Professional Development Needs Assessment for Secondary Vocational and Technical Education Teachers Related to Students with Special Needs.

Introduction

In most states, secondary vocational and technical education teachers obtain their teaching licenses as a result of their occupational experiences and not as a result of their vocational teacher training. This licensing option is significant within the trade and industry, health occupations and marketing program areas (American Vocational Association, 1993; Jones & Black, 1995; Kraska, 1996; Weber, 1989). This creates a need to understand what attitudes, knowledge, and skills related to working with individuals with special needs that new vocational teachers should possess. In reviewing the literature in this area, very little was published specifically targeting vocational education teachers and their attitudes and/or pedagogical skills related to students with special needs. Yet the population of students with special needs in vocational classrooms has been increasing over the past two decades beginning with The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (Sarkees-Wircenski & Wircenski, 1992; Repetto & Neubert, 1992). This trend will continue due to incentives and mandates in recent legislation such as Carl D. Perkins Vocational-Technical Act Amendments of 1998, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997, The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and The School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994.

Though general research related to students with special needs is plentiful, studies that address the preservice and inservice training needs of vocational and technical education teachers related to students with special needs is not. Many studies addressing the training and assistance needs of teachers are conducted with teachers in academic areas and not vocational teachers. Vocational and technical education teachers generally work with students for longer periods and for multiple years, so it is even more important for these persons to be adequately prepared to work with students with special needs.

It is useful to examine new vocational and technical education teachers, and the experiences to which they are exposed in their first year of teaching. In Indiana, teachers certified to teach through work experience and not through teacher training are required to attend training during their first year as a condition to apply for subsequent certification (Indiana Department of Education, 1989). The Occupational Specialist I training program in Indiana for the 1992-93 academic year trained 49 new vocational and technical education teachers with all program areas except agriscience and business represented. Several of these teachers left primarily because of the special needs of students for which they felt inadequately prepared. Many of the student problems were related to weaknesses typical of learners with special needs (i.e., low math and reading skills, hyperactivity, poor social skills, and attitude related problems) (Harris, 1993).

Teacher attitudes toward students with special needs

Beck (1985) compared undergraduate/graduate and preservice/postservice regular academic teachers who were receiving training related to students with special needs. It was determined that significantly more positive attitudes existed for teachers working with students with disabilities in the graduate and postservice groups than those in the undergraduate and preservice group. This implies that training and preparation can affect the attitudes and abilities of teachers when working with special populations. Lanier and Jones (1988) determined that generally teachers and students had negative attitudes about mainstreaming students with disabilities, but parents of students with disabilities were positive about the effort to mainstream. Another study found that teachers' perceived ability to make suitable modifications for students with disabilities was related to the attitudes held toward mainstreaming of students with special needs (Luckner, 1991). These studies indicate that there may be a problem with the attitudes of both teachers and students in reference to inclusion in regular classes; however, it was not discussed whether this problem is a result of lack of preparation of the teachers.

A study conducted in the State of Minnesota (Brown, Deberry, Welo, & Scholl, 1985) attempted to establish a base of information to determine the skills and abilities of vocational and technical education teachers in reference to special needs. The study developed a list of the strengths and needs vocational teachers believed they possessed, as well as the training formats and schedules preferred by vocational and technical education teachers for professional development activities. It was found that vocational teachers perceived their greatest weaknesses were in the use of parents, guardians, or community resources to supplement instruction and in adapting instructional activities and materials. The training formats of preference were observations and individualized training and advice with the preferred schedule being professional days.

Eagle, Choy, Hoachlander, Stoddard, and Tuma (1989) found that secondary vocational teachers generally need training and assistance to successfully integrate students with special needs into the vocational classroom. Custer and Panagos (1996) found that vocational teachers desired more training in topics related to students with special needs. It was found that some disabilities or disadvantages such as sight or hearing impairments were of more concern to vocational and technical education teachers than academic or economic disadvantages or learning disabilities.

Teacher instructional methods and strategies may be affected by perceived barriers related to students with special needs. Since little is published that directly relates to vocational teachers, it is necessary to explore studies that have measured barriers reported by teachers in other disciplines.

Instructional barriers for students with special needs

A student's success in any educational pursuit may be negatively affected by a teacher's lack of skills, abilities, or desire to adapt to a student's special needs. Custer and Panagos (1996) reported that vocational and technical education teachers felt less confident and effective in working with visual impairments, hearing impairments, and emotional disorders than with other special needs conditions. Thus vocational and technical education teachers may be more willing and able to work with students with special needs if inservice training and assistance is available to address the special needs.

