Award Date

1-1-2006

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Special Education

First Committee Member

Susan Miller

Number of Pages

140

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of three online models for teaching a paragraph writing strategy to students with and without disabilities. A learning strategist instructor implemented The Paragraph Writing Strategy (Schumaker & Lyerla, 1993) using three treatment groups that included the following online models: (a) Power Point media, (b) streaming video, and (c) multimedia (Power Point and video). Participants were 121 high school students in grades 9 through 12 enrolled in an online charter school program; there were 27 students with disabilities and 94 students without disabilities. Data were collected to answer five research questions related to the effectiveness of the three online models for teaching the strategy. Two assessments were used as pre- and posttest measures: The Oral and Written Language Scales (OWLS) (Carrow-Woolfolk, 1996) and a Curriculum-Based Paragraph Writing Assessment from The Paragraph Writing Strategy. The effects of the intervention were analyzed using a 3 x 2 x 2 mixed-model analysis of variance (ANOVA). To further analyze the data paired-samples t-tests were conducted. Results indicate that there were significant differences between the pre- and posttest scores from both assessments for all students, but there were no significant interactions or main effects related to student achievement and the online instructional models used. The t-test analyses revealed that students with disabilities demonstrated significant improvement, as measured by the Curriculum-Based Paragraph Writing Assessment, when Power Point media was used. Students without disabilities demonstrated significant improvement, as measured by the OWLS and Curriculum-Based Paragraph Writing Assessment, when Power Point media and multimedia (Power Point and video) was used. Also, students without disabilities demonstrated significant improvement, as measured by the Curriculum-Based Paragraph Writing Assessment, when streaming video was used. Further analysis revealed that online instruction did not reduce the difference in writing achievement between students with disabilities and students without disabilities, because both student types made equivalent achievement gains. Results of this research indicate that high school students benefited from online instruction, but further investigation of online models specific to high school students with and without disabilities is important.

Keywords

Achievement; Disabilities; Effects; Exploring; High; High School Students; Instructional; Instructional Models; Models; Online; Schools; Students; Writing; Writing Achievement

Controlled Subject

Special education; Educational technology; Language arts

File Format

pdf

File Size

3553.28 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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