Browsing by Subject "Professional Development"
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Item Developing TPACK in Practice: a multiple case study of higher education instructors(2018-10) Andzenge, SenengeEngaging instructors with technology remains a problem in higher education (Westberry, McNaughton, Billot, & Gaeta, 2015). For many instructors, competency with new tools and practices remains a barrier to using technologies in their teaching (Buchanan, Sainter, & Saunders, 2013; Georgina & Hosford, 2009; Georgina & Olson, 2008; Kopcha, 2010, 2012; Roblyer & Doering, 2013). Developing competencies in teaching with technology can change or transform instructor’s thinking about themselves and their approach to teaching (Baran, Correia, & Thompson, 2011; Redmond, 2011). While professional development in higher education can offer instructors opportunities to develop knowledge and competencies that may enhance their practice (Lowenthal, 2008; Desimone, et. al 2002), many professional development experiences around technology either don’t allow learners to be self-driven, or place more emphasis on the technology than on concerns for pedagogy (Barber, 2011). This dissertation is a multiple case-study of higher education instructors addressing the following research questions: RQ1 How do instructors describe their technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK)? RQ2 How do professional development activities support instructor’s technological pedagogical content knowledge development? Using qualitative methods, data were collected from questionnaires, interviews, digital artifacts, and field notes and analyzed to offer perspectives of instructors describing their TPACK and how professional development activities support their knowledge development. Each instructor’s TPACK story traces through their beginnings teaching with technology, ways they have come to integrate technology and pedagogy through developing their practice, factors that motivated and drove them to pursue professional development opportunities which help them integrate technology and pedagogy, and tensions which continue to challenge them and their integration of technology and pedagogy. Findings from this research provide insights that can inform the implementation of faculty professional development programs and activities, support technology integration, and be an encouragement to instructors in similar higher education contexts.Item The dynamic components of citizenship education and student engagement: lessons for leaders and educators(2010-05) Anderson, Timothy J.The study utilized a traditional qualitative case study approach to investigate two curricula offered at a single middle school in a suburb of a major metropolitan area. Three groups of participants, totally 50 individuals, were interviewed. Participant groups included middle school administrators, middle school teachers, and middle school students. Interviews were analyzed by using idiosyncratic analysis within each participant group and nomothetic analysis across all participant groups. Interview analysis was augmented with document analysis. Pre-interview questionnaires were used to provide a prelude to this qualitative study.Information from a review of four focused literature sets provided the foundation for the conceptual framework for this study. Through an exploration and review of literature, several key concepts were found to contribute to student engagement. The themes that consistently appeared in literature that were germane to this study were divided into three main categories: academic engagement, civic engagement, social engagement. Data were analyzed by examining characteristics that impact student engagement identified by administrators, teachers and students. Major findings of the study revolved around the characteristics most often perceived by participants as causing student academic, civic, and social engagement. Without a doubt, the components of citizenship education that produce full student engagement are numerous. In sum, full student engagement is the result of a variety of external and internal components whose nature can be characterized in terms of "doing", "being", or both. A newly introduced Model for Capturing Descriptions of Engagement (Figure 3, p. 237) summarizes these various components, and suggests the difficult reality that exists when interpreting qualitative data in a highly quantitative paradigm.Item Engaging disengaged students: the lived experience of teachers who try and try again.