Open AccessHow Do We Teach Them to Read If They Can’t Pay Attention? Change in Literacy Teaching Practice through Collaborative Learning
Author(s) -
Shelley Murphy
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
language and literacy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1496-0974
DOI - 10.20360/g2xk5m
Subject(s) - compassion , feeling , literacy , psychology , mathematics education , pedagogy , medical education , medicine , social psychology , political science , law
A significant number of students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) struggle with their literacy learning (Kane & Bignell, 2014). This paper investigates the experiences of a group of teachers who participated in a collaborative learning community devoted to improving their literacy teaching for students with characteristics of ADHD. Five elementary general education classroom teachers were interviewed and observed while in the midst of professional development (PD) meetings and again six month after meetings had stopped. Findings illustrate that the PD resulted in sustained improvements in both teachers' sense of self-efficacy as literacy teachers and their literacy teaching practices. The PD also helped to contribute to more feelings of compassion and lower levels of stress related to teaching students with ADHD.