Teacher leadership from theory to practice: The effects of special education teacher leaders on the professional development of general education teachers and the success of students in inclusive classrooms

This study aimed to investigate; (a) the effects of the professional development package developed and presented by the researchers to the special education teacher leaders (SETLs) on their ability to perform peer coaching leadership skills, (b) the effects of the professional development package developed and presented by the SETLs, who were trained on leadership skills by the researcher, to the general education teachers (Turkish language teachers [TLTs]) on the correct implementation of the steps of direct instruction, and (c) the effects of the direct instruction presented by TLTs, who were coached by SETLs, to the students with developmental disabilities on their outcomes. In addition, the opinions for the study of both teachers and students were examined. The study was carried out with 12 participants in total with the formation of SETL-TLT- student with developmental disabilities triads in four middle schools separately. In this respect, the study was designed with a nested multiple probe single-case experimental design across triads. Results showed that SETLs who were trained by the researcher were able to present BST and coach their peers, and TLTs who were trained by the SETLs were able to applicate the steps of direct instruction with high accuracy. Moreover, they maintained their skills after the intervention stopped. TLTs also were able to generalize direct instruction to their general education classrooms. The students were able to learn the target skills, maintained them over time, and generalized the acquired academic skills to the other questions. Last, both teachers and students had positive opinions about the study. Future research needs and implications of findings are discussed.