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Developing Quality Special Education Teachers

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Developing Quality Special Education Teachers Need for a Seamless, Longitudinal Approach Mary T. Brownell Center for Personnel Studies in Special Education – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Developing Quality Special Education Teachers


1
Developing Quality Special Education Teachers
  • Need for a Seamless,
  • Longitudinal Approach
  • Mary T. Brownell
  • Center for Personnel Studies in Special Education

2
The Case for Seamless Teacher Education
  • Beginning special education teachers (SETs) need
    ongoing support to become highly qualified
    because they. .
  • Are less likely to be fully prepared for their
    job and more likely to be completely unprepared
  • Are expected to perform all aspects of job
    capably and alone
  • Experience less collegiality than senior
    colleagues
  • Have fewer curricular and technological resources
  • Boe, Cook, Sunderland, 2006 Griffin, Winn,
    Otis-Wilborn, Kilgore, 2003

3
The Case for Seamless Teacher Education
  • Even when beginning SETs are knowledgeable, they
    struggle to enact that knowledge.
  • In a quantitative study of beginning special
    education teachers, teachers were rather
    knowledgeable about how to teach reading, but
    struggled to enact that knowledge.
  • Additionally, beginning SETs demonstrated
    stronger classroom management and generic
    practices than reading practices.
  • Brownell, Bishop, Gersten, Klingner, Dimino,
    Haager, Penfield, Menon, Sindelar (2007)

4
The Case for Seamless Teacher Education
  • Although some beginning SETs provide highly
    engaging instruction, most are uneven in their
    practices.
  • Beginning SETs indicate being well-prepared in
    special education, but less well-prepared to
    teach students with disabilities reading.
  • SETs, in co-teaching situations, are often
    relegated to a teachers aide position in the
    classroom.
  • Experience is often touted as the most important
    factor, but this finding is actually not
    consistent
  • Bishop, Brownell, Klingner, Menon, Galman,
    Leko, 2007 Scruggs,Mastropieri, McDuffie, in
    press Seo, Brownell, Bishop, Dingle, 2007
    Wayne Youngs, 2003

5
Seamless teacher education
  • Involves high quality
  • Initial preparation
  • Induction into the field
  • On-going professional development

6
High Quality Initial Preparation
  • Even though the research base is limited, these
    characteristics seem to define quality
    preparation
  • More extensive in terms of coursework and field
    experiences
  • Includes appropriate coursework in pedagogy for
    teaching content
  • High degree of coherence between coursework and
    fieldwork
  • Professional collaboration is valued and
    emphasized
  • Brownell, Ross, Colon, McCallum, 2005 Hoffman,
    Roller, Maloch, Sailors, Duffy, Beretras, 2005

7
High Quality Induction
  • Why is it essential?
  • Beginning teachers are more vulnerable
  • Can improve teacher retention
  • Can improve teacher quality
  • Costs less than replacing a teacher
  • Brownell, Hirsch, Seo, 2004 Griffin, Winn,
    Otis-Wilborn, Kilgore, 2003 Ingersoll
    Kralik, 2004 Strong, 2005 Strong, 2006

8
High Quality Induction
  • Attributes of effective, comprehensive programs
  • Supportive school culture and collective
    responsibility
  • Opportunities for collaborative interactions
  • Quality mentoring by well-trained mentors that
    are a good match in terms of subject taught,
    grade level taught, and personality
  • Explicit goals for improving teaching

9
High Quality Induction
  • Attributes of effective, comprehensive programs
  • Instructional and psychological support
  • Mentors engage in formative assessment not
    evaluation
  • Political and fiscal support
  • Extend beyond the first year
  • Consider difficulty of initial placements,
    particularly critical for AR route participants

10
Examples of High Quality Induction Programs
  • The Connecticut Beginning Teacher Support Program
  • New Teacher Center at the University of
    California Santa Cruz
  • Californias Beginning Teacher Support and
    Assessment Program
  • Toledo District Induction Program
  • Additionally, there are the CEC guidelines for
    effective mentoring

11
High Quality Professional Development
  • Structures for learning must be in place that
    promote more extended, deeper learning
  • The duration of the learning activities matters,
    but only when they. .
  • provide opportunities for active learning and are
  • aligned with teachers goals, curriculum
    standards, and professional communications

12
High Quality Professional Development
  • Collective participation of teachers from the
    same school, department, and grade level is
    important.
  • Content focus of the staff development effort
    matters, particularly when it. . .
  • provides opportunities to learn about the
    curriculum
  • helps improve teachers knowledge of content,
    content specific pedagogy, and how students
    acquire content

13
High Quality Professional Development
  • Promotes active learning on four dimensions
  • observing and being observed teaching,
  • planning classroom implementation,
  • presenting in and leading staff development
    efforts, and . . .
  • analyzing and reviewing student work

14
High Quality Professional Development
  • Fosters coherence by
  • being consistent with teachers learning goals
  • building on information and skills previously
    acquired
  • being aligned with state and district standards
    and assessments
  • providing communication opportunities that enable
    teachers to confront implementation issues and
    share solutions

15
What will be essential to support a seamless
system?
  • Well-articulated standards that promote a
    cohesiveness between teacher preparation,
    induction, and professional development
  • Tiered licensing system that encourages teachers
    to continually work at professional standards
  • Valid and reliable indicators of teacher quality,
    as evaluation of teachers is critical
  • Securing adequate political will to change and
    fund such a system

16
Questions for Our Field
  • Consideration of how special education will be
    incorporated into this larger system
  • What does it mean to successfully socialize and
    educate beginning special education teachers?
  • How must larger teacher quality efforts be
    adjusted to suit the needs of beginning special
    education teachers?
  • What do high quality special education teachers
    look like and know? What are we aiming for?
    Should we insist on only playing certain roles in
    schools? If not, how will efforts to prepare and
    support special education teachers be focused?

17
References
  • Bishop, A., Brownell, M., Klingner, J., Menon,
    S., Galman, S., Leko, M. (2007). Understanding
    the Influence of Personal Attributes,
    Preparation, and School Environment on Beginning
    Special Education Teachers Classroom Practices
    During Reading Instruction. Status revised and
    resubmitted.
  • Boe, E., Sunderland, B., Cook, L. (November,
    2006). The supply of teachers from traditional
    and alternative routes to preparation. Annual
    Teacher Education Conference for the Council for
    Exceptional Children, San Diego, CA.
  • Brownell, M. Bishop, A., Gersten, R., Klingner,
    J., Dimino, J., Haager, D., Menon, S., Penfield,
    R., Sindelar, P. (2007). Examining the
    Dimensions of Teacher Quality for Beginning
    Special Education Teachers The Role of Domain
    Expertise. Accepted with revisions in Exceptional
    Children.
  • Brownell, M.T., Ross, D., Colon, E.,
    McCallum, C. (2005). Critical features of
    special education teacher preparation A
    comparison with exemplary practices in general
    education. Journal of Special Education, 38,
    242-252.
  • Brownell, M., Hirsch, E. Seo, S. (2004).
    Meeting the demand for highly qualified special
    education teachers during severe shortages.
    Journal of Special Education, 38, 56-61.

18
References
  • Griffin, C.C., Winn, J.A., Otis-Wilborn, A.,
    Kilgore, K. (2003). New teacher induction in
    special education. (COPSSE Document Number RS-5).
    Gainesville, FL University of Florida, Center on
    Personnel Studies in Special Education.
  • Hoffman, J.V., Roller, C., Maloch, B., Sailors,
    M., Duffy, G., Beretras, S.N. (2005). Teachers
    preparation to teach reading and their
    experiences and practices in first three years of
    teaching. The Elementary School Journal, 105(3),
    267-287.
  • Ingersoll, R. Kralik, J. M. (2004). The impact
    of mentoring on teacher retention What the
    research says. ECS Research Review, Denver, CO
    Educational Commission of the States. Retrieved
    June 30, 2004 from http//www.ecs.org/clearinghous
    e/50/36/5036.htm
  • Seo, S., Brownell, M., Bishop, A., Dingle, M.
    (2007). An Examination of Beginning Special
    Education Teachers Classroom Practices That
    Engage Elementary Students with Learning
    Disabilities in Reading Instruction. Status
    revised and resubmitted.

19
References
  • Scruggs, T., Mastropieri, M., McDuffie, K. (in
    press). Co-teaching in inclusive classrooms A
    Meta-synthesis of qualitative research.
    Exceptional Children.
  • Strong, M. (2005). Mentoring new teachers to
    increase retention A look at the research.
    Research brief 05-01. New Teacher Center.
  • Strong, M. (2006). Does new teacher support
    affect student achievement? Some early research
    findings. Research brief 06-01. New Teacher
    Center
  • Wayne, A. J., Youngs, P. (2003). Teacher
    characteristics and student achievement gains A
    review. Review of Educational Research, 73,
    89-122.
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