Learning Together: Teachers' Evolving Understandings During Ongoing Collaborative Professional Development

• In Event: 33.080 - Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: 33.080-8 - Special Education Research SIG: Assessment, Collaboration, and Educational Placement

Abstract

Providing teachers structured time to learn collaboratively in professional development efforts serves two important functions in schools implementing Response to Intervention frameworks. For one, structured collaboration provides teachers with a mechanism for situating knowledge and skills for integrating effective evidence-based practices into tiered instruction. Second, this type of coordinated work supports teams of general and special education teachers in aligning instruction across the tiers of instructional support. This study examines the discussion of upper elementary school general and special education teachers (n = 7) within the context of literacy related lesson study collaborative planning sessions. Constructivist grounded theory methods were employed to investigate how participation in this professional development innovation impacted teachers’ knowledge of effective literacy practices.

Authors

• Amber Elizabeth Benedict, University of Florida

• Mary T. Brownell, University of Florida