attitude also impacts student’s performance. changing of the attitude is under the control of the teacher.
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Intervention/Innovation Method
Collaborative learning
Putting students in groups
Giving assignments and guidance
All the students with disabilities should be assisted to achieve their goals in life just like students without disabilities. It is important to help them succeed in their education through development of some programs. One of the ways in which students can be assisted is through the development of an IEP. IEP should be developed on individual basis in order for the program to fully benefit the students. Using a generalized IEP program may not fully benefit the students with special needs since students’ needs are varied.
In the research, the intervention involves using Collaborative learning. This intervention strategy involves putting students in groups and giving them assignments and guiding them on how to complete. In using this intervention, the students are given guidelines and also given assistance to understand the importance of learning in groups.
According to Mills (2014), “when teaching students with different abilities, it is important for the instructor to vary teaching methods used.” The reason why it is important to vary teaching methods in teaching learners is to ensure that the needs of all the students are met. One way that helps different students reach their needs is through Collaborative learning. In this strategy, students are placed in groups and assigning them some assignments to complete.
Collaborative learning is one of the most important strategies that help in improving the performance of the students. Collaborative learning despite being a teaching strategy, it is also a career pathways that helps many students moves towards their future goals. For the students with disabilities, “it is important to help them learn in an inclusive learning environment just like other peers without disabilities.” (Laal & Ghodsi, 2012). This is achieved through collaborative learning. In this, Collaborative learning should be incorporated into the IEP process and the process should be individualized. Through this effort, the IEP process will be improved and therefore helping the students realize their goals in life. Career paths that are developed for students involve steps-by-step process that help one during adult education as well as meeting their life goals. Laal & Ghodsi (2012) also argued that, “learning environment should be adjusted to make it an engaging environment where all the students get opportunities to participate.”
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Group Membership
Parents of the Students
General educator
Special needs educator
School Psychologist
School Principal
During implementation of intervention, some members will be required to take part in the process. the members will include; parents of the child with special need, general educator, special needs educator, school psychologist and the school principle. All these members have important roles to play in the intervention process, roles that will lead to successful implementation of the innovation.
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Cont…
identified importance of group membership
Brings diverse information and expertise
The different members needed during the implementation of the intervention are important. The reason why these members are important in that, they bring diverse information and expertise in the implementation process. it is important to have individuals with diverse knowledge and expertise since they will ensure successful implementation of the intervention.
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Cont…
Role and Responsibility of each member
Parents- Provide life report of their children
General educator-provide student’s performance report
Special educator-Guiding general educator
School Psychologist-Supervise instruction
In the implementation process, different members will have specific roles and responsibilities. The parents of the child with the disability are important since they provide vital information about the child. They provide the life information of the child.
The other member is the general educator who plays a crucial role in the implementation process. The role and responsibility of the general educator in the implementation process is to provide performance records as well as assessment tools that will be used in the development of teaching strategies that fits the student’s needs.
The special educator in the group is to provide guidance to the general educator on the methods that can be used in teaching students with diverse needs. through this, he/she ensures that the needs of each student is met.
The school psychologist has a role of supervising the provision of, specially designed instruction to meet the unique needs of children with disabilities. psychologist has knowledge on different learning disabilities.
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Negotiations
Seeking permission
Explaining purpose of the study
Benefits of the study
Before conducting the study, it is important to seek permission from the school administration. This is important since it will give the administration an opportunity to decide whether to allow for the research or not. After permission seeking, it is important to explain the purpose of the study as well as the benefits that are associated with the study. since the study focus on helping students with special needs improve in their education performance, it is important to clearly explain the purpose of the study as well as the benefits of the study; benefits to the students, school and community at large.
One of the potential obstacles is the uncooperative students
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Ethics
Seeking permission
Avoiding harm
Protection from biased results
The most important thing to do before conducting research using humans as participants is to seek permission. This is very crucial since it will enable the researcher to explain the reason for conducting a research. Also, it will give participants an opportunity to decide whether to participate in research or not. According to Mills (2014), ”when seeking permission to conduct a research, it is important to inform participants why the research is being conducted.”
