Robert B Scott | Fort Hays State University (original) (raw)
Papers by Robert B Scott
The decision in 2014 by the Kansas State Board of Education to require individual plans of study ... more The decision in 2014 by the Kansas State Board of Education to require individual plans of study (IPS) for eighth through twelfth graders came 24 years after a transition planning mandate appeared for the first time in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 1990). It is argued by the author of this paper that the roll-out of “Kansans CAN” and the IPS in schools across the state, now in its second year, would benefit from incorporating more of the best practices which have been developed by special education professionals and transition IEP teams over the past several decades. In particular, it is suggested there ought to be a greater emphasis on self-determination and self-advocacy skills. Findings from a 2018 report by the National Center for Learning Disabilities, as well as descriptions of a “warrior ethos” by Desgrosseilliers (2014) and Shuford (2009), are used to support a proposal for educators and policymakers to more highly value autonomy, assertiveness and persistence in the characters of Kansas high school completers, whom the author refers to as “College and Career Ready Warriors.”
Action research is defined and scholarship is presented to suggest a central role for the action-... more Action research is defined and scholarship is presented to suggest a central role for the action-research cycle of framing an inquiry question, developing and implementing an instructional plan, collecting and analyzing data on the outcomes and possible answers to the inquiry question, reflecting on the results in consultation with students and colleagues, and using new understandings to inform subsequent rounds of the cycle. A thought-experiment approach is suggested for the purposes of fitting into a teacher-preparation syllabus a vivid enough introduction to the action-research cycle for teacher candidates to internalize the process and be able to utilize it to continually improve their teaching practices. The author describes and analyzes his own effort to teach the action-research process in two sections of an introductory course in special education within the undergraduate teacher education program at an institution of higher education in western Kansas.
Note: Audio files of this paper are available at no charge, by contacting the author.
A case is made for fully merging general and special education curricula in developing programs t... more A case is made for fully merging general and special education curricula in developing programs to prepare candidates for the new Kansas K-6 Unified direct entry license. The author of this paper was present at important meetings which were instrumental in the decision of the Kansas State Board of Education to approve standards for the new license which require candidates to receive training in low-incidence as well as high-incidence special education, combined with elementary education coursework, in a four-year undergraduate degree program. As a special education faculty member at an institution of higher education (IHE), the author was also involved in discussions with colleagues at his institution and at other schools across the state during the 2016 calendar year, when the details of the K-6 Unified standards were being developed and debated. This paper suggests a context for restructuring teacher preparation in order to most effectively transform a special education culture which has, up to now, prevented children with severe disabilities from having access to the general curriculum in inclusive settings with their same-age peers.
published in ... World Englishes in a Changing Society: Festschrift in Honor of Hiroshi Yoshikawa... more published in ... World Englishes in a Changing Society:
Festschrift in Honor of Hiroshi Yoshikawa. Japanese title: 現代社会と英語 (ISBN 978-4-7647-1135-8). Edited
by Tadashi Shiozawa. Tokyo: Kinseido Publishing
Company, Ltd.
The main purpose of this new perspective on the results of my April 2011 survey of caseworkers at... more The main purpose of this new perspective on the results of my April 2011 survey of
caseworkers at high schools across the state of Kansas regarding transition practices with
African-American, Native American Indian, and Hispanic/Latino students, is to more
systematically incorporate qualitative data from the optional comments added by any
caseworkers to expand on their Likert responses (Scott, 2011). In order to achieve this change in
focus, I will include the complete caseworker comments as Appendix B, the data source for this
new research: my subjective interpretations of the views they expressed in their comments.
Splichal (2015) said, “Individual truth about lived experiences is an ever-changing and evolving
process of interpretation of the human phenomena, both within and outside of the structures that
surround us, therefore truth becomes each researcher’s interpretation” (p. 95). It is this deeper,
more human-level at which I want to understand the dynamics of multicultural transition
practices from my examination of what the words of these survey respondents can tell us about
their attitudes, beliefs, and intentions.