(2010-05) Beaton, Anne Marie MeitzIn public education and most recently with the No Child Left Behind Act, there is a nation-wide push for every student to learn regardless of his or her background or ability (H.R. Rep. No 107-63, 2001; U.S. Department of Education, 2006; Symonds, 2001). Engagement is thought to be a key to student success (Bowen, 2005; Shulman, 2002). As a result, teachers are called upon and expected to find ways to engage all students - even the most disengaged (Barkley, 2010). Research has focused on what motivates students (Barkley, 2010) as well as how teachers can better engage students (Bryson & Hand, 2007), yet research has not questioned the human aspect of this endeavor or stopped to ask what it is like for teachers to do this work. In this study, phenomenological interviews of 6 secondary English teachers are used to generate a description of the teacher's lived experience of working to engage disengaged students. A hermeneutic approach is used to deepen and interpret the meaning of the essence of the teacher's lived experience. Emerging themes reveal a recurring cycle that exposes the intellectual challenge and emotional drain for the teacher. Implications from the study reach past the nuts and bolts of instructional practice to draw attention to the teacher as human in this work and will inform teacher preparation and professional development.Item Exploring Reading Motivation and Engagement in Discipline-specific Classes(2020-12) Lee, YongjunThis three-paper dissertation was conducted to explore how motivation and engagement, in addition to cognitive aspects, should be considered in disciplinary literacy instruction and assessment in high school classrooms. The studies, which were based on a five-year collaborative school-university partnership, were conducted to explore the relation between literacy engagement and learning of high school students in social studies classes.In the first study, I explored the perspectives shared by social studies teachers in planning instruction and applying a disciplinary literacy approach in their classes. Specifically, I investigated how teachers’ discourse from collaborative planning sessions and interviews evidenced their understanding of and beliefs about the importance of teaching disciplinary literacy and engaging students in literacy and learning. From the analysis of the collaborative meeting conversation transcripts and interview data, three themes emerged: texts use, cognitive instructional practice, and motivation-enhancing practice. In the second study, I explored how one social studies teacher embodied motivation and engagement in her instructional practices in disciplinary literacy learning. Findings were gleaned through an in-depth analysis of field notes and classroom artifacts. The study clarified how the participating teacher incorporated cognitive and motivational aspects in literacy concurrently to engage students as part of disciplinary literacy instruction in an instructional unit. From the analysis, three main themes, teacher-led practice, multimodal text use, and student-centered activity, emerged. In the third study, I explored an approach to assessing students’ motivation and engagement related to reading in a discipline. Specifically, I studied how useful the SE components are in enhancing students’ reading engagement and achievement by analyzing students’ responses to SE components when reading a discipline-specific text and responding to open-ended and questionnaire items. The findings demonstrated that if these SE components are supported, enhanced, or taught by teachers, students’ reading engagement is improved. Overall, these studies demonstrate that teachers should make motivation and engagement more explicit in teaching disciplinary literacy in their classes. Future studies should augment and explore discipline-specific instructional practices to enhance student engagement in reading by considering a range of engagement dimensions that can supported with explicit instruction and guidance.Item From graduate to seasoned practitioner: a qualitative investigation of genetic counselor professional development.(2009-07) Zahm, Kimberly WehnerResearch on professional development processes can contribute to individuals' anticipation and normalization of developmental processes, to improved training and supervision, and to the creation of a wider breadth and depth of professional development opportunities and support in the field. Presently, no comprehensive studies of genetic counselor professional development have been conducted. In the present study 34 post-degree genetic counselors from all six National Society of Genetic Counselors practice regions in the United States and Canada participated in a semi-structured telephone interview about their professional development experiences. Five major research questions were investigated: (1) What constitutes professional development for genetic counselors? (2) How do these professional development processes occur for genetic counselors? (3) What facilitates and/or impedes professional development? 4) How does genetic counselor professional development vary as a function of experience level? and 5) How does genetic counselor professional development compare/contrast to psychotherapist development described by Skovholt and Ronnestad (1992a)/Ronnestad and Skovholt (2003) and Orlinsky et al. (2005)? Participants were purposefully sampled from three levels of post-degree genetic counseling experience: novice (0-5 years), experienced (6-14 years), and seasoned (> 15 years). Using a modified version of Consensual Qualitative Research (Hill et al., 2005; 1997), three themes, 12 domains, and 47 categories were extracted from data. The themes are: 1) Being a clinician: Genetic counselors' evolving perceptions of and relationships to their clinical work; 2) The field itself: Genetic counselors' evolving perceptions of and relationships to the field of genetic counseling; and 3) Being a clinician in the field: Genetic counselors' evolving perceptions of and relationships to their role as a genetic counselor A preliminary model of genetic counselor professional development is proposed. The model suggests development processes occur throughout the professional lifespan, each component of professional development mutually influences the others, and there are both positive and negative avenues of development. For instance, personal life and professional life mutually influence each in important ways. Participants rated 15 influences on their professional development (adapted from Orlinsky et al., 2005). Within and across experience levels, and consistent with Orlinsky et al.'s (2005) findings, sources of interpersonal influence ("experiences in genetic counseling with patients" and "working with genetic counseling colleagues") were rated as highly important. The findings also were largely consistent with Skovholt & Ronnestad's (1992a / 2003) therapist model (anxiety in early practice dissipating over time, personal life affecting professional development, etc.), with a few notable differences (including unique challenges of frequently delivering "bad news" to patients, and the parallel process between individual counselors' professional development experiences and genetic counseling's development as a relatively young field. Major findings, study strengths and limitations, and practice, training, and research implications are discussed.Item Hold the Line at 99: Reflections of Identity, Race, and Relationships in the Professional and Educational Experiences of Retired Teachers of Color(2018-05) Yeboah, MaryAbstract The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the reflections of identity, race, and relationships in the professional and educational experiences of retired African American teachers. The findings contribute knowledge to the field of education about how race mediates collegial relationships through identifying how racialized dynamics are remembered and understood by African American teachers within the context of their careers over time. The study amplifies the voices of Black educators in historically White-dominated professional and academic spaces. The stories and perspectives of retired African American public school teachers about their teaching careers can be a starting point for seeing, understanding, and appreciating the complexities and nuances of promoting racially just organizational dynamics in US public schools. Through this phenomenological study, I answered the following questions: 1. In what ways do retired African American public school teachers describe the historical and contemporary context of US race relations in schools and in society, and the implications for urban public schools, especially in relation to their own work? 2. In what ways do retired African American public school teachers conceptualize their personal identities and collegial relationships in the context of their workplaces over time? 3. In what ways did retired African American urban public school teachers evaluate how, when, and why race was talked about, if at all, either formally or informally in schools? I organized the findings of this study into three main themes that emerged during individual interviews with ten retired African American public school teachers in Chicago and the greater Chicago area. The themes include: 1) the perpetuation of the myth of racial progress: national-level racism; 2) the problem of racial segregation for schools and societies: school-level racism; and 3) the potential of relational networks for enhancing racial justice: prospects for change. The findings demonstrate that strengthening teacher relationships through facilitated cross-racial dialogue may be important for improving the professional experiences of African American teachers and ultimately for addressing systemic injustices as a way forward for accomplishing racial justice in schools and society. Key Words: cross-racial, social networks, identity, dialogue, professional developmentItem The Impact of TPACK and Teacher Technology Efficacy on Social Studies Teachers' use of Technology in the Classroom(2017-11) Knapp, WendyTHE IMPACT OF TPACK AND TEACHER TECHNOLOGY EFFICACY ON SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHERS’ USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM Abstract Access to classroom technology and professional development does not ensure teachers will use technology in the classroom. According to Kopcha (2012) the availability of technology in classrooms has grown, yet a majority of teachers still report-using technology most frequently for non-instructional tasks such as administrative work and communication with peers. This case study research describes the experience of three teachers who participated in a TPACK focused professional development workshop designed to improve their understanding of how to effectively use technology to teach social studies and whether participation in the workshop influenced teachers’ technology efficacy and their TPACK while looking closely at why some teachers more readily adopt technology than others. The context of this study centered on teacher technology efficacy, as this is a strong indicator of behavior, (Moran & Hoy, 2001; Palak & Walls, 2009; Lee & Tsai, 2010) and the