Special education and subject teachers’ self‐perceived readiness to teach mathematics to low‐performing middle school students

Abstract

Educational reforms during the last decade have led to a more inclusive environment for students with different needs and have placed demands on teachers’ readiness to instruct diverse students in the general classroom. Previous research has ascertained that student achievement is correlated with teacher quality and teachers’ efficacy beliefs. Today, basic competence in mathematics is more important than ever for managing routine day‐to‐day activities and therefore, identifying and educationally supporting students with low performance in mathematics is necessary. The aim of the study was to investigate the perceived teacher efficacy beliefs of special education and mathematics teachers when teaching mathematics to low‐performing middle school students. Results indicated that special education teachers had higher teacher efficacy beliefs than mathematics teachers. Teacher experience, certification or gender had no effect on teachers’ efficacy beliefs. Furthermore, subject teachers reported high pedagogical knowledge for teaching low‐performing students, and special education teachers reported having moderate mathematical subject knowledge.

Reflecting upon 30 Years of STEM Partnerships between Industry, University, and Public Schools: Past Lessons, Current Successes, and Future Dreams

“…The authors highlight a current partnership between a university, a large corporation, and surrounding school districts. The focus of this partnership emerged and continues today to address key variables noted in the literature as to why teachers leave the field: (1) lack of preparation for the content (e.g., mathematics and science), (2) lack of preparation for pedagogical practices to ensure student engagement and learning outcomes [1], and (3) high rates of stress and burnout [2]. Research on teacher preparation indicates a need to support teachers in both learning the content and creating a classroom culture that engages students [3,4].…”

The investigation of the self-efficacy of special education teachers who teach mathematics to English language learners with disabilities

“…It is worth mentioning that Ekstam, Korhonen, Linnanmäki, and Aunio (2018) found that although special education and general education teachers have similar levels of self-efficacy, which was high overall, there were differences in between the two groups of teachers. Specifically, general education teachers who taught mathematics had higher self-efficacy in teaching content whereas the special education teachers had higher self-efficacy in teaching students with disabilities.…”

“…However, there are existing studies that compare special education and general education teacher selfefficacy in teaching mathematics to students with disabilities. Findings from these studies suggest that special education teachers have equal or higher self-efficacy in teaching mathematics to students with disabilities at the elementary and middle school level as compared to their general education mathematics teacher peers (Ekstam, Korhonen, Linnanmäki, & Aunio, 2018;Flores, Thornton, Franklin, & Hinton, 2014).…”

“…Specifically, general education teachers who taught mathematics had higher self-efficacy in teaching content whereas the special education teachers had higher self-efficacy in teaching students with disabilities. Additionally, teacher interest in mathematics strongly predicted teacher self-efficacy (Ekstam, Korhonen, Linnanmäki, & Aunio, 2017;Ekstam, Korhonen, Linnanmäki, & Aunio, 2018). However, none of these studies examined differences of the self-efficacy of special education teachers who teach mathematics to culturally and linguistically diverse students such as ELLs, or students with disabilities, whose unique characteristics together with content, may impact teacher self-perception of their abilities.…”

“…These behaviors have been known to positively impact student outcomes. In terms of self-efficacy, special education teachers tend to have the same or more self-efficacy as general education teachers in teaching mathematics to students with disabilities (Ekstam et al, 2017(Ekstam et al, , 2018.…”