It is desirable to expand the knowledge base used to specifically guide professional development planning and preparation for vocational and technical education teachers of students with special needs. Many issues of concern are only recently being addressed in the literature. Establishing more precisely the problems existing in vocational education related to students with special needs is critical for future student success.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to determine the professional development needs and preferences of vocational and technical education teachers as related to students with special needs. This group commonly has not received formal training to work with special needs students (American Vocational Association, 1993). The number of learners with special needs in vocational program areas will continue to increase in the future; therefore, it is becoming necessary to better prepare teachers in these areas (Sarkees-Wircenski & Wircenski, 1992; Repetto & Neubert, 1992).

Vocational and technical education teachers may encounter situations which may be unique to their classrooms or laboratories, especially when students with physical disabilities are involved. Professional development should include topics which will help vocational and technical education teachers deal with and overcome these obstacles (Brown, Deberry, Welo, & Scholl, 1985; Custer & Panagos, 1996).

The research questions were:

1. What do vocational and technical education teachers perceive as their strengths and needs related to students with special needs?

2. What training formats and schedules are preferred by vocational and technical education teachers?

Findings related to these questions will assist administrators and special needs staff in selecting, recommending, and/or providing professional development opportunities for vocational and technical education teachers.

Method & Instrumentation 

An advisory committee was established to assist in developing and reviewing the study's instrument. The committee consisted of four vocational administrators, three vocational teachers, three special population coordinators, and three vocational and technical education teacher educators. Committee members suggested items and critiqued the instrument for clarity, usefulness, appearance, organization, and correctness to establish both face and content validity. After the review, recommendations were made and the preliminary instrument modified to address the concerns of the committee. Items addressing training formats and schedules were adapted from a study conducted by Brown, Deberry, Welo, & Scholl (1985). The remainder of the instrument consisted of items developed by the panel of professionals. A small pilot study was conducted which included twelve randomly selected vocational teachers. The instrument, minus the demographic items, produced an internal consistency reliability estimate of (Cronbach's Alpha) 0.952.

The survey instrument consisted of 50 items in six sections. Included in the demographic section were license type, years in teaching, type of school, major program area, approximate number of students with special needs during the previous year, previous training in topics related to students with special needs, any other pertinent experiences, and involvement with and knowledge of Individualized Education Programs. Most items were measured using a five-point Likert-type scale.

The instrument measured teacher perceptions of their preferences related to professional development activities, including attitudes, knowledge, and skills related to working with students with special needs. The second section (general skills) addressed strategies and methods of instruction, use and modification of equipment and materials, and interactions with the local community and a variety of agencies. The third section (self-analysis) addressed teacher attitudes related to students with special needs. The fourth section (teacher support) addressed vocational and technical education teacher interaction with special needs staff, administrators, community, and funding agencies.

The fifth section (training preferences) addressed various training formats currently used in teacher preparation and inservice. One item measured the teacher desire for additional training in topics related to students with special needs. The final section (training schedules) addressed various time frames in which a variety of professional development opportunities are available.

Procedures

A promotional brochure was mailed to all vocational administrators. Vocational administrators indicated their desire to encourage their vocational teachers to participate. All non-responding vocational administrators were contacted by telephone. As a result of the follow-up contacts, all vocational administrators agreed to have their school systems participate in the study. To ensure anonymity, individual instruments were not coded. All returned questionnaires were placed in a common file to further ensure that all respondents remained anonymous.

Results

The data revealed a strong agreement among vocational technical education teachers to some items pertaining to Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and training formats and schedule. Younger teachers generally desired more additional training than did older teachers. In addition, younger teachers tended to be more flexible in their desired training format and schedule preferences than older teachers.

Demographics 

This study was of a complete census of all vocational and technical education teachers in the State of Indiana. The population was N=1398. The number of respondents was n=527 which resulted in a response rate of 37.7%. Respondents were from the program areas of agriscience, business, family and consumer science, health occupations, marketing, and trade and industry. Because of apparent misunderstandings by vocational teachers in reference to which occupations were categorized in specific program areas, the data could not be effectively compared between program areas.