TPACK framework because it serves as a backdrop for discussion related to instructional decisions (Lee, M, & Tsai, C. 2007; Koehler & Mishra, 2009). Findings from this study suggest that participation in the workshop resulted in a positive change in behavior, improved technology self-efficacy, and increased ability to overcome obstacles and barriers associated with classroom technology integration among the participants studied. This information is useful to those engaged in the design of professional development. It further serves to inform social studies teachers on the type of professional development useful for learning how to effectively combine technology, content, and pedagogical strategies in the classroom. The testimony of these cases supports the notion that professional development that is thoughtfully designed, offers content specific materials, while modeling implementation strategies with supported guidance is effective in the influence of teacher’s use of technology in the classroom.Item Minnesota State Teacher Development, Evaluation and Peer Support Model Pilot: Initial Evaluation Report(2014-02-05) Dretzke, Beverly; Ingram, Debra; Kwon, Melissa; Peterson, Kristin; Sheldon, Timothy; Wahlstrom, Kyla; Crampton, Anne; Dahmes, Shannon; Larabee, Kaitlyn; Lim, AliciaMinnesota Statute requires that districts begin evaluating teachers in the 2014-2015 school year. In response to the statute, during early winter 2011, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) convened a work group to consult with the Commissioner to develop a state model for teacher growth and development. In winter 2013, MDE released the Minnesota State Teacher Development, Evaluation, and Peer Support Model (hereafter “Model”) and began planning for a pilot of the Model during the 2013- 2014 school year (hereafter “Pilot”). The Model includes three components: 1) teacher practice, 2) student engagement, and 3) student learning and achievement. Sixteen school districts and one charter school across Minnesota agreed to participate in the Pilot. Six of the districts are implementing the full Model (all three components) and nine districts are implementing one or two components of the Model. The size of participating districts varies widely, ranging from 287 students to 7,356 students. In August 2013, the Joyce Foundation funded the University of Minnesota’s Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI) to conduct an evaluation of the Pilot. This report summarizes results of surveys and interviews conducted during November and December 2013 with Pilot participants. This status report is the first of three reports. The report for the entire Pilot year will be available in August 2014 and a final report, which will include information on the value-added assessments, an element of the student learning and achievement component, will be submitted to the Joyce Foundation in December 2014. The data in this report is preliminary and encompasses only the first three months of the school year; thus readers should not over-generalize the findings or conclusions presented here. The purpose of this interim report is to provide formative feedback to the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE).Item Minnesota State Teacher Development, Evaluation and Peer Support Model Pilot: Initial Evaluation Report Executive Summary(2014-02-05) Dretzke, Beverly; Ingram, Debra; Kwon, Melissa; Peterson, Kristin; Sheldon, Timothy; Wahlstrom, Kyla; Crampton, Anne; Dahmes, Shannon; Larabee, Kaitlyn; Lim, AliciaMinnesota Statute requires that districts begin evaluating teachers in the 2014-2015 school year. In response to the statute, during early winter 2011, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) convened a work group to consult with the Commissioner to develop a state model for teacher growth and development. In winter 2013, MDE released the Minnesota State Teacher Development, Evaluation, and Peer Support Model (hereafter “Model”) and began planning for a pilot of the Model during the 2013- 2014 school year (hereafter “Pilot”). The Model includes three components: 1) teacher practice, 2) student engagement, and 3) student learning and achievement. Sixteen school districts and one charter school across Minnesota agreed to participate in the Pilot. Six of the districts are implementing the full Model (all three components) and nine districts are implementing one or two components of the Model. The size of participating districts varies widely, ranging from 287 students to 7,356 students. In August 2013, the Joyce Foundation funded the University of Minnesota’s Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI) to conduct an evaluation of the Pilot. This report summarizes results of surveys and interviews conducted during November and December 2013 with Pilot participants. This status report is the first of three reports. The report for the entire Pilot year will be available in August 2014 and a final report, which will include information on the value-added assessments, an element of the student learning and achievement component, will be submitted to the Joyce Foundation in December 2014. The data in this report is preliminary and encompasses only the first three months of the school year; thus readers should not over-generalize