Education Commons^™

Teacher Perceived Barriers To Inclusive Instructional Delivery Approaches, Casey M. Wright

Honors Theses

The aim of this undergraduate thesis is to identify the perceived barriers to Inclusive Instructional Delivery Approaches (IIDA) through the perspective of general education teachers. For decades, students identified as having special educational needs have not been adequately served in the classroom. This study reveals the best practices used to include students with disabilities in the general education classroom and why they are not being employed as often as they should be. Through use of survey, the researcher allowed for the opportunity to answer (a) Which IIDAs are used most often? (b) How much time per week do teachers spend …

The Elusiveness Of Inclusiveness: A Discursive Analysis Of Inclusion In A District Level Exceptional Student Education Leadership Team, Karen Ramlackhan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This poststructural study utilizes Foucault’s theories of power/knowledge nexus and disciplinary power to explore the discursive formation of inclusion of a district level Exceptional Student Education leadership team in order to understand how the discourses are constructed, practices are normalized, and power relations are legitimized. This type of analysis interrogated the assumptive groundings of special education in the district, and how these have been taken-for-granted and normalized in the professional knowledge, policies, and practices of the field. Data from multiple sources: semi-structured interviews, observations, multimodal forms of communication, observation journal, and researcher reflexive journal produced findings within four dominant discourses---the …

Teaching Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder To Mand Within The Inclusive Classroom, Jennifer L. Mcintire

Doctoral Dissertations

Recent federal legislation mandate that students with autism (ASD) be educated within the general education environment and held to high standards of achievement. Many interventions exist to teach language skills to children with ASD. Most have been developed in clinics or segregated settings, and have not been demonstrated as effective within general education classrooms. This research assessed the effectiveness of an intervention to teach two students with ASD to mand (request) within the general education classroom. Generalization and maintenance of independent manding (requesting) skills will be assessed. Both students learned to mand within the natural environment and demonstrated maintenance and …

Learning Disabled Special Education Students And General Education Opportunities, Candace Pelt

Doctor of Education (EdD)

This study examined the relationship between the amount of time a student receives in general education and achievement scores for reading and math. Students selected were previously identified with a learning disability in the Newberg School District, and they were enrolled in classes during the 2014-2015 school year. Using a Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), this study observed the correlation between students’ federal placement code and student achievement scores for both reading and math. For students with disabilities who also have an Individual Education Plan (IEP), the federal placement code identifies the amount of time a student spends in general …

Making All Students "Our" Students: Where To Start?, Frank E. Mullins Ph.D., Janice Murdock Ph.D., Phoebe A. Okungu Ph.D., Deann A. Lechtenberg Ph.D.

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

The collaborative team approach is an approach in which general education and special education teachers work together in a single classroom to provide instruction to all students. Neither teacher has more authority than the other.

Education should not be compartments in which one has a mindset of “my students” and “your students”. The mindset must be changed to “our students”. This change in mindsets must begin in pre-service programs in order to carry on to PreK-12 classrooms. As inclusion becomes more and more accepted in public education, educators must be taught strategies that will enable them to work collaboratively with …

An Investigation Of The Attitudes Of Catholic School Principals Towards The Inclusion Of Students With Disabilities, Michael J. Boyle, Claudia M. Hernandez

Journal of Catholic Education

Catholic school principals typically serve as the prime decision-makers in admission and enrollment issues. A key factor in this decision-making can be the principals’ perceptions and attitudes about servicing students with disabilities within a Catholic school context. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the attitudes and perceptions of Catholic school principals toward inclusion of students with disabilities in Catholic schools. Overall, a majority of surveyed principals reported a positive attitude toward including students with disabilities. Some significant relationships were found between principal’s pervious experiences with students with disabilities and the principals’ willingness to enroll students with disabilities. …

Comparing The Effectiveness Of Two Verbal Problem Solving Strategies: Solve It! And Cubes, Margaret Tibbitt

