By Sue Land, M.Ed.
May/June 2006
As the school year winds down, building administrators along with school teams begin to plan summer professional development activities for their faculty. An important question in that regard is “Have staff members received adequate professional development on pertinent topics related to effective inclusive practices (e.g., differentiation, behavior management, co-teaching)?” To answer that question, consider conducting a needs assessment (see Inclusion Needs Assessment). Based on the results from the needs assessment, teams can create a staff development plan for the summer and upcoming school year.
When engaging in such efforts, there is a danger of adopting a “one size fits all” approach. This is the assumption that all teachers need the same information presented in the same way at the same time. Beninghof and Singer (1998) recommend following the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) developed by Hall, Wallace, and Dossett (1973). This tool identifies an individual’s need for staff development from the awareness stage to the refocusing stage and allows for the most appropriate staff development activities to be determined.
Following is a list of the stages of concern and examples of staff development
activities tailored to each stage:
Stage 0: Awareness—Very low level of involvement. This
is the staff member who has not heard of the word inclusion. Provide an awareness-level
videotape on inclusion for discussion such as Creating a Unified System (available
from the T/TAC Library at www.wm.edu/ttac). This video profiles a successful
elementary school that created a system of inclusion to ensure that the needs
of all students were met.
Stage 1: Information—General awareness and interest, but still relatively uninvolved. This is a staff member who realizes that something to do with inclusion is going on in the building or district, but does not believe it will affect him or her. Provide a workshop on general inclusion issues given by “seasoned” professionals such as a school team who has included students with disabilities successfully. They would provide the “nuts and bolts” of their program.
Stage 2: Personal—Beginning to consider the personal impact of the innovation. This is the staff member who is beginning to worry that he or she may be asked to include students with disabilities in his or her classroom. Provide opportunities for group discussions around specified issues such as effective classroom practices and building collaborative relationships. Also, provide time for visits to classrooms where students with disabilities are included successfully.
Stage 3: Management—Focusing on efficient and effective
methodologies. This is the staff member who has been given a class list that
includes the names of several students with disabilities and who is determined
to find out what to do. Provide practical books and articles such as Case Studies
in Co-Teaching in the Content Areas: Successes, Failures, and Challenges in
the May 2005 Intervention in School and Clinic (volume 40, number 5) or problem-solving
sessions with a group or a consultant.
Stage 4: Consequence—Attention to student outcomes and accountability.
This is the staff member who, after including students for a short period, begins
to raise questions of outcomes, fairness, progress, evaluation, and/or success.
Provide highly focused skill-building workshops or establish communities of
practice groups.
Stage 5: Collaboration—Focusing on working with others involved with the change. This is the staff member who recognizes that colleagues, especially those with inclusion experience, may be able to help. Provide peer-coaching opportunities.
Stage 6: Refocusing—Interest in refinement, improvement, and innovation. This is the staff member who, based on some successful experience, is ready to make the situation even better. Provide opportunities for presenting own experiences to others or form “teachers as readers” clubs.
To accommodate teachers’ stages of concern, a variety of professional development activities or a “menu” listing activities may be offered on the same day. Teachers choose or are assigned to the appropriate professional development activity.
As schools become more inclusive, administrative involvement and support is needed to sustain change. Careful planning for professional development is one way to ensure successful implementation of effective inclusive practices.
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