2008 Wing Grant Recipients

Wing Institute 

Student Research Grants

2008

The Wing Institute is excited to announce the recipients of the 2008 Research Grants. The 2008 grants have been offered to three graduate students from three distinguished universities Nick Gage, Kristy Lee Park, and Daniel Maggin.  

The Wing Institute provides funding for graduate students who are interested in doing research in the area of evidence-based education.  The purpose of the initiative is to: 

–       promote new research in areas of evidence-based education,

–       promote new research across disciplines,

–       encourage graduate students to focus their future professional work in this subject area

–       disseminate research findings for application in “real world” settings, further bridging the gap between research and practice.

The following are the 2008 recipients:

1. Name: Nick Gage

–       University: University of Missouri

–       Award: $5,000

–       Research Proposal: To ascertain the utility of structural analysis as an applied methodology for the identification of antecedent events in school and developing an intervention to ameliorate problem behaviors.

–       Hypothesis or Questions

1. Can structural analysis identify antecedent events and develop an intervention for the targeted students?
2. Can the intervention be implemented across environments and reduce the occurrence of aberrant behaviors?
3. With antecedents remaining constant across non-intervention environments, will target behaviors remain constant or will they increase?

1. Name: Kristy Lee Park

–       University: University of Louisville

–       Award: $5,000

–       Research Proposal: The outcome of this research is to decrease problem behaviors and increase appropriate behaviors in the classroom in order to increase overall academic and behavior success. Secondly, the study wishes to answer the question of the efficacy the FBA process as an intervention in early childhood.

–       Hypothesis or Questions

1. Can typical function-based assessments (FBA) procedures (descriptive indirect and direct methods) produce verifiable hypotheses of function when performed with pre-school children in a Head Start program?
2. Is there a functional relationship between type of intervention procedures (function-based and non-function-based) and observed change in problem behavior?

1. Name: Daniel Maggin

–       University: Vanderbilt University

–       Award: $5,000

–       Research Proposal: The proposed study is designed to develop a tool to improve behavioral, social, and academic outcomes for children with emotional and behavioral difficulties. This is an attempt to develop a decision support guide and manual for classroom management that provides teachers with evidence-based strategies.

–       Hypothesis or Questions

1. The identification of individual factors associated with the presence of aggressive and disruptive behaviors in children and adolescents.
2. Identification of contextual factors within a school and classroom that contribute to the maintenance of the aggressive and disruptive behaviors.
3. Identification of methods that teachers can use to reduce problematic behaviors in classroom and increase academic engagement.