Redesigning Special Education Teacher Preparation

Challenges and Solutions

Jennifer L. Goeke, Katherine J. Mitchem, Kalie R. Kossar

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138698635
• eBook ISBN: 9781315518435
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Redesigning Special Education Teacher Preparation describes both challenges and possible solutions to redesigning and restructuring high-incidence teacher preparation programs so graduates will meet the Highly Qualified Teacher requirements and be prepared to teach students with high-incidence disabilities. This powerful new text discusses many possible reforms, including field-based teacher preparation, a focus on evidence-based core practices and teacher moves, collaboration with K–12 school-based partners as teacher educators, interdisciplinary collaboration across university faculty, and a grounding in current expectations for high-stakes accountability and program evaluation.

PART I

High-Incidence Teacher Education Program Redesign and Restructuring

1

THE IRIS CENTER

A Federal Investment to Support and Improve Personnel Development

Naomi C. Tyler, Deborah D. Smith, Kimberly Skow, Jason Miller, Janice Brown, Susan Mortorff Robb, and Michael Nee

Introduction

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) initiated a new agenda in Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 that funded projects at colleges and universities to restructure their teacher education programs. The funds were used to redesign their personnel preparation programs to increase the production of highly qualified special education teachers who were knowledgeable about and familiar with the implementation of evidence-based practices (Sobel, Little, McCray, Wang, 2014). Under the auspices of this agenda, OSEP supported 72 colleges and universities through a competitive grants process known as the 325T Program Redesign Projects. For 5 fiscal years, beginning in FY 2007 and concluding in FY 2011, OSEP funded annual cohorts of projects and asked the IRIS Center to support their program redesign efforts. To do so, the Center provided training and outreach services about the IRIS resources and their integration into new or revised teacher preparation curricula. A brief introduction of IRIS is provided in this chapter to lay the foundation for those that follow and describe the outcomes of the 325T projects, all of which incorporated IRIS resources and services.

The IRIS Center is a national center dedicated to improving education outcomes for all children and students, including struggling learners and those with disabilities. Funded by OSEP and headquartered at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California, the Center develops free online resources about evidence-based practices. These resources are designed to bridge the research-to-practice gap and are intended for use in college courses in teacher preparation programs, in professional development (PD) activities for practicing professionals, and by independent learners. These resources are available on the Center’s barrier-free Web site at no cost to users.

IRIS’s mission is to build the capacity of higher education faculty and PD providers by producing engaging and interactive learning materials and by assisting both faculty and PD providers to integrate these resources about evidence-based practices across coursework, endorsement curricula, and PD activities. The Center provides tiered training and technical assistance that helps faculty use coursework planning forms and other tools to develop or revise curricula in credential or endorsement areas. IRIS also provides comparable assistance for the infusion of evidence-based instructional and intervention practices into education coursework.

History of the Center

Throughout its 16 years of federal funding, the IRIS Center has undergone continual changes to its focus and major priorities. Some of these changes affected the age ranges of the students whose needs are addressed by IRIS resources; others determined the constituent groups with whom IRIS worked. The bullet points below offer a brief glimpse at the Center’s evolution:

• 2001–2006: The original center, the IRIS Center for Faculty Enhancement, was located at Vanderbilt University and focused on the translation of research into practice and developed online resources to serve as supplements or enhancements to traditional college courses. That Center was tasked to provide resources about students with disabilities in kindergarten (K) through grade 12, for use by college and university faculty specifically working in the fields of general education, school leadership, school nursing, and school counseling.

• 2006–2012: During this time, the Center’s focus changed slightly, as did its name. The newly minted IRIS Center for Training Enhancements, while still serving college and university faculty and PD providers in general education and school leadership, broadened its intended audience to include special education faculty. It developed and provided resources about all students in K through grade 12, particularly struggling learners and those with disabilities. That Center also initiated a new dissemination and training effort in partnership with Claremont Graduate University.

• 2013–2015: The Center, known simply as the IRIS Center, was tasked to provide resources about all children ages birth through 21, particularly struggling learners and those with disabilities. New tiered levels of services were implemented for the Center’s constituent groups – college and university faculty, PD providers, and independent learners in general and special education.

• 2016–present: The Center is now tasked to provide resources about all children from K through age 21, particularly struggling learners and those with disabilities, for use by college and university faculty, PD providers, and independent learners in general and special education. Tiered training and dissemination services are provided to faculty and PD providers in general and special education to develop and revise coursework and curriculum for personnel development.

IRIS Resources

Developed in collaboration with nationally recognized researchers and education experts, the Center’s resources about evidence-based instructional and intervention practices – Modules, Case Study Units, Activities, and a number of Web-based tools – are specifically created for use in college instruction, PD activities, and independent learning opportunities for practicing educators. The Center also offers resources that provide guidance, tips, and examples of how to best utilize the IRIS materials in their courses and PD activities.

STAR Legacy Modules

STAR (Software Technology for Action and Reflection) Legacy Modules, the Center’s signature resource, offer in-depth looks at topics like multi-tiered systems of support, classroom behavior management, secondary transition, student diversity, and many others of importance to educators in today’s classrooms. Based on How People Learn (HPL), the adult learning theory developed by Dr. John Bransford and his colleagues (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999), IRIS Modules translate research findings into practical information, making information on evidence-based practices more accessible and easier to learn than is otherwise possible for many busy educators or novice learners (i.e., college students). HPL is founded on a problem- or challenge-based approach, which provides opportunities for students to achieve a fuller understanding of instructional or classroom issues and challenges. HPL promotes different approaches to traditional methods of adult instruction and assessment, and organizes thinking about the design of effective learning environments through four overlapping lenses (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999; Harris, Bransford, & Brophy, 2002):

• Learner centeredness – Instruction is tailored, based on a consideration of learners’ prior knowledge as well as their previous experiences, misconceptions, and preconceptions.

