Including students with special needs in the general education classroom requires that teachers adapt their approaches to teaching to meet all students' needs. However, general education teachers are not always fully aware how best to serve special populations. This study examines what skills and knowledge special education educators feel that general education teachers and teacher candidates need in order to work with students with special needs in the inclusive environment. The researchers interviewed twenty special educators to ascertain which skills and knowledge are most commonly cited as vital to successful general education teacher/student with special needs interactions. Findings suggest that teacher education and professional development programs can benefit by providing a continuum of learning opportunities in three important areas. General educators should: first, make and carry out informed decisions, based on proper assessments data; second, develop appropriate understanding and compassion for students with special needs and their situations and third, learn to foster effective communication in and out of the classroom with all parties involved in educating this specific group of students.

Supervisors are sometimes assigned to pre-service teachers who are placed in far-away schools, often in rural districts. It can be difficult or impossible for supervisors to observe these teachers enough, or perhaps at all, because of the distance. This article describes a single-subject case study that was conducted with two pre-service teachers in which they used video self-monitoring with guidance from their university supervisor to change a teaching behavior. Results showed that the process was effective in changing the behavior of pre-service teachers. We discuss the implications for supervisors and professional development intervention.

NCLB requires states to provide highly qualified educators for all students. Highly qualified educators should have content knowledge in the areas they teach and the pedagogical expertise to produce student educational gains. In this study, researchers examined the effects of an online mathematics methods class on preservice teachers' knowledge of instructional planning, classroom instructional planning performance; and classroom pupil outcomes in mathematics. Preservice teachers acquired instructional planning skills taught through online instruction and utilized these skills in a subsequent classroom placement. Instructional planning combined with classroom supervision contributed to an increase in pupil's mathematics performance. Results are discussed in terms of participant acquisition of online course materials, classroom application of course materials, and pupil outcomes in mathematics.

Teacher preparation programs need quality training courses that offer flexible, interactive alternatives to isolating online courses and classroom-based programs that limit students to a specific place and time. The HyFlex course design provides a solution by combining internet video instruction (such as Zoom), regular online learning, and face-to-face classroom experiences into one course where students can choose the method that best meets their individual learning needs and even alternate between methods throughout the course session. HyFlex aligns with learner centered instruction and offers a unique opportunity for educators to receive quality licensure courses. This article explores existing literature on the HyFlex course delivery method and discusses a case study done to examine student outcomes resulting from its use in a post-baccalaureate special education teacher licensure program.

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 valid checkout assessment directly to course instructors. On-campus, this process is accomplished with ease. However, when the course is offered at a distance, cost of checkouts is substantially greater. To reduce costs, checkouts were conducted over a teleconferencing system using an online support tool. In this article, authors describe online checkout procedures and an initial evaluation of the online tool to facilitate valid assessments of pre-service special education teachers' achievement test delivery skills over a distance delivery system.