My Dissertation Format and Implementation: My Biggest Anxiety and Doubt

It has been a good process going through and writing both parts A and B of this assignment. For me, of all of the doubts I have… probably the doubt that is the strongest is about the actual format of my dissertation. While I know that I don’t likely need to have that nailed down currently, it still feels very top of mind.

Currently, I’m leaning a little bit closer to the idea of completing a program evaluation for my dissertation. As I’ve searched for dissertations that have completed program evaluations, there are some examples, but they are all students in the psychology department and not in TSD (see Hagar, 2006; Lawson, 2009; Steiger, 2011). I’m interested in studying resilience and how resilience relates to individuals and how groups/organizations help to develop that capacity for those individuals.

Some of the push that I have felt in considering a program evaluation looking at resilience is my experience having participated in the PEER-EBD (Participatory Evaluation Expert Review for classrooms serving students with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities) several times over the years. It has been a fabulous process that is used to look at the systems in place in a classroom/program and evaluate if they are following evidence-based practices. It covers a very in-depth set of evidence-based topics and is validated program evaluation. It is comprehensive in how it thinks about the structures within the classroom and in the expert reviewers recommendations they offer to help improve the program.

The PEER-EBD is based on the Model of Re-ED (Fecser, 1993) which some of the guiding principles come from Hobbs book on The Troubled and the Troubling Child, he wrote about those principles in 2002 for Reclaiming Children and Youth. The research-base and the process are detailed by Tsai, Cheney, and Walker (2013) and Walker et al. (2013) and is striving to create an effective re-EDucation program (Walker & Fecser, 2002). If you are curious about what areas it looks at, you can also see the presentation slides for a conference presentation I completed for Washington State Office of the Super Intendant of Public Instruction’s Student Support Conference this last year.

I would like to help develop something similar but giving opportunities to help understand particular students in the classroom versus just the structures in place (which are also extremely important) and focused on their resiliency. It just seems as if that is not the typical type of dissertation done at TSD and it is a bit overwhelming to imagine how to go about developing something like that.

I dive into this topic a little bit in my paper, but not quite as in-depth as in this forum post. You can see My Dissertation Part B paper if you are interested in seeing more of my thoughts about my dissertation.

Reference

Fecser, F. A. (1993) A model re-ed classroom for troubled students. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Problems, 1(4), pp. 15-20.

Hagar, G. M. (2006). Program evaluation for a jail-based mental health treatment program (Order No. 3249800). Available from Dissertations & Theses @ California Institute of Integral Studies - NCCPL; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (304958138). Retrieved from https://ciis.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ciis.idm.oclc.org/docview/304958138?accountid=25260

Hobbs, N. (2002). Nicholas Hobbs and the Twelve principles of ReEDucation. Reclaiming Children and Youth,11(2), 72–73.

Lawson, A. E. (2009). Anger management treatment groups in a community mental health setting: A program evaluation (Order No. 3357381). Available from Dissertations & Theses @ California Institute of Integral Studies - NCCPL; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (305062179). Retrieved from https://ciis.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ciis.idm.oclc.org/docview/305062179?accountid=25260

Steiger, A. D. (2011). Solution team: A program evaluation of an anti-bullying intervention (Order No. 3434806). Available from Dissertations & Theses @ California Institute of Integral Studies - NCCPL; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (847397640). Retrieved from https://ciis.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ciis.idm.oclc.org/docview/847397640?accountid=25260

Tsai, S.-F., Cheney, D., & Walker, B. (2013). Preliminary psychometrics of the participatory evaluation and expert review for classrooms serving students with emotional/behavioral disabilities (PEER-EBD). Behavioral Disorders, 38(3), p137–153. 17p. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43153578

Walker, B., & Fecser, F. (2002). Elements of an effective re-education program for the 21st century. Reclaiming Children and Youth, 11(2), 110– 115.

Walker, B., Clancy, M., Shu-Fei, T., & Cheney, D. (2013). Bridging the research-to-practice gap: Empowering staff to implement meaningful program evaluation and improvement to better serve students with emotional or behavioral disorders. Beyond Behavior, 22(3), p3–14. 12p. https://doi.org/10.1177/107429561302200302