Research Center for Teacher Education in Special Education, Inclusion, and Social-Emotional Aspects of Learning and Teaching
Principal Investigators: Dr. Yaara Hermelin Fine and Dr. Noam Lapidot-Lefler
Center Structure and Research Areas
1. Special Education in Teacher Education and Transformative Changes in Teacher Preparation
Research Focus: This unit nurtures pedagogical approaches and tools in special education, cultivating emotional support systems for teacher-educators and students through collaborative meaning-making processes. The research embraces multicultural perspectives with responsive teaching strategies that honor diverse voices and developmental trajectories. Our inquiry encompasses transformative educational methodologies that support educators in their zone of proximal development, fostering inclusive learning communities where every participant's voice contributes to collective understanding.
2. Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)
Research Focus: This unit focuses on nurturing and scaffolding social-emotional competencies through dialogical processes that honor the voices and experiences of both teachers and students. Our research explores the co-construction of SEL strategies within educational communities, examining how emotional understanding emerges through social interaction and mediated learning experiences. We investigate the developmental pathways through which emotional intelligence unfolds in educational contexts, recognizing each participant's unique trajectory while supporting collective growth.
3. Speech and Language Unit
Research Focus: This unit approaches speech and communication through a developmental lens that recognizes diverse communication pathways as natural variations in human expression. Our research cultivates responsive teaching approaches that support each learner's communicative journey, creating accessible learning experiences that build upon existing strengths. We explore how meaningful learning emerges through collaborative interaction, honoring different modes of expression while facilitating growth within supportive learning communities.
4. Autism Research Unit
Research Focus: This unit embraces neurodiversity as a natural aspect of human variation, exploring how learning unfolds for autistic individuals through culturally responsive and strength-based approaches. Our research nurtures understanding of environmental factors that support authentic development, while honoring autistic voices and perspectives. We investigate how augmentative and alternative communication emerges as a tool for self-expression and connection, recognizing communication as a social construct that develops through meaningful interaction within supportive communities.
5. Artificial Intelligence and Innovation in Special Education - Future-Oriented Education
Research Focus: This unit explores how AI technologies can serve as cultural tools that mediate learning experiences, supporting both educators and learners in their developmental journeys. Our research investigates how technological mediation can enhance human connection rather than replace it, creating digital environments that amplify diverse voices and support collaborative meaning-making. We examine how AI-supported assessment can become more responsive to individual growth patterns, moving beyond standardized measures to honor multiple forms of knowledge expression.
Doctoral Community Group
The center nurtures a doctoral community that currently includes seven doctoral researchers who are actively engaged in their dissertation journeys. This community serves as a zone of proximal development for emerging scholars, creating supportive learning partnerships where doctoral students engage in collaborative inquiry across research domains while developing their unique scholarly voices. The intention is to cultivate a research community of scholars navigating their doctoral processes together, encouraging meaningful connections and shared learning experiences. Through mentored participation in research communities, students experience authentic apprenticeship in academic practice, contributing meaningfully to knowledge construction while developing their individual expertise within supportive peer networks that honor both collective wisdom and individual growth paths.
Cross-Unit Research Initiatives
The center cultivates interdisciplinary dialogue through collaborative projects that honor diverse perspectives and ways of knowing. Regular inter-unit conversations create opportunities for researchers to co-construct understanding across traditional boundaries and the emergence of new insights through collective reflection. Our shared publications and collaborative knowledge creation reflect the polyphonic nature of our research community, where multiple voices contribute to a richer understanding of complex educational phenomena.
Academic Activities
The center cultivates a dynamic learning community through periodic seminars that serve as forums for sharing emerging insights and inviting collaborative reflection on research journeys.
Our community meetings will become spaces for co-constructing goals and fostering meaningful connections between research groups, honoring both individual growth and collective wisdom.
Through partnerships with educational institutions and research communities globally, we participate in broader conversations about transformative educational practice.
Research Integration and Impact
This center brings together diverse research voices within a collaborative framework that honors both specialized inquiry and interdisciplinary dialogue. Our approach recognizes research as a social practice that emerges through meaningful interaction between theory and lived experience. We understand knowledge as co-constructed through authentic engagement with educational communities, ensuring that research outcomes emerge from and return to support the growth and flourishing of all participants in the educational process.
The center represents a holistic approach to understanding contemporary opportunities in special education and inclusive teaching practices, while nurturing the development of educators who can respond sensitively to the rich diversity of learning communities.