Dr. Joanna Cannon and Dr. Anita Hubley, both professors in Educational & Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS) at UBC, discuss how they formed a collaborative and mutually beneficial relationship within the same department, despite their different areas of research. Dr. Cannon brings expertise in language acquisition for students who are Deaf and hard of hearing. Dr. Hubley brings applied measurement expertise assessing reliability and validity with vulnerable, challenging, or understudied groups. The story of how they bridged their interests through collaboration on multiple grant-funded projects was presented. Learn more about ECPS and Drs. Cannon and Hubley: http://ecps.educ.ubc.ca/

1.  Dr. Joanna Cannon & Dr. Anita Hubley
 ECPS Department Presentation
 March 19, 2015
DHH Links
to Literacy
Lab
Explicit
Instruction
Grammar
Vocabular
y
Technology
Strategies
Assessmen
t
1

2. Backgrounds
Our Collaboration Story
Mentoring vs. Collaborating
Our research
Questions
DHH Links
to Literacy
Lab
Explicit
Instruction
Grammar
Vocabular
y
Technology
Strategies
Assessmen
t
2

3. B.S. & M.S.,
University of
Tennessee
• Education of the
Deaf and Hard of
Hearing
Ed.S., Piedmont
College
• Curriculum &
Instruction
Teacher of the deaf
and hard of hearing
• Atlanta, Georgia
• Itinerant & Resource
• 9 years
Ph.D., Georgia State
University
• Students with
Exceptionalities
• Education of the
Deaf and Hard of
Hearing
concentration
3

4. Assistant
Professor
- 2010
Education of the Deaf and Hard
of Hearing graduate program
concentration
Language, literacy, & curriculum
courses
Practicum supervision (CAEDHH
certification)
Critical Issues in Special
Education
EPSE 512
Development & Exceptionality
in the Regular Classroom
EPSE 317
SPED Coordinator 2014-2015
4

5. Areas of research
• Language & literacy interventions for students who are
DHH
• Single Case Design
• HLM Growth Curve Analysis
• Grammar assessments & evidence-based strategies
• Intervention & validity studies
• Technology-based, explicit, supplemental strategies that
increase grammar and vocabulary skills
• Student populations who are recent immigrants (English
Language Learners) 5

6. B.A. Hons.,
Carleton University
• Psychology
M.A., University of
Victoria
• Psychology
(Lifespan
Development &
Aging)
Ph.D., Carleton
University
• Psychology
(Human
Assessment)
• Focus in
neuropsychology
& personality;
adulthood &
aging
6

7. UNBC Faculty member in Psychology
5.5 years
UBC Faculty member since 2000
Areas of
research
Test development and assessment (esp. related to neuropsychology, quality of life,
depression, self-efficacy, subjective age, housing trajectories, vulnerable or understudied
populations)
Test validity and validation (techniques in content validation, consequences of testing,
convergent/discriminant continuum)
Housing & homelessness, mental and physical health, substance use/abuse, self-efficacy,
and quality of life
7

8. Anita Consulted on Joanna’s SSHRC 2011 IDG
Validation
Expert
Language &
DHH Expert
Comprehension
ofWritten
Grammar (CWG)
8

9. Comprehension ofWritten Grammar (CWG):Validating an
assessment for students who are deaf/hard of hearing
$45,550 for 2 years
GRAs
• Shahla Mazlouman (CNPS)
• Courtney Millhoff (SCPS)
9

10. Many children who are DHH have limited access to spoken
or signed languages
Struggle with
initial
language
acquisition &
development
of literacy
skills
One avenue - focus on comprehension of
English grammar & vocabulary
Limited
syntactic ability
influences
reading
comprehension
Targeted assessment needed
Administration issues for
DHH population
3 previous assessments are
outdated/out of print
10

11. Developing
the CWG
Phase 1
Content
Validation
Phase 2
Validity &
Reliability
11

12. Functional & Lexical
categories
Chomsky’s
Minimalist Program
Relative clauses
Imperative clauses
Sentence Patterns
Copula ‘Be’
Tense
Complements
Modals
Possessives
Passives
30 Grammatical
Structures
Each structure
assessed twice
60-ItemTest
(Easterbrooks, 2010)12

13. Students silently read each sentence & select the illustration matching grammatical meaning
Sentences written in targeted grammatical contexts
NP +Vi + Adv-a
__________ _____ ______________
Noun Phrase + Intransitive Verb + Adverb of Action 13

14. Comparative

15. Recruit
10 SMEs
Create
content
validity
survey
SMEs
complete
survey
Compute
CVI
Revisions
to CWG
based on
results
15

16. Title
• Representative of content – 100%
• DHH in title (SME-T 80% vs. SME-P 40%)
Ease of Administration
• Instructions clear, record form easy to use, & student response format appropriate (80%)
• Easy to administer & scoring instructions were clear (SME-T 80% vs. SME-P 60%)
Vocabulary Pre-Test
• Easy to use (SME-T 100% vs. SME-P 80%) & important (100%)
30 Grammatical Structures
• 4 rated as not relevant by 80% of SMEs
• 2 sentences rated as not relevant examples by 80% of SMEs
Pictures
• 180 pictures rated (60 items x 3 pictures each)
• 125 - good or excellent representations by 80% or more of SMEs
Phase 1: Results
16

