Higher Education and Teaching Commons^™

Lessons Learned: Considerations For Enhancing Principal Preparation Programs With Inclusive Special Education Practices, Ellen G. Casale, Stacy Leggett

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

Western Kentucky University has a long-standing history in preparing principals. Recognizing the ever-growing importance of explicit training in supporting students with disabilities, we applied for and received a minigrant from the Kentucky Excellence in Educator Preparation to enhance our curriculum to address this need. In this article, we provide an overview of the context for this need and provide considerations for principal preparation programs considering enhancing their own curricula. Implications are provided.

Role Play: Actualizing The Iep Meeting For Pre-Service Teachers, Courtney A. Toledo

The Qualitative Report

Teacher preparation programs provide numerous teaching and learning opportunities for pre-service teachers; however, participating in an Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting is not an experience that can be guaranteed. Leading and participating in IEP meetings are a responsibility that all special education teachers will be held accountable for, but many pre-service teachers will never be able to observe a real IEP meeting before entering the field. In this qualitative case study, the researcher utilizes a simulated IEP meeting to provide pre-service teachers with experience in participating in an IEP meeting prior to entering the profession. The case study method is …

Student With Twice-Exceptionalities Iep Meeting Assignment Description, David Wolff

Open Educational Resources - Teaching and Learning

General education teachers should remember that all students are general education students, first. We need to be prepared to work with students of all abilities in our classrooms. As general education teachers, we have an active role on a child’s IEP team and an active role during the IEP meeting. This assignment asked preservice teachers to develop a script of what they would say at an IEP meeting of one character from four different novels that would be considered a child with twice-exceptionalities.

Field-Based Experiences In Special Education Teacher Training: What Teacher Educators Do (And Should Do), Michelle Simmons, Laurie A. Sharp

Journal of Research Initiatives

Beginning teachers face a wide array of challenges in today’s PreK-12 classrooms. These challenges are magnified for beginning special education teachers who must meet the needs of an extremely diverse student population. To prepare beginning special education teachers for classroom realities, teacher educators must recognize and use high-leverage preparation practices in coursework and field-based experiences during teacher training. The goal of the present study was to conduct a state-level analysis that examined ways in which teacher educators implemented field-based experiences with preservice special education teachers. A cross-sectional survey research design was used to gather qualitative data from a sample of …

Preservice Teachers' Attitudes And Knowledge Towards Assistive Technology: Exploring And In-Class Workshop Approach, Stacey Keown, Moriah Smothers, Tori Colson

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004) mandates that all students receiving special education services should be considered for assistive technology; therefore, it is imperative that teacher preparation programs prepare preservice teachers to select, implement, and evaluate assistive technology for their future students. This mixed-methods study explored the influence an in-class workshop had on preservice teachers’ feelings of preparedness to use assistive technology in their future classrooms. The participants were all enrolled in a 400-level special education methods course, and their perceptions were assessed by administering a pre- and post- survey. The workshop consisted of an independent online training …

Peer Review Of Teaching Portfolio - Sped 990: Intervention Design Lll, Susan J. Loveall

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio documents the development of SPED 990: Intervention Design III, a doctoral course being taught for the first time in the Spring of 2021 in the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders. The primary goals motivating my creation of this benchmark portfolio included: 1) deciding what to teach and how to teach it for the course’s first iteration, 2) understanding how this course fits into my department’s broader curriculum and doctoral training program, 3) upon completion of the course, reflecting on what worked and what didn’t to improve the course for future semesters, and 4) continuing my professional …

Evaluating Preservice Special Education Candidates’ Comfort Level Implementing High Leverage Practices, Cindy Clemson, Sarah N. Merimee

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

Special education teachers are presented with numerous demands within the classroom and must have a specific skill set to adequately address diverse needs. Therefore, 22 high leverage practices (HLPs) for special education teachers were established. This study assessed the impact of a semester of teaching the HLPs, including a final project requirement, on senior teacher candidates’ comfort level implementing the HLPs. Results indicate that the explicit teaching of the HLPs, required project, and practicum led to the students’ increased comfort implementing the HLPs. Additionally, the authors reviewed data gathered and used it to explore their university’s current curriculum to determine …

Music Therapy’S Role In The Education System, Madison Riley, Tori L. Colson, Moriah Smothers

