scholarly journals Creating Culture Circles- A Case of Continuing Professional Development Workshop for Israeli Special Education Teachers

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 10-21
Author(s):  
Roni Reingold ◽  
Keren Dery ◽  
Nira May
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Special Education ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Special Education Teachers ◽  
Education System ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Joint Analysis ◽  
Professional Development Workshop ◽  
Definition Of

The focus of critical educational philosophy is not only on criticising traditional education (Banking education), but also on promoting a pedagogy for liberation, whereby education is a cultural action for freedom. The main strategy or tool of critical pedagogy is the culture circle, a dialogical problem-posing method of education. The current qualitative case study examined the use of culture circles in a continuing professional development workshop for Israeli special education teachers. Given the over-representation of culturally and economically oppressed populations in the special education system, it would be appropriate to raise the awareness of the SE teachers of this situation. Findings revealed that while developing culture circles during the workshop, most of the teachers moved from proposing hurried and shallow solutions, to offering carefully thought-out ideas for joint analysis, following an in-depth review and definition of the problem. Despite starting the process with an idealised perception of society and an over-inflated sense of self-efficacy, when group participants completed the workshop, they had acquired the ability to acknowledge and even contend with the unjust conditions and imperfections of the Special Education System. It seems that, participating in culture circles can help teachers to both understand their current realty fully and deeply and to set meaningful goals for the future.

Implementing Project SIED

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew M. Schmidt ◽  
Meng-Fen Grace Lin ◽  
Seungoh Paek ◽  
Ashley MacSuga-Gage ◽  
Nicholas A. Gage
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Special Education ◽  
Mobile Devices ◽  
Special Education Teachers ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Traditional Technology ◽  
Comfort Levels ◽  
Mobile Software ◽  
Future Plans

The worldwide explosion in popularity of mobile devices has created a dramatic increase in mobile software (apps) that are quick and easy to find and install, cheap, disposable, and usually single purpose. Hence, teachers need an equally streamlined and simplified decision-making process to help them identify educational apps—an approach that differs from traditional technology decision-making approaches that are cumbersome and require significant time, resources, and effort. Project Software Identification and Evaluation for Decision-Making (SIED) attempts to fill this gap. In this article, we describe Project SIED, how we designed a series of professional development workshops for in-service special education teachers based on Project SIED, and the evaluation outcomes of the workshops. Results suggest that workshops were successful from in-service special education teachers’ self-reported confidence and comfort levels. Limitations and future plans are discussed.

Leveraging Professional Development to Prepare General and Special Education Teachers to Teach within Response to Intervention Frameworks

2020 ◽  
pp. 143-162
Author(s):  
Amber Elizabeth Benedict ◽  
Mary T. Brownell ◽  
Cynthia C. Griffin ◽  
Jun Wang ◽  
Jonte A Myers
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Special Education ◽  
Response To Intervention ◽  
Special Education Teachers ◽  
Shared Knowledge ◽  
Instructional Systems

This chapter examines the role professional development (PD) plays in preparing teachers to teach within Response to Intervention (RTI) frameworks, and how future PD efforts might be leveraged to strengthen the preparation of general and special education teachers to coordinate instruction and teach more effectively within multi-tiered instructional systems. This chapter highlights two PD approaches that directly address these issues. Prime Online and Project InSync are two PD innovations that have specifically addressed how PD can be designed to support general and special education teachers in deepening their shared knowledge and improving their ability to enact coordinated instruction across instructional tiers within RTI frameworks.

Providing Administrative Support for Classroom Paraeducators: What's a Building Administrator to Do?

2002 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 10-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathryn G. Riggs ◽  
Cathryn G. Riggs
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Special Education Teachers ◽  
Administrative Support ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Building Administrators ◽  
Inclusive Instruction ◽  
Changing Roles ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Building Level

A growing number of paraeducators are employed in America's schools. Paraeducators are valuable members of the education team, especially as some districts face a growing shortage of certified special education teachers and others struggle to address issues relating to inclusive education programs. This article focuses on describing what building administrators can do to support paraeducator staff, particularly those who are employed to facilitate inclusive instruction. A brief overview of the changing roles of paraeducators is followed by a definition of “administrative support” in terms of the importance of responsibilities, relationships and respect. A list of ten specific suggestions for providing administrative support for paraeducators at the school building level is supplied.

scholarly journals THE IMPACT OF AN IN-SERVICE TRAINING PROGRAM ON THE SELF-EFFICACY OF SPECIAL AND GENERAL EDUCATION TEACHERS

2015 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-107
Author(s):  
Sotiria Tzivinikou
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Special Education ◽  
General Education ◽  
Training Program ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Educational Interventions ◽  
Service Training ◽  
The Impact

Teachers’ professional development is the key to education improvement. On that basis, the present study aimed to investigate the impact of a 6-month in-service training program in the context of the continuing professional development for educators on educational practice. The main objective of the training program was to improve the educators’ teaching skills, to enrich their practices with the most effective strategies and with the newest findings from research evidence in order to increase the quality of their educational interventions for students with special educational needs. An innovation of that program was the simultaneous training of both general and special education teachers in pairs, smoothing the dividing lines between general and special education in their daily instructional practice. The participants were 30 educators, divided into 15 pairs. Each pair was working in the same inclusive school sharing the responsibility of the educational support of a student with learning problems. The estimation of the impact of the program was investigated by measuring the educators’ increasing sense of self-efficacy in relation to their instructional skills and overall effectiveness of their educational interventions for their students with learning difficulties. A pre and post evaluation research design was employed and the findings showed that the training program had a positive impact on the educators’ self-efficacy and their effectiveness regarding collaborative educational interventions for their students. Key words: continuing professional development, in-service training, self-efficacy.

Systemic Constraints Facing Teacher Professional Development in a Middle-Income Country: Indonesia’s Experience Over Four Decades

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shintia Revina ◽  
Rezanti Putri Pramana ◽  
Rizki Fillaili ◽  
Daniel Suryadarma
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Quality ◽  
Education System ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
System Level ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Teacher Professional

Despite government efforts to reform teacher professional development (TPD) in the past four decades, Indonesian teacher quality remains low. Why have the improvement efforts failed? In the present study we investigate what caused these reforms to fail from two angles. First, we examine the efficacy of the latest teacher professional development (TPD) initiative in Indonesia, Pengembangan Keprofesian Berkelanjutan or PKB (Continuing Professional Development), and identify the factors affecting its efficacy. We found that some essential features of effective TPD are missing in PKB. The PKB programme has not targeted teachers based on years of experience, has not followed up teachers with post-training activities, has not incorporated teaching practice through lesson enactment, and has not built upon teacher existing practice. Second, our analysis demonstrates that PKB's weaknesses have existed in Indonesia's previous TPD initiatives as far back as four decades ago. This indicates that the long-term problem of TPD’s ineffectiveness is driven by different elements of the education system beyond the TPD’s technical and operational aspects. Our system-level analysis points out that merely improving the technical aspects of TPD would be insufficient given the Indonesian education system’s lack of coherence surrounding teacher quality. The problems surrounding the provision of effective TPD is more complex than simply a matter of replacing the “old” with the “new” initiative. The change requires a reorientation of the education system to produce high-quality teachers.

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