Paraeducators have been widely used to expand services provided in special education programs. The effectiveness of paraprofessionals depends heavily on their preparation and supervision. Training and supervision are carried out primarily by teachers, yet traditionally teacher education programs have not adequately prepared teachers for this…

Special education teacher preparation programs typically require training in delivery of standardized achievement assessments. Appropriate administration of standardized assessments in eligibility and instructional planning process are critical. To insure production of valid assessments, pre-service teachers at Utah State University must deliver a…

To adequately prepare preservice teachers to implement inclusive classrooms, teacher preparation programs must encourage professional interaction, collaboration, and knowledge about inclusion. Although some of these skills can be presented in coursework, prospective teachers must be provided with opportunities to practice these skills in classroom…

A key factor in successful teacher education is designing activities that promote attainment of instructional objectives. However, in online teacher education there is little evidence regarding the types of activities that can be used to achieve specific objectives and variation from class to class while providing effective instruction. This study…

Students in the Unified Elementary/Special Education Program at the University of Florida are organized into cohort groups, a common recommendation within the special education teacher education literature. Although highly effective in some instances, the literature also documents numerous problems in the use of cohorts. The current study was…

Interdisciplinary teaming has been described as the pivotal component of blended, interdisciplinary teacher preparation for early childhood. A survey was conducted as a second national examination of the practices of faculty teams in blended teacher preparation programs. A time intensive search using diverse mechanisms and sources led to the…

This study focused on teacher-education students taking a special-education language-arts course in which information about English word structure was taught. The relationship between students' component reading-related abilities and their performance on three measures of word-structure knowledge, before and after course instruction about word…

An investigation is described during which three dimensions of situated learning (i.e., social interaction, a reliance on authentic activity, and creation of a learning community) were incorporated into the design and implementation of an on-campus course on instructional strategies for students with diverse learning needs. This choice of pedagogy…

Quality teachers are needed if all students are to perform to high standards, yet teacher shortages in both general and special education remain a national concern. Too many teachers, both veterans and novices, are leaving the profession and the national attrition rate for new teachers is highest among the most "academically talented."…

The technology to produce high quality, digital videos is widely available, yet its use in teacher preparation remains largely overlooked. A digital video library was created to augment instruction in a special education methods course for preservice elementary education teachers. The videos illustrated effective strategies for working with…

This article describes how a math intervention was developed based on five standards needed to be an effective math teacher of students with disabilities and four validated practices shown to be effective with students with disabilities. Emphasis was placed on the importance of explicitly teaching these strategies in teacher education methods…

Following the initial implementation of universal newborn hearing screening initiatives currently required by law in most states, there is a need to move beyond the hospital follow-up to the delivery of services and support for children identified with hearing loss. A cadre of trained providers is needed to deliver these services. In order to…

The purpose of this study was to compare the perceptions of future educators on two dichotomous scales (i.e., hostility/receptivity and anxiety/calmness) regarding serving students with disabilities in general education settings. Graduate and undergraduate preservice teachers (n = 326) from three universities completed the Preservice Inclusion…

There has been growing interest and increasing use of case study (CS) materials in teacher education. Yet efforts to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of CS have been scarce. We compared instructional effectiveness of CS to another commonly used discussion strategy, an application question (AQ) method, with graduate students enrolled in a…

In an effort to better serve the school districts within its service area and the unique credential candidate population, California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) implemented an accelerated alternative certification program based upon the Professional Development School (PDS) model hereinafter referred to as SPED PDS. During the…