The Influence Of Professional Development

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Through surveys and interviews, data was collected to determine the participant’s knowledge of special education issues, beliefs, attitudes and instructional practices. Coombs and Richardson’s results indicated participants had a great awareness of themselves, colleagues and individual needs of their students. They also reported greater collaboration with special education teachers and quality effort in helping all students in need of assistance. These trainings have shown that training and professional development has a positive effect on teachers’ attitudes toward including students with special needs into the regular education classroom (Colling, Fishbaugh, & Hermanson, 2003). They have also indicated a need for additional pre-service …show more content…

The most immediate and significant outcomes of professional development activities lie with the teachers’ knowledge and practices. This equates to the significant factor for influencing the relationship between professional developments and improving student outcome (Guskey & Sparks, 2002). The knowledge and practices of administrators are also influenced by the quality of the professional development program. Administrators may not influence students’ outcomes directly however Guskey (2002) identifies two ways in which administrators can influence students’ outcomes indirectly. Through their interaction with teachers and their leadership in forming school practices and the school culture, administrators can have immense influence over student outcomes (Guskey & Sparks, …show more content…

However in order to create a successful inclusion environment, a positive teacher attitude is needed (Cochran, 1998; Forlin, 1997; Hwang & Evans, 2011; Oldfield, 2009; Colber, 2010). Several factors have been identified throughout this research as having an effect on teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion including their experience (Avramidis, Bayliss, & Burden, 2000; Forlin, 2001; Minke et al,

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