Date of Award

5-2013

Degree Type

Creative Project

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

Department

Special Education and Rehabilitation

Committee Chair(s)

Robert Morgan

Committee

Robert Morgan

Committee

Tim Riesen

Committee

Marilyn Likins

Abstract

Students with disabilities in transition from school to adulthood often experience problems with self-determination skills, especially goal-related skills (e.g., goal setting, expression, and taking action). Instruction in these skills is needed. This project examined the effect of instructing portions of the self-determination intervention Whose Future is it Anyway? (WFA) dealing with goal-related skills and its effect on goal setting, expressing, and taking action. Participants included five students with disabilities in a transition program ages 18 to 21. Procedures involved a pretest using the ChoiceMaker Assessment and the Arc Scale, followed by the implementation of the WFA intervention, and posttests using the same two assessments as well as a rating scale completed by teachers independent of the study administered immediately following the intervention. The measures of participants' goal-setting, expression, and taking action as measured by teachers independent of the study increased using the ChoiceMaker assessment and Teacher's Scale showed a degree of growth during the intervention. The student-reported measures using the Arc scale did not show an increase due to a poor match between the curriculum and the researcher's choice of questions from the scale. The results that were obtained have implications in terms of knowing that goal-related skills can be increased through the use of self-determination interventions. These finding may have implications for additional research and curriculum usage in high schools.

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