NCT06729177

Single Case Research Design: Teacher Outcomes

Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 4 (actual)
• Sponsor: The University of Tennessee, Knoxville · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 99 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study examines whether a professional development program helps teachers implement Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction (SISI) with higher fidelity. The training includes review of an intervention manual, live modeling of SISI components, and discussion of implementation expectations. Teacher fidelity is evaluated with the Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction Fidelity Tool, which rates the extent to which core components are used during a intervention session. The study also documents how often teachers receive additional support (e.g., coaching) to understand which procedures help strengthen implementation.

Detailed description

This project uses a nonconcurrent multiple-baseline design across four teachers who serve deaf children in a deaf education program. The goal is to examine changes in teachers' SISI implementation fidelity following training and coaching. At baseline, the PI observes each teacher's typical language arts instruction using the SISI Fidelity Tool. Three stable data points are collected for each teacher before intervention. Every SISI component is scored as 1 (fully implemented), 0.5 (partially implemented), or 0 (not implemented), and then summarized as a percentage of components implemented. After baseline, the PI provides a two-day training in SISI procedures. Teachers then begin implementing SISI in a staggered fashion: Teacher 1 starts immediately after training for three weeks; Teacher 2 begins in Week 4; Teachers 3 and 4 begin in Weeks 7 and 10. All instructional sessions are video-recorded and uploaded to a cloud platform, where the PI and a second rater review them for daily fidelity monitoring. Throughout the study, the PI offers coaching as needed to support implementation. The PI also tracks children's progress on their individually targeted sign language skills to confirm that intervention adjustments are appropriate and timely. If implementation challenges arise or if data collection procedures are insufficiently clear or consistent, refinements may be made. Any refinements are put in place immediately and monitored for their influence on teacher fidelity and the feasibility of study procedures.

Conditions

• Teacher Practice

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction	Evidence-based instructional methods, grounded in cognitive, sociocultural, and linguistic theories, are applied to interventions that support sign language development in deaf children.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-08-23
• Primary completion: 2025-07-01
• Completion: 2025-09-30
• First posted: 2024-12-11
• Last updated: 2025-12-19
• Results posted: 2025-12-19

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States