Interdisciplinary Pre-Service Professional Preparation Through Video Modeling

Introduction

The following chapter outlines an approach to create and model interdisciplinary pre-service professional preparation with representation from personnel with a range of expertise in the field of special education. In this approach, an interdisciplinary team of faculty, also known as a faculty learning community (FLC), model and learn from each other to enhance professional knowledge and skills. These experiences include the development of an FLC and the creation of a video case study series to model interdisciplinary professional roles and engagement within special education and related fields. Professionals across various fields related to education might consider this project as an exemplar for organizing, facilitating, and evaluating the overall impacts of a shared and interdisciplinary learning experience.

The interdisciplinary and inter-professional FLC that was established developed the following collaborative goals:

• 1.

  Compose video models for pre-service professionals that represent inter-professional expertise to support students with high-intensity academic, social-emotional, and behavioral needs;

• 2.

  Model a positive collaborative approach to special education team meetings (i.e., Individualized Education Program team meetings, Functional Behavioral Assessment data analysis with behavior planning, Individualized Education Program goal development and selection of support services) for pre-service professionals’ future careers; and

• 3.

  Distribute video models for pre-service professionals across a range of disciplines.

This interdisciplinary and inter-professional project-based approach to collaboration stemmed from the need for quality models of individualized education program (IEP) team meetings for pre-service professionals. Additionally, faculty were interested in establishing a stronger partnership between pre-service professional preparation programs and continuity in the use of discipline-specific terminology and practice. In this particular FLC project, then, the IEP team was used as a broad term most universally accepted in special education. Specifically, IEP team was used as a replacement for the Committee on Special Education (CSE) referenced in the New York State Handbook Guide to Quality Individualized Education Program (IEP) Development and Implementation (University of the State of New York: The State Department of Education, 2010).

In sum, this chapter will serve as an example to support the need for interdisciplinary and inter-professional approaches to preparing future service providers for students with disabilities and the stakeholders who support them.