Paula R. Henderson
I study how special education teachers are prepared, coached, and kept in the classroom — particularly the teachers of students with extensive support needs.
Research
My work is on the recruitment, preparation, and long-term retention of special education teachers, especially those who serve students with extensive support needs. I am interested in how evidence-based practices — systematic coaching, applied behavior analysis, inclusive instruction — can be built into teacher preparation and ongoing professional development, so that the support a teacher gets is structural rather than a matter of luck.
Two questions sit under most of what I do. What makes a new special education teacher able to do the job well in their first years? And what makes them stay?
My dissertation, still taking shape, looks at coaching preservice and novice teachers as they prepare to teach students with extensive support needs.
Before this
I taught in College Station ISD for fifteen years — as a special education classroom teacher, then a behavior interventionist, then an instructional coach. I came to the doctorate out of that work rather than around it, and it is still where my research questions come from.
Right now
- Doctoral Fellow, SPARC — an OSEP-funded doctoral training consortium in special education teacher education policy, practice, and research
- Clinical field supervisor for special education clinical teachers at Texas A&M
- Graduate researcher, Project TAPP — Teaching, Autism, and Practitioner Preparation
- Behavior support at the university’s early childhood center
A fuller account of teaching, presentations, and work in progress is on my curriculum vitae.
Contact
Email is the surest way to reach me: paulahenderson@tamu.edu. I am glad to hear from teachers, from other doctoral students, and from anyone working on special education teacher preparation.