Supporting students with disabilities and limited English proficiency: STEM educator professional development participation and perceived utility

Abstract

Background: Professional development offerings assist K–12 educators in addressing new and evolving classroom dynamics, circumstances, and situations. With the emerging demands of an increasingly science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-infused society, teachers are challenged to provide high-quality service and equitable educational opportunities to all STEM education students, particularly to those students who traditionally are underrepresented in comparison to their peers in STEM education and/or have aspirations of participation in STEM-related careers. This study investigated K–12 STEM educator participation and perceived utility regarding professional development addressing specific needs of students with identified categorical disabilities and limited English proficiency (LEP). Results: Collection and analysis methods employed data retrieval and tabulation from the 2011–2012 School and Staffing Survey (SASS) Teacher Questionnaire (TQ). The national restricted access dataset was used to identify targeted teacher populations as well as provide a profile of STEM teacher participation in practice-oriented professional development activities regarding the two specified student groups. The results were categorically summarized and compared across science, technology, and mathematics (STM) disciplines and also between STM educators, non-STM educators, and educators in general. Conclusions: The results indicated that STM teachers tended to engage in fewer professional development opportunities and dedicated fewer hours in the professional development regarding students with categorical disabilities and LEP than the remainder of the teaching population. Overall, STM teachers’ perceived utility of the provided professional development experience was lower than that of the remainder of the teaching population.