The Perceptions of General Educators’ Preparedness and Ability to Provide Academic Core Instruction to Students with Learning Disabilities in Inclusive Classrooms
Abstract
General educators have a duty to expose students with learning disabilities to academic core instruction; however, research has shown that many educators do not believe they have been equipped through their teacher preparation to implement the necessary instructional strategies to support this group of diverse learners. This quantitative, non-experimental causal-comparative research study explored general educators’ perceptions of their preparedness and ability to provide academic core instruction to students with learning disabilities as related to their belief that students with a learning disability can succeed in an inclusive classroom, their openness to developing personal and professional relationships to provide instructional supports for students with a learning disability in an inclusive classroom, and their willingness to create an accepting learning environment where all students, including those with learning disabilities can learn based on the number of academic credit hours or professional development credit hours they have in special education (0 – 5 hours and 6 or more hours). A sample of 87 general educators in a small rural school district in Tennessee completed the Attitudes towards Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities (ATTSLD) survey instrument and a demographic survey that asked about their academic and professional development credit hours in special education and the number of hours they provided instruction to students with disabilities. An independent-samples t-test was used to test for statistically significant differences between the variables of interests. Cross tabulation tables were used to produce frequency tables of the intersecting variables of interest. Results indicated that there were no statistically significant differences overall between groups of general educators’ perceptions of their preparedness and ability to provide academic core instruction to students with learning disabilities in inclusive classrooms based on the number of academic credit hours they have in special education. The results also indicated that there were no statistically significant differences overall between groups of general educators’ perceptions of their preparedness and ability to provide academic core instruction to students with learning disabilities in inclusive classrooms based on the number of professional development credit hours they have in special education.
Subject Area
Curriculum development|Special education|Educational evaluation
Recommended Citation
LaRonda Cawthon,
"The Perceptions of General Educators’ Preparedness and Ability to Provide Academic Core Instruction to Students with Learning Disabilities in Inclusive Classrooms"
(2020).
ETD Collection for Tennessee State University.
Paper AAI28153330.
https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/dissertations/AAI28153330