Improving inclusive middle school science teachers’ vocabulary instruction is a critical step toward helping those professionals support the learning needs of all students. In this Institute of Education Sciences (IES)–funded project, inclusive science teachers received professional development using elements of a multimedia-based approach called the Content Acquisition Podcast Professional Development (CAP-PD) intervention process. In this article, the authors discuss the three iterative pilot studies conducted as a part of this project and how each contributed to its development. Drawing on a theoretical framework that considers the characteristics of effective professional development, CAP-PD has three elements: (a) use of instructional videos that highlight the steps of practices and embed modeling videos to demonstrate practice, (b) preproduced instructional materials that support the implementation of evidence-based practices, and (c) feedback for teachers using data outputs from a classroom observation tool developed as a part of this project. Across studies, teachers who engaged in the CAP-PD process made important gains in terms of how much time they spent delivering evidence-based vocabulary instruction and the number of different practices implemented with fidelity. Future research should address questions of the lasting impact of this process on student learning and how to adapt the CAP-PD to help teachers do more than improve their vocabulary instruction.

This article provides an overview of the literature on special education law and policy and teacher preparation for special education technology use and identifies current issues, focusing on four key obstacles regarding the status of special education technology access and implementation: (a) the mismatch between legal requirements, policy recommendations, and the supports students with disabilities actually receive in schools; (b) the limited professional knowledge about special education technology and few meaningful options for making improvements to this professional body of knowledge; (c) the rapid pace of innovation in terms of availability of new apps, products, and hardware; and (d) the inherent conflicts between the commercial nature of special education technology and best special education technology practice. Recommendations, resources, and actionable ideas toward transformative change are shared with hopes for equitable and meaningful special education technology access and implementation for students with disabilities.

High-quality, effective vocabulary instruction is essential for supporting all students’ academic success, and it is particularly important for students with disabilities. Teacher preparation programs are faced with the challenge of not only training preservice teachers to provide effective vocabulary instruction across grades and content areas, but also to prepare them to teach students with disabilities. This randomized control trial included 200 preservice teachers. We tested the effects that a combination of multimedia instruction and performance feedback on evidence-based practices for effective vocabulary instruction had on participants’ knowledge and application of those practices. Compared with participants who received traditional lecture and text-based instruction and subjective feedback, we found that the group that received multimedia instruction and performance feedback implemented more of the practices, more frequently and for a longer duration. Implications for research and teacher preparation are discussed.

General and special education teachers need to have an understanding of effective practices for providing vocabulary instruction to students with and without disabilities across grade levels and content areas. Preservice teachers in this study ( N = 121) received training in evidence-based practices for vocabulary instruction via a series of three training modules. They then completed one of two practice conditions—creating a multimedia product to teach a vocabulary word or completing a non-multimedia learning task during class. The two practice conditions resulted in similar gains on the knowledge measure, but the group that created the multimedia product significantly outperformed the group that completed the non-multimedia task in a demonstration of instruction. Implications for teacher education are discussed.

The National Commission on Writing called for a reform in writing instruction over a decade ago. However, teacher preparation programs still rarely provide sufficient training in writing instruction for teacher candidates. The purpose of this study was to improve the writing instruction of preservice teachers. Participating preservice teachers ( N = 166) from three universities were randomly assigned to learn essential components of the self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) and the “model it” stage via content acquisition podcast (CAP)-TVs, lecture, or a practitioner-oriented article. This randomized control trial found that students in the CAP-TV condition outperformed peers in the article condition on a researcher-created measure of SRSD knowledge. Additionally, participants in the CAP-TV condition outperformed peers in both comparison groups article on a measure of modeling instruction. Results from a perceived cognitive load survey indicated that perceived cognitive load was significantly correlated with outcomes on the knowledge and performance measure for all participants. These results suggested that multimedia tools designed using Mayer’s (2009) cognitive theory of multimedia learning can reduce cognitive load and increase learning outcomes. Teacher educators should consider incorporating CAP-TVs into their coursework when teaching complex instructional strategies.