High School Teachers and Mainstreaming: Implications for Training

A study conducted to determine teachers perceptions of the reasonableness and frequency of use of accommodative strategies for students who are learning disabled (LD) led to the conclusion that teachers felt that their pre-service and in-service education had not equipped them to teach LD students. This finding is in agreement with Salend and Johns' review of research which found that teachers feel unequipped to teach exceptional children (1982, p. 82). During the 1990-1991 school year, mainstream high school teachers in Southeast Texas who taught or who had taught students who were LD, were surveyed. Fifty-nine teachers volunteered to complete the surveys. The first survey sought to determine teachers' perceptions of the reasonableness of accommodative strategies that can be used to meet the learning needs of students who are LD. The second survey sought teachers' perceptions of frequency of use of the same accommodations. Thirty eight teachers returned usable pairs of surveys. An analysis of the survey results indicated that teachers found most of the accommodative strategies reasonable but seldom used the strategies. After a comparison of responses to the surveys, teachers whose perceptions of reasonableness and perceptions of frequency of use of accommodative strategies were most lacking in agreement were interviewed in order to find out why they rated accommodations as reasonable yet failed to use the accommodations. Fifteen teachers from different schools and representing different content areas were interviewed. The sample consisted of three English teachers, two math teachers, two science teachers, two social studies teachers, one career/vocational teacher, four teachers of other subjects, and one teacher who taught three different subjects. Teachers of "other subjects" included one art teacher, one marketing teacher, one business electives teacher, and one physical education teacher. The teacher who taught more than one subject taught English, psychology, and sociology. The interview respondents' teaching experience ranged from one year to 35 years. Teachers were asked five sets of questions which sought to determine the reasons that their classroom behavior in using accommodative strategies was not consistent with their perceptions of the reasonableness of accommodative strategies. A sixth and final question asked for comments or suggestions teachers would like to make regarding issues that had not been addressed by the previous questions. All teachers were asked the same questions. Although the order of the questions depended on the individual situation, the first and last questions were always the same. When possible, the questions were asked in the following order: 1. After looking at some samples of your responses, what makes some teaching strategies which are considered reasonable, usable, while others are not usable? Is there anything that stands in your way of making some accommodations? What makes some strategies reasonable while others are unreasonable? Why are some accommodations made even though they are unreasonable? 2. Think of an LD student you have had recently. In your view what special problems do LD students present? How would you describe LD students (academically, behaviorally, socially)? 3. What strategies have you found to be most effective for teaching LD students? Where did you learn these strategies? 4. What assistance do you get that helps you teach mainstreamed LD students? 5. What could be done to help teachers accommodate LD students in the mainstream? 6. Do you have any comments or suggestions regarding mainstreaming which we have not discussed? Table 1 Years of Experience YRS EXP 1-3 4-9 10-19 20-29 30+ N 1 4 3 4 3 All of the interviews were recorded and transcribed. Numerous readings of the transcripts led to the identification of responses which were repeated across interviews. …