The decision in 2014 by the Kansas State Board of Education to require individual plans of study ... more The decision in 2014 by the Kansas State Board of Education to require individual plans of study (IPS) for eighth through twelfth graders came 24 years after a transition planning mandate appeared for the first time in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 1990). It is argued by the author of this paper that the roll-out of “Kansans CAN” and the IPS in schools across the state, now in its second year, would benefit from incorporating more of the best practices which have been developed by special education professionals and transition IEP teams over the past several decades. In particular, it is suggested there ought to be a greater emphasis on self-determination and self-advocacy skills. Findings from a 2018 report by the National Center for Learning Disabilities, as well as descriptions of a “warrior ethos” by Desgrosseilliers (2014) and Shuford (2009), are used to support a proposal for educators and policymakers to more highly value autonomy, assertiveness and persistence in the characters of Kansas high school completers, whom the author refers to as “College and Career Ready Warriors.”
Action research is defined and scholarship is presented to suggest a central role for the action-... more Action research is defined and scholarship is presented to suggest a central role for the action-research cycle of framing an inquiry question, developing and implementing an instructional plan, collecting and analyzing data on the outcomes and possible answers to the inquiry question, reflecting on the results in consultation with students and colleagues, and using new understandings to inform subsequent rounds of the cycle. A thought-experiment approach is suggested for the purposes of fitting into a teacher-preparation syllabus a vivid enough introduction to the action-research cycle for teacher candidates to internalize the process and be able to utilize it to continually improve their teaching practices. The author describes and analyzes his own effort to teach the action-research process in two sections of an introductory course in special education within the undergraduate teacher education program at an institution of higher education in western Kansas.
Note: Audio files of this paper are available at no charge, by contacting the author.
A case is made for fully merging general and special education curricula in developing programs t... more A case is made for fully merging general and special education curricula in developing programs to prepare candidates for the new Kansas K-6 Unified direct entry license. The author of this paper was present at important meetings which were instrumental in the decision of the Kansas State Board of Education to approve standards for the new license which require candidates to receive training in low-incidence as well as high-incidence special education, combined with elementary education coursework, in a four-year undergraduate degree program. As a special education faculty member at an institution of higher education (IHE), the author was also involved in discussions with colleagues at his institution and at other schools across the state during the 2016 calendar year, when the details of the K-6 Unified standards were being developed and debated. This paper suggests a context for restructuring teacher preparation in order to most effectively transform a special education culture which has, up to now, prevented children with severe disabilities from having access to the general curriculum in inclusive settings with their same-age peers.
published in ... World Englishes in a Changing Society: Festschrift in Honor of Hiroshi Yoshikawa... more published in ... World Englishes in a Changing Society:
Festschrift in Honor of Hiroshi Yoshikawa. Japanese title: 現代社会と英語 (ISBN 978-4-7647-1135-8). Edited
by Tadashi Shiozawa. Tokyo: Kinseido Publishing
Company, Ltd.
The main purpose of this new perspective on the results of my April 2011 survey of caseworkers at... more The main purpose of this new perspective on the results of my April 2011 survey of
caseworkers at high schools across the state of Kansas regarding transition practices with
African-American, Native American Indian, and Hispanic/Latino students, is to more
systematically incorporate qualitative data from the optional comments added by any
caseworkers to expand on their Likert responses (Scott, 2011). In order to achieve this change in
focus, I will include the complete caseworker comments as Appendix B, the data source for this
new research: my subjective interpretations of the views they expressed in their comments.
Splichal (2015) said, “Individual truth about lived experiences is an ever-changing and evolving
process of interpretation of the human phenomena, both within and outside of the structures that
surround us, therefore truth becomes each researcher’s interpretation” (p. 95). It is this deeper,
more human-level at which I want to understand the dynamics of multicultural transition
practices from my examination of what the words of these survey respondents can tell us about
their attitudes, beliefs, and intentions.