STEM, Arts, and Special Education: Teacher Education Partnerships and Professional Development

A special issue of Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102). This special issue belongs to the section "Teacher Education".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 1503

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Teacher Education, College of Community Innovation and Education, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA
Interests: science education; integrated STEM; engineering education; partnerships; teacher education
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Teacher Education, College of Community Innovation and Education, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA
Interests: special education; collaboration; urban education

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue, titled “STEM, Arts, and Special Education: Teacher Education Partnerships and Professional Development”, invites research articles that focus on all disciplinary areas as they relate to partnerships and professional development. Innovative partnerships and professional developments are key topics of the articles included in this Special Issue. Whether focusing on early childhood, elementary, secondary, or exceptional student (special) education (from birth to 18 years old), if there are partnerships or professional developments strengthening work in teacher education, then this Special Issue is a place to showcase that work. Generally, disciplines and age groups are siloed, and this Special Issue aims to open those spaces so that the work across contents and ages can be explored and highlighted for the impacts of partnering with academics, industries, schools, and multiple other organizations. Often these partnerships lead to professional developments, which, in this Special Issue, are broadly encompassing but focus on teacher education at some level. Perhaps the teacher education participants of the study presented are still in university, just beginning their careers, or perhaps they are expert teachers with many years in the field. This Special Issue is a place for authors to share how their work with partnerships and professional developments promote awareness and understanding of best practices that strengthen teacher education. Articles with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion or urban settings are especially welcome. Additionally, readers of this Special Issue can glean ideas to improve and implement in their own programs.

I/We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Andrea C. Burrows Borowczak
Dr. Caroline Pratt Marrett
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • teacher education
  • partnerships
  • professional development
  • STEM
  • arts
  • exceptional student education
  • special education
  • pre-service teachers
  • in-service teachers
  • educational research

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

22 pages, 604 KiB  
Article
Creating Cohesion and Collaboration in Mathematics Classrooms: Implementing Interdepartmental Professional Learning Communities to Support Students with Disabilities
by Dawn M. Pilotti, Kristin E. Harbour, Bridget T. Miller and Emma K. Larkin
Educ. Sci. 2024, 14(1), 50; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14010050 - 31 Dec 2023
Viewed by 1123
Abstract
Professional learning communities (PLCs) support the growth of educators to improve learning outcomes for all students. Guided by social constructivist and social cognitive theories, this longitudinal participatory action research study explored the implementation of an interdepartmental PLC across Hord’s five dimensions of a [...] Read more.
Professional learning communities (PLCs) support the growth of educators to improve learning outcomes for all students. Guided by social constructivist and social cognitive theories, this longitudinal participatory action research study explored the implementation of an interdepartmental PLC across Hord’s five dimensions of a successful PLC—supportive and shared leadership, shared beliefs values and vision, collective learning and its application, shared personal practice, and supportive conditions. Additionally, this study explored how engaging with an interdepartmental PLC influenced participants’ collective efficacy. During the PLC, the collective expertise of mathematics teachers, administrators, and additional educational specialists (such as occupational therapists and speech and language pathologists) (n = 13) were leveraged to develop strategies for the improvement of mathematical problem solving among elementary and middle school students with disabilities. Our findings indicate statistically significant increases in the five dimensions of the PLC over time, with qualitative evidence supporting the PLC’s effectiveness. However, our findings revealed no significant increase in participants’ overall collective efficacy, a group’s shared belief that together they can achieve a desired result. Implications for practice and research are discussed. Full article
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