How Expert Secondary Special Education Teachers Conceptualize Teaching Literacy in Their Content Area to Students With Learning Disabilities

• In Event: Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: Issues in Writing Instruction in Secondary and College Classrooms

Abstract

This study provides insight into the cognition of expert content area teachers with specialized knowledge in teaching literacy to students with learning disabilities (LD), with the purpose of developing an understanding of expertise in teaching literacy in the content areas to secondary students with LD. This study used hermeneutic phenomenology to explore teachers’ perceptions of their experiences of teaching secondary students with LD literacy within their content areas. Researchers obtained experiential descriptions from participants. Following a modified model of van Manen’s (1984) method of phenomenology, researchers engaged in an analysis from which descriptions of the teacher’s lived experiences were derived, reflecting how they conceptualized instruction, their framework for teaching, and how they designed instruction to further students learning.

Authors

• Alexandra A Lauterbach, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

• Mary T. Brownell, University of Florida

• Amber Elizabeth Benedict, University of Florida