Instead of beginning with a separate curriculum for students with disabilities, educators can design lessons based on the general curriculum and standards. Curriculum describes what students learn. Instruction generally describes the teaching methods and learning activities that a teacher uses to present the curriculum. A teacher has many different ways to teach students a given topic or unit.
Instruction describes how educators teach the curriculum.
The law presumes that children with disabilities can learn in regular classrooms with their nondisabled peers. Generally, regardless of the educational setting , the child s curriculum and IEP goals and objectives are based on the general curriculum and standards. Research has shown that regular education classrooms can use instructional methods that enable students with all types of disabilities to participate and excel in the general curriculum. 2 Stages of curriculum and instruction design 3 Over the past 30 years, the way curriculum is delivered to students with disabilities is generally thought to have evolved through four distinct stages. Schools throughout the country may be at any stage in the process of designing curriculum and instruction to meet the needs of all students.