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to find which problem solving strategy was more effective for special education students in the general education classroom; CUBES or Solve It! The students completed a pre-test, solving five single step and five multi-step word problems. The students then received four instructional and activity sessions on the CUBES and Solve It! strategies. The results indicated that the six fourth grade special education participants increased their problem solving skills after using each strategy. The Solve It! strategy resulted in a larger increase then the CUBES strategy. The students showed a slightly larger decrease in the …

Elementary General Education Teachers' Perspectives Towards The Inclusion Of Students With Emotional Disturbances, Leona E. O'Dear

Theses and Dissertations

Inclusion of students with emotional disturbances (ED) is encouraged nationally through litigation and legislation. Despite this fact, 38.1% of the students with ED spend less than 40% of their day in a regular education classroom due to several barriers. Research has demonstrated that one of the barriers to inclusion exists in general education teachers’ attitudes towards the inclusion of students with disabilities. The purpose of this research study was to use a qualitative design to study the perspectives of general education teachers at the elementary level in an urban Illinois school district towards the phenomenon of the inclusion of students …

Inclusive Settings: Rti In The General Education Classroom, Brittany Graves

Honors Projects

The premise of this study was derived upon seeing a severe need for professional development in my current field work experience. I set out to determine a possible solution to the lack of cohesion among general and special educators evident in my local school district. This small town rural school is looking to expand RTI, and intervention technique, to decrease gaps in education for at risk students. With issues of cohesion and professional development evident, I collected and analyzed data in order to determine a way the school district can still incorporate and expand their Response to Intervention (RTI) practices. …

Utilizing American Sign Language In The Early Childhood Setting, Samantha Hakim

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Explores the benefits of using American Sign Language (ASL) in a general education classroom as a tool for classroom management, as well as a way to create an inclusive setting for deaf and hearing impaired children.

Teacher Bullies Or Frustrated Teachers? How The Classroom Environment Affects The Teacher-Student Relationship, Susan P. Mcmillan-Quilantan

Ed.D. Dissertations

This quantitative research study examined the issue of teacher-student bullying behavior as perceived by third through eighth grade teachers in three suburban schools to determine if there was any relationship between teacher bullying behavior and an inclusive classroom setting. Two survey instruments were used, the Survey of Teachers’ Attitudes toward Inclusion (Cochran, 1998), and the Survey on Bullying Teachers and Teacher Bullying (Twemlow, Fonagy, Sacco, & Brethour, 2006). The results indicated there is a statistically significant difference between special education teachers’ and general education teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive classrooms. The results also indicated that teacher bullying occurs across settings by …

Anxiously Anticipating! A Parallel Journey To An Art And Equestrian Camp For Children With Disabilities, Lorna C. Timmerman, Ruth E. Jefferson

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

In many communities, there are few opportunities for children with disabilities to participate in engaging summer camp experiences. This poster will highlight one successful endeavor that provided this much-needed opportunity to children with disabilities. Little has been explored regarding how parents go about preparing their children for the camp experience that is to come; and few studies have documented the planning and preparation by camp staff. This presentation will explore one family’s efforts to prepare and support a child’s first venture into organized summer programming. At the same time, this presentation will detail the preparation (and surprising level of anxiety) …

Swimming For Inclusion, Alexa Draman

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

This paper attempts to demonstrate how disabilities are portrayed to children through Walt Disney's popular film Finding Nemo. Through this film, children are exposed to inclusiveness which can then transfer to their overall impressions of disability in society. This film ultimately spins the negative connotation associated with disability and portrays it positively as an exceptionality.

