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ESE634: EDUCATION-BASED COLLABORATIVE RELATIONSHIPS

Instructor Guidance

Week 2

Welcome to Week 2 of ESE634: Education-Based Collaborative Relationships!  Please be sure to review the Week 2 homepage for this course to see:

· The specific learning outcomes for the week.

· The schedule overview.

· The required and recommended resources.

· The introduction to the week.

· A listing of the assessments.

It is important to note that the Instructor Guidance has been developed to directly compliment the learning outcomes in each week of this course.  Be sure to read this entire Instructor Guidance section each week.

Overview

In Week 1 we learned about the different settings in which a special educator may be employed and how every special education professional will need to be able to craft learning experiences that are differentiated, developmentally appropriate, and challenging.  You also thought about ways to apply feedback while working in collaborative relationships. This week you will continue to explore collaboration by reviewing scholarly peer reviewed research articles and journals. Moreover, you will be selecting and reviewing interview questions you and your peers create. It’s going to be a fun, action packed week.

Intellectual Elaboration

Peer-Reviewed Research This week you will begin by finding a scholarly resource to use that addresses the need for collaborative relationships within the special education profession. To do this you will be looking for a peer reviewed journal or article. More specifically, a peer reviewed journal or article has been reviewed by experts in the field and deemed to be worth reading by other professionals. Typically, this is an extensive process in which reviewers are carefully vetted for expertise and professional experience. In this discussion, you will have an opportunity to examine a peer reviewed article and develop a summary of the article’s main points. As needed, review the following tutorials for guidance on conducting scholarly research at the University of Arizona Global Campus Library: How to Use Library One Search (Links to an external site.)  and The Research Proces (Links to an external site.) s.  The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.)  table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment. There are several reasons why peer reviewed journals are used in the academic setting. Research tests assumptions and observations made about people, things, and processes to create new knowledge that may be used to improve our lives or alter our environments.  In most fields, professional literature includes many articles based on personal observations and opinions. Research provides the theoretical framework needed to understand the information reported by individual practitioners. Peer reviewed research provides for a reliable source of accurate information that can be used to create new scholarship (Mertler, 2014). Creating Interview Questions Depth, breadth, communication, and collaboration are the key ideas Randy Nelson discusses in his pod cast on Learning and Working in the Collaborative Age (Links to an external site.)  at the 2008 George Lucas Educational Foundation conference. What Nelson focuses on is really looking at the strengths of each person and how they can provide a different perspective when working in a collaborative setting. Keep this in mind as you create your interview questions this week.  Consider seeking answers to question to develop your understanding of a teaching concept or philosophy that may be foreign to you. Structured interview questions are pre-decided questions used to enhance the quality, validity and honest of answers given by the interviewed. When you create your interview questions this week follow these simple guidelines as set by Purdue Owl (Links to an external site.) .

“Ensure your questions are not biased: Biased questions are questions that encourage your participants to respond to the question in a certain way. They may contain biased terminology or are worded in a biased way. Double-barreled question: A double-barreled question is a one that has more than one question embedded within it. Participants may answer one but not both, or may disagree with part or the entire question. Confusing or wordy questions: Make sure your questions are not confusing or wordy. Confusing questions will only lead to confused participants, which leads to unreliable answers. Questions that do not relate to what you want to learn: Be sure that your questions directly relate to what it is you are studying. A good way to do this is to ask someone else to read your questions or even test your survey out on a few people and see if the responses fit what you are looking for”

Assessment Guidance

This section includes additional specific assistance for excelling in the discussions for Week 2 beyond what is given with the instructions for the discussions. If you have questions about what is expected on any discussion for Week 2, contact your instructor before the due date. Discussion 1: In this first discussion this week you will be finding peer- reviewed journal articles that you feel best addresses the title of our course, “Education-Based Collaborative Relationships”. Once you have found the article you would like to use be sure to summarize the main points and address how the article discusses and/or related to collaborative relationships within the special education profession. Be sure to note any skills or strategies that special educators can use to enhance collaborative relationships within the school setting. As well, discuss how the article supports your special education career plans.  Discussion 2: The second discussion this week is all about creating your interview questions and receiving feedback from your peers and instructor. This is an important step, as it will help to ensure your questions are articulated clearly and will capture the knowledge you are seeking to gain. Posting early in the week will ensure that you will have feedback from your peers.  When you respond to your peers, consider the guidelines delineated in the Intellectual Elaboration section above. Assignment: The assignment this week revisits the email message from Mr. Franklin. You will be conveying to Mr. Franklin the need for timely communication and collaboration. While doing this assignment think back to the Nelson’s (2008) pod cast Learning and Working in the Collaborative Age. What strengths does Mr. Franklin have that you can use in your response to encourage communication and collaboration going forward?

Looking Ahead

Within Week Two, you will be creating a set of interview questions to ask a general education teacher and a special education teacher.  You will be conducting the interviews during Week Three and writing about the findings in Week Four.  You will conduct the interviews over the phone or in person.  Now would be a good time to start thinking about who you would like to interview.  If you do not have any connections to a school or teachers, here are some ideas:

· Inquire at your child’s school or your neighborhood school.

· Email your local school board.

· Check out the websites of local schools.

· Network with local parents or friends.

· Conduct a search on LinkedIn.

· Start a conversation with peers in the Global Campus Café.

Part of the challenge of this assignment is in the process of locating an interviewee. If this does not yield any results after multiple attempts, contact your instructor for help. Your instructor should not be your first contact and he/she will be interested in the methods that you have already exhausted before you seek his/her help.

Recommendation

The MASE program provides the opportunity for you to create an online portfolio that can be used in your career development and professional practice. Throughout the program you will have various assessments that can be included in this e-portfolio and these will be finalized in the last course of the MASE program, Capstone course, ESE699. You may select this assignment and subsequent coursework to include as artifacts. Therefore, it is strongly encouraged you save your coursework on a flash-drive (e.g., a USB removable drive) or store in a cloud-based option such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or other similar applications.

References

Creating Good Interview and Survey Questions (Links to an external site.) . Retrieved from. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/559/06/

Mertler, C. (2014). Action research: Improving schools and empowering educators. 4th Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publication.

Nelson, R. (2008, September 8).  Learning and working in the collaborative age (Links to an external site.)  [Video file] Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/randy-nelson-school-to-career-video