Curriculum And Instruction In General Education: Implications For Service Delivery And Teacher Preparation

Martin Agran, University of Northern Iowa
Sandra Alper, University of Northern Iowa

Abstract

Despite the many reports describing the benefits of inclusive education, there is a lack of information on the instructional strategies and behavior change procedures that general educators use to facilitate skills development. Also, there is not much information on the procedures used to analyze student performance data. Additionally, limited information has been reported on the curricular domains and skills that educators value for instructing students with severe and other disabilities. With this information, better implementation of effective instructional practices in general education may be achieved. To address this issue, survey input from samples of general and special educators across two states was obtained. The findings suggested that general education teachers reported using many, but not all, behavior analytic instructional strategies considered to be best practice. In addition, special educators regarded social interactions and friendships and self-determination skills the most important skills for successful inclusion. copyright 2000 by The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps.