Streamlining Observations, Feedback, Reflection, and Professional Development: Are You Ready to Be COACHED?

Special Education teachers face increasing difficulties when teaching students with Mathematical learning disorders. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether special education pre-service and in-service teachers in a university in the Middle East are receiving proper training to deal with students with disabilities in learning mathematics. A 24-item self-developed questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 95 (N=95) special education pre-service and in-service teachers. The analysis of the data revealed that pre-service teachers had not accomplished sufficient competency in any of the NCTM standards that are necessary for providing meaningful and useful learning experiences to their future students. However, the analysis of the data revealed that in-service teachers had sufficient competencies in all NCTM standards. These results help to contribute in informing the design and implementation of teacher education programs. Implications of these findings are further discussed along with recommendations for further development within the teacher education program for special education teachers.

Increasingly in K–12 schools, students are gaining access to computational thinking (CT) and computer science (CS). This access, however, is not always extended to students with disabilities. One way to increase CT and CS (CT/CS) exposure for students with disabilities is through preparing special education teachers to do so. In this study, researchers explore exposing special education preservice teachers to the ideas of CT/CS in the context of a mathematics methods course for students with disabilities or those at risk of disability. Through analyzing lesson plans and reflections from 31 preservice special education teachers, the researchers learned that overall emerging promise exists with regard to the limited exposure of preservice special education teachers to CT/CS in mathematics. Specifically, preservice teachers demonstrated the ability to include CT/CS in math lesson plans and showed understanding of how CT/CS might enhance instruction with students with disabilities via reflections on these lessons. The researchers, however, also found a need for increased experiences and opportunities for preservice special education teachers with CT/CS to more positively impact access for students with disabilities.

The role of any teacher education program in the field of special education has been to prepare its graduates to become successful classroom teachers. Teacher education programs have constantly searched for the best available practices to educate future teachers. Historically, textbooks have been the predominant form of information dissemination within the university culture. The use of textbooks, bound by structure and limited by content, has narrowed the knowledge base that teacher education graduates bring to their role as practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to promote the increased use of literature in preservice special education teacher preparation programs to better prepare educators to serve individual learners with special education needs.

Grounded in the Theory of Reasoned Action, this study aims to examine how technology self-efficacy and attitudes toward AI-based mobile applications predict preservice special education teachers’ (SETs) intentions to integrate these applications into teaching students with learning disabilities (SWLD). A stepwise multiple regression analysis assessed the impact of these variables on preservice teachers’ intentions. Data were collected from 173 preservice SETs. The results revealed that preservice teachers exhibited moderate levels of technology self-efficacy, intentions to integrate AI-based mobile applications, and attitudes toward these applications. Furthermore, attitudes toward AI-based mobile applications emerged as the strongest predictor of teachers’ intentions to integrate these technologies (r = 0.878, p < 0.05), while technology self-efficacy also had a significant effect (r = 0.698, p < 0.05). Together, these variables accounted for 76% of the variance in intentions (R2 = 0.77). These findings underscore the important role of technology self-efficacy and positive attitudes in affecting teachers’ adoption of AI-based mobile applications. This study addresses the gap in the literature on integrating AI technologies in special education and emphasizes their potential to enhance teaching practices for SWLD. Based on the findings, the study recommends training and support to improve preservice teachers’ self-efficacy and attitudes toward AI-based mobile applications, facilitating their integration into special education settings.

Professional development schools (PDSs) have become an important component of preservice teacher preparation. Researchers investigating the effect of the PDS model on the principal stakeholders (preservice teachers, classroom teachers, students, and university faculty) have reported many positive effects. The role of the PDS in special education teacher preparation, however, appears to be less well defined. This article focuses on PDS participation of special education teacher preparation programs and addresses the apparent reluctance to embrace the PDS model.

Preparing early childhood teachers for inclusion requires the blending of high quality developmentally appropriate practices with environmental adaptations and individualized instructional practices. This article describes how a field experience was redesigned to incorporate evidence based practices in teaming and collaboration, environment and instruction. A STEM learning center was the context for this case study on a preservice teacher and preschool child with special needs. Changes to the physical, social and temporal environment set the stage for promoting communication goals and led to increased child engagement and language use. Implications and recommendations for how to structure unified early childhood/early childhood special education teacher preparation programs for blended practices are discussed.

