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VIDBE-Q Volume 63 Issue 2
of responses and unique responses, which were ideas that no one else in the sample
generated.
In order to collect information about student and curriculum characteristics, we
distributed a questionnaire to each student's teacher of students with visual impairments
(TSVIs). TSVIs rated students on their thinking skills, social skills, and academic
performance. They also provided information about level of vision, receipt of expanded
core curriculum (ECC) instruction and direct problem-solving instruction among other
demographic variables (e.g., age, grade, ethnicity). Statistical analyses were conducted
to explore the relationship between the two tasks and the questionnaire variables. We are
in the process of preparing a research manuscript for publication that will share the
specific outcomes of these analyses. This article focuses on some of the general findings
and discussion about the implications for working with students on problem-solving skills.
Results
Analyses of the relationship between student and curriculum characteristics and
task performance yielded an interesting pattern of results. First, and surprisingly, age,
grade level, student level of vision, receipt of problem-solving instruction, and total
number of areas of ECC instruction included in the students' current curriculum were not
significantly correlated with DT or scenario-based task performance. In contrast, student
school placement (school for the blind or public school), receipt of assistive technology
(AT) instruction, teacher-rated academic independence, and whether they were working
on grade level were all correlated with performance on at least one task trial.
Within this sample, students' DT, as measured by the Alternate Uses Task, was
significantly correlated with their real-life problem-solving abilities, as measured by the
