Suchergebnisse

This article presents results from an observational study comparing instructional context, teacher behavior, and engaged behavior for 15 students with severe disabilities in general education classrooms and 15 students with severe disabilities in self-contained classrooms. The observational data system was the Code for Instruction and Student Academic Response–Mainstream Version. The major significant differences were that students in general education classrooms received a greater proportion of their instruction through academic rather than functional activities and received more one-to-one instruction and teacher attention than did students in self-contained classrooms. No significant differences were found between the settings for student response. The most interesting finding may be that so few differences were found between general education and self-contained classrooms.

This study evaluated the effect of the type of peer group on behaviors associated with the happiness of five students with profound multiple disabilities. An alternating treatments design (ATD) was used to compare students' happiness behaviors (smiles, eyes open) during small group activities conducted with peers with disabilities and typical peers. Teacher behavior, time of day, position of the child, materials, activities, number of peers in each group, and the peers comprising the groups for each condition were controlled. Results indicated higher levels of happiness behaviors with typical peers than with peers with disabilities across all five students. Implications for placement and instruction are discussed.