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Preparing Teachers for Inclusion: An Overview of Inclusive Teacher

Education ProgramsDavid L. Westling

Western Carolina UniversityCEC/TED Conference

Tempe, ArizonaNovember 5, 2015

The Concept of Inclusion and Why It Is Important

•Inclusion is the placement of students with disabilities into schools and classroom with non-disabled students for the purpose of instruction and participation in normal activities. Supports are provided to the student with disabilities to the extent it is necessary for success in the regular learning environment. •Inclusion means that students with disabilities are valued members of the school community. They belong, participate, and are given necessary supports to learn with their peers without disabilities.  •Inclusion or people with disabilities is supported by U.S. law (IDEA, ADA) and by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).  •Inclusion is also supported by various disability-focused organizations including TASH, The Arc, AAIDD, and DEC/CEC.  •“TASH seeks to transform school communities based on social justice principles in which all students (a) are presumed competent, (b) are welcomed as valued members of all general education classes and extra-curricular activities in their local schools, (c) fully participate and learn alongside their same age peers in general education instruction based on the general education curriculum and (d) experience reciprocal social relationships.”

The Role Of Teacher Education In Preparing Teachers For Inclusion

•Teacher education is the primary source of teachers, teachers are teaching a more diverse population of students including students with disabilities, ethnically and culturally diverse students, and students from different socio economic backgrounds. •Teacher educators are responsible for preparing effective teachers. •The challenges for teachers becoming more effective for all students are:

– Teachers identify themselves in specific roles, for example elementary education teachers, math teachers, music teachers, or special education teachers. They are often prepared for roles but not prepared to deal with diversity.

– States offer licenses or certifications for specific roles, and – Likewise, teacher educators identify themselves as specialists in preparing teachers

for specific students or in specific knowledge areas. (Blanton, Pugach, & Florian, 2011; Pugach, Blanton, & Boveda, 2014)

How Teachers Can Be Prepared for InclusionAccording to Blanton, Pugach, and Florian (2011), teacher education programs currently use different models that prepare teachers for inclusion to different degrees: •Discrete models: separate models of general education teacher preparation and special education teacher preparation, usually one course in disabilities required for general education teacher candidates•Integrated models: one teacher education model with some course content devoted to teaching diverse students; further training required for specialization to teach students with disabilities•Merged models: Combining general and special into one teacher preparation program. Key skill areas and/or courses to be included in the unified models, including field experiences•General education preparation as a pre-requisite to special education training. Can earn a license in special education only after prior training in general education

Merged Models: Why and How They Have Develop•The preparation for teaching students with diverse needs in the discrete models is inadequate. •Assumes that after the development of foundation knowledge, that special educators will assume more specialists roles (e.g. for students with more severe disabilities, for early childhood special education, for transition into adult life). •Merged models may either a) combining existing courses, b) redesign existing courses, or c) re-conceptualize and design new courses.•Almost all merged programs were initiated by special education faculty. Often, the general education faculty has collaborated with them.•In some merged programs, professors co-teach (general education, special education, and content area specialists).•Although very limited, there is evidence that merged programs improve attitudes toward teaching students with disabilities in inclusive settings, and result in positive learning outcomes of students with disabilities.

(Allday et al., 2013; Feng & Sass, 2009; Kim, 2011; McCray & McHatton, 2011; Pugach et al., 2014)

Study of Inclusive Teacher Education Programs (ITEPs)

Purpose:

To identify key characteristics and features of ITEPs.

Participants and Procedures:

•50 universities or colleges offering Inclusive Teacher Education Programs (ITEPs) were identified through on-line search using terms such as “inclusion,” “inclusive education,” “teacher education,” and “teacher preparation.” These programs all reported offering dual certification or licensure in general education and special education. •48 ITEP web sites identified contact persons with email addresses. Emails were sent to these persons requesting participation in on-line survey and a given a URL to link to the on-line survey. •Three emails bounced back, leaving a total of 45 individuals affiliated with ITEPs in the sampling frame.•22 responses (49%) were received. •All respondents answered “yes” to Question 1: Are you currently affiliated with an ITEP?

Study of Inclusive Teacher Education Programs (ITEPs)

Location of Respondents:

AL CA FL MD NY OR PA RI VA VT0

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•18 Respondents identified their states. •Ten states were identified including AL, CA, FL, MD, NY, OR, PA, RI, VA, VT. •NY had 8 respondents, PA had 2, others had 1.

Q2: Which ITEP model (as defined by Blanton, Pugach, and Florian, 2011) best describes your program? Select one.

Answered: 20 Skipped: 2

Other:• Ours is a 5-year program leading to bachelor's and Master's

degrees. We offer a common junior-senior curriculum for elementary and SE majors, with specializations in Master's year.

• I guess it would be considered "integrated," but technically, the special ed piece is an "add on," they get their SWD cert concurrently with their content cert

• Our secondary inclusive program leads to single cert in Teaching Students with Disabilities

Q3: At which level is your ITEP offered? Select all that apply.Answered: 21 Skipped: 1

Other:• Jr/Sr/Master's • It is a post bac program leading to twocredentials, multiple subject and special education. Candidates can go into an optional master programs

Q4: For which level or area of disability are ITEP students primarily prepared to teach? Select all that apply.Answered: 21 Skipped: 1

Other:• Students have the option of going "severe," but few do. The

curriculum is the same for both except for the Master's years. • a cross categorical special education license so candidates work

with student in each of the three categories listed. • cross categorical • An inclusion strand and an autism strand • early childhood

Q5: For which grade level are your ITEP graduates prepared to teach? Select all that apply.Answered: 21 Skipped: 1

Other:• K-12 • We provide Inclusive Art Education (Art and SPED) & Inclusive

Music Ed (Music and SPED). We are developing Inclusive Middle and Secondary Ed.