The current study investigated preservice special education teachers’ levels of knowledge of fundamental principles of behavior modification (BM), and its connection with some variables. The study’s sample was (171) preservice special education teacher. Researchers developed a (50) item instrument in order to assess participants’ levels of knowledge. The instrument was found to be valid and reliable. Results indicate the preservice special education teachers’ levels of knowledge of behavior modification fundamental principles were low, in general. Further, female participants were more knowledgeable than male ones. Additionally, statistical significant differences were found between participant on university, GPA rating, and semester students have had taken BM course variables, while there were no statically significant differences were found on type of disability preservice teacher teaching variable.

The paper contributes to the existing literature in assessing the quality of the Special Education Teacher Preparation Program in light of the standards of the Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (CAEP).The study sample consisted of (48) faculty members, of whom (28) were males and (20) females, and the questionnaire was used to collect data. the results showed that the degree of evaluating the quality of the special education teacher preparation program in the universities of the northern governorates in Jordan in the light of the standards of the Accreditation Council for Teacher Education (CAEP) was medium, and the results showed that there were statistically significant differences according to the gender variable in favor of females. And the academic rank in favor of the lower ranks, The study recommended the need to review the experiences of other countries in the field of preparing programs for special education teachers according to other international standards and evaluate them according to the latest developments in this field.

Long-standing special education teacher (SET) shortages and declining enrollment in SET preparation programs in the United States (U.S.) have resulted in a significant number of alternatively-certified SETs in classrooms, particularly in poverty-impacted schools. As a result, the least experienced teachers often serve in schools with historically underserved students. It is critical to understand the needs and experiences of these teachers to support them better. This qualitative study examined twelve first- and second-year, alternatively certified special educators’ experiences in inclusive classrooms in poverty-impacted schools in the U.S. Participants completed a brief survey of demographics and daily experiences, two semi-structured interviews, and member checks. Results were analyzed to understand participants' experiences teaching within inclusive settings. Key themes - an impossible task, feeling like they worked in “someone else’s stadium,” and a preference for separate settings - underscore the complexities of implementing inclusive education effectively. Recommendations for special and general education teacher and administrator preparation and ongoing support are provided.

Effective teaching and learning strategy is one of the most important topics in the field of teachers’ professional development. Teachers’ education and pre-service teachers’ training programmes provide necessary coursework, field experience, and student teaching internship experience to pre-service, potential, and second career teachers who are seeking initial license status. Due to the rapid developments in Hong Kong, China, school teachers face challenges, difficulties, and social problems due to excess enrolment of teachers from different backgrounds. The regular curriculum and material also fail to cover all these issues. The current study applied the seminar technique as recommended in Polya’s Four-Step Problem-Solving Model with targeted discussion topics and engaged 12 STEM pre-service teachers at one of the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) programmes. The results indicated that beyond regular coursework, field experience, and internship experiences embedded in the curriculum, additional seminars allowed the participants to establish inter-disciplinary teaching strategies and critical thinking skills. The results of this study serve as a blueprint for teachers’ education programme leaders and school administrators to establish similar seminars and conduct such sessions for their pre-service and in-service teachers to refresh and advance their teaching and learning strategies.

Performance feedback is commonly used during field experiences to improve desired teaching behaviors in preservice teachers. The authors identify eight single-subject studies examining the effects of performance feedback in preservice teachers to determine the evidence base for this practice. These eight studies are reviewed using quality indicators specific to single subject. Positive findings are shown across seven of the eight studies. Targeted behaviors showing the most change are those focused on implementation fidelity of evidence-based instructional strategies. Teacher-specific behaviors do improve after receiving performance feedback. However, the change in these behaviors was not consistent across all studies. Five studies met all rigorous standards of quality research and surpass additional requirements pertaining to evaluating single-subject research. The authors conclude that performance feedback is an evidence-based practice when used to increase implementation fidelity of instructional practices. Implications to the field of special education teacher preparation are discussed.

