The preparation of preservice regular educators for inclusion: A national perspective

If students with special needs are to be successfully included in regular education classrooms, preservice regular educators must have confidence in their ability to adapt and deliver instruction for diverse groups of learners. In this study, college and university instructors from across the nation were surveyed, who taught the special education course required for state teacher certification. Instructors' opinions were elicited regarding their definitions of and attitudes toward inclusion; and the issues, techniques, and support services that they believe assist inclusive efforts by teachers in public schools. The extent to which instructors prepared preservice regular educators to use techniques to adapt instruction for students with special needs also was assessed.The National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education Certification Manual (1994) was used to identify the states that require coursework in special education for preservice regular educators. The American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE) Directory of Member Institutions (1994) was consulted to obtain a list of member institutions in each of the 39 states initially identified. It was determined in advance that the AACTE directory would be used to select the top four institutions in each state that graduated the largest number of regular educators each year.Responses were received from 119 of the 146 institutions (82%). The instructor's responses to the survey items regarding service delivery options, defining inclusion in the course, and the populations of students encompassed in the definition, support the fact that inclusion remains a philosophy that is not clearly defined or accepted. Statistically significant differences were found between the extent to which course instructors believed that issues, techniques, and support services facilitated inclusion efforts in schools and the extent to which preservice regular educators were provided with information in these areas. Overall, it appeared that preservice regular educators will require additional information if they are to be prepared adequately to accommodate all students in inclusive classrooms.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio