International Portal of Teacher Education
The online resource of academic content on teacher training and teacher education
Search results for: Special education
Page 1/12
115 items
1
Effective inclusive teaching practices continue to be an area of uncertainty for preservice and practicing teachers.
This qualitative study examined the lived experiences of three, general education, early childhood, preservice teachers (PST) completing a field experience in preschool classrooms for children with significant disabilities.
All three PSTs in the study were completing a semester long requisite field experience while concurrently completing an introduction to special education course.
Both the field experience and the introduction to special education course were required for their early childhood, general education certification program.
While the PSTs initially acknowledged anxiety related to working with children with significant disabilities, the levels of anxiety decreased during the experience.
Additionally, PSTs noted the importance of the pedagogical skills they acquired from their special education mentor teachers. Highly skilled, special education mentor teachers were noted being critical to a successful experience.
Published: 2021
Updated: Jun. 09, 2021
2
In many teacher preparation programs at institutions of higher education in the United States, pre-service teachers receive mentoring and constructive feedback during their internship placement from an experienced supervising teacher and a university coordinator.
Often the feedback loop is closed by asking interns, ‘was this useful?’
To better answer this question, researchers employed a phenomenological approach to collect interview and focus group data on the lived experiences, perceptions, and understandings of six pre-service special education interns during their internship experience.
Emerging themes included satisfaction with level of support provided by supervisory stakeholders, a feeling of isolation from peer support, special consideration of the components within the evaluation tool, and a request to be provided with additional background information for their assigned university coordinators.
These lessons were aggregated, presented, and then integrated into the experiences provided to forthcoming pre-service educators.
Published: 2020
Updated: Sep. 21, 2020
3
Many teacher preparation programs offering dual certification have engaged in program redesign to establish greater integration between general education and special education. This article presents findings from an exploratory case study that examined the perspectives of former preservice teacher candidates and school personnel regarding an integrated yearlong dual certification internship.
Findings indicated research participants
(a) placed value on the breadth and authenticity of the experience;
(b) built deep relationships with students and staff that contributed to building confidence; and
(c) felt the structure and impact of the model yielded positive outcomes for both the school and for preservice teacher candidates. Implications for practice include suggestions for how teacher preparation programs might move toward integrated models of dual certification teacher preparation and explore the importance of clinically rich partnerships that benefit both preservice teacher candidates and field sites.
Published: 2020
Updated: Sep. 10, 2020
4
In this study, the authors examine the impact of a community service learning course on undergraduate students’ decisions to pursue careers as special education teachers or related service providers.
134 participants completed a course involving volunteer service with persons with disabilities in the local community and were surveyed as to whether they were interested in pursuing a career in special education upon graduation.
Their findings indicated that contact with a person with a disability through community service learning was a factor in influencing participants’ willingness to enter the field of special education.
Published: 2018
Updated: Jul. 29, 2019
5
In this article, the authors present a model of learning and transfer based on the How People Learn theoretical framework. Guided by this framework, a review of literature resulted in 12 experimental, quantitative studies of instructional methods delivered primarily within university classroom-based settings, measuring preservice teachers' (PSTs’) outcomes at increasingly deeper levels of learning and transfer.
Findings indicate various instructional methods within university coursework lead to strong, positive learning outcomes for PSTs, with most studies measuring knowledge acquisition and conceptual application of knowledge.
Yet, more studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of coursework on teacher candidates’ application for and within classroom settings, as well as students’ outcomes. Implications and future research are discussed.
Published: 2018
Updated: Jul. 29, 2019
6
This article aims to examine the critical features and outcomes of an Australian collaborative university- and school-partnership. This partnership was based on an immersion project for mentoring final year pre-service primary teachers in the area of special education. The findings reveal that this project provided scaffolded, authentic opportunities for pre-service teachers that were also beneficial for school staff, students and the school community. Mentors ensured that time spent in schools comprised a high-quality experience, and that pre-service teachers had formal opportunities to observe, discuss, trial and reflect upon theory and practice. The authors conclude that participants experienced real growth and challenges whilst being supported by school mentors and the university coordinator for the full academic year.
Published: 2015
Updated: Mar. 11, 2018
7
In this article, the authors describe candidate outcomes from a course about collaboration that was taught in two ways: (a) as a co-taught course with faculty and candidates from social studies and special education and (b) as a course in the special education program that included only faculty and candidates in special education.
Published: 2017
Updated: May. 11, 2017
8
The authors examined initial licensure polices in special education to determine how these policies support or hinder reform efforts to develop teacher education programs that prepare graduates for the increasingly complex needs of diverse students. Initial special education licensure policies are described with an emphasis on the differences across states on two key options: whether licensure for special education teachers is a stand-alone initial license or whether the state requires a general education license prior to obtaining a second license in special education.
Published: 2017
Updated: May. 11, 2017
9
This article uses data from multiple stakeholders to evaluate whether Secondary Dual Educator’s Program (SDEP) candidates and graduates are meeting program goals. The findings suggest that graduates of a merged secondary program developed competency in differentiated planning, assessment, and instruction in content area classrooms and embedded the provision of accommodations into their planning process. These graduates reported that learning a process for differentiated planning and instruction helped them to be successful first-year content-area teachers in diverse inclusive classrooms.
Published: 2011
Updated: Apr. 24, 2017
10
This article searched in twenty-four English language journals from different countries representing four continents for special education teacher education universals, represented by four broadly defined categories: (a) policy, (b) practice, (c) pedagogy, and (d) teacher preparation/co-curricular activities.
Published: 2016
Updated: Apr. 02, 2017