The Lived Experiences of Teachers Teaching High School Students with Learning Disabilities in an Online Learning Environment: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to discover the shortfalls in professional development and training of online teachers as it pertained to students in high school with learning disabilities receiving their accommodations in an online learning environment in a mid-Atlantic school district. The theory guiding this study was the connectivism theory, introduced by George Siemens, as it described the overall framework for knowing how to learn, which remained the focal point of this study. What have online high school general education and special education teachers experienced in professional development or training to provide accommodations to students with learning disabilities in an online learning environment? Data were collected through interviews, journals, and focus groups. A textural description helped create clusters of meaning through horizontalization processed through NVivo software which analyzed all the qualitative data collected. The use of NVivo assisted in speeding up the process of breaking down collected data quicker due to having triangulation. The study proved even though learning online remained a valuable resource, there were deficiencies in the preparation, training, and assistance when it came to providing teachers with the tools needed to teach effectively in the online learning environment. Without effective research to assist teachers with understanding what they need to be better trained and prepared, students with learning disabilities face an even bigger deficit when it comes to their ability to access the online learning environment.