It went surprisingly well. The professors were very helpful. I didn’t feel like I was under attack. And the whole meeting lasted only 1.5 hours.

I have to make some changes to the manuscript and work on the required paper work to submit to the university’s Internal Review Board (IRB) to get permission to run my research with human subjects. If/when IRB approves my application, then I can start running my research.

Now that my dissertation proposal has been approved by my committee, I am now officially a doctoral candidate.

All 97 pages of my dissertation proposal. In the dissertation proposal, I lay out the rationale and purpose of the research that I intend to pursue in order to complete my Ph.D. Three chapters.

Chapter 1: Introduction

11 pages. 3 research questions.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

26 pages. Everything that I think I need to convince my committee that what I am proposing to do is actually worth doing.

Chapter 3: Methods

20 pages. The what, when, who, how of getting the research done.

References and Appendices

39 pages. Stuff to fatten up the proposal

June 24. I meet with the 4 professors in my committee. If the proposal is approved, then I can go ahead and start doing what I said I would do in the proposal.

School

I just received my advisor’s feedback on my latest draft of my dissertation research proposal. After glancing through the comments, I realized that there’s not much revisions to do…so, I guess this chapter of my life, struggling to write and rewrite my dissertation proposal, is finally coming to an end..whew!! Tomorrow, I’ll have to finalize the date and time (some time end of June) when the 4 professors in my dissertation committee will meet with me for a prolonged they-question and I-answer session.

As I ponder over the whole writing process, it wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be. I expected more revisions and several more drafts. Wow, now that this writing process is over, I wonder what should I do with my additional stress-free time. Patapon? Crochet? Cross-stitch? Update special ed blog?

Hold on, I’m not done with studies yet. I’m just almost done with the research proposal; after this, I’ll have to actually do what I proposed in the proposal, and pray that everything will go as planned and I’ll get great results in a short amount time. Yup, that would be ideal….

Great South Side Sale

Every year, the university’s community service office will have a move-out sale. They collect all the stuff that students (who have graduated and are moving away) donate. The money from this sale would go to neighborhood charity organizations. This year, I volunteered to help out during the sale. I was there at 7am, helping to move boxes and boxes of stuff from the trucks, and then arranging those stuff (e.g., clothing, housewares, electronic goods, furniture).

There was one really big Sony TV for sale. It had a crack at the back, but otherwise, in good running condition. Two guys removed it carefully from the truck, but the bottom of the TV cracked a little more. As they were lifting it to the TV area, the TV literally fell apart. The plastic casing broke into hundreds of pieces. The inner tube crashed to the ground and circuits spilled out everywhere. I’ve never seen a TV in that condition before…hahaha.

My volunteer shift ended just before the sale started. So, I stayed a while longer and shopped some. I grabbed
- 2 new Lehigh t-shirts (I’ve always wanted to get a Lehigh t-shirt but didn’t want to spend close to $20 on a t-shirt)
- 1 new random t-shirt
- 1 like-new pair of shorts
- 1 very nice reusable shopping bag
- 1 rolling pin
- 1 set of stainless steel measuring cups (I have plastic ones but they are difficult to wash if I use them to measure cooking oil, stainless steel is much better)
- 1 new cap
- 4 pot holders
- 1 small first aid kit
All these only cost $7.50…not a bad deal!

During my last trip back to Malaysia, I said I was going add many more entries to my special education blog and it was going to be a resource site for parents and teachers and blah blah blah. Unfortunately, I didn’t add more entries and pretty much countinued to neglect that blog.

Well, things have changed. I now have an official blog with my name on it. An ego booster? Haha…I actually think that it makes me more accountable for what I write on it.

I said to my official blog sponsor, Tai-lo Victor, that I should use that blog to write about the children that I have taught and showcase their personalities, likes, dislikes, quirks, etc. Sort of to show readers that these children are not just a group of children with Down Syndrome or Autism or Mental Retardation, but they are individuals, just like you and me.

I’ll also try to lose the pretentious words that people in higher education like to use.

Ok, here goes nothing:

Introducing Pendidikan Khas: My Reflections of Special Education in Malaysia.

