Special Education in General Education Classrooms

Abstract

Disputes about where to best educate students with disabilities remain unresolved, and concerns about mainstreaming, inclusive schools, and full inclusion are continuously resurfacing. Cooperative leaching has emerged as an alternative for service delivery in an era motivated by a need to reform current practices. With a supportive learning approach to cooperative teaching, the general education teacher is responsible for teaching content, and the special education teacher is responsible for developing and implementing student activities. In this research, supportive learning activities were implemented in a multiple-baseline time series design across four, 5th-grade classrooms. To ensure continuity of core curriculum between special and general education teachers, necessary interventions for student success were designed and implemented collaboratively by both teachers. The purpose was to evaluate the effects of a cooperative teaching alternative (supportive learning) on teaching behavior, the behavior and grades of general and special education students, and the opinions of general education teachers. As a result, the percentage of time spent teaching academic content to both gen-eral and special education students increased. Teacher modification of special education student tasks increased and students' social interactions and grades increased. Finally, teacher and student opinions about cooperative teaching with supportive learning activities were positive.