The Self-Reported Preparation of Recent Vocational Teacher Education Graduates to Instruct Exceptional Students.

Overview & Synopsis

A study was conducted to determine how prepared recent vocational teacher education graduates consider themselves to be in teaching eight groups of exceptional students in regular vocational education classes. The 2,091 participants were 1981 graduates of vocational teacher education programs in 29 states. About 52 percent of these teacher graduates returned a mailed questionnaire about how prepared they felt themselves to be to perform 16 professional tasks for exceptional students. (Exceptional students were defined as physically and/or sensory impaired, mentally retarded, gifted and talented, limited English speaking, economically disadvantaged, racial/ethnic minority group members, those enrolled in programs nontraditional for their sex, and adults who are retraining.) It was found that the graduates were not uniformly prepared for teaching exceptional students, especially students with limited English proficiency and adults. It was also found that many of the graduates were unprepared for program evaluation, and few had significant contact with exceptional persons. Finally, only about half of the students had been required to take courses relevant to teaching exceptional persons. Recommendations were made for changes in teacher preparation programs to remedy these deficits. It was also recommended that schools conduct periodic needs assessments of their programs to determine such deficits and to alter their programs. (The study cautioned that a majority of responders were white, female, home economics graduates, which may limit the study's results.) (KC)