Special Education and STEM Education Teacher Credentials and Instructional Preparedness for Inclusive STEM Education

Rossi, Louis Alfonso III

Special Education and STEM Education Teacher Credentials and Instructional Preparedness for Inclusive STEM Education

dc.contributor.author	Rossi, Louis Alfonso III	en
dc.contributor.committeechair	Ernst, Jeremy V.	en
dc.contributor.committeemember	Baum Walker, Liesl M.	en
dc.contributor.committeemember	Hicks, David	en
dc.contributor.committeemember	Williams, Thomas O.	en
dc.contributor.department	Education, Vocational-Technical	en
dc.date.accessioned	2018-07-06T08:00:32Z	en
dc.date.available	2018-07-06T08:00:32Z	en
dc.date.issued	2018-07-05	en
dc.description.abstract	In an effort to meet the demands of industry within society, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education has been a major push for the United States Government resulting in public school system reform. As STEM education begins to become integrated across disciplines and special areas of public schools, and the population of inclusive classrooms containing Students with Disabilities continues to rise, a very important question must be fully investigated and answered. We must ask: Do first year Secondary STEM Education and Special Education teachers have the instructional preparedness to effectively teach all populations of students within their classrooms? And do STEM education and Special Education teachers have the appropriate content credentials to effectively support the diverse needs of students and curriculum in an inclusive STEM education class? This dissertation consists of two research studies that examine Special Education and STEM Education teachers preparedness (coursework and professional development) and content credentials to educate Students with Disabilities within an inclusive STEM Education classroom. This study will be utilizing a secondary analysis of the 2011- 2012 School and Staffing Survey Teacher Questionnaire (SASS TQ) datasets to conduct national analysis of how Special Education and STEM Education teachers degrees, state-level certification areas, and professional development participation reflect potential indicators of preparedness to educate in an inclusive STEM education classroom. The first study focuses on well-known approaches for the instruction of STEM Education and Special Education. This study will utilize differentiated instruction, behavior management, and data to drive instruction as best classroom approaches to instruction to determine their identifiable differences in instructional preparedness among first year STEM educators and first year Special Education teachers. The second study utilizes the 2011-2012 SASS TQ datasets to analyze Special Educators credentials to teach STEM compared to STEM educators credentials to teach Special Education. This study will analyze and compare credentials and backgrounds of STEM educators and Special Educators in search of indicators for preparedness for Inclusive STEM education.	en
dc.description.abstractgeneral	Society has and continues to rely on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) research and applications to solve many of its novel problems and push the boundaries for innovations which seek the betterment of humanity. This has led to recent educational focuses on STEM content and concepts which has resulted in reforms throughout the United States school systems. While STEM education has become a major focus within our school systems there has also been a reported increase in the number of special education students attending STEM education coursework. This educational shift towards STEM subjects combined with the increase of students with disabilities has led to an unprecedented amount of STEM classrooms containing students with disabilities. Since students with disabilities require unique programing and teaching strategies to be successful there increase in population has not only changed the roles and responsibilities for educators but has also created new challenges for both regular and special education teachers. This has raised the importance of evaluating both STEM and special education teacher’s instructional preparedness and content expertise to teach STEM subjects to all students, including students with disabilities. The two research studies reported within this dissertation use a national data set to examine special education and STEM education teachers’ coursework, professional development and content credentials to identify their preparedness to educate Students with Disabilities within a STEM Education classroom containing students with disabilities. These studies conducted a secondary analysis to determine how special education and STEM education teachers’ degrees, state-level certification areas, and professional development participation reflect as potential indicators of preparedness to educate in a STEM education classroom containing students with disabilities.	en
dc.description.degree	Ph. D.	en
dc.format.medium	ETD	en
dc.identifier.other	vt_gsexam:15430	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10919/83868	en
dc.publisher	Virginia Tech	en
dc.rights	In Copyright	en
dc.rights.uri	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/	en
dc.subject	Special education	en
dc.subject	STEM education	en
dc.subject	School and Staffing Survey Teacher Questionnaire	en
dc.subject	Inclusive STEM education	en
dc.subject	Teacher preparedness	en
dc.title	Special Education and STEM Education Teacher Credentials and Instructional Preparedness for Inclusive STEM Education	en
dc.type	Dissertation	en
thesis.degree.discipline	Curriculum and Instruction	en
thesis.degree.grantor	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	en
thesis.degree.level	doctoral	en
thesis.degree.name	Ph. D.	en