Abstract
Welcome to the final issue of Volume 39! We hope the fall semester is going well for you and your students. We also hope you plan to attend the TED fall conference in Lexington, KY. We are excited to share that Teacher Education and Special Education (TESE) has received its first impact factor this past summer. The TESE publication is now 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 impact factor rating is 0.881, and its ranking is 119 out of 230 journals in the category of education and educational research. We want to thank our Board of Reviewers for their help in reaching this milestone and to our readers for opening our journal.
This issue examines several topics related to preparation of special and general educators who serve students with disabilities. In the first paper, Christian Grygas Coogle, Naomi Rahn, Jennifer Riggie Ottley, and Sloan Storie conducted a multiple-probe, single-case design investigation to determine the effects of eCoaching on teachers’ use of three modeling strategies. Each of the three strategies was a method to model language for children. Their results suggest that eCoaching increased the teachers’ use of modeling strategies. These results build on previous studies and add to the literature supporting the use of eCoaching to increase the use of evidence-based practices by teachers.
In the second paper, Elizabeth Leader-Janssen, Philip Nordness, Kristine Swain, and Jessica Hagaman evaluated graduate students’ perceptions of a completely online master’s degree program in special education for emotional and behavioral disorders. Fifty-one graduates who had participated in an online program within the past 3 years or were currently enrolled in the online program were asked to complete a survey. The instrument included 34 items that were designed to measure students’ satisfaction of the program. The results suggest that students do have a high level of satisfaction in an online program. The findings of this study may provide a starting point for determining the effectiveness of the increasing online programs in special education.
The third paper, written by Todd Sundeen, Krista Vince Garland, and Wilfred Wienke, examined the perceptions of usability and navigability of university and program websites. The authors administered a survey to graduate students in special education at four intervals between 2006 and 2014 to determine their perceptions of university and special education doctoral program websites. As the authors state, “the results of this analysis have the potential to inform universities and program units beyond the bounds of the immediate focus of this article.” Specific recommendations are provided for improving university and doctoral program websites.
In the fourth paper, Anne Butler and Lisa Monda-Amaya examined preservice teacher perceptions of student and teacher behavior during scenarios of challenging behavior, alternative solutions or strategies in examining the teacher’s role in the scenarios, and perceptions of challenging behavior that may present the greatest difficulty in their future positions. Their results indicated that preservice teachers are able to identify the teacher’s role in scenarios both positively and negatively. Overall preservice teachers feel moderately confident with classroom management and challenging behavior. Future research on preservice teacher implementation of strategies and behavior management in real-life contexts is suggested.
In the final paper, Michael Kennedy, Kat Alves, Jeremy Miciak, John Romig, Hannah Morris Mathews, and Cathy Newman Thomas evaluated the relationship between naturalistic content acquisition podcast views and course performance of 162 students enrolled in an introductory university course in special education. Students were asked to track their viewings of the podcasts and self-report the number of views during the midterm and the final examinations. Results suggest a positive, predictive relationship between the CAP-T views and the students’ performance of the midterm and final examinations. As we continue to use instructional media to provide future educators with essential knowledge, we need to continue to research the media we use and continue to study the use of media in naturalistic settings versus laboratory settings. The authors’ research in this investigation adds to the body of literature on the use of CAP-Ts as a tool that can provide future educators with the content they need to be successful.
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.
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! We want to thank the following doctoral students and guest reviewers for their assistance this past year: Kaitlin Bundock, Andrea Capizzi, Kyena Cornelius, Lindsay Dennis, Tiffany Fisher, Shari Hopkins, Stephanie Morano, and Erica Webster.