• Knowledge centeredness – Rigorous content is provided and students are helped to understand the material rather than simply to memorize it. This has implications for how instruction needs to be sequenced in order to support the comprehension and use of said knowledge in new situations.

• Assessment centeredness – Frequent opportunities for monitoring students’ progress toward the learning goals are provided and the results relayed back to instructors and learners.

• Community centered – There is recognition that students are members of multiple communities (e.g., classroom, professional organizations) and that these communities offer opportunities for students and instructors to share and to learn from each other.

FIGURE 1.1 The HPL Lenses

Instructors often find it difficult to balance all four HPL lenses. For example, an instructor might successfully create a knowledge-centered learning environment but find creating a learner-centered one more challenging. At times, a sense of community might not be sufficiently promoted. Many environments also lack opportunities for frequent assessment and revision. In response to this difficulty, the STAR Legacy model was designed to help introduce and balance the features of learner, knowledge, assessment, and community centeredness for instructional settings. This model uses an inquiry cycle that anchors learning, is easy to understand, and is pedagogically sound. The cycle is composed of five parts that have been repeatedly recognized in educational research as important, yet often implicit, components of learning (Schwartz et al., 1999a; Schwartz et al., 1999b). IRIS STAR Legacy Modules incorporate these five components, balancing the four HPL lenses, while incorporating new and innovative methods to make learning engaging and interactive.

• Challenge – Modules are organized around case-based scenarios. Research shows that effective instruction often begins with an engaging scenario or challenge to introduce the lesson and invite student inquiry (Barron et al., 1998; CTGV, 1997; Duffy & Cunningham, 1996; NRC, 2000; Kolodner, 1997; Reiser et al., 2001; Williams, 1992).

• Initial Thoughts – Students then generate their own ideas in order to explore what they currently know about the Challenge. Discovering the extent of students’ prior knowledge and experiences regarding the problem or case-based scenarios – and building upon that knowledge – is a means through which to enhance learning. This can be particularly true for students from culturally diverse backgrounds, who often struggle to learn content in ways that are antithetical to their learning styles (Cobb, 2001).

• Perspectives & Resources – Next, students access resources relevant to the Challenge. These resources are presented as nuggets of information and may include text, interviews with experts, videos, and interactive activities. These resources often create “ah-ha!” experiences, moments during which students discover information or perspectives they had not previously considered.

• Wrap Up – The cycle continues with a summary and an opportunity for the student to review his or her Final Thoughts (which are the same questions asked in the Initial Thoughts section of the Module). Learning is considered to have occurred when there is disparity between initial and final thoughts, with greater disparity indicating greater learning (e.g., Bransford, 1979; Schwartz & Bransford, 1998).

• Assessment – In this final component of the cycle, students receive assessment opportunities to test their understanding of the Module’s content, apply their knowledge, and return to the Perspectives & Resources section if necessary.

The IRIS Center team’s ability to use adult learning principles when translating research to practice has resulted in a set of resources that have consistently proven to be effective in increasing the awareness, knowledge, and skills of teacher candidates. Field testing and initial research studies conducted by the Center found that the majority of college students found the Modules and their content interesting and engaging, relevant to their future work as educators, helpful when learning to apply course content, and the students felt that they learned a lot (Smith et al., 2005). The Modules were found to be highly effective when used to enhance course instruction for non-special education teacher candidates in large college courses, as well as when used to replace content in those same courses (IRIS Center 2009a, n.d.a). Similarly, positive results were found in a quasi-replication study (IRIS Center 2009b, n.d.b), which indicated that independent use of IRIS Modules as homework produced teacher candidate learning outcomes commensurate with those when the Modules were utilized in face-to-face classroom instruction. Other studies have found similarly strong results. Use of an IRIS Module to provide training on universal design for learning (UDL) significantly improved the inclusion of UDL principles into the lesson plans of teacher credential candidates (Courey, Tappe, Siker, & LePage, 2012). Kuo (2014) effectively used an eight-module series to increase teacher candidates’ breadth and depth of knowledge of the response to intervention (RTI) framework and related components and strategies (e.g., assessment procedures, Tier 3 practices) prior to placing candidates in partner schools that implement RTI. More recently, Sayeski, Hamilton-Jones, and Oh (2015) studied the effectiveness of three IRIS Modules across three instructional conditions – homework, instructor facilitated, and flipped classroom – and found strong learning effect sizes for all Modules across all conditions.

FIGURE 1.2 The STAR Legacy Cycle

Other IRIS Resources

In addition to STAR Legacy Modules, the Center creates and makes available a wide array of other resources, materials, and online tools. These resources and tools are described in Table 1.1 below.

TABLE 1.1 General Resources and Online Tools

Case Study Units	Each unit contains a set of case-based scenarios and strategy sheets that provide students with opportunities to strengthen their understanding of select topics as well as a way to enhance their problem-solving abilities. They are divided into three progressive levels of complexity to accommodate a wide range of student skills.
Activities	These handy clas...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction: The Challenges of High-Incidence Teacher Education and the Ways 325T Grantees Have Addressed Them
• Part I High-Incidence Teacher Education Program Redesign and Restructuring
• Part II Building the Capacity of School Partners
• Part III Collaborating with General Education Colleagues
• Part IV Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement
• Part V Program Evaluation in an Era of High-Stakes Accountability
• Part VI Creating Sustainable Innovation
• Conclusion: What Is the Future of High-Incidence Teacher Preparation, and How Can Effective Components of 325T Projects Be Applied to Teacher Education Models?
• Appendix
• Index