the findings or conclusions presented here. The purpose of this interim report is to provide formative feedback to the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE).Item Minnesota State Teacher Development, Evaluation and Peer Support Model Pilot: Participant Recommendations(2014-02-06) Dretzke, Beverly; Ingram, Debra; Kwon, Melissa; Peterson, Kristin; Sheldon, Timothy; Wahlstrom, Kyla; Crampton, Anne; Dahmes, Shannon; Larabee, Kaitlyn; Lim, AliciaIn August 2013, the Joyce Foundation funded the University of Minnesota’s Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI) to conduct an evaluation of the Minnesota State Teacher Development, Evaluation and Peer Support Model Pilot. This report summarizes participant recommendations gathered via surveys and interviews conducted during November and December 2013 with Pilot participants. The report for the entire Pilot year will be available in August 2014 and a final report, which will include information on the value-added assessments, an element of the student learning and achievement component, will be submitted to the Joyce Foundation in December 2014. The data in this report is preliminary and encompasses only the first three months of the school year; thus readers should not over-generalize the findings or conclusions presented here. The purpose of this interim report is to provide formative feedback to the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE).Item Narratives in teacher professional development and metaphors facilitators live by(2011-11) Ernst, Stacy A.Narrative Inquiry immerses participants and researchers in relational examination of shared lived experiences. Using narrative as both the phenomena and method of study (Connelly & Clandinin, 2000), I sought to uncover metaphors as embodied and enacted in the storied experiences of four professional developers facilitating teacher learning in the Cultural Relevance in Science Pedagogy (CRISP) action research network. The overarching question for the inquiry was: What metaphors are lived (embodied and enacted) in the practice of professional developers when working toward cultural relevance in science pedagogy? Additional questions were: How do metaphors lived in predominant academic discourses, shape facilitators’ thoughts and actions? What other kinds of metaphors influence educational researchers’ academic discourses and facilitators’ conceptions of teacher professional development? How does collaborative work with facilitators to identify metaphor in their practice contribute to a) facilitator professional learning and b) teacher professional development research? Field texts negotiated with each facilitator entailed: participant observation at local meetings, audio recording of facilitator-led meetings, observation notes, facilitator interviews, transcribed facilitator teleconferences, pre/post surveys, and teacher exit interviews. Using a holistic analytic approach provided by Connelly and Clandinin’s (2006) commonplaces of temporality, sociality, and place, I analyzed the storied experiences of four facilitators; negotiated lived metaphors to highlight elements of each participant’s practice, and re-storied the field texts for presentation in the form of narrative. Participants were engaged relationally throughout the narrative inquiry to assure the metaphors identified represented their lived experiences in CRISP.Item Nutrition in Early Childhood Makes a Difference(University of Minnesota Extension, 2018) Caskey, Mary; Kunkel, Kelly; Krentz, Mary; Schroeder, MaryItem On Water: Journey of an Indigenous Researcher Guiding Professional Development as Teachers Navigate Native American Curriculum(2018-07) Quigley, DawnBecause only 0.4% of teachers in Minnesota are Native American, nonNative educators must also learn how to teach this content in ways that increase the engagement and achievement of all our state’s students. Yet most teachers are not equipped to teach these standards effectively and confidently. This study offers an emerging Native American female researcher’s analysis of ways to conduct Professional Development (PD) for non-Native K-12 teachers. This study asked: What are nonNative teachers’ experience in PD regarding MN Native American curricular content of history, language, and culture? And: What supports and structures in (PD) add to non-Native American teachers’ experiences as they create culturally relevant curriculum on Minnesota Native American history, language, and culture? I used a theoretical framework of indigenous epistemologies by creating a bridge between the story of the empirical literature reviewed and my own stories as an emerging researcher. Indigenous Methodologies (IM) were employed in this study including a connection or relationship between knowledge and nature theoretical stance on identity seen through water and story as method. The case study focused on three K-12 teachers who participated in PD focused on Native American history, language and culture. Data were analyzed using my new data analyzing technique of *Indigenous Storalyzing* which synthesizes IM and uses understanding through embodiment and conceptual thought; story as an indigenous research method used to work through, interpret, and make sense of the data; and analyzing the