Some teachers did not respond to the item or identity an area inconsistent with occupational areas identified in written comments. Approximately 6% of vocational and technical education teachers indicated that they did not hold a vocational license in their teaching area. Approximately one third of the respondents indicated they held an Occupational Specialist Certificate, which is a license based on work experience and requires participation in a teacher training program during the first year. Approximately half of the respondents indicated that they held a standard vocational and technical education license, and over 20% indicated they held a license in at least one additional area other than vocational and technical education.

Approximately half of the respondents had been teaching fifteen years or more. Approximately half of the respondents indicated they did not have any college training in special needs topics with over 25% indicating no clock hour training. This increases to nearly 70% with 3 or less credit hours and 15 or less clock hours.

Of the vocational and technical education teachers responding, 48% reported having no post-secondary training in topics related to students with special needs. Another 20.42% reported having 3 credit hours of training or less in this topic. Teachers reporting no clock hours of training (i.e., workshops and seminars) represented 25% of those responding, with an additional 46% reporting 15 or less clock hours of training related to this topic.

In responding to items about Individualized Education Programs (IEP), 19% indicated they were not familiar with IEP's and an additional 33% indicating they were vaguely familiar with IEP's. In reporting participation in preparing IEP's, 63% indicated they had never been involved, with an additional 10% assisting only once. In reviewing comments to the open-ended items, it became apparent that many of those who responded that they were vaguely familiar with IEP's were only familiar with the acronym not the program. See Table 1.

Needs and preferences of vocational technical teachers

In the general skills section, respondents indicated that their greatest strengths were in creating a suitable environment for all students (M=4.02, SD=0.89) and delivering appropriate instruction to all students (M=3.82, SD=0.93). The greatest needs indicated were in assisting in writing Individualized Education Programs (IEP's) (M=2.36, SD=1.27) and in identifying material, equipment, or services which may be funded by outside agencies (M=2.71, SD=1.30). For all other general skill items, the respondents indicated that they were adequately prepared. See Table 2.

In the self analysis section, vocational and technical education teachers indicated a strong desire for additional training for working with students with special needs (M=3.69, SD=1.19). Respondents also reported feeling comfortable working with students with special needs (M=3.59, SD=1.03). The respondents further indicated that they felt that including students with special needs in their programs was appropriate (M=3.49, SD=1.17). The respondents, however, reported less agreement with being prepared to work with students with special needs (M=3.15, SD=1.11). In the teacher support section, respondents indicated that they received strong support from special needs staff (M=3.33) and administrators (M=3.35, SD=1.23). The respondents, however, reported inadequate support from local communities (M=2.66, SD=1. 13) and outside agencies (M=2.28, SD=1.08). See Tables 3 and 4.

Training formats and schedules

In the training section, respondents reported strong preferences for individual advice from consultants and/or specialists, individualized teacher training materials, observations and/or conferences with other teachers, workshops, and in-service seminars as indicated by means values ranging between M=3.29 (SD=1.17) and M=3.52 (SD=1.09). On-the-job experience was reported to be an acceptable training format (M=3.06, SD=1.22), with college credit courses identified as an undesirable training format (M=2.59, SD=1.37). (See Table 5) Respondents also reported very strong preferences for professional days for professional development activities (M=3.89, SD=1.17). Special release time was also reported as a preferred time for scheduling professional development activities related to learning more about students with special needs; however, this preference was not as strong as indicated by the value (M=3.69, SD=1.23). Weekdays during the summer were reported to be undesirable (M=2.48, SD=1.31). The remaining schedule options were all reported as unacceptable times as indicated by mean values ranging between (M=1.54, SD=0.93) and (M=2.19, SD=1.19). These schedules were mornings before school, afternoons after school, evenings, and weekends. See Table 6.

Open comments, in some cases, appeared to be inconsistent with the data collected. In adding comments to the general skills section, there was a tendency to use very strongly worded statements which were negative. Additional issues, not apparent in the quantitative portion of the instrument, were raised in the open-ended items which may require future consideration.

Discussion

The data indicated that vocational and technical education teachers generally desire more training related to working with students with special needs. This was similar to findings in other studies in the literature (Brown, Deberry, Welo, & Scholl, 1985; Custer & Panagos, 1996). The data indicated that, with the exception of college training, most training formats are generally acceptable to vocational teachers. This is similar to findings of Brown, J. M., Deberry, J. K., Welo, T. V., Scholl, S. R. (1985). The data also indicated that vocational teachers indicate that only professional days and special release times were preferred for scheduling professional development activities. Brown, J. M., Deberry, J. K., Welo, T. V., Scholl, S. R. (1985) had similar findings for professional days but did not measure the special release time preference. This may indicate a need for an expansion of non-credit bearing opportunities for professional development activities.