Special Education As A Moral Mandate In Catholic Schools, Mary E. Carlson

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study summarizes the level of services offered to students with special educational needs in Catholic schools and finds that children with disabilities are underserved and that research regarding the extent and types of services offered is insufficient. More importantly, the author examines the practice of Catholic schools’ non-admission of students with special needs using: traditional Catholic Social Teaching, especially the doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas; virtue ethics; the hermeneutic of real, lived experience; and liberation theologies and related liberatory disciplines. Viewed through each of these lenses, current Catholic school practice, in the majority of cases, is unjust. To remain …

Understanding The Push-In/Pull-Out Method: Why Support Matters For Socialization, Christina L. Raiti

Senior Theses and Projects

My research combines qualitative and quantitative methods in order to answer: How do the social dynamics of children with autism change as they transition throughout the day from general ed to special ed settings in a Hartford public school? Findings are based upon coded observations of three third-grade students with autism for more than twenty hours in various classroom settings, and also thematic analysis of interviews with three of their classroom educators at the site in Hartford, Connecticut. The findings shows that students with autism are more likely to have positive physical and verbal interactions in structured environments rather than …

Engaging And Inclusive Education: A Case Study, Haley C. Mclean

Senior Honors Theses

The goal of education is to enrich the lives of the students entering the classroom in such a way that sees them leaving after the school year as better and more developed students eager to continue learning. However, there has been a disconnect between educators and the population of their classrooms that requires modifications and special attention. In part, this is because it is time consuming and difficult to make sure that every student, including the handicapped students, is having his or her needs met. In order for classrooms to be effective, there has to be an inclusive environment that …

A Mainstreaming Story: What The Labels Leave Out, Susan Goetz

Thought and Practice: (1987-1991) the Journal of the Graduate School of Bank Street College of Education

Case study of a kindergarten child who defied the labels and evaluation reports and surprised his teachers and classmates.

Inclusion Of Students With High Need Autism: General Education Teachers’ Attitudes And Beliefs Versus Practice, Joanna Davis

Graduate Theses & Dissertations

Given the simultaneous rise in rates of autism and the expectations for school-based inclusion of students with disabilities, research targeting inclusive practices continues to be a priority. Researchers have examined the attitudes and perspectives of general education teachers and best practice for including individuals with high functioning autism spectrum disorders. However, there is little research exploring the relationship between attitudes and practice with regard to the inclusion of individuals on the low functioning end of the spectrum. The purpose of this study was to explore the self-reported attitudes and perspectives of general education teachers in relation to what was observed …

Effects Of A Collaboratively Developed Peer Mediated Intervention On The Social Communication Skills Of Students With Complex Communication Needs In Inclusive Classroom Settings, Alice L. Rhodes

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

Recent Federal education reform and legislation (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 1997, 2004; No Child Left Behind Act, 2001) have shifted to emphasize the inclusion of all students in mainstream social and academic settings within the public schools. Despite the shift towards inclusion and the benefits of peer interaction experiences, recent observational studies have revealed that, for students with disabilities, social interactions are often limited. This study evaluated the effect of a collaboratively developed, peer mediated intervention on the social communication of students with complex communication needs in inclusive classroom settings. The study utilized a single-case multiple probe design across …

Teachers Perceptions Of Barriers To Universal Design For Learning, Mary Elizabeth Jordan Anstead

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has been identified as a contemporary instructional model for promoting inclusion and equitable opportunities for diverse and struggling learners. However, research regarding teachers' perceptions of UDL and its effective implementation is limited, making planning, implementing, and providing professional development difficult for administrators. Guided by the constructivist views of Vygotsky and Piaget, this qualitative case study was designed to understand teachers' knowledge and perceptions of how UDL can be used to promote equitable inclusive instruction, implementation barriers, educational applications for UDL, and perceived needs to implement UDL. Participants were teachers who had implemented UDL from a …

Relationships Among Middle School Teachers' Perceptions Regarding Inclusion Of Students With Disabilities In General Education Classrooms, Stacey O. Forrester

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Accommodating students with disabilities in a general education class often requires instructional modification and extra student support. Research has shown that making required changes can evoke different responses from teachers and can influence their willingness to accommodate the needs of students with disabilities. However, research has not examined the relationships between middle school teachers' preparation for and experiences with inclusion instruction and their attitudes toward inclusion. The purpose of this correlational study was to explore possible relationships between middle school teachers' attitudes about including students with mild to moderate disabilities in the general education setting and the teachers' education level, …

