An Analysis of Co-Teaching Instruction Provided in Teacher Education and Inservice Training for Special Education and General Education Teachers

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) (2001) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA)(2004) call for students with disabilities to be given access to the general education environment. Currently, at least half of all students with disabilities receive more than 80% of instruction in the general education classroom (U.S. Department of Education, 2008). Although there are no direct mandates to use co-teaching, it has become the preferred model of instructional delivery within the general education classroom (Pugach & Blanton, 2011). General and special education teachers need to be provided instruction on the fundamentals of co-teaching in their preservice and in-service training (Pugach & Winn, 2011). Teachers are often not prepared to co-teach in their preservice education programs nor given the support during in-service trainings. The level and types of co-teaching instruction skills provided in preservice and in-service trainings were explored in this study, by distributing an online questionnaire to licensed general and special education teachers. The data analysis of the results in this study indicated that special education teachers receive more co-teaching training than general education teachers during their preservice education programs in all six areas (e.g., co-teaching models, co-communication, co-planning/preparation, co-instruction, co-conflict resolution, and co-follow through). According to the data analysis, special education teachers received more training in three categories of co-teaching: (a) co-teaching models, co-instructional skills, and co-follow through skills than general education teachers during their in-service trainings. The data analysis indicated that special and general education teachers receive limited in-service training in the areas of co-communication skills, co-planning/preparation skills, and co-conflict resolution skills

Undergraduates Use of iPads to Collect Anecdotal and Frequency Data

A program description of undergrad preservice special ed students\u27 use of iPads during observations at a professional development school will be presented. The students collected both anecdotal and frequency data on teacher and student behaviors with a focus on positive interactions with students with disabilities. Implications for use of iPads and applications will be discussed

Critical Dis/ability Studies: Counternarrative of Students with Disabilities in Georgia

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Lesson Plans for Teaching Behavior

Teachers in PBIS schools often question how they can teach behaviors while trying to conduct standards-based instruction in the curriculum. This session will provide examples and techniques to develop lesson plans that can be embedded in existing curricula. Parents can use these lesson plans to role play appropriate behaviors that they wish to teach to their children in the home context

Preservice Teachers\u27 Design of PBIS structures in Practica Experiences

The preparation of teachers who are familiar with the design of PBIS structures in school-wide and district-wide initiatives is vital to the Georgia education community as we are faced with a 20-30% turnover of teachers in the next 5-7 years. By preparing teachers who are familiar with both the philosophy and the techniques of PBIS, the university is providing support to school systems who have PBIS in place. As parents become more familiar with school-wide and district-wide PBIS, it is essential that all teachers be comfortable in discussing school to home interventions

Faculty-in-Residence: A Model to Enhance Rural Partnerships

To enhance partnerships in two rural schools, our college of education initiated a faculty-in-residence program. A group of faculty members visited two other colleges of education with established faculty-in-residence programs to learn from others and to discern a direction for our own work. Two teacher educators, each at a different partner school, expanded roles to become faculty-in-residence. These teacher educators and the leader of the faculty-in-residence initiative engaged in a self-study to focus on the implementation of this program and how the faculty-in-residence experienced and interpreted this effort. Findings relate to the factors of responsiveness, relationships, and impact. The rural locus of these partnerships is fundamental to all aspects of the faculty-in-residence initiative, underlining the importance of context

The Implementation of an Elementary and Special Education Dual Certification Program

The aim of this presentation is to provide participants with an understanding of a elementary/special education dual certification program. Presenters will provide an overview of the program of study, coursework, field placements, and partnerships. They will highlight the preparation and delivery of a successful program, emphasizing co-teaching and yearlong experiences

A Qualitative Analysis of Teacher Reported Bullying Incidents

Teachers are key to bullying prevention in schools. They are often the first and only response to situations in the classroom. This presentation examines incidents of teacher reported bullying in elementary and middle school. In this qualitative analysis, we used the CDC definition to examine bullying behavior documented by teachers to determine 1) how teachers are defining bullying when documenting incidents and 2) what type of behaviors are teachers documenting as bullying behaviors. A total of 228 incidents were identified from the data. Overall, we found that males were three times more likely to have documented incidents of bullying and that bullying was reported in the classroom more than any other setting. When describing a bullying incident, teachers used “Peer Who Is Not a Sibling” (98%) the most often and “Power Imbalance” (2.6%) the least. The type of bullying documented the most was verbal aggression. Implications and future directions are discussed