Preservice special education teacher candidates in higher education training programs are given little or no specific training in the use of basic native language or cultural academic instructional techniques to support the learning needs of students who have not reached a level of English proficiency. Preservice special education students are…

Professional development that focuses on supporting teachers' abilities to work with diverse families is keenly needed. This article outlines three instructional strategies and how they were used with undergraduate students in an inclusive early childhood teacher education program: (a) involving diverse family members as instructional supports;…

This study investigated the value of course embedded faculty-supervised fieldwork for pre-service teacher candidates. These candidates were enrolled in undergraduate literacy and special education courses at a small private liberal arts college. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected to ascertain students' perceptions of course…

Teaching self-determination to students with disabilities has long been a focus of the fields of special education and psychology, with much of the research focusing on why self-determination is important, the effects of self-determination skills on academic and adult outcomes, and identifying strategies teachers can use to teach…

Students with fine motor problems can benefit from occupational therapy. Yet not all students receive the services because of a lack of teacher awareness about the problems and the services. This study aims to evaluate a workshop designed to improve teacher awareness about fine motor problems and occupational therapy. The study involved three…

Students in a pre-service teacher education course, an overview of special education, were required to interview a parent of a special needs child, as well as a special education teacher as a course assignment. Because most educators have little or no training in family involvement and pre-service teacher training in this area is at best limited,…

In this study, the authors determined the individual learner characteristics of educators enrolled in online courses that influenced social presence (affective social communication). Findings reveal that the number of online courses taken, followed by computer-mediated communication proficiency, are significant predictors of social presence.…

Teacher recruitment and retention is a topic of major interest, and the Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast (REL-SE) has previously done work in this area for other clients. Those documents, EBE reports #41 and #56 are attached. Because approximately one year has passed since those responses were completed, for this request REL-SE staff…

Social geography brings a new perspective to understanding longstanding separation between general and special education in higher education. This paper uses methods from social geography to consider how the structures and processes of space function to maintain longstanding divisions between general and special education in a US teacher education…

Local school systems, Local Education Agencies [LEAs], and universities, Institutions of Higher Education [IHEs], work together in a variety of ways in the initial preparation and ongoing professional development of teachers, although it is difficult to ascertain the number of LEA/IHE partnerships. These relationships typically allow for a…

The authors conducted a study to determine (a) the incidence of dual-certified vision professionals (professionals certified as both teachers of the visually impaired and orientation and mobility specialists) in Texas, (b) the degree to which these professionals worked in both roles between 2003 and 2006, (c) the reasons vision professionals…

This article attempts to clarify some of the problems and challenges currently met by the teaching profession in special education, in particular those relating to why students choose to study special needs education and what they expect to learn. There are two major reasons why students choose to become a "special needs" teacher: to…

The 1998 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act requires all states to report annually to the U.S. Department of Education the number of prospective teachers at each teacher training institution who pass their own state tests for licensure. However, the law left decisions on what tests to require in each field, what to assess on them, and…

This book helps school practitioners go beyond putting a label on student behavior problems--it shows how to use assessment to partner with teachers and students to develop effective solutions. The authors provide a framework for determining the types of behavioral data that are needed in a given situation, selecting appropriate measures, and…

Project TRREE (Teacher Recruitment and Retention for Educational Excellence) is a three-year, federally funded project conducted by the Kentucky Department of Education. The purpose of the project is to develop a systemic approach to increase the number of highly qualified special education teachers with a focus on recruitment of linguistically,…