Describing K-12 online teachers’ online professional development opportunities for students with disabilities

Abstract

Online teacher professional development (oTPD) researchers have been concerned with design features, teacher change in practice, and student learning, as well as establishing guidelines for directing funding support. Even so, previous work suggests that high-quality instructional support for all students with disabilities is still on the horizon. As a response to the need for better instruction, professional development for SWD has emerged in all settings, including teachers who are not just receiving oTPD, but who are online teachers themselves. The purpose of this study was to use online teachers' descriptions of their oTPD for SWD to learn about the professional learning opportunities available to teachers around serving SWD and their families. Teachers and administrators from various online/virtual learning schools around the country participated in this study. Even though teachers had SWD in their courses and were directly responsible for SWD, most teachers and administrators described few professional development opportunities for learning to teach SWD in the online learning environment beyond giving and receiving information about legal compliance. Findings also raise concerns about the tensions between macro-and micro-development opportunities available to teachers and whether they are positioned to take advantage of these to build strong professional networks.Keywords: Online teacher professional development, K-12 online teaching, online administration, professional development for students with disabilities Rice, M. F. (2017). Few and far between: Describing K-12 online teachers' online professional development opportunities for students with disabilities.

Webinars for English Language Teachers During the Pandemic: Global Perspectives on Transitioning to Remote Online Teaching

“…When asked about the main challenges they encountered when teaching online, teachers most commonly shared challenges related to keeping their students engaged and progressing in the learning activities. This challenge seemed to provide international support to the existing literature from the United States and Canada, which has reported teachers lacked previous preparation on the skills specific to teaching in a distance medium (Archambault et al, 2016; Archibald et al, 2020; Kennedy & Archambault, 2012; Rice & Dawley, 2007). In recent history there have been several nations that have learned continuity of learning lessons from previous pandemics.…”

“…While somewhat dated, Going Virtual! The Status of Professional Development, Unique Needs, and Challenges of K–12 Online Teachers remains the only national study of professional development for K–12 online teachers (Dawley et al, 2010; Rice & Dawley, 2007; Rice et al, 2008). Over the course of this project, the authors indicated that less than 40% of all K–12 online teachers reported receiving professional development prior to beginning to teach online, and those who did receive professional development found that the topics generally focused on how to use the learning management system and other tools utilized by the individual K–12 online learning program.…”

E- Learning

“…For most individuals with ASD, including those with extensive support, this can provide a harder transition from school to home (Stenhoff et al, 2020). It is a concern that teachers delivering instructions online lack resources for both professional learning opportunities for teaching children with disabilities during distance learning (Rice, 2017;Smith et. al., 2016).…”

Oferta de formación en línea para docentes en México y España

“…La investigación educativa ha atendido varios objetos de estudio en esta línea. Estudios recientes reportan las ventajas y desventajas de la formación en línea para los maestros centrándose en las propiedades educativas de estos medios (Killion y Treacy, 2014;Rice, 2017;Rasmussen y Byrd, 2016, Powell y Bodur, 2019. La investigación también ha mostrado que la formación en línea del profesorado puede ser un predictor de su capacidad de diseñar y adaptar propuestas para la enseñanza en línea en las escuelas (Sangeeta y Tandon, 2020;Tsegay et al, 2022), por lo que analizar el contenido de dicha oferta y los agentes responsables de la misma puede ofrecer datos para las políticas educativas.…”