data and scholarship sources in storytelling. I also place myself in the analysis as the PD facilitator as I conceptualize myself as a guide in the teachers’ PD journey. I tell the stories on water of the three teachers and how I, as an emerging indigenous researcher, navigated ways to see the difference between creating professional relationships versus personal ones; how to protect my Native identity and personal stories from the “gaze” of some nonNative PD participants; along with disrupting assumptions of how transformational learning.Item A Qualitative Study Exploring Early Childhood Interventionists' Experiences of Ongoing Participation in a Reflective Consultation Program(2014-08) Harrison, MaryBackground: Reflective Consultation (or Reflective Supervision) is a model of professional support and development for practitioners working with families and young children who, in many cases, are facing multiple stressors. Designed to bring principles of Infant Mental Health to non-mental health practitioners, this model is now widely used in several federally funded, evidence-based programs. Despite its growing utilization, there exists little empirical research examining the implementation, essential elements of the model, or its impact on practitioners or clients. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore one model of Reflective Consultation as experienced by a group of early childhood practitioners and to contribute their voices and perspectives to the growing body of research. Methods: Qualitative research methods were used to answer the research question: how do early childhood interventionists experience the Reflective Consultation Program? Practitioners who had participated in Reflective Consultation for one year or more were invited to participate and fifteen agreed. Semi-structured interviews were audiotaped and analyzed for both variable and comparative case-based themes. Results: Variable-based analysis showed that most practitioners experienced an iterative process of release, reframe, refocus, and respond as part of their ongoing participation in the Reflective Consultation program. Participants described a shift between feeling helpless, hopeless, and overwhelmed by the stressors their clients faced to feeling a greater sense of self-efficacy in being able to better refocus and respond to the needs of their clients. A comparative, cased-base analysis raised questions about for whom and under what circumstances the program may be most beneficial, for example, based on the professionals' tolerance for discussion and reflection on emotions, or the characteristics of the agency or existing supervision. Participants described the incorporation of the reflective processes they had experienced in the large group into their smaller team meetings and peer conversations.Item Questioning the tensions: action research within a teacher collaboration.(2009-09) Lloyd, Rachel Anne MalchowProfessions are defined in part by the presence of communities of practice which share knowledge and monitor standards (Shulman, 1998). However, beginning with Lortie's (1975) seminal description of the American teacher, teachers have been found to be autonomous and isolated. Despite sustained critique of these norms of isolation, subsequent research has suggested that little has changed in actual school structure or practices over the last thirty years (Little, 1990; Darling-Hammond, 2005). The purpose of this study was to understand and improve a collaboration of six English teachers which defied these traditional norms of isolation in the teaching profession. Set in the large suburban high school where I taught for ten years, this collaborative team was comprised of three veteran and three early career English 12 teachers including myself. As such, this project was most closely aligned with the epistemology of action research, but employed multiple interpretivist tools such as narrative inquiry, discourse analysis, and activity theory to examine the product and processes through which our team accomplished its work. The research explored multiple aspects of our collaborative practices: the curriculum created, the language of team meetings, the norms of time and labor, and the evidence of teacher learning apparent in our work. It also attends to the importance of affective relationships within collaboration. This research found that like many teacher collaborations, multiple tensions existed and complicated our work. The most salient tensions included: the relationships between the veteran and early career teachers; the relationships between dual purposes of curriculum development and mentoring; and the relationships between individual autonomy and community practices. However, despite such challenges, the study evidences the benefits of collaboration for teacher learning, particularly when in concert with inquiry into our own practices. As such, this research offers an alternative view of teachers' professional development as embedded, enduring, and empowering; and of teachers' professional practice as striving for the ideals of a democratic learning community.Item Student perceptions of the classroom environment: actionable feedback as a catalyst for instructional change(2014-05) Nelson, Peter MarlowThe current study