Source: Teacher Education and Special Education, 37(2), May 2014, p. 91-105.
As one component of a program improvement grant provided by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEPs), the authors’ teacher preparation program (TPP) underwent substantial program redesign.
In this article, the authors provide a detailed overview of the process they undertook to revamp their program based on the fundamental question, “Upon graduation, what should our graduates know and be able to do?”
Using a q-sort technique as the foundation, faculty identified “high priority” topics and used these topics as a guide for developing new courses, assignments, and experiences within the authors’ TPP.
An overview of the q-sort technique and how the authors applied it to bring about specific, programmatic changes will be detailed.
In addition, information on how this process can be applied to other TPPs is presented.