Secondary special education teachers of Hispanic students with mild to moderate learning disabilities who are English language learners : their sense of efficacy and staff development needs

• Main Author: Sapien-Melchor, Rebecca Ruth
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarly Commons 2000
• Subjects: Special education; California; Chula Vista; Special education teachers; Learning disabilities; Teacher effectiveness; Hispanic American students; Education
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/541; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1540&context=uop_etds

Research indicates that a teacher's sense of efficacy or capacity to teach directly affects student-teacher interaction and student achievement. Recent demographic changes affecting California public schools require educators to rethink teacher training to meet linguistic, cultural, and academic needs of an increasingly diverse population, especially teachers who directly instruct Hispanic students with mild to moderate learning disabilities who are English language learners. This study examines and analyzes the sense of efficacy of secondary special education teachers of the study population and determines their staff development needs. Thirty-six Sweetwater Union High School District Special Day Class and Resource Specialist teachers participated in the study. They completed demograpihc, teacher efficacy, and staff development questionnaires, which investigated these needs in three areas: (a) pedagogy, (b) crosscultural awareness, and (c) language acquisition. Vll Eleven ofthe 36 teachers participated in a structured interview. Traditional quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis were used. For each questionnaire item, descriptive statistics, including means, standard deviations, and frequencies were calculated. The qualitative data analysis, QSR NUD.IST (Non-numerical Unstructured Indexing Data) program was used for final analysis of interview transcripts. Respondents of the Teacher Efficacy Questionnaire reported a high sense of efficacy with little variance across questionnaire items regarding personal and professional efficacy. Teachers reported a high sense of efficacy on pedagogy, crosscultural awareness, and language acquisition. Respondents also reported satisfactory preparation in awareness, knowledge, and application level training in pedagogy, crosscultural awareness, and language acquisition provided by the local district. Classroom technical assistance and collaboration received poor ratings. Correlation results between teacher efficacy and staff development revealed no significant relationship. Teacher interviews revealed that current staff development practices seem unconnected to daily classroom practice. Recommended for future investigation is a research-based staff development program which focuses on narrowing the achievement and equity gaps for these students.