PREPARING TEACHERS FOR ACADEMIC DIVERSITY

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this Phase II project is to design and validate three additional computerized instructional programs, called 'Virtual Workshops,' that will be used to provide professional development experiences to secondary content-area teachers who deliver instruction to academically diverse inclusive classes in which students with disabilities are enrolled. The Virtual Workshops are to serve as comparable alternatives to traditional teacher-development programs when these traditional programs cannot be accessed or as supplementary materials for teacher-training courses. The focus of each Virtual Workshop will be on an empirically validated teaching routine that has been designed for delivering complex information in required subject-area courses. This project will result in inexpensive, effective, interactive professional development programs on CD ROMs for teachers. The Virtual Workshop will: (a) allow new teachers immediate access to training; (b) provide teachers timely access to state-of-the-art innovations available through the mail or on-line; (c) afford isolated teachers in poor or rural districts access to comprehensive professional-development experiences; (d) allow teachers to complete professional development activities at convenient times; (e) permit teachers to review the information whenever needed; and (f) furnish teachers access to the best professional developers in the nation. The CD ROM programs will feature instruction by experienced teachers in classrooms. The programs will be tested by local teachers. Experimental teachers (Virtual Workshop) will receive the CD ROM program and will implement the instruction. Comparison teachers (Actual Workshop) will attend a live workshop and will implement the instruction. Primary measures will include teacher knowledge of the program, teacher implementation of lessons, and teacher development of materials. A multivariate approach with multiple measures on the same subjects will be used. A pretest-posttest comparison-group design will be used to determine the secondary effects of the teachers' use of CD ROM program on student knowledge of key concepts related to each of the routines taught. The purpose will be to demonstrate that the CD ROM program prod uses at least equivalent results to the live training format. In addition, social validity of the program will be assessed. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: This project will result in inexpensive, effective multi-media professional development materials to enable teachers to deliver complex content to academically diverse classes. The products that will result from this project will be commercially published and distributed by Edge Enterprises and PRO-ED and marketed to teachers, administrators, and others nationally at approximately $40 each. This type of professional development package is not currently available and is particularly needed by isolated teachers, preserve teachers, and inexperienced teachers interested in providing barrier-free insturction for all students in inclusive classes.