Research and Teaching Areas: inclusive education, teacher professional development, middle years education, practitioner inquiry, literacy learning, English language arts, rural education, classroom assessment

Dr. Schnellert researches teacher learning, practice, and collaboration. In particular he attends to how teacher professional development relates to student diversity, inclusive education, self- and co-regulation, and literacy instruction. His research grapples with the challenge of designing and facilitating teacher professional development that bridges theory and practice so as to achieve valued outcomes for students. Studies include:

• classroom teachers and special education teachers working as partners to improve their writing instruction and increase access to learning for students in inclusive classrooms (Schnellert & Butler 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012);
• secondary school literacy teams using formative assessment data to inform cycles of collaborative inquiry (Butler, Schnellert & Cartier, 2005, 2008a,b; Schnellert & Butler 2007, 2008, 2009; Schnellert, Butler & Higginson, 2008); and
• learning community approaches to professional development (Butler, Schnellert & Higginson, 2007).

Dr. Schnellert’s program of research addresses questions such as:

1. What practices do educators engage in when working collaboratively to consider, explore, and construct more inclusive instruction?;
2. How and why do collaborative, action-oriented inquiry cycles help teachers to develop understandings and practices that address, nurture and support diverse students’ literacy learning?; and
3. What conditions and qualities within professional development activities support teacher learning and development of practice?