Are Today\u27s General Education Teachers Prepared to Meet the Needs of Their Inclusive Students?

As a result of a push towards inclusion in recent years, Brownell et al. (2006) shows how general education teachers play a primary role in the education of students with disabilities...[but] often they report feeling unprepared to undertake this role, (p. 171). This is true for not only current general education teachers who are experiencing first-hand the changes that are occurring throughout the national education system, but even pre-service teachers who are in the process of completing their masters program still believe that they are not learning the skills needed to successfully teach in today\u27s classroom environment. This paper researches and thus addresses the need for both university educators and staff development programs to share the responsibility in helping to train and continue to educate our future and current general education teachers so that they can successfully meet the needs of the 21st century student