Determining the efficacy of the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction to improve secondary and transition outcomes for students with cognitive
Project Description:
Title: Determining the Efficacy of the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction to Improve Secondary and Transition Outcomes for Students with Cognitive Disabilities
RFA Goal: Goal Two, Type B
Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction on promote self-determination, access to the general education curriculum, achievement of academic and transition-related goals.
Setting: Research will be conducted in high schools in Kansas and neighboring states randomly assigned to a treatment or control group.
Sample: Participants will be 300 high school students with mental retardation or learning disabilities who meet selection criteria. We will recruit 25 high schools with at least 12 students per school. Research sites were selected to ensure diversity with regard to geography (urban, suburban, and rural, U.S. regions) and to traditionally underrepresented groups.
Intervention: The Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction is a model of teaching to enable educators to teach students to self-direct instruction to achieve educationally valued goals and enhance self-determination. It can be implemented to teach academic or transition-related skills. Teachers link instruction on student-directed learning strategies to a self-regulated problem solving process to teach students to set educational goals, determine an action plan to achieve goals, and self-monitor and evaluate progress toward goals, revising the goal or plan as needed.
Control: Participants will be randomly assigned to treatment or control group by high school. Schools in the control group will receive the intervention in the second project year.
Research Method: The study will implement a cluster or group-randomized trial, modified equivalent control group time series design in which participants are assigned to the control or treatment groups by high school campus. Students in the control group will receive the treatment in the project?s second year.
Measurement: We will assess self-determination using two normed measures at baseline and the end of each school year. We will measure goal attainment using Goal Attainment Scaling annually on academic and functional goals. We will measure access to the general curriculum using a PC-based classroom observation system for a subset of the sample at baseline and annually each intervention year.
Data Analysis: Intervention efficacy analyses will utilize three techniques: Multi-Level Random Coefficients Modeling (aka HLM models) to examine differences between control and treatment participants as nested within teachers; multiple-group longitudinal comparison of individual differences among the key variables via structural equation modeling; latent growth curve estimates fit to key constructs to examine the concomitant patterns of change and growth among access, progress, and self-determination indicators and intra-individual change relations among key constructs.
Core Function(s):
Performing Research or Evaluation
Area of Emphasis
Education & Early Intervention, Quality of Life
Target Audience:
Professionals and Para-Professionals, Children/Adolescents with Disabilities/SHCN
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Racial or Ethnic Minorities, Disadvantaged Circumstances
Primary Target Audience Geographic Descriptor:
Regional
COVID-19 Related Data:
N/A
