Effects of Self-Regulated Strategy Development on the Writing Skills and Problem Behaviors of Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

摘要

Building on existing research on Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD), the current study investigated the collateral effects of social skills prompts on the writing outcomes and problem behavior of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Generalization measures involved the use of video prompts to explore their impact (if any) on the overall writing outcomes, and if there was an inclination towards either (i.e., written prompts vs. video prompts). Three upper elementary students receiving special education services in separate behavior support classrooms were taught opinion writing using the SRSD instructional framework. The number of genre elements in participants' written products was measured using a genre elements rubric. Other outcome measures included the quantity of written products and the frequency of occurrence of problem behaviors during 20-min observational sessions. Additionally, pre- and post-intervention social validity data were collected to gain teacher and student perspectives regarding the intervention. Overall results suggested a functional relation between SRSD instruction and the number of genre elements and quantity of students' opinion writing. Specifically, all participants increased their genre elements score by 68% while writing an average of six sentences and 84 words more per essay response after receiving SRSD instruction with social skills prompts. Results for behavior were promising. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.