Inclusion And Attitudes Of Adolescents In A Camp Setting, Deborah Musher

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite increased inclusion of individuals with special needs in educational and leisure settings, people with disabilities continue to experience social isolation. Research indicates that negative attitudes play an important role in contributing to this marginalization. This study examined the impact of an inclusion program at a residential summer camp on the attitudes of its typical participants. Participants in the treatment group (n = 30) experienced contact with peers with disabilities through structured, intentional programming while participants in the control group (n = 77) experienced less formal inclusive encounters. The Chedoke-McMaster Attitudes toward Children with Handicaps (CATCH) scale was administered to …

Teacher Perceptions Of The Effectiveness Of Inclusion In Elementary Classroom Settings, Delicia Peacock Peacock

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Inclusion classrooms were introduced in the United States in 1990 when the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act required that special education students be instructed in a general education setting. Ensuing changes in instructional formats have caused role confusion for special and general education teachers, resulted in mixed attitudes toward teacher responsibilities, and lowered teachers' sense of efficacy about being able to teach their students. Guided by Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory, this bounded case study design in a rural elementary school in a southeastern state was used to understand the perceptions of general and special educators regarding their work in …

Elementary Teachers' Understanding, Knowledge, And Perceptions Of Inclusion Best Practices, Jason Liggins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Recent legislative actions requiring schools in the local school system to increase the percentage of students served in the inclusion classroom has led to teachers having difficulty in implementing inclusion best practices. Using Vygotsky's social theory, the purpose of this case study was to examine teachers' understanding, knowledge, and perceptions of inclusive teaching strategies. The research questions were used to explore the teachers' understanding of inclusion, perceived effectiveness of strategies, and the resources that teachers feel are necessary to implement inclusion strategies. A purposeful sample of 10 teachers currently teaching in an inclusion setting were interviewed face-to-face using semistructured questions. …

The Impact Of Co-Teaching On The Graduation Test Scores Of Students With Disabilities, Jeannette Lynn Stach

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

According to the U.S Department of Education, co-teaching is an intervention used to give students with disabilities access to the general education curriculum while in the general education classroom. It's necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of co-teaching as it relates to academic performance. However, there has been a dearth of research on quantitative studies related to co-teaching and their results have been inconclusive. This quantitative study explored whether co-teaching has a positive effect on academic performance compared to collaborative teaching, and adds to the literature in this area that is considered current. On an annual basis from 2002 to 2011, …

A Survey Of Preservice Teachers' Attitudes On Integrating Students With Disabilities In Inclusive Education Classrooms, Kelsey K. Mcnamee

Honors Undergraduate Theses

There are more than 2.4 million American public school students identified with learning disabilities who are served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). General education preservice teachers are expected to effectively teach all students, including those with disabilities. However, most teacher preparation programs only require a single course in teaching students with disabilities. Research shows that that teachers’ attitudes regarding inclusion are the greatest predictor of a successful inclusion classroom. This study explored the attitudes of preservice elementary and preservice secondary teachers regarding integrating students with disabilities into general education classrooms. A quantitative research design with a survey …

Teacher Perceptions Of Two Multi-Component Interventions: Disability Awareness And Science, Emily A. Dorsey, Chryso Mouzourou, Hyejin Park, Michaelene M. Ostrosky, Paddy C. Favazza

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

This study investigated teachers’ perspectives about two interventions designed to promote kindergarteners’ attitudes toward peers with disabilities. Interviews with teachers were conducted following the 6-week interventions. Teachers shared views on the best and most difficult aspects of the interventions, perceived benefits for teachers and children, and suggestions for improving the interventions. Teachers’ responses were analyzed using content analysis. One salient teacher reported benefit was notable improvement in social skills made by all students. Moreover, students in the experimental condition displayed increased acceptance of peers with disabilities, whereas teachers reported becoming more confident discussing the topic of disability with students. Teachers …