Abstract
Welcome to the third issue of Volume 38. We hope the fall semester is beginning successfully for you filled with teaching, meetings, and new students. We are looking forward to seeing all of you at the fall TED conference in Tempe, Arizona. What a wonderful place to meet and connect!
We are excited to report that Teacher Education and Special Education (TESE) has been selected for coverage in Thomson Reuter’s products and services. Beginning with Volume 36 (1) 2013, this publication will be indexed and abstracted in (a) Social Sciences Citation Index®, (b) Journal Citation Reports/Social Sciences Edition, and (c) Current Contents®/Social and Behavioral Sciences. Our first official Impact Factor rating for the year of 2015 is expected for release in early fall 2016.
This issue examines several topics related to preparation of special and general educators. In the first article, Michelle R. Murphy and Kathleen Marshall explore common core state standards preparation in special education teacher education programs. The authors conducted focus groups with pre-service teachers and professors in general and special education programs at five colleges across two southeastern states. Findings suggest that general and special education professors along with pre-service teachers describe their knowledge of common core state standards as in the beginning stages. Implications for practice and further research are discussed. Given that the common core standards have been adopted across the country by most states, the discussion found in this first article is timely.
In the second article, Melinda M. Leko, Saili Kulkarni, Meng-Chuan Lin, and Shane A. Smith complete an in-depth examination of the construct of teacher beliefs by investigating pre-service teachers’ beliefs about reading instruction for students with disabilities. Their results indicate that pre-service teachers’ belief systems are complex, made up of enduring, deeply rooted expressed beliefs, as well as beliefs-in-use that are highly dependent on discipline-specific working knowledge. The authors suggest that as teacher educators, we need to be more specific and explicit when describing studies of pre-service teacher beliefs. Implications for future research and practice are provided.
The third article, written by Loretta Mason-Williams, Jacqueline R. Frederick, and Candace A. Mulcahy, describes a capstone project for special education pre-service teachers. The authors describe the students’ final project and how it aligns with the Council for Exceptional Children’s Professional Standards. The outcome data reflect an increase in pre-service teachers’ ability to research and design usable interventions based on evidence-based practices. Implications for special education teacher preparation programs are included in the discussion. The project described in this article might be helpful for those teacher educators preparing their programs for accreditation review.
In the fourth article, Salih Rakap, Hazel A. Jones, and Alice Kaye Emery describe the development, implementation, and second-year evaluation of a web-based professional development (PD) project that was designed to train teachers currently working in the field to meet the unique and diverse needs of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Their results suggest that the web-based PD program was effective in helping teachers develop and improve their competencies. In this day of online and web-based PD, this article will provide implications for future research and professional practice.
Andrea Ruppar, Carly Roberts, and Amy Jo Olson, authors of the final article of this issue, interviewed nine special education faculty who specialized in severe disabilities about the job-related skills and qualities exhibited by expert teachers of students with severe disabilities. Their results indicate that in addition to systematic and student-centered instruction, expert teachers of students with severe disabilities are guided by a set of non-negotiable principles regarding inclusion and the dignity and value of students with severe disabilities. Implications for teacher preparation and evaluation are discussed.
Our vision for TESE is to continue the long-standing tradition of publishing high quality research and commentary on teacher education and special education. We hope to increase the number of manuscripts reviewed; so please send in your manuscripts (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tese). We also look forward to increasing our readership nationally and internationally; we hope you will encourage your friends to read TESE by going to the website and signing up for SAGE Journal email alerts (http://tes.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts). In addition, we have several links available for our readers on special topics and issues. These links will allow you to find several articles on one topic. Please see the following link: http://tes.sagepub.com/cgi/collection. We hope to also widen our viewership by providing podcasts on topics we examine at TESE. Our latest podcast completed by the “Preparing Educators to Use Evidence-Based Practices to Support Students With Autism” special issue editors can be found at the following link: http://tes.sagepub.com/site/misc/Index/Podcasts.xhtml. This podcast is timely given the increasing numbers of students identified with Autism.
We recognize that the success of TESE is a collaborative, team effort. The TESE journal is only as good as the manuscripts received and the quality of the reviews posted by members of the editorial board. We want to thank in advance those of you who will submit your best work in the area of teacher preparation to TESE, as well as those on the Board of Reviewers who will spend quality time providing thoughtful and constructive suggestions to their colleagues. We look forward to receiving your manuscripts, reviews, feedback, and ideas to improve the journal. Together, we can continue TESE’s tradition of quality scholarship!