• to age 22

Q6: The following teacher education curricular areas are often considered important for successful inclusion of students with disabilities. Please rate the relative amount of coverage for each of the following curricular areas within your ITEP program.

Answered: 19 Skipped: 3

Q7: Approximately how many courses (or term-length learning experiences) are required in the following areas in your ITEP?

Answered: 18 Skipped: 4

Q8: What is the most typical job title for your graduates? Select one.Answered: 19 Skipped: 3

Other:• For our graduates, SET; for graduates of the elementary program, GET…

although many of them get jobs in SE. • Can be either • About 2/3s ELED and 1/3 SPED. • About 50-50 Gen Ed and Spec ED; 30% go directly to grad school -- most

common grad school degrees SLP and Reading Specialist • The titles vary from special class teacher to inclusion, learning, resource and

intervention specialist. • Inclusive Early Childhood Ed. teacher • We graduate 1/3 dual cert and 2/3 elementary with single cert only. Both go

through the inclusive program.

Q9: What is the most typical teaching environment for your graduates? Select one.Answered: 19 Skipped: 3

Other:• Our program has 2 years of overlap, with specialization in a Master's year. Both SETs and

GETs graduate from the same "program," technically, but elem majors go to work in general education classrooms and SE majors in co-teaching or resource room settings (mostly).

• Most candidates are hired to provide a combination of "pull out and push in services" with a base in a Resource Room / Learning Center.

• Integrated Co-Teaching, which is a very popular New York State model. Would you call that general classroom? ON the NYS continuum it is more restrictive than part-time special ed.

• Inclusive Early Childhood

Q10: What is the most typical teaching level for your graduates? Select one.Answered: 19 Skipped: 3

Other:•In the past the typical level of employment was at the elementary level. This year 13 of my 16 candidates are at the 6-12 and continuation high school levels. •We have about equal graduates for both elementary and secondary.

Q11: Rate the support for the original creation of your ITEP offered by the following groups:Answered: 17 Skipped: 5

Other:•The IEEP program is housed in the Special Education department. There are pedagogical differences between our general (critical constructuvist pedagogy) and special education (Direct Explicit Instruction with a strong focus on RTI, PBIS, and UDL) faculty that made getting a program approved challenging. •As a new and innovative program, it was challenging to gain institutional support. Some areas of resistance were strong. •Prior to my arriving 5 years ago, candidates would typically take their coursework after they had received their masters in teaching in their content area, but they would do a placement with SWD, and didn't know about IEPs, etc. Now the special ed piece is more integrated, but in my opinion, it's perceived as an imposition. •When we made the Secondary Inclusive Ed program there were no special ed faculty left in our dept. Only inclusive faculty. •To create the inclusive elem program we fully merged elem and sp.ed. faculty and eliminated the distinction.

Q12: Rate the importance of each of the following as a factor in developing your ITEPAnswered: 18 Skipped: 4

Comments:•Our candidates get hired and are sought after. We believe this is as a result of our primary focus on collaboration and coteaching between professionals in order to achieve better teaching of students with disabilities in general education. •I would argue that my gen ed faculty and the candidates themselves would rate this on the inverse. Candidates typically choose to do the inclusion cert to be more marketable, with "to better teach" as a by-product.

•New York City has a critical need for secondary inclusive teachers To better prepare elementary teachers to teach ALL children.

Study of ITEPsConclusions:

•Merged models appear to be the most common ITEP design. •Programs are offered nearly equally at master’s level and bachelor’s level. •More than twice as many programs are preparing teachers for students with mild disabilities as are preparing teachers for more severe disabilities.•Teachers are being prepared twice as often to teach in elementary schools than at any other level.

Study of ITEPsConclusions:

•90% of the respondents said the following areas were receiving adequate or extensive coverage in their curricula: Differentiated instruction, using evidenced based practices to teach reading and math, principles of UDL, tiered instructional supports, cooperative learning, managing behavioral issues, and arranging the classroom for inclusion. •Two areas receiving relatively little coverage were class wide peer tutoring and managing health issues. •The greatest number of courses or learning experiences were in curriculum and instruction and field experiences. •The fewest number of courses or learning experiences were in child and adolescent development and behavior and classroom management.

Study of ITEPsConclusions:

•Graduates are accepting jobs as general classroom teachers over special education teachers at a rate of about 2 to 1, and are teaching in general classrooms or in mixed settings as opposed to segregated settings. •Graduates are teaching at the elementary level 4 times more often than at any other level. •The development of ITEP programs has been more supported by special education faculty than by general education faculty or college or university administrators, and most programs were developed with the intention of improving instruction in general education classrooms.

Development of the Inclusive Education Program at WCUA Case Study

The Introduction:

•Initial presentation of data to faculty and discussion: Are we satisfied with our students’ knowledge and skills regarding teaching students with disabilities in inclusive settings?•Formation of an ad hoc committee of special education and general education faculty.•Review of existing data on satisfaction of former students.•Collection of data from former students who are current teachers. •Review of existing course structure.

Development of the Inclusive Education Program at WCU

A Case Study

The Development:

•Model merged program developed to include dual certification in elementary and special education (mild, K-6). •Internal and external support for the model was received.

A Case StudyDevelopment of the Inclusive Education Program at WCU

The Conclusion: •Merged program assumed to be developed...then resistance by some faculty in general education.•Faculty concerns addressed and discussed.•General education faculty voted against merged program.•Special education faculty revised its undergraduate program, now called “Inclusive Education.” (Changed course requirements to include almost all elementary education courses. Students exit with dual certification in special education, mild K-6, and elementary education.)•Elementary education continued to offer current program which allows for concentrations in different areas but remains a traditional program.

DiscussionUnresolved Issues