scholarly journals Preparing Special Education Teachers to Affirm LGBTQ+ Students and Themselves

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-35
Author(s):  
Bryan E. Cichy-Parker
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Special Education Teachers ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Affective Learning ◽  
Special Education Teacher ◽  
Qualitative Assessment ◽  
Cultural Empathy ◽  
Gender Minorities ◽  
And Gender

Within their work, special education teachers are tasked with being knowledgeable on a wide array of human diversity. Although attitudes have been changing rapidly toward sexual and gender minorities in recent years, data from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s (GLSEN) most recent National School Climate Survey indicated that 52.4% of students reported hearing homophobic remarks and 66.7% of students reported hearing negative remarks about gender expression from their teachers or other school staff (Kosciw et al., 2020). This article identifies three areas in which special education teacher educators can interact with their teacher candidates to support learning about the LGBTQ+ community and equip them to work with their future students who identify as a sexual or gender minority. Techniques included address the use of qualitative assessment through discussion and journaling; building cultural empathy via affective learning, perspective taking, acceptance of cultural differences, awareness, and appropriate responding via an understanding of intersectionality and intention versus impact.

Morphology Matters, but What Do Teacher Candidates Know About It?

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 246-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin K. Washburn ◽  
Candace A. Mulcahy
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Special Education Teachers ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Morphological Structure ◽  
Reading Teachers ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Secondary Grades ◽  
Striving Readers ◽  
Complex Words

Skilled reading is a complex process in which many subskills are involved, including an awareness of the morphological structure of language. Morphological awareness is the ability to understand how words are broken into meaningful units (e.g., affixes, root words). Explicit and systematic teaching of morphological concepts are reported to help striving readers, particularly those in upper elementary, middle, and secondary grades, with reading. To teach morphological concepts and their relation to reading, teachers need to have both awareness and knowledge of morphology. In the present study, general and special education teachers’ knowledge of morphological concepts are examined. Results indicate that teachers, regardless of type of certification (general vs. special education) or grade level (elementary vs. secondary), have difficulty identifying morphemes in both simple and complex words. Suggestions for what and how teacher educators can integrate the teaching of morphological concepts into teacher preparation contexts are provided.

scholarly journals Attitudes and opinions of special education candidate teachers regarding digital technology

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 191
Author(s):  
Fezile Ozdamli
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Special Education Teachers ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Attitude Scale ◽  
Special Education Teacher ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Information And Communication

Parallel to the rapid development of information and communication technology, the demand for its use in schools and classroom is increasing. So, the purpose of this study is to determine the attitudes and views of students who will be special education teachers in the future regarding digital technology on the use in education. A mixed method, qualitative and quantitative, was used to collect data. Attitude Scale for Digital Technology was used as a quantitative data collection tool and a semi-structured interview form was used to collect qualitative data. A total of 275 students studying at Special Education teaching department of Near East University participated in this study. The findings indicated that the candidate teachers had a positive attitude towards the use of technologies. The findings obtained from the qualitative dimensions of the study showed that the candidate teachers had positive views about the use of technology by the special education students in their learning process. Keywords: Special education, teacher candidates, digital technology, attitudes.

Re-envisioning Teacher Preparation in an Era of Endrew F.: Instruction Over Access

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 264-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin L. Sayeski ◽  
David F. Bateman ◽  
Mitchell L. Yell
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Individualized Education Program ◽  
Supreme Court Decision ◽  
Special Education Teacher ◽  
Board Of Education ◽  
General Curriculum ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
High Incidence Disabilities

The Supreme Court decision in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District (2017) established a higher standard of what constitutes an appropriate education for students receiving special education. In contrast to the previous standard provided in the Board of Education v. Rowley (1982) decision, which established that some benefit (even minimal or trivial benefit) was acceptable, the Endrew F. decision reflected a higher standard for the delivery of special education. Specifically, special education should result in measurable progress toward individualized education program goals. This article explores what it means for special education teacher educators to prepare teacher candidates to meet this higher standard. In particular, how a focus on instruction (i.e., the delivery of specially designed instruction) rather than a focus on access to the general curriculum is necessary in order for meaningful, measurable change to occur in the outcomes of students with high-incidence disabilities will be explored.

Educating Culturally Diverse Students with Challenging Behaviors: A Review of Literature

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly M. Carrero ◽  
Mandy E. Lusk
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Special Education Teachers ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Challenging Behaviors ◽  
Special Education Teacher ◽  
Review Of Literature ◽  
Culturally Diverse Students ◽  
Diverse Backgrounds ◽  
Changing Demographics

AbstractChanging demographics in American school systems necessitate educators to better prepare themselves to work with students from diverse backgrounds. Moreover, culturally diverse (CD) students are disproportionately represented in special education, indicating a need to investigate assessment for identification purposes. We, the authors, believe that examining current research in higher education will highlight the need for effective special education teachers prepared to teach CD learners with challenging behaviors. This article is a review of existing literature related to educating CD students with challenging behaviors and preparing special education teacher candidates for this population.

