Advisory Committee Chair
Lynn Kirkland
Advisory Committee Members
James Ernest
Linda Searby
Kathleen Martin
Joe Burns
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2013
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) School of Education
Abstract
CLASSROOM SUPPORT STRATEGIES FOR STUDENTS WITH ADHD: FREQUENCY OF USE, LEVEL OF EFFECTIVENESS AND ROADBLOCKS TO IMPLEMENTATION ANGELA WALKER EARLY CHILHOOD EDUCATION ABSTRACT The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine how often specific instructional strategies that support students with ADHD are used in kindergarten through third grade classrooms, how effective these strategies are in improving student performance on formative assessments, and what interferes with their implementation. Such a study is important because there is limited information about specific strategies used and their effectiveness. Reasons why teachers do not use effective strategies provides important information for policy makers, teacher education programs and educators. These reasons need to be addressed so that the most effective strategies available can be used to support these students in the classroom. A quantitative survey design completed by 109 elementary teachers was used to examine frequency of use, effectiveness and roadblocks to implementation of strategies. Teachers rated 41 strategies for frequency of use and effectiveness. If a teacher rated a strategy as not often or never used, they indicated a reason. Prompting students toward a specific behavior or tasks, praising students, proximity to teacher and encouraging active responses like talking and movement were among strategies identified to be highly effective and often used to support students with ADHD in the classroom. Giving tallies for good behavior, putting difficult tasks at the beginning of the day, determining student preferences for learning and restructuring assignments by coloring and highlighting were strategies that had strong correlations for frequency of use and effectiveness. The most common reasons identified by teachers for not using strategies were: not appropriate for the student, not enough time and need more training. Why teachers felt that some of the research based strategies were not appropriate is an important topic for future research and investigation. The needs identified by teachers for more time and more training are important pieces of information for administrators and teacher education programs. Results from this study directly impact students with ADHD by offering specific information about how to effectively support them in the classroom.
Recommended Citation
Walker, Angela, "Classroom Support Strategies for Students with ADHD: Frequency of Use, Level of Effectiveness and Roadblocks to Implementation" (2013). All ETDs from UAB. 3240.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/3240