An Alternative to Least Restrictive Environments: A Continuum of Support to Regular Physical Education

1992 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin E. Block ◽  
Patricia L. Krebs
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Physical Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Regular Education ◽  
Adapted Physical Education ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Education Professionals ◽  
Regular School ◽  
Special Education Professionals ◽  
Levels Of Support

The concept of least restrictive environments (LRE), originally conceived by Deno (1970) and Reynolds (1962) to advocate for a range of special education placements for children with disabilities, has become synonymous with a continuum of physical education placement options for students with disabilities. Many models have been presented over the years. Options range from full-time regular physical education in a regular school to full-time adapted physical education in a special school or facility, with various placement options in between. The emphasis of these models is on varying the placement to meet the needs of the student with disabilities. Taylor (1988) has identified several flaws to the concept of LRE placement options. In addition, many special education professionals advocate placing all students with disabilities in regular education with varying levels of support (e.g., Stainback & Stainback, 1990). This paper discusses an alternative to the traditional continuum of LRE placement options. This new model presents a continuum of support which emphasizes how much and what type of assistance is provided to a particular student with disabilities that will enable him/her to succeed in regular physical education.

scholarly journals Special Education and Severe Disabilities in Costa Rica: Developing Inclusion in a Developing Country

2003 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura M. Stough
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Costa Rica ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Severe Disabilities ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
Educational Assistance ◽  
Education Professionals ◽  
Special Services ◽  
Special Education Professionals ◽  
Diagnostic Label

Special education has been part of the Costa Rican public education system for more than 60 years. Approximately 10% of the 75,000 students who receive special services have a severe disability; however, there is a chronic shortage of personnel trained to educate students with significant educational needs. In the last 5 years, Costa Rica has promulgated four educational service models that extend special education expertise: Consulting teachers, educational assistance teams, itinerant teams, and resource centers. These models more equitably distribute the technical skills and knowledge of special education professionals throughout the country. In addition, the Department of Special Education has developed a pragmatic educational classification system that describes the level of modifications required by students with disabilities, rather than one that is driven by their diagnostic label. Few publications have been written about special education in Costa Rica. This is the first historical overview of the development of inclusion in this country.

Evaluating Claims to Avoid Pseudoscientific and Unproven Practices in Special Education

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 195-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason C. Travers
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Conservative Approach ◽  
Intervention Effectiveness ◽  
Evidence Based Practices ◽  
Education Professionals ◽  
Special Education Professionals ◽  
Made In

Special education professionals are charged with using evidence-based practices, but various unproven, disproven, and pseudoscientific interventions continue to proliferate. Unproven and ineffective interventions emerge and are adopted for various reasons. Ineffective interventions are inevitably harmful and require professionals to adopt a conservative approach that both minimizes potential for harm and maximizes potential for educational benefit. This is fundamental to the evidence-based movement, but special education professionals may not recognize and avoid ineffective interventions. This article aims to improve recognition of potentially ineffective interventions by shedding light on aspects of science, pseudoscience, and some mistakes frequently made in evaluating claims of intervention effectiveness. By becoming familiar with the distinctions between science and pseudoscience, and by developing an understanding of how errors in thinking are used to promote and defend interventions unsupported by empirical evidence, special education professionals can better protect their students with disabilities from potential harms associated with ineffective practices.

PREPARING FUTURE PHYSICAL EDUCATORS FOR INCLUSION: CHANGING THE PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAM

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin E. BLOCK ◽  
Eun Hye KWON ◽  
Sean HEALY
Keyword(s):  
Physical Education ◽  
Online Education ◽  
General Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Adapted Physical Education ◽  
Physical Educators ◽  
Physical Education Teacher ◽  
Education Teacher ◽  
Physical Education Teacher Education ◽  
General Physical

Students with disabilities around the world are leaving special schools and special classes and are receiving their education in general education schools. In addition to attending general education classes, these students with disabilities are attending general physical education classes. Unfortunately, research has clearly demonstrated that physical educators do not feel prepared to include students with disabilities into their general physical education classes. Such findings are not surprising given that the typical physical education teacher education program in the United States only requires one course in adapted physical education, and in many countries around the world not even one adapted physical education course is required. However, many physical education teacher education programs do not have the space to add more adapted physical education classes, and other universities do not have professors with specialized knowledge to teach adapted physical education. What can be done to better prepare future and current physical educators? Online education is a relatively new method for delivering information about disability in general and more specifically how to include students with disabilities into general physical activities. The purpose of this paper is to introduce online education and present preliminary research that supports the use of online training with physical educators.

School Administrators’ Intentions to Promote Adapted Physical Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 019263652110454
Author(s):  
Scott W T. McNamara ◽  
Terry Rizzo ◽  
Matt Townsley
Keyword(s):  
Public School ◽  
Physical Education ◽  
Theory Of Planned Behavior ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Planned Behavior ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
Subjective Norms ◽  
Adapted Physical Education ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Survey Results

A survey, developed with the Theory of Planned Behavior, was used to assess school administrators’ intention to promote adapted physical education (APE). Survey results indicated that when school administrators’ attitudes and subjective norms were favorable, the intention to promote APE was subsequently higher. The results indicate that if we expect public school administrators to promote APE in schools, they must know the importance of high-quality physical education to students with disabilities.