17. Support Across
SMEs
4 Structures
Removed
20 pictures
edited
• Representing
movement in 2D
Record Form &
Administration
Direction Edits
17

18. Test/Re-test Analysis
Week 1 Week 4
49 DHH
49
Hearing
7-11
yrs.
Validity
Test/ Re-
test
Reliability
Matched Participants
18

19. r = .84, p < .001
Hearing
Group
r = .96, p < .001
DHH
Group
**For DHH children, in particular,
reliability estimates are excellent.
Round 1 4 Weeks Round 2
19

20. • Rank-transformedWelch unequal variances t- test
• CWG total scores: t(96) = 5.04, p < .001, d = 1.03
M = 62.4
SD = 23.2
Hearing
Group
M = 36.6
SD = 27.4
DHH
Group
20

21. Importance:
Highlighting
the need for
the
assessment
Significant on 13
grammatical
structures
Hearing group
scored higher on
all grammatical
structures
21

22. SSHRC 2013 IG Application
• Technology-based interventions: What can an individualized software program reveal
about grammar acquisition for students who are deaf and hard of hearing?
• Awarded but not funded
UBC FOE HSS Research Dissemination 2013 Special Competition Grant
• Comprehension ofWritten Grammar: Administration of Assessment
• $5,833 - GRA - present in Washington DC & develop publication proposal
• Shahla Mazlouman (CNPS)
SSHRC Re-application Assistance Funding towards SSHRC 2014 Insight Grant
• Awarded $2000 for GRAs (Courtney Millhoff – SCPS & Ata Sina – Faculty of Arts)
• Final picture & manual editing
22

23. • Cannon, J.E., & Hubley, A. (2012). Comprehension ofWritten Grammar (CWG):Validating an assessment for students
who are deaf/hard of hearing. American Educational Research Association, Vancouver, British Columbia.
• Cannon, J.E., Hubley, A., & Easterbrooks, S.R. (2013). Collecting Reliability andValidity Evidence for a Language
Assessment for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students. Society for Research on Child Development Preconference:
Development of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children, Seattle,WA.
• Cannon, J.E., Millhoff, C., & Mazlouman, S. (2013). ‘Growing’ an Assessment:TheComprehension ofWritten Grammar
(CWG)Test for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students. Community presentation to Burnaby, Delta, and SurreyTeachers.
South Slope Elementary School, Burnaby, British Columbia.
• Cannon, J.E. (2013). Developing the Comprehension ofWritten GrammarTest for Deaf/Hard of Hearing Students.
International Association of Special Education, Vancouver, British Columbia.
• Cannon, J.E., Easterbrooks, S.R., & Mazlouman, S. (2014). A new test of grammar comprehension: From
development to publication. The Association of College Educators of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing,Washington, D.C.
• Cannon, J.E., & Hubley, A. (2014).The Comprehension ofWritten Grammar test: Results of a reliability and validity
study with deaf and hard-of-hearing students. American Educational Research Association, Philadelphia, PA.
Presentations:
• Cannon, J.E., & Hubley, A. (2014). ContentValidation of the Comprehension ofWritten Grammar Assessment for
Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students, Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 1-7. DOI: 10.1177/0734282914531715
• Cannon, J.E. (2014).Validation study of a new test of English grammar comprehension designed for students who are
Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The CanadianJournal of Educators of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, 4(2), 11-15.
• Cannon, J.E., Hubley, A., Milhoff, C., & Mazlouman, S. (under review) Reliability andValidity of the Comprehension of
Written Grammar test for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students. Submitted to the Journal of DeafStudies and Deaf
Education
Publications
23

24. Collaborating:
• Work with another
person or group in order
to achieve or do
something, especially in
an intellectual endeavor
Mentoring:
• Someone who teaches
or gives help and advice
to a less experienced
and often younger
person
24

25. Grammar
Acquisition for
Deaf and Hard
of Hearing
Students:
Investigating an
Evidence-Based
Intervention and
Assessment
Co-investigators
• $118,928
• 3 years
2 GRAs (Years 1-3)
• Nancy Norman
(SPED)
• JuliaO’Loughlin
(CNPS)
2 GRAs (Year 2)
• TBD
• Applications
August 2015
DHH Links
to Literacy
Lab
Explicit
Instruction
Grammar
Vocabulary
Technology
Strategies
Assessment
25

26. Do DHH participants show increased grammar skill
performance on the CWG after exposure to a language
intervention?
Are scores on the CWG more highly correlated with scores on
other measures of grammar skills (convergent validity) than
scores on the a measure of vocabulary (discriminant validity)?
How predictive are the vocabulary scores on performance of
the CWG?
26

27. Pre-test
(CWG, RITL, PPVT)
Intervention
Post-test
(CWG, RITL, PPVT)
27
50 DHH
students (2nd-
6th)
Grammar Vocabulary
Math
computation
9 weeks
3 x week
10 minutes/day

28. Free online
access to
CWG
Data base of
grammar
structures
Pair CWG
with
evidence-
based
practices
Pair CWG
with IEP
goals &
objectives
Increased
Literacy
Skills!!!
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29.  Thank you for attending! 
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