Date of Graduation

Spring 2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

College/School

School of Education

Department

Learning and Instruction

Program

Learning & Instruction EdD

First Advisor

Mathew Mitchell

Second Advisor

Kevin Oh

Third Advisor

Sarah Capitelli

Abstract

The Federal mandates established under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) requires special education teachers to use evidence-based practices to support diverse student needs. With this legislation came an increase in research to identify practices that are effective with this population. While this work has identified a number of evidence-based practices, there is little evidence showing these practices are transferred to the classroom. Researchers and educators have long sought to understand how to reduce the gap between research findings and teacher practice. For special education, the federal mandate further emphasizes this need and puts closing the gap between research and practice at the forefront of special education research.

This study examined the use of a podcast-aided video-based reflection intervention in an effort to bridge the gap between research and practice. Grounded in Korthagen and Lagerwerf’s Levels of Learning theory (1995), the intervention uses multimedia podcasts to deliver evidence-based practices and video-analysis to cement reflection of these practices in teachers’ own experiences. Combining the success of video-analyses to improve self-reflection with the growing evidence for enhanced podcasts to deliver content, this study sought to impact novice special education teachers’ schema development and implementation of evidence-based practices.

Using a mixed method approach, 12 special education intern teachers provided a concept map describing their understanding of classroom management before and after the intervention. After completion of a three-part cycle of inquiry based intervention, additional data was gathered using semi-structured interviews and collecting individual self-reflections. The results of this data support the use of video as a superior tool to memory for the purpose of self-reflection, the use of enhanced podcast as a tool for in-field profession development, and the Levels of Learning theory to describe novice teacher development. The participants in this study not only demonstrated an increase in understanding of evidence-based practices and their implementation, but also described many benefits to learning from video-analysis and multimedia podcasts

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