Educating students with mild handicaps in general classrooms: essential teaching practices for general and special educators.

This study was designed to identify and validate essential teaching practices needed by both general and special educators to successfully educate students with mild handicaps in general classrooms. An interdisciplinary panel of 105 experts, evenly divided into university-based and field-based participants from 35 states, identified 96 of 125 practices in six categories as being essential for effective teaching of mainstreamed students with mild handicaps. Based on a two-round Delphi procedure, a substantial majority (82%) of these teaching practices were seen as being essential for both general and special educators across all six rated categories. Panel ratings were significantly higher for special educators than general educators on four of the six categories. No significant differences in ratings were found for university-based versus field-based panelists, or for field-based panelists who were professionals directly involved in elementary or secondary teaching roles versus administrators, supervisors, and consultants. Based on essential teaching practices validated in this study, implications for preservice teacher preparation and staff development programs for general and special educators are discussed.

[1]  Children in classrooms: An investigation of person-environment interaction , 1979 .

[2]  W. Stainback,et al.  Facilitating Merger through Personnel Preparation , 1987 .

[3]  L. Cronbach.  Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests , 1951 .

[4]  M. Sapon-Shevin.  Working Towards Merger Together , 1988 .

[5]  W. Bickel,et al.  Effective Schools, Classrooms, and Instruction: Implications for Special Education , 1986, Exceptional children.

[6]  Linda M. Anderson,et al.  Principles of small-group instruction in elementary reading , 1982 .

[7]  N. Haring,et al.  The Fourth R : research in the classroom , 1978 .

[8]  J. West,et al.  Essential Collaborative Consultation Competencies for Regular and Special Educators , 1988, Journal of learning disabilities.

[9]  David A. Squires,et al.  Effective Schools and Classrooms: A Research-Based Perspective , 1983 .

[10]  James H. Block.  Schools, society, and mastery learning , 1974 .

[11]  Robert E. Slavin,et al.  Learning to cooperate, cooperating to learn , 1985 .

[12]  B. Larrivee.  Effective Teaching for Mainstreamed Students Is Effective Teaching for All Students , 1986 .

[13]  L. Idol,et al.  Collaborative Consultation in the Education of Mildly Handicapped and At-Risk Students , 1990 .

[14]  Benjamin S. Bloom,et al.  All Our Children Learning , 1982 .

[15]  L. Goodman.  The Effective Schools Movement and Special Education , 1985 .

[16]  D. Lipsky,et al.  Capable of Achievement and Worthy of Respect: Education for Handicapped Students as If They Were Full-Fledged Human Beings , 1987, Exceptional children.

[17]  W. Brookover,et al.  School Social Systems and Student Achievement: Schools Can Make a Difference , 1979 .

[18]  J. Brophy.  Teacher behavior and student achievement , 1984 .

[19]  C. Evertson,et al.  Learning from Teaching: A Developmental Perspective , 1976 .

[20]  Patricia A. Gennari,et al.  Analysis of the Design, Implementation, and Effects of a Data-Based Staff Development Program , 1983 .

[21]  R T Johnson,et al.  Mainstreaming and Cooperative Learning Strategies , 1986, Exceptional children.

[22]  J. Sherman,et al.  Effects of peer tutoring and consequences on the math performance of elementary classroom students. , 1973, Journal of applied behavior analysis.

[23]  James E. Ysseldyke,et al.  Assessment in special and remedial education , 1978 .

[24]  D. Deshler,et al.  Academic and Cognitive Interventions for LD Adolescents , 1984, Journal of learning disabilities.

[25]  C. Evertson.  Texas Junior High School Study: Final Report of Process-outcome Relationships. Volume I. R&D Report No. 4061. , 1978 .

[26]  C. Morsink,et al.  Research on Teaching: Opening the Door to Special Education Classrooms , 1986, Exceptional children.

[27]  Jacqueline S. Thousand,et al.  What the Research Says About Limiting or Avoiding Referrals to Special Education , 1986 .

[28]  William J. Tikunoff,et al.  The California Beginning Teacher Evaluation Study: Overview of the Ethnographic Study , 1976 .

[29]  P. Feden,et al.  The "New Breed" Educator: A Rationale and Program for Combining Elementary and Special Education Teacher Preparation , 1986 .

[30]  D. W. Johnson,et al.  Effects of group and individual contingencies on academic performance and social relations of special needs students. , 1982, The Journal of social psychology.

[31]  Gaea Leinhardt,et al.  Reading Instruction and Its Effects , 1981 .

[32]  L. Idol,et al.  Effective Instruction of Difficult-to-Teach Students , 1993 .

[33]  T. Good,et al.  Teaching Effects , 1977 .

[34]  Robert J. Stevens,et al.  Advances in research on teaching , 1981 .

[35]  M. Diebold,et al.  Special Educator Predictions of Regular Class Teacher Attitudes Concerning Mainstreaming , 1987 .

[36]  M. Will.  Educating Children with Learning Problems: A Shared Responsibility , 1986, Exceptional children.

[37]  H. Walberg,et al.  The Necessary Restructuring of Special and Regular Education , 1987, Exceptional children.