Professional Preparedness and Psychosocial Beliefs as Predictors of Quality Physical Education and Recreation Services to Students with Disabilities

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thea Kavanaugh ◽  
Joe Tomaka ◽  
Ernesto Moralez
Keyword(s):  
Physical Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
School Personnel ◽  
Adapted Physical Education ◽  
Quality Service ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Recreation Services ◽  
Professional Disciplines ◽  
And Training

The purpose of this study was to examine how professional preparedness and psychosocial beliefs affected behavioral intentions and quality service behaviors in providing physical education (PE) and recreation services to students with disabilities (SWD). Participants of an online survey included New Mexico adapted physical education (APE) teachers (N=42) and recreational therapists (RT; N=13) and a sample of PE teachers (N=63). Analyses revealed significant differences between PE teachers and personnel in specialty professional disciplines. APE and RT personnel reported greater positive attitudes, higher self-efficacy, greater behavioral intention, and more engagement in quality service behaviors than PE teachers. The results have implications for the selection and training of school personnel hired to provide PE and recreation services to SWD.

Connecting to Community: What Do We Want in Our Special Education Graduates?

2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-118
Author(s):  
Stephen Hughes ◽  
Linda De George-Walker
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Special Education Teacher ◽  
Teacher Preparation Programs ◽  
Collaborative Relationships ◽  
Preparation Programs ◽  
Consultation Process ◽  
Education Teacher ◽  
Education Professionals ◽  
Teacher Attributes ◽  
Special Education Professionals

AbstractWith a commitment to establishing collaborative relationships with a local special education community, a consultation process was undertaken to ascertain what practising educators considered essential special education graduate characteristics. This consultation occurred against the backdrop of broad-scale university organisational restructure, faculty level program redesign, and the reported lack of an empirical basis for special education teacher attributes as distinct from general teacher education attributes. Special education professionals in a regional Australian city were invited to participate in two workshops to generate and analyse the qualities they considered essential for graduates of special education teacher preparation programs. The attributes identified by participants as essential were in agreement with many of those identified in the literature, yet behaviour support and resilience, which are typically subsumed within other categories in the literature, featured as stand-alone areas in this study. The processes and outcomes described in this article are discussed in relation to the potential value of special education teacher attributes for the field, and establishing a bridge across the perceived gap between the field and universities.

Diversity and Inclusion and Special Education

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Forlin ◽  
Dianne Chambers
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
Special Schools ◽  
New Era ◽  
Regular School ◽  
Diversity And Inclusion ◽  
Inclusive Approach

Special education has undergone continued transformation since societies began to provide an increasing number of specialized, segregated facilities for children with like needs during the 20th century. Since then, there has been a worldwide movement against a segregated approach and toward greater inclusion of students with disabilities into regular schools. The provision of a dual special education and regular school system, nevertheless, remains in existence, even though there has been a strong emphasis on a more inclusive approach since the latter half of the 20th century. As regular schools become more inclusive and teachers more capable of providing appropriate modifications for most students with learning needs, simultaneously there has been an increase in the number of students whose needs are so severe that schools have not been able to accommodate them. While these children and youth have special needs, they are invariably not related to an identified disability but fall more into a category of diversity. In particular, students who are excluded from schools due to severe infringements, those who are disenfranchised from school and refuse to attend, and those with severe emotional, behavioral, or mental health issues are not being serviced by the existing dual system. For these students neither existing special schools that cater to students with disabilities nor regular inclusive schools provide an appropriate education. The provision of a complementary and alternatively focused education to cater to the specific needs of these marginalized students seems to be developing to ensure sustainability of education and to prepare these new groups of students for inclusion into society upon leaving school. This tripartite approach highlights a new era in the movement toward a sustainable, inclusive education system that caters to the needs of all students and specifically those with the most challenging and diverse requirements.

Impact of Occupational Instruction on the Performance and Vocational Identity of Special Education Students

1996 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard T. Roessler ◽  
Karen Foshee
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Regular Education ◽  
Vocational Identity ◽  
Special Education Students ◽  
Special Education Teacher ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Barriers To Employment ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Vocational Situation

A special education teacher in a small rural high school instructed 23 students with disabilities in the occupational domain of the Life Centered Career Education curriculum. The students increased their Performance Battery scores from pre to post test, achieving both mastery on the competency tests and a skill level comparable to that of regular education students (n=15). Although the instructed students tended to report increased levels of occupational information from pre to post testing, they did not report fewer barriers to employment or increased vocational identity on the My Vocational Situation test.

scholarly journals On the Pulse of Change: The New Beat of Special Education in Higher Education

2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Keeffe ◽  
Linda De George-Walker
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Special Educators ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
Regular School ◽  
Lead Teachers ◽  
School Teaching ◽  
Changing Roles ◽  
Low Incidence

AbstractThe roles and responsibilities of special educators in both special and regular school settings are changing rapidly. More than two decades ago the move towards more inclusive practices disrupted the traditional, niche separatism of special educators to the extent that they are now an integral part of the regular school teaching staff. Today the broad agenda to facilitate access and participation for all students in education, not just students with disabilities, influences the roles and responsibilities of special educators. This article briefly identifies some of the generic pulses that are moving the special education profession from a focus on low incidence disabilities towards a more comprehensive approach to inclusion, school responsiveness and individualised learning pathways. From the foundation of inclusive practice, this article will describe how a qualitative study was used to understand the changing roles and responsibilities of special educators. A case-study analysis of 17 schools formed the basis of the investigation. Principals, lead teachers in special education and special education teachers were asked to identify trends and priorities in special education and also to identify rewards and challenges in their jobs. Further cross-referencing with teacher and special educator standards, a focus group, a stakeholder group and research in the field increased the opportunity for academics and special educators to critically reflect on the emerging demands placed on special educators and the attributes that are needed to be professionally effective.

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