Co-Teaching Science with Special Education: A Positive Impact for Science Teacher's Self-Efficacy for Instructing Learning Disabled Students

Our nation has declining participation in science and technology fields, even though in the United States we have seen an astounding collection of innovations in technology, communication, the Internet, and financial products. This lack of participation is even more noticeable for students with learning disabilities (SWLD) when compared to general education students (GES) at both the secondary and postsecondary levels as their enrollments in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programs are noticeably disproportionate. Many interventions have been conducted to impact enrollment in more advanced science classes for SWLD, but challenges continue for this underrepresented group in STEM classrooms. This study assessed how the introduction of co-teaching (reciprocal teaching) with a special educator in STEM classrooms impacted a science teacher's self-efficacy while teaching SWLD in freshman Journey through Physical Science-physics classes. Reciprocal teaching is a collaborative co-teaching model that allows teachers and students to lead discussions while summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting on specific STEM content. The ultimate goal of this study was to potentially impact science teacher's self-efficacy and in turn, afford SWLD with greater access to learning science. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]