Special education cooperating teachers: Perspectives on mentoring and participation in teacher education

Efforts to strengthen special education teacher preparation have the potential to mitigate the chronic special education teacher shortage and to close the achievement gap between students receiving special education services and their peers. These efforts require that teacher preparation programs and their K-12 partners collaborate to create a seamless and highly effective student teaching experience. Although cooperating teachers (CTs) work closely with student teachers and highly influence their development, they largely are disconnected from teacher education programs and faculty. Examining role of CTs in special education clinical experiences allows us to better understand how to strengthen teacher preparation and to make a meaningful difference in outcomes for both new special education teachers and students with disabilities. This study used semi-structured interviews to examine the experiences of effective special education CTs in working with teacher candidates, the opportunities they had to partner with special education teacher preparation programs, and CTs’ perceptions of what is well-taught and what might be missing from teacher preparation programs. Findings indicated that highly effective CTs utilized impactful mentoring strategies and purposefully arranged experiences for their student teachers in areas they perceive to be priorities in special education (e.g., writing Individualized Education Programs and teaching in various settings for diverse learners). Participants also reported having positive relationships with teacher preparation programs but had little to no opportunity to provide feedback about or otherwise contribute to program content. Participants found that their student teachers were well prepared to write lesson plans and create positive relationships with students, but were lacking in the areas of differentiating instruction, making flexible on-the-spot decisions, handling disruptive behaviors, and writing IEPs. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Special Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Andrews, Laurie Grams

Contributors dc:contributor

• Monda Amaya, Lisa
• McCarthey, Sarah
• Ray, Amber
• Light Shriner, Cheryl

• Special Education
• Cooperating Teachers
• Student Teaching
• Cooperating Teacher Perspectives

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Laurie Andrews

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121392

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F121392