Assistive Technology Outcomes in a Teacher Education Curriculum

Overview & Synopsis

This article describes a comprehensive assistive technology (AT) teacher preparation model designed to address both general education and special education or early childhood education students. National technology standards provide the context for the model that incorporates (a) an innovative component, consisting of web-based modules and hands-on experiences, designed to prepare general education teacher candidates; and (b) a traditional component, consisting of coursework and experiential activities designed to prepare special education and early childhood education teacher candidates. This report presents preliminary outcome data for 503 general education teacher candidates who used the innovative component. The data indicate that a majority of students (86.9%) using the two-stage innovative component achieved targeted knowledge and performance competencies. Recommendations are offered for expansion of the outcomes measurement system to include a range of both teacher and student outcomes and for expansion of the model to inservice training to general education and special education teachers. (Contains 6 tables and 1 figure.)