Date of Award
Spring 5-2018
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Program
Special Education
Department
Special Education and Habilitative Services
Major Professor
Dr. Jan Janz
Second Advisor
Dr. Linda Flynn
Third Advisor
Dr. Kenneth Farizo
Abstract
Before they enter the classroom, teacher candidates must acquire the knowledge, dispositions, and instructional strategies necessary to succeed in educating students with a variety of learning abilities before they enter the classroom. The educational roles and responsibilities required of teacher candidates have changed from a general education classroom without students with disabilities to an inclusive setting for all learners. Now students with disabilities spend more time in the general education classroom to be educated at least 80% of their time with their same-aged peers. Therefore, this qualitative study, through the use of one-on-one interviews, sought to expand the existing research by identifying and analyzing the experiences of nine teacher candidates who were enrolled in a teacher preparation program for dual certification in general and mild/moderate disabilities. Candidates responded to interview questions about their preparation programs regarding coursework, practicum, and student teaching/internship requirements.
While virtually all teacher candidates described their experiences as positive, candidates were prepared to collaborate (work together toward a common goal) with university faculty, special and general education mentors, principals, other educators in the schools. The pairing of teacher candidates with their peers, practicum mentors, and mentors during student teaching/internships, has been shown to provide a more supportive and collaborative environment than the traditional model of teachers who typically worked in silos or autonomously. In these instances, it appeared that not all mentors promoted collaboration, were familiar with co-teaching models or were not able to spend a sufficient amount of time to implement these models, and co-teaching models were lacking and limited time was the contributing factor. Concerns were voiced by candidates who experienced challenges that pertained to the act or perceived value of collaboration in practice when they were mentored particularly by the assigned general education mentor teachers.
Recommended Citation
Geiring, Mary Alice, "Collaborative Experiences of Teacher Candidates in a Dual, Mild/Moderate and General Education Program" (2018). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 2463.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2463
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.