Explaining the Decline in Special Education Teacher Employment From 2005 to 2012

2017 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Dewey ◽  
Paul T. Sindelar ◽  
Elizabeth Bettini ◽  
Erling E. Boe ◽  
Michael S. Rosenberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
General Education ◽  
Special Education Teachers ◽  
Public Law ◽  
General Educators ◽  
Special Education Teacher ◽  
Teacher Preparation Programs ◽  
Preparation Programs ◽  
Disability Prevalence ◽  
Constituent Elements

Demand for special education teachers grew continuously from the passage of Public Law 94-142 in 1975 through 2005, when this trend reversed. From 2005 to 2012, the number of special education teachers employed by U.S. schools declined by >17%. The primary purpose of this investigation was to determine factors that contributed to this decline. We parsed change in number of special education teachers employed into four constituent elements and found that these recent reductions were fueled by decreases in disability prevalence and the relative ratio of teachers to students in special versus general education, which favored the latter. These changes have important implications for teacher preparation programs’ efforts to adequately prepare special and general educators and for policies designed to improve teacher quality.

scholarly journals Teacher Leadership in Special Education: Exploring Skills, Roles, and Perceptions

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-63
Author(s):  
Sylvia Bagley ◽  
Kimmie Tang
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
Special Education Teachers ◽  
Teacher Leaders ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Special Education Teacher ◽  
Teacher Leader ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
Diverse Field

Special Education teachers frequently assume formal or informal leadership roles and responsibilities across disciplines (Council for Exceptional Children, 2015a, 2015b). However, despite the increasing attention paid to teacher leadership on an international scale (Wenner & Campbell, 2016), little research exists on the experiences and needs of teacher leaders within the diverse field of Special Education. In this descriptive phenomenological study, we addressed the following questions: 1) What does teacher leadership within the landscape of Special Education look like? 2) How does this work relate to the roles and dispositions laid out in both the Teacher Leader Model Standards (2011) and the Council for Exceptional Children’s Special Education Specialist Preparation Standards (2015a, 2015b)? We found that Special Education teacher leaders primarily demonstrate leadership via support, specifically through the skills of advocacy, facilitating, innovating, and ‘administrating’.

scholarly journals Developing an Explicit Instruction Special Education Teacher Observation Rubric

2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyn S. Johnson ◽  
Yuzhu Zheng ◽  
Angela R. Crawford ◽  
Laura A. Moylan
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Special Education Teachers ◽  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
Rasch Measurement ◽  
Special Education Teacher ◽  
Teacher Observation ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Education Teacher ◽  
Video Observations ◽  
Psychometric Quality

In this study, we developed an Explicit Instruction special education teacher observation rubric that details the elements of explicit instruction and tested its psychometric properties using many-facet Rasch measurement (MFRM). Video observations of classroom instruction from 30 special education teachers across three states were collected. External raters ( n = 15) were trained to observe and evaluate instruction using the rubric and assigned scores of “implemented,” “partially implemented,” or “not implemented” for each of the items. Analyses showed that the item, teacher, lesson, and rater facets achieved high psychometric quality for the instrument. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Designing a Dual Licensure Path for Middle Childhood and Special Education Teacher Candidates

2022 ◽  
pp. 917-932
Author(s):  
Virginia F. McCormack ◽  
Marlissa Stauffer ◽  
Kate Fishley ◽  
JoAnn Hohenbrink ◽  
John R. Mascazine ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Middle Childhood ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Special Education Teacher ◽  
Effective Teacher ◽  
District Office ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education Courses ◽  
Dual License ◽  
Office Personnel

This chapter focused on identifying ways to merge education courses and field hours to create a new dual licensure pathway for Middle Childhood Education and Special Education. The purpose was to adapt two programs to unify the competencies, dispositions, and collaborative practices of each program into one program producing highly effective teacher candidates with a dual license in Middle Childhood Education and Special Education. Attention was given to the importance of educating more teacher candidates with the capacity to meet the needs of all learners with an emphasis on those with exceptionalities and disabilities. The key implications and advantages of the effectiveness of combining a Middle Childhood and Special Education teaching license were apparent in the response from district office personnel, teachers, teacher candidates, and university faculty.

Guiding Online Graduate Special Education Candidates Through E-Performance Assessments and edTPA

2022 ◽  
pp. 1021-1036
Author(s):  
Charmion Rush ◽  
Karena J. Cooper-Duffy
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Special Education Teachers ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Teacher Candidate ◽  
Performance Assessments ◽  
Teacher Preparation Programs ◽  
Preparation Programs ◽  
Online Teacher ◽  
Field Supervisors

As online teacher preparation programs continue to grow, guiding the process for edTPA candidates can pose varying challenges. As such, teacher preparation programs must be equipped to provide guidance to online candidates as they complete the actionable items required for edTPA. Provided from the field supervisors' perspective, this chapter outlines the current process Western Carolina University has in place to provide effective clinical and teacher candidate experiences for students in their online program. The purpose of this chapter provides guided structure for graduate special education teachers pursing initial licensure through an online masters' program. This chapter will include 1) the challenges of guiding online students through the e-portfolio process, 2) an exploration of the provided structure for the teacher candidates to fulfill the requirements of edTPA, as well as 3) recommendations for teacher preparation programs and teacher candidate readiness in the practice and application of e-performance assessments and edTPA.

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