?A place where living things affect and depend on each other?: Qualitative and quantitative outcomes associated with inclusive science teaching

Abstract

This investigation employed qualitative/quasi-experimental methods to describe the school factors associated with inclusive science instruction, and to evaluate the classroom achievement of students with disabilities with respect to nondisabled students in the same class. In addition, achievement and attitude comparisons were made between the inclusive science classroom and two comparison classrooms. Two of the three classroom teachers taught an ecosystems unit using the district-adopted textbook and accompanying materials. A third classroom, which also contained five students with various disabilities, was taught the same unit using an activities-based approach. The accommodations that were necessary to include students with disabilities in the science classroom were documented. All students were pre- and posttested on science content, concepts, and processes. Qualitative findings replicated conclusions regarding variables meaningfully associated with successful inclusion in science. Quantitative findings suggested that students in the activities/inclusion classroom demonstrated superior performance on content recall, higher level thinking, verbal elaboration, and affective measures. Students with disabilities in the activities-based classroom made academic gains equivalent to those of their classroom peers, and superior to most nondisabled students in textbook-based classrooms. Implications for instruction and practice are described. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 82:163–179, 1998.