Teachers indicated a lack of involvement in the development of Individualized Education Programs (IEP's) and the open-ended items indicated a possible lack of awareness of IEP's. Two other studies addressed this issue indirectly with the problem being reported as less extreme than the findings of this study (Brown, Deberry, Welo, Thomas, & Scholl, 1985; Custer & Panagos, 1996). These findings indicate a need to explore this potential problem in more depth. Vocational and technical education teachers also indicated a lack of support from community resources and funding agencies, which is similar to findings by Brown, Deberry, Welo, Thomas, & Scholl (1985). This may indicate a need to provide professional development activities for vocational and technical education teachers which assist in preparing teachers to identify and work with these groups.

Recommendations

Since vocational and technical education teachers generally desire more training related to students with special needs but have very little time outside of contract time which is identified as acceptable, it may be desirable to explore new alternatives in which the training schedule is more flexible than is currently available. Input from the open-ended items indicated that location of training available was of great concern. Many vocational and technical education teachers indicated a problem with distances traveled for professional development, as well as scheduling difficulties due to these distances. Special consideration should be given to technical problems and limitations in each teacher's geographic area. With web-based learning and other long distance learning techniques being developed, it may be desirable to experiment with these delivery methods to determine applicability to this population. Another alternative may be providing professional development activities closer to the geographic location of the teachers.

Since the data indicated that many vocational and technical education teachers have had little or no training related to students with special needs, additional training should be made available to prepare vocational teachers to help in preparing IEP's and in modifying instruction to meet the requirements of an IEP. To further support this deficiency, training should be made available to inform and assist vocational teachers in identifying and working with potential funding agencies and community resources. (Brown, Deberry, Welo, & Scholl, 1985; Custer & Panagos, 1996; Repetto & Neubert, 1992). Collaboration skills and team building skills are an essential part of effectively addressing the special needs of some students. Professional development activities should include also additional training in these two areas (Repetto & Neubert, 1992).

Methods and strategies should be explored to help make post-secondary training opportunities more attractive to teachers who have little or no previous college preparation. More emphasis should be placed on informing vocational and technical education teachers of training and educational opportunities available both locally and regionally. It is further recommended that this problem be explored in more detail.

References

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-336, [sections] 2,104 Stat. 327 (1991).

American Vocational Association (1993). The state of certification. Vocational Education Journal, 68(6), 30-35.

Beck, F. W. (1985, November). Assessing attitudes toward exceptional children. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Mid-South Educational Research Association, Biloxi, MS.

Brown, J. M., Deberry, J. K., Welo, T. V., Scholl, S. R. (1985). Special Needs Inservice Survey. Department of Vocational and Technical Education, Minnesota Research and Development Center for Vocational Education, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN. The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act Amendments of 1998, Public Law 105-332.

Custer, R. L., & Panagos, R. J. (1996). Effectiveness of vocational educators: Perceptions of training needs and barriers for working with students with special needs, Journal for Vocational Special Needs Education, 19(1), 17-25.

Eagle, E., Choy, S., Hoachlander, E. G., Stoddard, S., & Tuma, J. (1989). Increasing vocational options for students with learning handicaps: A Practical Guide. National Center for Research in Vocational Education, Berkeley, CA. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 311 229)

Harris, R. (1993). [Occupational Specialist I Program of 1992/93]. Unpublished raw data.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997, Public Law 105-17.

Kraska, M. F. (1996). Trade and industrial teachers' knowledge related to special populations. Journal of Industrial Teacher Education, 33(2), 47-59.

Lanier, N. J., & Jones, A. M. (1988). Attitudes toward the mainstreaming of moderately to severely mentally handicapped students, Reading Improvement, 25, 242-244.

Repetto, J. B. and Neubert, D. A. (1992). Serving individuals with special needs through professional development: Meeting the intent of the act. The Journal for Vocational Special Needs Education, 14(2-3), 37-40.

The School-To-Work Opportunities Act of 1994, Public Law 103-239.

* See Tables 1-6 on this journal's info web <http://www.higher-ed.org/AEQ/summ.htm>.

Samuel E. Cotton is an assistant professor and Vocational Teacher Educator. He has degrees in Industrial Technology Education, Drafting, and Curriculum and Instruction/Special Needs.