Patricia Snyder, a UF College of Education professor, received a $3.5 million federal grant in July for her research on early childhood learning.
She will use the funds to examine how embedded instruction, or a teaching approach, affects learning in classrooms with preschool children who have learning disabilities.
Two other UF College of Education professors, Mary McLean and James Algina, are co-principal investigators. Another professor of special education at Vanderbilt University, Mary Louise Hemmeter, contributed to the early study.
The study is a continuation of a previous one started by Snyder, McLean and Hemmeter in 2007.
“Our initial study showed great promise, and we’re pleased to have the opportunity to replicate it with a larger number of teachers and children,” Snyder said.
She said embedded instruction is designed to help preschool children learn everyday activities with an inclusive environment rather than individual learning.
For example, a child could learn how to count objects while eating a snack or listening to a story. Learning skills this way would be more engaging to the student than learning through worksheets, Snyder said.
She said her team will be working with public school classrooms in north central Florida and central Tennessee.
McLean said she predicts the results will be similar to those of the previous study, which showed children learned more skills with embedded instruction than those who didn’t.
Even though they observed classrooms in different states during the first study, McLean said they don’t anticipate any regional differences.
“The purpose of this study is to scale up,” she said. “The numbers have increased.”
They only had about half of the numbers before. McLean said they were excited out the results and to have a chance to prove embedded instruction works. She said she believes the study’s importance is to guide teachers in instructing children in natural settings rather than highly structured ones.
[A version of this story ran on page 16 on 8/5/15]