Background Although preservice teachers bring well-established views of teaching to their teacher education programs, Tabachnick and Zeichner (1984) claimed that it is possible to amend preservice teachers’ views. They portrayed the learning of teachers as a negotiated and interactive process rather than as one that is predetermined by teachers’ prior experiences. Feiman-Nemser (2001) suggested that having preservice teachers examine their beliefs in light of images of good teaching should be one of the central tasks of preservice teacher education. Purpose The study reported in this manuscript was conducted in an effort to document and examine the interplay between novice teachers’ personal theories, their mathematics education coursework, and their field experiences. Research Design Using all four methods of data collection attributed to ethnographic research (Eisenhart, 1988)—artifact collection, participant observation, ethnographic interviewing, and researcher introspection—this interpretivist study (Zeichner & Gore, 1990) attempted to document and examine the learning of seven preservice elementary teachers as reflected in their mathematics methods coursework and subsequent field experiences. Findings This manuscript describes three tasks from the mathematics methods course—critiquing an essay written by a teacher as she reflected on her teaching practice; working one-on-one with a child in mathematics for an extended period of time; and observing an experienced teacher teach an elementary mathematics lesson—that provided preservice elementary school teachers with opportunities to learn and grow as teachers by making their beliefs explicit and then reflecting on their beliefs and linking these beliefs to the practice of teaching mathematics. The tasks described engaged the preservice teachers in examining beliefs critically in relation to visions of good teaching, developing an understanding of learners and learning, and developing the tools and dispositions to study teaching. Conclusions While an analysis of the data showed evidence that the preservice teachers became aware of their beliefs, reflected on their beliefs, and began to change their beliefs, the purpose of this manuscript is not to claim that the teachers changed for the good and that this change was enduring. Rather, the goal is to illuminate the tasks, provide the preservice teachers’ responses and reactions to the tasks, and to argue that these tasks constitute a form of learning to teach mathematics through assisted performance.

In the United States, students are increasingly diverse in their academic and linguistic abilities. The specialization of teaching professionals has been the primary method used in order to respond to this increase. Programs for these professionals have largely been siloed along the dichotomous groupings of students identified in law, namely, disabled/nondisabled or English proficient/nonproficient. However, the reality of students is much more complex and interdisciplinary approaches present an opportunity for meeting the realistic needs of all students. This study used a one-time, open-ended survey to gather the perceptions of four preservice special education teachers who worked collaboratively with students identified as English-Language Learners (ELL) and their teacher. These perceptions were analyzed in light of recent literature calling for increased collaboration among professionals in special and bilingual education.

In the field of special education, attrition plays a major role in a persistent teacher shortage problem. Over the past few decades, researchers in general education and special education have investigated the various reasons why new teachers leave the field and ways in which they can be better supported to stay in their positions. Despite the increased focus on why new special education teachers leave the field, the knowledge related to teacher attrition in special education is still somewhat limited when compared with the field of general education. For example, previous research has heavily relied on survey research to understand teacher attrition, but these methods may limit some of the important information related to the complexity of why a teacher might leave the field or their job within the first few years. In this study, the authors conduct several Nominal Group Technique (NGT) focus groups to learn more about the perceived needs of new special education teachers. Focus groups are held with three specific groups, preservice special education teachers, new special education teachers, and school administrators to further investigate the potential differences in perceptions about the needs and roles of new special education teachers.

It is imperative that (preservice) teachers engage in continuous reflection on their pedagogical practice to foster their continuous professional development. Teaching videos are therefore used in teacher education programmes to stimulate reflection. The authentic presentation of teaching through videos enables (preservice) teachers to reflect on certain aspects of teaching. To enhance the reflection quality of (preservice) teachers, it is essential that they receive structured support throughout the reflection process. The following article examines the reflection processes of preservice teachers who took part in the FLECTT project (Collegial video-based reflection on teaching in Reflecting Teams) at the University of Duisburg-Essen. During their practical semester, preservice teachers had the opportunity to reflect on videotapes of their own teaching in a collegial reflection setting. As only a few studies have investigated processes of collegial video-based reflection of preservice teachers, the following study addresses this research desideratum and investigates the reflection processes by means of an explorative, qualitative study. The findings suggest that preservice teachers engage intensively with the teaching video. They reflect on their personal experiences and develop new alternative courses of action. However, it seems to be crucial that the participants are familiar with the specific setting in order to be able to participate effectively in the reflection process. In addition, the high level of engagement with the teaching video seems to have an effect on the concentration or fatigue of the preservice teachers.