Andrea Boykin

Since Portfolio 1, I have engaged in the special education research community by presenting at five national conferences, reviewing a manuscript for Exceptional Children, co-teaching a course in the PhD program, and participating in intervention research at three high needs school sites.  This engagement in the special education research community has strengthened my presentation skills and also allowed me to implement the research methods learned within the PhD program.  Each of these experiences has strengthened my knowledge and ability to implement high quality research and present the results and implications for practice at national conferences.

During the last two semesters, I have had the opportunity to work on research teams for multiple research projects and on an individual research study at high needs schools.  These research studies included two studies under a federally funded research grant with a focus on the use of technology and writing, and a technology and content area comprehension study.  During the writing and technology research studies, a single subject methodology was used to determine the effects of a computer based graphic organizers with embedded self regulation supports on the persuasive writing of students with high incidence disabilities and struggling writers at two high needs schools.  This intervention yielded positive results, as the students increased in several aspects of writing including number of words written and essay parts.  The science comprehension study was also a single subject research study that determined the effects of text to speech with dynamic highlighting and graphic organizers on the expository comprehension in the science content area of middle school students with high incidence disabilities.  The results of the study indicated that text to speech with dynamic highlighting paired with a graphic organizer increased student comprehension as measured by content interviews.  In each study, implementing the intervention research has helped me to apply the research methods learned in research classes.  In addition, I led the research at a school site for a federally funded research grant  As a lead researcher, I was responsible for managing the research schedule, working closely with teachers to ensure fidelity, and lead others in the research team.  This experience strengthened my leadership skills and taught me how to problem solve during interventions to maintain the quality and integrity of the study.  For example, I am now able to work closely with teachers and staff to ensure that the intervention is implemented successfully as well as guide and support teachers when the integrity of the study is jeopardized.

As a research assistant on multiple projects, as well as designing and implementing my own research, several of these projects have turned into accepted presentations at national conferences.  Since October, I have presented research individually at two assistive technology conferences, Assistive Technology Industry Association and Closing the Gap.  I have also been a co-presenter at the annual conferences for Council for Learning Disabilities and Council for Exceptional Children.  In addition, I presented at poster sessions highlighting my individual research projects at two Council of Exceptional Children division poster sessions, Division of Learning Disabilities and Teaching Education Division.  These presentation have helped me to and interact with others involved in educational research.  After presenting at Council of Exceptional children, I was invited to submit one of my research projects for publication and invited to participate in a collaborative research group with professors and students from the University of Memphis, John Hopkins University, and Pennsylvania State University.

In Portfolio 1, my academic committee stated that I needed to work on interacting more with students, professors, and others in the educational research field.  In addition to speaking at conferences and networking, I also targeted the gaps in portfolio one by co-teaching Application of Research Methodology of Special Education.  As a co-teacher, I was responsible for creating and implementing class activities, planning and developing mini-lectures and corresponding power point presentations, leading class discussions, and teaching three full classes on single subject research methods.   In co-teaching this class, I was able to interact more with students and classmates and I felt confident in my knowledge of the research methods and my ability to discuss research with the students and answer specific questions with accuracy.  Based on student evaluations as a co-teacher, I had an overall evaluation rating of 3.81 out of 4, with mostly excellent overall teaching ratings.

This semester, I was also able to strengthen my social skills as a lead researcher at a high needs school site for a federally funded research grant.  As a lead researcher, I worked directly with five teachers, two teaching assistants, over fifty students, and five research assistants.  Responsibilities included developing the schedule of four research assistants and providing daily instructions of the research tasks to be conducted at the school site to the research team, working closely with the teachers to ensure delivery of the research lessons with fidelity, and working with students individually and in small groups.

Since Portfolio 1, my coursework has also greatly influenced the way I think, review, and conduct research as well as increased my understanding of teacher preparation programs.  Many of the courses I have taken since Portfolio 1 including Intervention Research in Special Education, Qualitative Research Methods, and Advanced Single Subject Research Methods, have increased my knowledge of research methods and also reinforced the importance of quality indicators in research, while Teacher Preparation made me aware of the challenges and strengths of teacher education programs.   Because of the knowledge learned within the research courses, including Intervention Research in Special Education and Advanced Single Subject Research Methods, I was able to create two research papers, a meta-analysis and a single subject research study, which were submitted and accepted at two poster sessions at Council of Exceptional Children’s National Conference.  Both studies in the presentations were recommended for publication by a faculty reviewer and the editor of a research journal.

Although I have knowledge of high quality research in single subject, quantitative, and qualitative research, most of the research studies I have been involved in are single subject intervention studies.  Because I would like to conduct a variety of intervention research during my research career, including single subject and quantitative, my intellectual goals now include learning more about quantitative research methods and applying this knowledge learned to my dissertation, which I would like to be a group experimental intervention.  I would like to have the experience of reviewing aspects of high quality group experimental research, and have the experience of establishing equivalent control groups, collecting data, and applying various data analysis techniques appropriate for the study and the population.   I’m also interested in utilizing the techniques learned in Mixed Methods Research course in my dissertation research during the data collection and analysis phase to test hypothesis, inform various portions of the study, and to check information in the study.

Because of the coursework taken and experiences within the program, my professional goals have expanded to not only conducting intervention research and teaching at a university, but also working with teacher education programs that prepare teachers for teaching in high needs, urban settings.  I hope to also develop interventions and apply these interventions with students in high needs and/or urban schools.  Although the schools I have been in while conducting intervention research have been high needs or urban schools, I plan to continue this to my dissertation research, which I hope will be in a high needs school.   I also plan to continue my focus on working with students with high incidence disabilities and continuing research with the use of technology to help students access the curriculum in core content areas, such as science and social studies, and student motivation.