Personnel Preparation in Special Education: A Synthesis of Distance Education and On-Campus Instruction

The following discussion describes and evaluates an innovative training approach in which one hundred sixteen general educators (64 elementary and 52 middle/secondary) were educated in instructional and behavioral strategies to better serve students with disabilities. For a period of ten weeks a collaborative consultation intern and a university coordinator were assigned to teams of four to five general educators and a special educator at six elementary, four middle and two secondary schools. All schools served predominately rural students from North Central West Virginia. Each team attended weekly problem-solving seminars at their home schools. Prior to participation in the teacher preparation project, general educators rated their ability to work with students with disabilities. They again rated their ability to work with students with disabilities after their involvement in the project. The skill ratings of elementary and middle/secondary educators were analyzed and compared using the Assessment of Skills for Teachers (Morsink, Thomas, & Correa, 1991). Significant differences and improvements in perception of skills between and within elementary and middle/secondary educator groups were found. Elementary educators generally self-rated their skills higher than middle/secondary educators prior to and after participation in the training program. The findings are discussed and recommendations for policy and research are provided along with implications for training general educators.

Section: Challenges In Rural Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elementary and Middle/Secondary Educator's Pre and Post Training Perceptions of Ability to Instruct Students with Disabilities

Miller

Wienke

Savage

2000

“…Two issues of additional significance for training personnel in rural areas, such as Alaska, were to overcome the barriers of geographic information isolation and to recognize that tighter economies restrict mobility (Condon, Zimmerman, & Beane, 1989;Ferguson & Boynelsen, 1991). Personnel working in rural Alaskan areas needed to be able to access information easily and effectively.…”

Section: Content and Organization Of Programmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alaska's Rural Early Intervention Preservice Training Program

Ryan

1999

Effective educational practices for infants and toddlers with disabilities demand personnel with appropriate training. In almost all states, qualified personnel currently are not available to staff programs designed for young children (Burke, McLaughlin, & Valdivieso, 1988; Hanson & Lovett, 1992). The lack of trained and qualified personnel working in rural areas is an even greater problem confounded by difficulties with staff recruitment and retention. The purpose of this article is to describe a Master's level training program for early intervention personnel currently providing services in rural Alaska to infants and toddlers and preschoolers with disabilities and their families. This article addresses how to implement current best practice in early intervention via distance education to programs and personnel who are geographically distanced from the places and resources where available training occurs.

Improving Staff Development in Rural Communities Using Distance Education and Communication Technology

Knapczyk

Rodes

Brush³

1994

There are many challenges to universities and school corporations in offering quality staff development to teachers in rural communities. This article describes an innovative approach to staff development that uses distance education and computer-based audiographic communications technology. This approach enables rural schools to over come many of the challenges to staff development because it gives them the ability to link with outside experts, to share in the ownership of the training, to devise experiences that improve the on-the-job performance of the staff, and to increase overall collaboration among personnel.