Supporting General Educators' Inclusive Practices in Mathematics and Science Education.
This paper describes a state-funded project at Southeastern Louisiana University that offered coursework and direct classroom assistance to general educators attempting to include students with disabilities for mathematics and science instruction. Thirty-five general educators in five parish school systems participated. A sequence of three credit courses was developed to include instruction in collaboration skills, in curricula/test accommodations, and in behavior management. The paper offers examples of how the general educator participants applied learned principles in inclusive settings including practical application of mathematics skills in a school coffee and beignet shop, mock elections, cultivating a school vegetable garden, collecting and analyzing water samples, and conducting field trips. The project was effective in dispensing information to general educators in curricular accommodations, behavior management techniques, and collaboration skills and participants were also successfully applying this information in their home classrooms. Preand post-testing indicated significant changes in attitudes toward inclusion and knowledge of special education. Twenty-three participants continued on to become certified in special education. Problems encountered included participant attrition, recruitment difficulties, and limited course options. (Contains 10 references.) (DB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Inclusion in Science and Mathematics 1 Supporting General Educators' Inclusive Practices in Mathematics and Science Education Rita Coombs-Richardson, Ph.D. Southeastern Louisiana University rrichardson@selu.edu and Sarah E. Al-Juraid, Project Inclusion Coordinator Southeastern Louisiana University
Are Preservice General Educators Being Adequately Prepared for Inclusion
The literature indicates an increase over the past decade in the number of states that require special education coursework for preservice general education teachers. This paper focuses on one course and one project at the University of Utah that attempt to promote collaboration wrong regular and special educators. The course, Educational Partnerships: Serving Exceptional Students, provides a fundamental understanding of e:-ceptionalities, mainstreaming techniques, and professional collaboration. In the federally funded project, Site-based Transdisciplinary Educational Partnerships (STEP), students in four education departments engage in collaborative activities during two academic quarters while working with at-risk or disabled students in the public schools. A questionnaire covering demographic information, attitudes toward mainstreamed students, and perceptions of own knowledge about and ability to work with disabled students was administered to 35 elementary majors taking the Educational Partnerships course (SPED) and 9 education majors in the STEP project before and after their coursework. A third group of 14 secondary school majors not required to take special education coursework was given only a posttest. A significant gain from pretest to posttest for the total instrument was achieved by the SPED group, but not by the STEP group (which may have experienced a "ceiling" effect due to higher pretest scores). Both SPED and STEP groups showed significant increases at posttest in skills and knowledge base. There were no differences among the three groups in attitudes toward mainstreamed disabled students. (Contains 13 references.) (SV) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement ED CATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or orgamzehon originating it C' Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality Points of view or opiruonsstated in thisdocu ment do not necessarily represent official OERI positron or policy k "PERMISS!ON TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY cob Jack Mayhew University of Utah TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." ARE PRESERVICE GENERAL EDUCATORS BEING ADEQUATELY PREPARED FOR lNCLUSION?
Initial Teacher Training: the French view
ABSTRACT This paper, against the background of trends in the development of initial teacher training in Europe as a whole, identifies and explains some of the recent, radical reforms which were introduced in France by a socialist government. These include the need to raise the status and the competence of the teaching profession; the creation of new teacher‐training institutions of university status (Instituts universitaires de formation des maitres); the introduction of common entry qualifications at degree level for both primary and secondary levels; the harmonisation and the extension to 2 years of the post‐degree teacher‐training course and the increase in emphasis placed on professional training, both theoretical and practical. These reforms provoked a storm of protest and an examination of the reasons for this reveals a multiplicity of crucial questions which have far‐reaching implications.