Competencies for Teachers of the Visually Handicapped as Perceived By Administrators.

Abstract

During the past ten years there has been increasing interest in Competency Based Teacher Education in special education and particularly in education of the visually handicapped. This study utilized the refined competency document developed through the Michigan Project by the college/university personnel bases on the data collected from the teachers in the Spungin (1977) survey. This document includes 70 competency statements arranged in the ten goal areas. The purpose of this study was to determine if the competency statements in the refined document are perceived to be important by the relevant administrators: State Education Consultants for the Visually Handicapped (SECVH), the residential school superintendents, supervisors of large programs, and leadership personnel of the instructional resource centers for the visually handicapped. The study utilized survey research design and was comprised of two components: demographic characteristics of the population, and the perceptions of the administrators regarding the importance of the competencies for teachers in their particular settings. The response rate was 61% with a return rate for each group of: 59% for Residential, 64% for SECVH, 59% for Supervisors, 59% for IMC. The most important finding was the positive response of the administrators to the competency document. Over 54% of the responses to seven of the goal statements were in the strongly agree choice. Goal IX, research, received uniformly neutral responses and Goals VII, counseling and guidance, and VIII, resources, received mixed responses. The responses to Goal VIII, resources, had significant between group differences for the residential group. Although the document was constructed as ten separate components, it was viewed by the respondents as a single entity.