This study explored the benefits and limitations of mentoring through the Internet in two special education preparation programs in the United States. Nicenet Internet Classroom Assistant was used to facilitate this virtual mentoring process. Seventeen undergraduate and 13 graduate students from two universities participated. The graduate students were mentors to undergraduates who were in the beginning of their senior year of their special education program. Pre-and post-surveys, Internet interactions, and video conferencing were used to gather participants' perceptions of their skill development in teaching, mentoring and collaboration and the effectiveness of virtual mentoring. Content analyses and descriptive statistics were employed to evaluate their responses. Results revealed that participants agreed that virtual mentoring was a positive experience, it supported their intervention and teaming skills and had some positive effects on their communication and teaching skills. However, virtual mentoring did not appear to impact every characteristic or dimension of communication and teaching investigated by this study. Although the results from this study indicated that virtual mentoring is a viable process which benefits both pre-service and inservice special education teachers, it is apparent from this study that further research is required to gain a better understanding of the technology of virtual mentoring and its usefulness to other areas of education.

In the last 20 years, teacher preparation programs have come under close scrutiny by the public and governmental agencies charged with monitoring teacher quality and the academic achievement of American students. Both regular and special education teacher preparation programs struggle with the requirement to collect valid and reliable evidence of teacher candidate performance and their effect on student learning. This study incorporated an ecobehavioral assessment tool (MS-CISSAR) in the evaluation of 13 special education teacher candidates during their internship experiences. Special education teacher candidates taught in deaf education classrooms and self-contained and resource rooms for students with disabilities. Results showed that the instructional arrangements, teaching behaviors and student responses were similar to studies using inservice teachers and students with disabilities as subjects. The incorporation of data gathered through the MS-CISSAR program could be used to meet university and NCATE requirements for evidence of teacher candidate performance.

Deaf education teacher training programs have received criticism for graduating students with gaps in knowledge and skills required for specific placements. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) requires that accredited programs engage in self-study, and NCATE guidelines require programs to collect valid, reliable evidence of teacher candidate performance and candidates' effect on student learning. In the present study, an ecobehavioral assessment computer program, MS-CISSAR (Mainstream Code for Instructional Structure and Student Academic Response), was used in evaluations of 8 teacher candidates during internship experiences. Results were mixed. Some of the instructional arrangements, teaching behaviors, and student responses resembled those found in studies using in-service teachers as subjects; however, some data revealed a need for changes in instruction. Data gathered with MS-CISSAR could be added to evaluations to help training programs meet NCATE requirements for evidence on teacher candidate performance and candidates' effect on student learning.