In preparation for my dissertation, I have to observe several individuals with disabilities in their employment settings. This is so that I can see where they are working, what they are doing, who they interact with, what target behaviors I can work on, where I can set up the videocamera…all the practical aspects of doing research in applied settings.

Unfortunately, one of them works in the warehouse section of a large departmental store, the other volunteers at a Salvation Army thrift store, and both places are located in the largest mall area in town. I’m exposed to all the big discounts in the dept store and if I can’t afford those, I end up spending an hour observing my potential research participant tidy up racks and racks of $3.99 stuff at the thrift store.

“What you don’t have, you don’t need it now”
“Buy Less: Live More”

I should quickly walk out of the stores and drive straight home. But I don’t

On the bright side, the asian store is nearby so I can stock up on the ingredients that I need to make all the good stuff that I’ve been reading about on some Malaysian food blogs.

I’ve been downgraded

When I was a research assistant in a research grant, I had an office space with a desk and a computer in a large busy research center. Lots of things going on, people having meetings, walking in and out….a real research community. Now that the research grant that I was working on has ended, I’m now “just” a graduate assistant to my prof, helping her complete the remaining work of the now defunct grant. Since I’m not in a research grant anymore, I’ve been banished from the center and had to move to a student “suite”. I don’t even get a proper desk, just some sort of counter space and no computer. And to make things worse, most of the other students in the “suite” are away on their practicum and are seldom around but yet they hog the desks. Although I’m told that I could use any of the desks when the other students are not using them, it’s still not my desk and my space. I really hate this new arrangement. Now I’m torn between (1) boycotting the counter space or (2) reclaiming the space by totally decorating and personalizing the area.

At last the big day came, I went through 4 hours of continuous typing, didn’t even have time to read over the stuff before I handed it in. This has got to be the fastest 4 hours of my life, the time just flew by. With this, a big part of comps is over.

It’s just one of those anti-climatic moments. I had planned to go for a nice Indian buffet lunch with my study buddy, and then for some retail therapy on my own. But both of us were totally drained and our appetites also went down the drain, so we just went somewhere to eat something simple…not much of a celebration meal. Then I went back home but felt like I needed to go somewhere, so I went to watch Becoming Jane in the theater. First time ever, I had the whole theater to myself.

During the exam, we had a choice of using either the Mac or PC to type out our answers. I chose the mac, my two friends chose the PC. At the end of the exam, it took me about a minute to burn the files on to a CD, but it took one of my friends at least 30 minutes to do it with “help” and “suggestions” from numerous people. For the other friend, even with all the “help” and “suggestions” it wouldn’t work, so I helped her saved the files onto a USB thumbdrive then took it over to the mac to get the CD done…so much easier. Now I know why I love the mac. Hmmm…this scenario makes a good Mac vs PC commercial.

Self-determination has been defined as “acting as the primary causal agent in one’s life and making choices and decisions regarding one’s quality of life, free from undue external influence or interference” (Wehmeyer, 1992).

Many individuals with severe disabilities have little say in basic life events. They don’t get to choose where and who they stay with or what and where they eat. A majority of them are unemployed and poor. They seldom participate in leisure activities. They have few or no friends. They are not part of any social networks. A life of no choices, no friends, no financial stability, no job satisfaction, no fun, and no quality of life. If you think about it, this is one very sad life to live.

And that’s where self-determination comes in. Self-determination is a contemporary best practice in instruction of individuals with severe disabilities because it emphasizes teaching these individuals skills to be self-determined. It involves teaching choice-making, decision-making, and problem-solving skills. It involves supporting the individuals to be as independent as they can be. It involves providing supports so that they can initiate and complete a task without relying on others to do it for them. It doesn’t mean having them do everything on their own, it just means providing them the skills and supports to experience a satisfactory life.

I guess an analogy would be a baby who is learning to walk. A wise parent would hold out a hand and provide just enough support so that the baby can do baby-steps across the room to where s/he wants to go. An unwise parent would carry the baby everywhere and baby does not learn to walk and does not get to go where s/he wants to go. An uncaring parent would leave the baby on the floor. An individual with severe disabilities is like a baby who will never walk on their own.

