The purpose of this study is to develop the operational definition and the screening test for children with special education needs, which will be used at 'the Nation-wide Survey on Special Education' for every three years since 2011, following by Spe...
The purpose of this study is to develop the operational definition and the screening test for children with special education needs, which will be used at 'the Nation-wide Survey on Special Education' for every three years since 2011, following by Special Education Act for Individuals with Disabilities and Others. For this study, 10 co-researchers who are specialist of each disabilities in the law, analyzed operational definition and diagnostic and screening test materials used at prior researches, documents. And based on those analyzed results, the operational definitions and questionnaire on each disabilities for the screening test were developed.
This study can be summarized as follows;
1. The Development of Operational Definition on 10 Disabilities
The development of operational definition is based on 10 disabilities according to the law, and is to become to judge eligibility of children with special education needs. For this study, before developed a draft, We analyzed definitions according to law in each nations and in documents used at prior researches, books, and articles, etc. The draft came under reviews by outside experts and academic societies. The draft accepted of the terms offered from reviewers, and modified more accurate for the purpose.
2. The Development of the Screening Test for Children with Special Education Needs
The development of the screening test for children with special education needs was analyzed in validity and reliability after supplementing and revising the screening test results used at the survey of 'the Numbers of Children with Special Education Needs' which has been implemented for three times up to now. For this, questionnaires was developed through screening test analysis used at documents analysis, prior researches and survey. Also, external experts review, preliminary test, and actual test were implemented to raise validity and reliability of questionnaires.
Their details are as follows;
External experts review was made as specialist review, societies review, and on-site teacher review in order. Specialists reviewed focusing on appropriateness of question selection, and societies reviewed whether questions reflected the definition for each field and the validity of using terms. On-site teachers reviewed questions understanding degree, test using time, and easiness of special education non-specialists. The result of external experts review was revised by reflecting to the draft of screening test.
Preliminary test was implemented for evaluating the appropriateness of questions which were revised by reflecting external reviews. Preliminary test was implemented to 385 children for special education and 740 non-disabled children, and the test was made by class charging teachers, special education assistants, or students' parents. But, children with blind and children with hearing impairments were small in integrated, and therefore, even special teachers of Seoul National School for the Blind and Seoul National School for the Deaf participated to the test.
The data of preliminary test was analyzed as questions internal consistency through Cronbach's coefficient alpha, the children with disabilities and children with non-disability judging degree through judging analysis, and construct validity of questions through factor analysis. As a result, questions internal consistency for 10 questionnaires was indicated more than .86. However, in some fields, there were statistically non-significant questions, and therefore, they were removed or revised. As a result of implementing judging analysis to preliminary test data, it was indicated as a tool for judging disabilities with 97 to 100% results. Also, the data showed strong condensation to the factors which were divided at first except the questionnaire for mental retardation at elementary school students and at the kindergarten children.
While the results of preliminary test were revised by reflecting to test questions. In particular, in test used at this study, we made best efforts to secure more higher contents validity based on the fact that judging degree of screening test used at the '2008 Nation-wide Survey on Special Education Status' research was more than 70%.
This test was implemented to obtain reliability and validity to questions revised by reflecting preliminary test results. 1,816 children for special education participated to this test, and special teachers and general teacherstincluding parents and special education assistant) who are supporting children implemented the test. Also, for securing public validity, it was implemented only limited to mental retardation, emotional disturbance, autism, learning disability, and developmental delays screening test which similar types of test with same age were developed.
As a result of this test, the data was analyzed in questions internal consistency through Cronbach's coefficient alpha, reliability among testers through coefficient of correlation of response among testers, additional test for mental retardation, emotional disturbance, autism, specific learning disabilities, and developmental delays, and public validity among screening tests of children with special education.
As a result of this test, 16 kinds quesfionnaires of Cronbach's coefficient alpha were indicated to show statistically significant questions internal consistency by distributing between .54 to .98(p <.05) For reliability between testers, it was indicated statistically high significant difference up to .51 to 1.0(p<.05) Therefore, in test results between special education specialists and non-specialists, which were most attentioned from the development of questions, it is indicated that it did not show statistically significant difference. Therefore, this test can be said that even non-specialist for special education uses this, the reliability can be assured.
While, for mental retardation as a result of analyzing public validity in this test, coefficient of correlation with test result of KISE-SAB was indicated as .80, .80, .82, .51 for young children, elementary, middle, and high school students for each. For eemotional and behavioral disturbance, correlation with screening test of KISE-emotional and behavioral disturbance students was indicated as .38(p=.05) for 2nd grade students of elementary school and as .46(p<.05) for 5th grade, and therefore it can be said that it is not very high but has statistically significant validity.
For autism, coefficient of correlation with CARS of elementary, middle, and high school students was indicated as .50, .71, .68, and .80 for each. For learning disabilities, that with learning disability screening Scales(LDSS) was indicated as .69 for 1st and 2nd grade elementary school students and as .91 for 3rd to 6th grade. For developmental delays, coefficient of correlation with K-CDR was indicated as .86(p<.01), and therefore, it can be said that these results show statistically significant validity.
When searching through above study results, it can be concluded that screening test for special education subjects is easy to screen 'children with special education needs' in special education status research by non-specialist for special education as well as is a test securing reliability and validity sufficiently.