Measuring effective teaching in inclusive classrooms

grantor: University of TorontoThe purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among teacher variables in general education classrooms that included students who were designated as exceptional and at-risk, through the larger contexts of Stanovich's and Roach's tested path models of inclusion effectiveness. Thirteen teachers and their 329 students from a suburban Catholic school system in southern Ontario participated in this study. Effective teaching behaviors were measured with two instruments: one that evaluated classroom management, time management, and lesson presentation skills, and another that evaluated individual student-teacher instructional interactions as instructional adaptations with students designated as exceptional and at-risk, as well as non-designated students. Two measures of teacher attitudes toward inclusion and one measure of teacher efficacy were also obtained. Intercorrelations among the five teacher variables were calculated. A significant positive relationship emerged between the two teaching behavior measures, although other correlations were not significant. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for adaptive instruction in inclusive classrooms.M.A