Evidence of the powerful impact teachers have on student achievement has led to an intensive focus on cultivating effective teachers, including special education teachers (SETs). Local special education administrators (LSEAs) share responsibility for cultivating effective SETs throughout their districts. However, the roles LSEAs play in this process have not been clearly defined through research. This qualitative investigation used grounded theory methods to examine how LSEAs in the Victoria School District, a high-performing, inclusive district, described their roles cultivating a district-wide community of effective SETs. The findings have implications for districts’ efforts to cultivate effective SETs systemically and for future research on effective district-level leadership for special education.
Practicum experiences, a crucial component of preservice teacher preparation, help establish the foundational knowledge and skills necessary for beginning special education teachers (SETs). Preservice SETs need cooperating teachers (CTs) who support preservice SETs in proper emotional development (i.e., feeling like a teacher), who can model and support preservice teachers in the development of effective practices (i.e., acting like a teacher), and who promote the cognitive processes involved in instructional decision making (i.e., thinking like a teacher). When CTs are mindful of the learning needs of beginning special education teachers while also embracing the knowledge and skills they can bring to the partnership, they are more likely to help preservice teachers develop the skills needed to succeed on their own. This article presents strategies from the literature that CTs can use to effectively support their preservice SETs as they begin to feel, act, and think like a teacher.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.