The Effect of Video Self-Monitoring on Novice Special Educators' Implementation of Advanced Direction Instruction Reading Techniques

Abstract

Special education teachers often have limited opportunities to learn from similarly trained professionals because of the low incidence of some students with moderate and severe disabilities and the amount of classrooms serving these students per school district. Moreover, the long-standing shortage of special education teachers in the nation further limits these opportunities. In order to learn new practices or augment and improve current practices, these teachers attend in-service trainings outside of the classroom and school context. However, research indicates that this form of professional development is at least inefficient due to the lack of feedback on new methods from an outside trainer in the applicable context. This study examined Video Self-Monitoring, a form of performance-based feedback that has been used for professional development. Video Self-Monitoring provides teachers a way to get observation-based feedback on complex instructional practices without the continual presence of an outside trainer. To evaluate the effectiveness of Video Self-Monitoring, the study examined three teacher's fidelity of implementation of advanced Direct Instruction reading techniques, specifically, the precise implementation of instructor signaling and error correction procedures. Using concurrent multiple baseline across subjects and interval coding, teacher fidelity of implementation of advanced Direct Instruction reading techniques, levels of incorrect teacher responsiveness to student errors per session, and levels of correct student responses per session were scored for a four-minute period during a reading lesson, over a period of 4 to 5 weeks, or approximately 15 sessions. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone [phone]. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]