Effects of Self-Regulated Strategy Development Instruction on the Writing Performance of Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders in Tinsae Birhan Primary School

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to examine the effects of Self-Regulated Strategy
Development (SRSD) instruction on the writing performance of students with Emotional
and Behavioral Disorders (EBD) in Addis Ababa. Both parents’ and teachers’ versions
of Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQ) were used to identify students with
EBD. Six students with EBD were identified and taught the SRSD story writing strategy
genre as well as self-regulation strategies, in a group of two. Multiple baselines across
participants’ designs were implemented to record the behavior changes over time:
at baseline, intervention, post-intervention, and maintenance phases. Stories were
assessed for the number of essential story elements, story quality, and total written
words. Visual analysis methods and Percentage of Non-Overlapping Data (PND) were
used to examine the extent of the effect in each student. The findings of the study indicated
that all six participants wrote stories that had, a better quality, and a greater number of
words, and maintained long. Besides, the students’ story writing also generalized to the
personal narrative genre. Moreover, the social validity scales revealed that teachers
and students found the intervention to be highly acceptable. In light of the findings,
limitations, recommendations for future research are discussed.