The impact of the national board for professional teaching standards process on special educators: A multi-methods phenomenological study.

摘要

In the United States, educational reform has focused on teachers and their responsibility for student achievement. Hence, the development of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) to provide a national system of recognition for teachers that will transform and unify the teaching profession (Hamsa, 1998). The NBPTS' mission in education is to "maintain high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do, provide a national voluntary system certifying teachers who meet these standards, and advocating related education reforms to integrate National Board Certification (NBC) in American education and to capitalize on the expertise of NBPTS certified teachers" (NBPTS,2001, p. v). In 1994, the NBPTS created a committee of special educators to develop national standards to define professional growth and contemporary practice in the field of special education in accordance with the Five Core Propositions of the NBPTS. The changing role of the special educators in educational reform has forced special educators to seek alternative forms of professional development to meet the needs of the diverse population of students with disparate needs in the classroom. Current research on the use of NBPTS certification process as appropriate professional development has proven that the certification process is a viable means of maintaining professional knowledge for the general educator. However, there is minimal research on the impact of the NBPTS certification process has on special educators and the students that receive special education services. This study is a mixed methods study that explored the use of the NBPTS process as an appropriate mode of professional development for special educators outside of the traditional workshop model of professional development. Models of professional development are discussed, features of professional development are explored, professional development for special educators is examined, and the study is situated within the theoretical framework of Constructivism Theory. The NSDC Standards Assessment Inventory-2 survey (see Appendix A) was administered in addition to demographic information collected. The qualitative portion of the study engaged NBPTS Exceptional Needs recipients in a voluntary interview to determine their affective experience in regard to the NBPTS certification process.