The ongoing professional development of general education and special education teachers is vital to the success of students with disabilities. As more classrooms transition to a co-teaching model, the professional development that teachers engage in must transition to meet the needs of both groups of professionals. This study used a qualitative approach to examine the practical foundations of a pedagogical style that amalgamates co-teaching and embedded professional development within two inclusive classrooms to theorize the Co-teaching Professional Development (CoPD) Approach. The research findings indicate that within the context of two general education social studies classrooms CoPD offers a suitable approach to supporting teachers and students with disabilities. This piece also points to the existence of reciprocity of content knowledge gains of the special educator and the corresponding gains to the pedagogical repertoire of general educators are presented.
This study examined the impact of a yearlong ambient professional development (PD) program-The Wayne Schools Global Geography Project (WSGG-project)-that focused on improving teacher quality through PD and classroom observations for in-service social studies teachers. The project targeted middle and high school social studies teachers and used theory of instruction, theory of teacher change, and constructivist learning as the primary pedagogy pivot. A mixed methods approach was utilized for data collection in the forms of surveys, questionnaires, observations, pre/posttests, and focus groups. Results support the use of intensive, sustained, and content-specific PD to improve teacher content knowledge, pedagogy, and for the development of skills and strategies when teaching social studies. In addition, the formation of a Collaborative Community of Professional Teachers (CCPT) evolved as teachers examined, theorized, and reported on their perceptions of how the project impacted their social studies classroom practices.
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