Abstract
As the need for definitive course evaluation changes with the impact of accountability movements, preservice teacher education courses must be carefully assessed with regard to consumer satisfaction as well as specific utility in the field. This study investigated ongoing program evaluation techniques designed to assess students' perceptions of the efficacy of a direct instruction course at the end of the course and after a full-time 8-week internship experience for preservice special education teachers. The course evaluations were formative and summative; formative evaluation was obtained through verbal feedback from students during the course and qualitative data gathered postinternship, while summative data involved the use of a Likert scale form related to best and least liked portions of the course. Of the 18 direct instruction components measured, 3 showed significant increases, while a 4th closely approached statistical significance. Overall, this study revealed a high level of satisfaction with direct instruction components that increased after field-based experience. Implications for teacher education, as well as future research, are addressed.
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