So like everything else in this world, self-determination does not take place independent of the community. Unfortunately, it is easy to ignore those who are weak.

Hmmmm…what have I done lately to support someone who’s weak?

Best practices in instruction for students with severe disabilities are continually evolving. If you were asked to present to a school board best contemporary practices in instruction for students with severe disabilities what would you say? Present at least 5 themes, giving specific examples and supporting themes with research and the best practices literature.
===============

In my opinion, the 5 best contemporary practices in instruction for students with severe disabilities are:
1) Inclusion
2) Self-determination
3) Collaborative teaming
4) Person-centered planning
5) Positive behavior support

1) Inclusion

Inclusion is a term used to describe the ideology that each child, to the maximum extent appropriate, should be educated in the school and classroom he or she would otherwise attend. It involves bringing support services to the child (rather than moving the child to the services) and requires only that the child will benefit from being in the class (rather than having to keep up with the other students)(Council of Exceptional Children)

Inclusion is actually not a contemporary practice. For years and years, advocates for children with disabilities have been pushing for inclusion. Although the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act does not specifically say inclusion, it says that children with disabilities should be educated in the least restrictive environment (LRE). For some kids, LRE would mean the general education classroom with normal kids. And for other kids, LRE might mean spending their school day in a combination of general education and special education classrooms. And for some other kids, LRE might mean the whole day in special education classrooms.

That sounds fine and dandy. Unfortunately, even in the “progressive” USA, more and more kids are not being included in general education classrooms. Many kids with disabilities spend their whole day in special education classroom with no social contact with normal kids. I’ve observed emotional support classroom for children with behavior problems, and these kids even spend their lunch-time and recess away from normal kids. This has come to a point where a group of parents in Pennsylvania has filed a class action lawsuit against the Dept of Education for violating the rights of children with disabilities to LRE. So, although inclusion is not new, it has not become a reality for many children with disabilities.

Inclusion is also an idealism that I’ll have to leave behind when I return to Malaysia.

Note: This is not my comprehensive answer. In my complete answer, I’ll have to cite many research articles [e.g., So & So (1998) noted that; Duh & Duh (2006) evaluated etc etc], get my facts right, and if possible cite articles that my professors wrote (for bonus points, maybe).

Stay tune for Part 2: Self-determination.

It seems, from the entries in this blog, my life is all about food and desserts, fussing about my car, an occasional trip somewhere, and an assortment of random stuff.

“Is she really studying over there?”

I am (occasionally), but the need to study comes in waves. And the biggest tidal wave is heading my way very soon. My comprehensive exam is on September 4.

What’s a comprehensive exam? It’s an exam that’s comprehensive, haha. It actually depends on the department or faculty where the student is in. The comprehensive exam of the dept of special ed consist of:
a) 6 long questions (I got mine beginning of June)
b) 3 months to prepare (June, July, August)
c) 3 questions presented to us on that fine September day (our respective advisors will choose whichever 3 questions they like best)
d) 4-hour written exam (no books or reference materials allowed)
e) 2 research articles to critique (articles given to us a week after the written exam)
f) 2 weeks to complete the critiques and hand it in.

I spent June in Malaysia, hardly looked at the questions. I spent July acclimating to Bethlehem again. For the month of August, no more fooling around. I spent the last 2 weeks trying to find the ideal studying routine (morning or afternoon or night) and the ideal place to work (linderman library or fairmart library or computer room or home). But now that the exam is almost here, the ideal environment goes out the window, I just hang out in my room and work the whole day. I guess that’s the ideal condition - an approaching deadline.

I plan to get all the answers to the 6 questions done by this weekend, and then spend the next 2 weeks M-E-M-O-R-I-Z-I-N-G the answers. And on September 4, I’ll have to regurgitate out the answers. This may be the toughest exercise my brain has been subjected to since STPM, or may be not, Biochemistry exams in UPM were pretty bad.

So, yeah, I’m really studying over here