explored the impact and feasibility of using students' perceptions of the classroom teaching environment as an instructional tool for teachers. Data were collected using the Responsive Environmental Assessment for Classroom Teaching (REACT)--a questionnaire assessing students' perceptions of specific components of instructional support. A total of 31 suburban teachers serving 797middle-school students were assigned to an experimental feedback group or a control group. Students' responses on the REACT served as the primary dependent variable and were collected at three time points throughout the fall semester (Time 1, 2, and 3). The experimental group participated in a feedback meeting following the first data collection and teachers assigned to the control group participated in a feedback meeting following the second data collection. All teachers completed a short survey evaluating the REACT and procedures for implementation. A multi-level approach to data analysis (HLM) was used to adjust for the natural clustering of students by teacher. Controlling for other variables in the final model, students' responses at Time 2 were significantly higher in the classrooms of teachers who received feedback after Time 1 relative to those of teachers who did not receive feedback. Students' self-reported trouble in class, initial REACT score, and gender were also significant predictors of REACT scores at Time 2 and Time 3. No group differences were observed at Time 3. The descriptive and inferential data observed in the current study offer preliminary support for the REACT as a tool for instructional support.Item A study of current interventions and professional development interests of teachers of early childhood special education for children with autism spectrum disorders.(2010-06) Balbo, Maria L.Although research-based interventions for young students with Autism Spectrum Disorders exist and are supported in the literature, early intervention teachers in public schools often lack knowledge and training in the adoption and proper use of these effective-intervention interventions. The purpose of this study was to investigate current interventions and professional development interests of early childhood special education teachers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in Minnesota. This study employed a descriptive methodology utilizing an online, web-based survey to gather information from four separate groups representing all regions in the state: early childhood special education teachers, early childhood special education coordinators, special education directors, and regional autism consultants. Results indicate that research-based interventions for young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder are implemented at a low level of frequency across the state. The top rated past learning methods that had supported early childhood special education teachers in their knowledge of research-based interventions were identified as: experience in the classroom with other ASD students, experience with other children with disabilities, and workshops/inservices. The top rated future learning methods to advance knowledge of ASD interventions were: learning with other colleagues, workshops/inservices, and mentoring by autism teachers. Leading barriers found to prevent early intervention teachers in accessing training in the area of Autism Spectrum Disorders were found to be: inability to take time away from the classroom, cost of training, and shortage of training funds. Keywords: early intervention, Autism Spectrum Disorders, research-based interventions, research-based interventions, professional development.Item Supporting the Early Childhood Workforce: Identifying and Filling Gaps in Reflective Supervision/Consultation Training(2021-03) Reese, Meredith H. T.; Meuwissen, Alyssa; Ottman, Deborah D.; mreese@umn.edu; ; University of Minnesota Center for Early Education and DevelopmentA nationwide survey of reflective supervision/consultation (RS/C) providers conducted in 2018, found that 25% of respondents perceive a lack of access to training as a primary barrier to improving and maintaining their RS/C skills. Some of the themes that RS/C providers felt were missing from their RS/C training included specifics about providing RS/C, group supervision, self-regulation as a provider, and diversity informed RS/C. The Reflective Practice Center recently released a set of self-study modules to provide training opportunities on specialized RS/C topics, which cover the previously mentioned themes as well as additional topics. The modules cover information pertinent to RS/C providers, recipients, and decision-makers. The new modules have been well received, with 86 individuals enrolling in the first three months of their being available. This poster presents the early evaluation findings based on feedback from the first 24 participants to complete a module. Preliminary results indicate positive reactions to the training material across participants from a variety of different roles in the field of early childhood. The vast majority found the content of the modules to be high-quality, applicable to their work, and reported it either strengthened their current knowledge, or offered new ways to think about a given subject.