Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Advisor
Richard Snyder
Committee Member
Doug Eury
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
behavior disorders, behavior modification, Boy's Town Educational Model, counseling sessions, educational interventions, Elam Alexander Academy, interpersonal competence, peer relations, school adjustment behavior, self-control, social competence, social skills, special programs, staff development, students with severe emotional and behavioral disorders, vocational work-study program, Walker-McConnell Scale of Social Competence and School Adjustment, work-study programs
Abstract
The Elam Alexander Academy Adolescent Program was designed to provide educational and therapeutic interventions to students diagnosed with Severe Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. The Boy’s Town Educational Model was used at Elam Alexander Academy because of the model’s strong emphasis on social skills. A pretest and posttest at the beginning and end of the 2000-2001 school year indicated that adolescents enrolled in the program did not make gains in social skills, but rather, showed losses in each of the four scales on the Walker-McConnell Scale of Social Competence and School Adjustment.
The purpose of this study was to increase the social skills of students in the Elam Alexander Academy Adolescent Program. Two research questions were used to direct this study: How do the outcomes of the Boy’s Town Educational Model compare with outcomes of other social-skills programs? and What staff development was needed to provide teachers with strategies to teach social skills to adolescents?
The following strategies were implemented to improve the social skills of students at Elam Alexander Academy: weekly staff development sessions focusing on the Boy’s Town Educational Model, weekly group counseling sessions with students, and implementation of a vocational work-study program. Activities used to support these strategies included calculation of daily point sheets, weekly observations and meetings with teachers, and a daily Boy’s Town period to discuss targeted behaviors.
As a result of implementing these strategies, students at the Elam Alexander Academy Adolescent Program improved on three of the four scales (self-control, peer relations, and school adjustment behavior) and on the total score on the Walker-McConnell Scale of Social Competence and School Adjustment.