Date of Award
4-28-2017
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Educational Leadership, Ed.D.
First Advisor
Steve Bounds
Committee Members
Gwendolyn Neal; Jacques Singleton; Joseph Nichols
Call Number
LD251.A566d 2017 R67
Abstract
Professional learning is gaining credence as a best practice for staff development. The change in terms from professional training to professional development may be an improvement; however, responding to the needs of the learners to support a teacher’s need to learn themselves requires professional “learning” (Easton, 2008). Studies are limited in examining how special education teachers view the perceptions of the effectiveness of, or how beneficial professional learning experiences impact their teaching effectiveness and student achievement. According to the Arkansas Department of Education (2014), Arkansas has adopted seven professional learning standards at the school and district levels in an effort to improve individual teacher growth and school-wide performance of teachers and students. This quantitative study examined the perceptions of special education teachers’ professional learning experiences obtained at the district (onsite) and state (offsite) level in the state of Arkansas. More specifically, it investigated if there were significant differences in their perceptions when compared to the selected demographic characteristics of school location, school socioeconomic status, school setting, teachers’ degree of education, licensure credentials, years of teaching experiences, and classroom instructional setting. The study found that special education teachers rated their onsite experiences significantly higher than their offsite experiences when responding to the effectiveness of their professional learning experiences. Additionally, the study found that varying demographic variables such as degree attainment influences special education teachers’ perceptions of the adequacy of their college educational preparation to teach students with disabilities.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Rose-Greer, Paula, "Perceptions Of Special Education Teachers’ Professional Learning Experiences in Arkansas" (2017). Student Theses and Dissertations. 567.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/567