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

Music therapy is a lesser-known and used related service, yet it provides significant benefits to students that have language, behavioral, and social needs. This article reviews the literature on music therapy, discusses its historical and theoretical roots, and examines its use in educational settings. Special attention is given to therapeutic practices that are geared toward students on the autism spectrum because their social and communication needs are often a good fit for music therapy practices. Recommendations on using music therapy in special and general education classrooms are also made. Additionally, recommendations for including music therapy content in teacher preparation programs …

A Space To Learn, Amy R. Goods

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I explore what it means to different people, in different places throughout life’s spectrum to create a space to learn. This dissertation is a collection of work that I have written throughout my time at the CUNY Graduate Center. The chapters herein represent an arch of my learning over the past five years. The title, A Space to Learn, has multiple meanings. For one, writing this dissertation has provided me a space to explore and reflect on a variety of topics, ranging from memory loss, to teacher preparation programs, to eugenics and special education, to tracking and …

An In-Depth Case Study Of A Prospective Black Male Teacher Candidate With An Undisclosed Disability At A Historically Black College And University, Julius Davis, Lynne Long, Sarah Green, Yvonne M. Crawford, Jeannette Blackwood

Journal of Research Initiatives

As scholarship of Black male collegians is growing, there is limited research attentive to Black males with disabilities and in teacher education programs. The research focused on pre-service Black male teachers with disabilities attending HBCUs and the federal laws impacting their education and supports is absent. This research study fills the void by examining the individual experiences of a Black male pre-service teacher with a disability attending an HBCU. The research team used Black males with disability theory and single-subject case study methodology to describe Christopher “CJ” Jackson’s journey navigating his program of study as an English education major. Four …

Experiences And Perceptions Of University Students And General And Special Educator Teacher Preparation Faculty Engaged In Collaboration And Co-Teaching Practices, Leila A. Ricci, Joan Fingon

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

General and special education faculty modeling co-teaching practices in teacher preparation programs can promote collaboration among future K-12 teachers serving children with diverse needs. This article describes the experiences and perceptions of 59 university students enrolled in teacher preparation reading courses with sessions co-taught by general education and special education faculty members at a large, Hispanic serving public urban university in Southern California. The courses included lessons on co-planning, co-instructing, and co-assessing in reading jointly taught by the general education and special education professors; class readings and activities on collaboration and co-teaching; and the opportunity for university students to co-plan …

Students With Intellectual Disabilities Accessing Postsecondary Education Settings: Promoting Education Equity: Seeing Students For Their Ability First And Supporting Their Development As Contributing Members Into A Diverse Society, Kathleen N. Mercier

Dissertations

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to examine and describe the lived experiences of seven students with intellectual disabilities (ID) participating in two postsecondary education (PSE) settings in Southern California that were aligned to the Think College Standards-Based Conceptual Framework for Inclusive Higher Education.

Through a qualitative approach of ethnography, the researcher examined various stakeholders’ awareness and ability to support students with ID in higher education settings in an effort to support future development of PSE programs for students with ID. Methodology tools included classroom observations, individual interviews, and examination of artifacts from the sample of PSE settings in …

Kyted President's Letter, Steve Crites

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

Read a letter from the president.

An Analysis Of Disability-Related Provisions In The 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act (Heoa): What Universities And Policy Makers Should Know, Alan Kurtz

Education

The purpose of this October 2011 policy brief is to provide state agencies, postsecondary institutions, and policy makers with an overview of changes in the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) affecting the access to education of postsecondary students with disabilities and the way teacher education programs at Institutions of Higher Learning (IHEs) prepare general and special educators to teach students with disabilities. Specifically, this analysis reviews disability-related terminology new to this revision of the HEOA, access to instructional materials for students with print disabilities, changes in access to financial aid for students with intellectual disabilities, model demonstration projects both …

Judging Competence, Marie A. Lynch, Linda Capalbo

Faculty Publications

This study analyzed written records created by college clinical supervisors, of student teaching observations carried out during the Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 semester. Observations, conducted in public schools in a Northeastern state, reflected the dual enrollment status of each student teacher; that is, each candidate was observed, multiple times, in both a general elementary or middle level classroom and in a setting focused on students with special educational needs. The purposes of the analysis were to 1) examine the language used by the observer that both describes and evaluates the student teacher_s performance, particularly as it differentiates levels of …