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Doctoral Dissertations
Date of Award
8-2002
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
Education
Major Professor
Christopher H. Skinner
Abstract
Students with emotional and behavioral disabilities often exhibit inappropriate behaviors, and many also experience problems related to academic skill development and achievement. Academic skill deficits and inappropriate behaviors may be related. Students who experience academic difficulties may be more likely than their peers to engage in inappropriate behaviors to escape or avoid academic demands. Furthermore, students who engage in inappropriate behaviors are choosing not to engage in academic activities, which may serve to create or exacerbate academic achievement or skill deficits. The current study attempts to extend research suggesting that interspersing relatively brief items throughout an assignment, therefore increasing item completion rate, may increase the probability of students choosing to work on that assigmnent without compromising the accuracy and educational significance of the assigmnent. Thirty-two students identified as having emotional disturbance were each exposed to two grammar assignments. A control assignment contained a number of paragraphs that students were required to copy and punctuate. An experimental assignment was designed to be equivalent, but also contained additional, brief paragraphs interspersed throughout the assigmnent. Students worked on each assignment for 15 minutes and then ranked the assignments with regard to time, effort, and difficulty. Additionally, students were asked to choose either a control or interspersal assignment to complete for homework.
Recommended Citation
Teeple, Donna Ford, "Interspersing additional, brief items to influence the choice behavior of students with behavioral and emotional disabilities to complete grammar assignments. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2002.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/6318