Biomedical subjects

N T Ruiz

Publications and source records attributed to N T Ruiz.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1995

The social construction of ability and disability: I. Profile types of Latino children identified as language learning disabled.

During the course of an ethnographic study of a bilingual special education classroom, three profile types of students emerged, ranging from students with severe language learning disabilities to students with normal abilities. The study points out the inadequacy of a medical model view of student abilities and disabilities--a view that underestimates the communicative and academic competence of bilingual students. Concurrently, the results support a contextual performance view--a view that acknowledges the role of instructional context in revealing the upper or lower range of students' communicative and academic competence. The study further suggests some contextual features of instruction that are associated with students from all profile types showing their best in terms of language and literacy skills.

Aptitude↗

PubMed1995

The social construction of ability and disability: II. Optimal and at-risk lessons in a bilingual special education classroom.

Bilingual students' language and literacy skills were compared across three classroom events in a special day classroom for students with language learning disabilities. Events ranged from the teacher-structured, formal class openings to the informal, peer-structured socio-dramatic play. Results showed that certain contextual features were associated with enhanced student performance, whereas others were associated with communicative breakdowns and problems with literacy tasks. This ethnographic study, in conjunction with other naturalistic research on bilingual special education classrooms, undergirds the Optimal Learning Environment (OLE) Project by identifying effective instructional contexts for bilingual students identified as having language learning disabilities.

Aptitude↗

PubMed1995

Bilingual special education teachers' shifting paradigms: complex responses to educational reform.

This study examined the nature and process of change among five bilingual special education teachers as they attempted to modify existing instructional practices. Three factors affected the change process: (a) The more special education training in the teachers' background, the stronger their reductionist orientation; (b) change involves shifts in instructional practices and shifts in beliefs, and they do not automatically go hand in hand; and (c) change is most facilitated at the beginning stages of collaboration by including practicing members of the teachers' occupational community as agents of change.

Attitude↗

PubMed1989

An optimal learning environment for Rosemary.

This article discusses the special education placement and instruction of language-minority children identified as mildly disabled, personified by "Rosemary," in the context of a curriculum guide recently developed in California. The Optimal Learning Environment (OLE) Curriculum Guide: A Resource for Teachers of Spanish-Speaking Children in Learning Handicapped Programs. The guide was written in response to the growing number of such children and to the lack of direction given to special educators in meeting the educational needs of this population. The instructional principles in the guide are based on research with language-minority students and on those with learning disabilities. The guide incorporates existing, promising materials and techniques for use with language-minority populations.

Achievement↗