Abstract
Welcome to the August, 2012 “back to school’” issue! We hope when you receive this issue — Volume 35(3) — you have had some time to enjoy your summer and are now preparing for the new semester with renewed energy and excitement. In this issue there are a range of topics related to the preservice preparation of teachers, professional development, and leadership personnel. For those preparing teachers at the bachelors and masters levels you will find interesting discussions of alternative preparation programs, provision of service learning opportunities, and the comparison of online and face to face programs. For those involved in the preparation of doctoral students, there is an interesting analysis of the differences between the content of PhD and EdD dissertations. Finally, for those involved in professional development, there is a discussion of an effective method for assisting teachers who work with students with severe disabilities.
The issue begins with an article by Erica McCray entitled, “Learning while teaching: A case study of beginning special educators completing a Master of Arts in Teaching.” McCray’s case study examines to what extent the program, the participants’ background and career trajectories, and their teaching context interacted to contribute to the success of five teachers’ completion of their alternative training program and to their remaining in the field. The second article, written by Lance Neeper and Stacy Dymond, entitled “The use of service-learning among special education faculty,” describes the use of service-learning (SL) by special education faculty at 4-year colleges and universities across the United States. Neeper and Dymond discuss the steady increase in the percentage of students engaged in service and the number of campuses that recognize SL in decisions regarding promotion and tenure, and the overall number of SL courses offered across campuses. David Walker and Shannon Haley-Mize’s “Content analysis of PhD and EdD dissertations in special education” sought to discern if differences exist between degree requirements in EdD and PhD programs in special education. Walker and Haley-Mize’s findings indicate a growing delineation between the two advanced education degrees.
The fourth article, coauthored by Diane Browder, Bree Ann Jimenez, Pamela Mims, Victoria Knight, Fred Spooner, Angel Lee, and Claudia Flowers, is titled, “The effects of a ‘Tell-Show-Try-Apply’ professional development package on teachers of students with severe developmental disabilities.” Browder and her colleagues evaluated a professional development method used to train teachers to align instruction to grade-level content for students with severe developmental disabilities. In the fifth article entitled, “Comparing online and face-to-face presentation of course content in an introductory special education course,” James Thompson, Patricia Klass, and Barbara Fulk examine the differences between online and face-to-face instruction. Implications of findings are discussed in relation to teaching and learning in courses with large enrollments focused primarily on developing knowledge-based competencies. Finally, Michael Kennedy, Emily Ely, Cathy Newman Thomas, Paige Pullen, Jennifer Newton, Kristen Ashworth, Mira Cole, and Shelly Lovelace describe the use of Content Acquisition Podcasts (CAPs), and they discuss the implications for teacher preparation programs regarding how to create and implement technology-based instructional materials.
We wish you a wonderful start to the fall semester! Keep sending us your best work!