The effect of pedagogic training on the self-efficacy of paraprofessionals in a special education setting

Because of an increase in special education classroom enrollment from a high of six children in 1987 to 12 children in 2007; there has been a substantial increase in the number of special education paraprofessionals in the past 15 years in Rockford County. To help meet the educational needs of students who are severely delayed, the Rockford County Office of Education provides 25 instructional assistants to seven teachers. With more students and the same number of teaching days a year, it is necessary for the teacher's assistants to counteract the loss of time teachers have to spend with each child.;The purposes of the study was to determine if education in teaching practices will increase the self-efficacy and lessen fear of failure of instructional assistants working in classes with students who are moderately-severely disabled. In addition, the extent to which the training changed their classroom behavior was observed. A sample of 13 individuals employed in special education classes completed three weeks of instruction in the best manner in which to teach students with disabilities. Each of the 13 participants completed three ninety-minute sessions in how to use an objective, method, and evaluation instructional paradigm when teaching students with moderate-severe disabilities. At the completion of three weeks self-efficacy and fear of failure measurements were administered and classroom observations were conducted.;Results from the study supported the training of teaching assistants as a means to increase self-efficacy. But fear of failure was not significantly reduced. Observational measures also supported findings that knowledge received in training sessions transfer to classroom application when away from the trainer.