Abstract
Teachers and support staff increasingly collaborate in educating students with special needs as schools become more inclusive. This paper describes a non-traditional, job-embedded program of graduate studies in collaboration and consultation for educators and support specialists who are facing new challenges and roles in response to inclusion and student diversity.
The program itself has been jointly designed and offered by the university and by the Special Education Resource Center, which is part of the Connecticut Department of Education and a major centre for state-wide projects, library and instructional resources, and in-service training.
The presentation will explain how this program integrates learning experiences with participants' work needs. Participants progress through the program within a cohort for mutual support. They are engaged in job embedded assignments and projects, self-directed inquiry, teamwork in regional project groups, distance learning, and electronic exchanges via email and listserv. Areas studied and practiced on the job include co-teaching and co-planning, communication techniques, negotiation, consultation, problem solving, partnerships with families, instructional modification, student assessment, learning styles and strategies, organizational change, and outreach to school and community. Participants apply these skills to their daily work, document their experiences and develop a personal learning portfolio.
This program can offer a model for enhancing the growth of educators who face changes related to inclusion and student diversity. It applies to adult learners who have diverse interests, who may be geographically dispersed, and who can learn independently but value the enrichment of learning collaboratively in gaining collaboration skills.
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