During research, all the methods and procedures used in research will not harm or injure the participants. The methods and procedures must be free from injuries and harm. This will ensure that the rights of the participants are protected from violation.
The information collected from participants will be kept confidential. The information collected should not be disclosed to unauthorized persons. “In doing any research that involves using human beings as participants, all the procedures used should not harm or injure subjects” (US Dept of Health & Human Services, 1979). It is also important that all human participants during research to have full freedom either to participate or not participate in the research. No one should be forced to participate in research.
During the study, it is important to ensure that the results obtained are unbiased. One of the measures that will be used to ensure that the results are unbiased is to avoid giving ambiguous questionnaires to the participants. This will ensure that, participants read the questions contained and understand therefore enabling them to give unbiased responses. Also, the participants will not be forced to participate in research or to give their responses if they are not willing to. If they are forced, they will give biased responses to questionnaire.
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Timeline
Identifying Student’s Interests - one week
Checking student’s Performance Records – one week
Placing students into groups – one week
Rotating students in groups – one week
Phase 1: Identifying Student’s Interests
This is the fast phase in the implementation process. At this stage, the interest of the student is identified. This is done through monitoring of the students behavior for some time. Monitoring of the student is done through observing what the student like doing when in the classroom or when outside the classroom. The observation made is then recorded. Also, students can be interviewed on what they like doing. The responses that the student gives should then be recorded. This phase will take approximately one week
Phase 2: Checking on Student’s Performance Records
This is the second step in the implementation process where performance records of the student are checked to identify areas where the student performs best. In this, the performance inside and outside the classroom is considered. This phase will take approximately one week
Phase 3: Putting students into groups.
After considering the interest and performance of the students in class, the students are then placed in groups based on their interests and their performance. The students should be mixed; mixing those students with high performance with those with lower performance. This will ensure that all the students are treated equally. This phase will take approximately one week
Phase 4: Rotating the students in groups
The last step is to rotate the students in groups. This involves re-mixing the students in their different groups in order to see the impact of the intervention in the new groups. This phase will take approximately one week
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Statement of Resources
Student’s performance records
Student’s background information
Financial resources
Learning and teaching tools
During research and implementation of the proposed intervention, all the necessary resources must be available. One of the resources required is the student’s performance record. This records will help in creating an understanding of the student’s progress in class and outside classroom. This will in turn helps in the creation of the best teaching and learning strategies.
Student’s background information is also important since it will help in understanding the life history of the student. It will also helps in understanding family history of the student.
Financial resources are important in purchasing all the necessary resources for research e.g. purchasing printing papers, printing research materials, purchasing teaching and learning tools as well as using in transport.
Learning and teaching tools are also important in research and implementation process since materials will be used in the implementation of the intervention.
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Data collection
| Research Questions | Data Collection Tool | Why this tool? Justify its use in your study. How does it match with what you are attempting to find and to measure? | |
| What individualizing strategies can I use to increase the quality of working with students with special needs? | questionnaire | The use of this tool is relevant since it will guarantee fast hand data on the problem being investigated. The tool also gives a clear reflection on what other people think about the strategies that can put in place in order to help improve the quality of working with students with special needs. | |
| What are the effects of collaborative learning on the performance of students with special needs? | Pretests and post-tests | Pre- and post-tests can give quantitative data to support findings through examination of the student’s performance and also through observation of the behavior. |
The methods that will be used in data collection will be two; questionnaire and, the pretest and the post-tests. These questions are justified in that, questionnaire guarantee fast hand data on the problem being investigated. The tool also gives a clear reflection on what other people think about the strategies that can put in place in order to help improve the quality of working with students with special needs. on the other hand, pretest and post-tests are relevant in that, it can give quantitative data to support findings through examination of the student’s performance and also through observation of the behavior.
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References
Boyle, J. R., & Scanlon, D. (2010). Methods and strategies for teaching students with mild disabilities: A case-based approach. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth.
Laal, M., & Ghodsi, S. M. (2012). Benefits of collaborative learning. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 31, 486-490.
Mills, G. E. (2014). Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (1979). Ethical principles and guidelines for the protection of human subjects of research. The Belmont Report.
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