[[alternative]]The Current Status of Resource Service for Students with Special Needs in Senior High Schools

[[abstract]]The Current Status of Resource Service for Students with Special Needs in Senior High Schools Jui-Mei Tsai Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to understand the situation of providing resource service to the students with special needs in regular/vocational senior high school. A survey questionnaire designed by the researcher was used as the major research instrument. Researcher mailed survey questionnaire to 308 schools. 507 subjects returned the questionnaire including 233 administrators, 239 stationary teachers, and 35 itinerant teachers; the percentage were 75.9%, 77.6%, 81.33% respectively. Frequency, test of homogeneity of proportions, and Cochran's Q were used as the major statistical methods to analyze and compare the situations of providing resource service in different areas of this country (Taipei City, Kaohsuang City, Kimmen/Mashu, Taiwan Province) and different conditions (with and without resource classroom ) In our country, resource service in high schools included both stationary and itinerant models. The existent situations and challenges are described as follows. 1. As for the operation of stationary resource service: (1) 91% of schools executed resource service in psychology/counseling classroom, however the responsible teachers' major responsibility were not related to the resource service; most schools had the experience to provide resource service for students with disabilities around one to two years. (2) In 66.1% of schools, teachers were not mainly responsible for teaching, and 66.2% of the teachers had not received special education training. In 84% of schools, resource teachers are regular teachers, and in 71% of schools, regular teachers are responsible for teaching students with special needs in their own class; 85% of schools provide individualized instruction to students. (3) In more than 50% of schools, teachers responsible for resource service must often communicate and negotiate with tutors, students, parents, administrators, and regular teachers. (4) 59% of schools provide instructional service in resource classrooms and in 86.4% of the schools, resource classrooms are in the proper situation. (5) For the purpose of successfully providing resource service in school, to equip with professional teachers, volunteers, communication and negotiation, cooperation of all staffs and students in schools, and agreement of parents was suggested. (6) Limited expenses, lack of facilities, unprofessional teachers, and unwilling for students to learn were identified as the important factors resulting in failed resource service. 2. As for the stationary resource service: (1) Direct service included basic skill training, subject instruction, and consultation. The schools with resource classroom provided more basic skill training and subject instruction than the schools without resource classroom. (2) Indirect service included teaching resource, relative service, employment of professional out of school, assistive device which were provided more in the schools with resource classroom than those without. (3) Taipei City provided services more than any other area. 3. As for the operation of itinerant resource service: (1)Taipei school for the hearing impaired, Taipei school for visually impaired, National Taichung school for the hearing impaired, National Taichung school for the visually impaired, Taiwan Provincial Cheng-hua Jen Ai School, National Tainan school for the hearing impaired and the Kaohsuang Bureau of Education were responsible for providing resource service. Hearing-impaired students, visual -impaired students, motor-impaired students, and language-impaired students were the main populations whom they served. 4. As for the itinerant resource service: (1) Direct service includes basic skills training, subject instruction, and counseling. (2) Indirect service includes relative information and counseling provided from itinerary teachers. (3) The services were provided more in Taiwan province than other areas. 5. As for the difficulties of resource service: Ten issues should be considered. They are (1) no definite guiding principle for schools to execute resource service, (2) lacking expense and budget for most schools, (3) lacking certified special educators, (4) service providers' poor knowledge in special education, (5)low motivation to accept specialized training for service providers, (6) The difficulty to integrate health professional, (7) the attitudes of administrators and regular teachers toward resource service, (8) the interactions between school and parents, (8) th issue to establish the abilities to plan future career and to enhance vocational skill, (9) lacking adequate assessment and preparation before entering high school resulting in mal-adaptation whil studying in high school. Some suggestions are made for stationary resource service, itinerary resource service, professional training for teachers, administrative departments of education, and future ersearch. Keywords: senior high school, students with special needs, resource service, survey