Date of Award

8-2021

Degree Type

Creative Project

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

Department

Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling

Committee Chair(s)

Karen Hager-Martinez (Committee Chair)

Committee

Karen Hager-Martinez

Committee

Bryce Fifield

Committee

Cindy Jones

Abstract

Research within the last decade suggests that in-service general education elementary teachers’ understanding of and skills in administering Response to Intervention (RtI) practices are limited. A review of literature revealed a shortage of professional publications investigating the effects of RtI training for these teachers on their knowledge and skills. This project examined the effects of professional development delivered in a blended format on elementary general education teachers’ knowledge of the response to intervention process. Participants included female general education teachers with a current teaching assignment in grades one or two with a range of teaching experience from preschool through sixth grade across nine to 24 total years of teaching. Participants all had at least a bachelor’s degree and a current license to teach at the elementary level. The five-week training required participants to complete weekly modules on their own and participate in weekly follow-up group discussions to clarify and expand information from that week’s module and review the associated case study from the pretest. In the group sessions, participants discussed the content from that week’s module and received feedback from the trainer about the corresponding case study. Pretest/posttest measures included having participants (a) rate themselves on their level of confidence regarding different skills involved in the RtI process, (b) name key elements of RTI, and (c) respond to case studies. The student researcher concluded that the blended format of independent module learning and group discussions increased participants’ knowledge of and confidence surrounding the RtI process. The results of this study strengthen the call for more widespread and better training in RtI for general education elementary teachers.

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