Date of Award

1-1-2022

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology

Program

Educational Psychology and Methodology

Content Description

1 online resource (v, 175 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Bruce Saddler

Committee Members

Matthew LaFave, Kristie Saddler

Keywords

Admissions Criteria, Special Education, Teacher Education, Teacher Preparation, Teacher Qualifications, Special education, Special education teachers, Universities and colleges

Subject Categories

Special Education and Teaching | Teacher Education and Professional Development

Abstract

The need for well-prepared special education teachers makes it important to examine how to best select candidates for special education teacher preparation programs, or at least to determine which, if any, admission variables relate to program outcome measures. This study is a replication and extension of a 2012 study—it used archival data from 64 students to investigate the relationships among multiple pre-admission variables from teacher candidate applications and on-site admission tasks (undergraduate GPA, letter of reference ratings, interview ratings, math assessment scores, and a teaching skills task) and outcome variables (graduate GPA and preservice practicum teaching performance scores). The outcome variables included a teaching performance measure (final ratings in a special education internship), and a knowledge measure (graduation GPA). The students were from two different graduate programs: a 40-credit program for students who already held childhood certification, and a 67-credit program for students who did not. Results indicated eleven statistically significant correlations across the samples, with no significant difference between the two cohort types. Significant correlations and differences between the cohorts are discussed. Recommendations for future research are presented.

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