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A Survival Guide for New Special Educators provides relevant, practical information for new special education teachers across a broad range of topic areas. Drawing on the latest research on special educator effectiveness and retention, this comprehensive, go-to resource addresses the most pressing needs of novice instructors, resource teachers, and inclusion specialists. Offers research-based, classroom-tested strategies for working with a variety of special needs students Covers everything from preparing for the new school year to behavior management, customizing curriculum, creating effective IEPs, and more Billingsley and Brownell are noted experts in special educator training and support This highly practical book is filled with checklists, forms, and tools that special educators can use every day to help ensure that all special needs students get the rich, rewarding education they deserve.

How can today's educators teach academic content to students with moderate and severe developmental disabilities—while helping all students meet Common Core State Standards? This text has answers for K–12 teachers, straight from 37 experts in special and general education. A followup to the landmark bestseller Teaching Language Arts, Math, and Science to Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities, this important text prepares teachers to ensure more inclusion, more advanced academic content, and more meaningful learning for their students. Teachers will have the cutting-edge research and recommended practices they need to identify and deliver grade-aligned instructional content—leading to more opportunities and better quality of life for students with severe disabilities. PREPARE TEACHERS TO skillfully adapt lessons in language arts, math, and science for students with disabilities align instruction with Common Core State Standards select target skills and goals differentiate instruction using appropriate supports and assistive technologies balance academic goals and functional skills make the most of effective instructional procedures such as peer tutoring, cooperative learning, and co-teaching maintain high expectations for student achievement promote generalization by embedding instruction into ongoing classroom activities assess students' progress and make adjustments to instruction

Numerous studies have demonstrated the benefits peer tutoring provides to the tutee. However, studies measuring the benefits peer tutoring provides to the tutor are limited in quantity, detail, participant numbers and breadth. This study measured the benefits 151 peer tutors reported after peer tutoring for a semester in a special education class for students with severe disabilities. Peer tutors reported benefits in an essay response to the prompt: "What do you feel you have gained as a result of being a peer tutor?" The study identified the most common benefits obtained by peer tutors as measured by peer tutor generated responses of general peer-tutoring benefits. Findings suggest an extension of peer-tutoring benefits beyond the tutee exclusively and to the peer tutor.

Although much has been written about the relationship between career maturity and career decision self-efficacy of college students, the literature review provided no studies that investigated the relationship between career maturity, career decision self-efficacy, and self-advocacy; therefore the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between career maturity, career decision self-efficacy, and self-advocacy of college students with and without disabilities. An increasing number of college students with disabilities are attending postsecondary institutions, and the figures are continuing to increase; however, students with disabilities earn lower grades in college than their peers without disabilities, take longer to complete their degrees, have higher dropout rates, and are more likely to be unemployed after college. This quantitative study responds to recent calls in the postsecondary literature for individuals with disabilities to be better prepared when they transition from college. Participants included 347 postsecondary students, 89 of whom reported having a disability. Primarily focused on students with disabilities, this study gathered information regarding postsecondary students' attitudes toward careers, beliefs in their ability to pursue careers, and their self-advocacy knowledge in order to investigate the relationship among them. This study provides empirical support that there is a relationship between career maturity, career decision self-efficacy, and self-advocacy. The results of the correlation, MANOVA, ANOVA, and hierarchical regression analyses provided four major findings and implications. First, there was a positive correlation between career maturity, career decision self-efficacy, and self-advocacy of college students with and without a disability. Second, the results of the study indicated that students without a disability had higher levels of career maturity and self-advocacy than students with a disability; however, the self-efficacy scores were similar for students with and without a disability. Third, the results of the study focusing specifically on students with disabilities indicated that the career maturity of students who had a high level of self-advocacy was higher than for the students who had a low level of self-advocacy. However, there was no difference in levels of self-advocacy and career decision self-efficacy of college students with disabilities. Fourth, the results of this study focusing specifically on students with disabilities indicated that self-advocacy and career decision self-efficacy were the only variables that positively affected career maturity. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

The purposes of this study were to research the current inclusive practices in primary school music education in the Republic of Korea (ROK), identify issues that hamper optimal inclusion, and develop instructional strategies and recommendations to assist general educators in the accommodation of students with disabilities in their music classes. Analyses of public documents from the government of the ROK reveal that since the enactment of the Special Education Promotion Law (1977), there has been an increase in the number of students with disabilities educated inclusively. The current curricular requirements of the universities of education regarding general educators' music instruction and special education are limited. Furthermore, the government-mandated "Seventh Music Curriculum" (used in every ROK primary school) indicated no accommodation for use with students who have disabilities. Consequently, primary school general educators, while often expected to provide inclusive music instruction, have little preparation or resources available to assist them in making appropriate instructional modifications. Because of the limited pedagogical or research information available within the ROK, additional information regarding the accommodation of students with disabilities was obtained from special education and music education resources in the United States. These resources provided the basis for pedagogical strategies developed for adapted lesson plans for grades three through six. As these findings suggest, initiatives such as improved pre-service and in-service training are needed to prepare general educators in effective instructional methods and accommodations for inclusive music education. In-service training for such teachers could possibly be provided by music therapists if the therapists are fully conversant with the instructional difficulties faced by the teachers. The current development of the Eighth Curriculum by the South Korean government provides an excellent opportunity to include information on students with disabilities within the teacher's manuals. Additional resource materials for the teachers would also be beneficial. Future studies are needed regarding teacher competencies, pre-service preparation, in-service training, and needs assessment regarding inclusive music education.

This project assesses Saudi Arabian special education teachers’ perceptions about their competencies and professional development needs on assistive technology (AT). The researcher developed an online self-administrated 27 question survey in order to evaluate special education teachers’ perceived knowledge regarding AT, as well as to investigate their needs for professional development. The survey webpage link was sent via email to 110 special education teachers at General Directorate of Education in Unaizah, Saudi Arabia. A total of 37 teachers participate in this study for a 33.6% response rate. The findings indicate that special education teachers are not confident in their ability to correctly utilize AT in a classroom. The results also show that participants are interested in receiving AT training. In addition, it indicates that special education teachers preferred face-to-face learning methods for AT training.

Disabled students� experiences of working with teacher aides constitute a recent focus of international inquiry. To date in New Zealand, there has been no specific investigation of this aspect of education, despite the widespread reliance on teacher aide support as the primary means of responding to disabled students� presence in schools. Similarly, there are very few New Zealand studies in which teacher aides are the primary participants. This thesis seeks to address this absence in New Zealand educational research by exploring students� and teacher aides� experiences of working together, in order to understand the impact of assigning responsibility for students who have complex learning support requirements to teacher aides who require no qualification, training, or experience to work in this role. This interpretive qualitative study is positioned in a multi-dimensional framework of current disability, social justice, and sociology of childhood theorising. A series of semi-structured meetings were held with ten students, aged eight to seventeen years, who attended schools in the South Island of New Zealand. As well, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eighteen teacher aides who worked in a range of primary, intermediate, and secondary schools in the same geographic area as the student participants. Data were interpreted utilizing both inductive and deductive means of analysis. Students� participation in the research and their contributions to the findings demonstrated their competence, agency, and heterogeneity. Students conveyed a sense of the importance and value of the teacher aide�s role, if clearly defined and carried out in a positive, professional manner within the context of supportive schools. The findings relating to teacher aides� experiences highlighted the diverse, ambiguous nature of their roles, conceptualised as a continuum of support ranging from aiding teachers in inclusive contexts, to aiding students in assimilationist circumstances, to assuming the role of teacher or babysitter for students in exclusive educational environments. Analysis of teacher aides� experiences revealed the fundamental importance of relationships in coming to know students in terms of their humanness and competence, and in underpinning teacher aides� efforts to do the right thing by students. Participants also identified the need for all adults involved in the policy and practice of education to develop shared understandings of respectful, socially just ways of thinking about disability and childhood as the foundation of a common commitment to teach all students well. The insight generated by participants, who represent perhaps the least powerful of students and employees in New Zealand schools, illuminates some of the most significant changes that need to occur in the thinking and practices of people involved in educational policy-making, teacher and teacher aide education, and schools. Addressing these educational deficits may contribute to the development of a socially just education system that is respectful of and responsive to human difference while recognising and respecting our mutual humanness.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-162). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 303-322).