Abstract
Including students with special needs in the general education classroom requires that teachers adapt their approaches to teaching to meet all students’ needs. However, general education teachers are not always fully aware how best to serve special populations. This study examines what skills and knowledge special education educators feel that general education teachers and teacher candidates need in order to work with students with special needs in the inclusive environment. The researchers interviewed twenty special educators to ascertain which skills and knowledge are most commonly cited as vital to successful general education teacher/student with special needs interactions. Findings suggest that teacher education and professional development programs can benefit by providing a continuum of learning opportunities in three important areas. General educators should: first, make and carry out informed decisions, based on proper assessments data; second, develop appropriate understanding and compassion for students with special needs and their situations and third, learn to foster effective communication in and out of the classroom with all parties involved in educating this specific group of students.
Highlights
In today's education climate, the responsibility for teaching students with special needs no longer lies exclusively with special education (SPED) teachers
Pursuant to the data analysis procedures described in the previous section, patterns in the participants' responses allowed for examination, leading to specific tags that conceptualized the guiding principle for this study: to describe what aspects of teaching that special educators feel that general educators need to know to work successfully with students with special needs
You must have compassion." The respondents spoke of advocating for students within the school by visiting other teachers and classrooms as situations mandated, as well as finding specific teachers who are willing to work with students with special needs, but "not overwhelming any one teacher." Teachers must possess a certain degree of understanding and compassion for their students in order to work successfully with them; the respondents in the present study suggest that these two dispositions are required at a higher level than would be expected of a general educator
Summary
In today's education climate, the responsibility for teaching students with special needs no longer lies exclusively with special education (SPED) teachers. With the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA), the 'least restrictive environment' (LRE) of the general education classroom has been positioned as the optimal learning space (O'Connor, Yasik, & Horner, 2016). This change means that the educational philosophy has moved towards inclusion, where teachers at all levels and content areas are required to interact and work with students with special needs on a regular basis (Saloviita, 2018; Turnbull, Turnbull, & Weymeyer , 2010; US Department of Education, 2012).
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