Robert H. Zabel

Factors in Burnout among Teachers of Exceptional Children

Family Consultation Project. Panel presentation at the annual meeting of Region X, American Association on Mental Deficiency, Hartford, November 1980. Allen, D., Affleck, G., McGrade, B., & McQueeney, M. Relationship-focused intervention with high risk infants: First year findings. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Montreal, September 1980. Brassell, W. R. Intervention with handicapped infants: Correlates of progress. Mental Retardation, 1977, 15, 18-22. Bricker, D., & Casuso, V. Family involvement: A critical component of early intervention. Exceptional Children, 1979, 46, 108-116. Brofenbrenner, U. Is early intervention effective? In M. Guttentag & E. Streuning (Eds.), Handbook of evaluation research (Vol. 2). Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1975. Bromwich, R. An intervention program for pre-term infants. In T. M. Field (Ed.), Infants born at risk: Behavior and development. New York: Spectrum, 1979. Bromwich, R. Working with parents and infants: An interactional approach. Baltimore: University Park Press, 1981. Cohen, S. E., & Beckwith, L. Preterm infant interaction with the caregiver in the first year of life and competence at age two. Child Development, 1979, 50, 767-776. Fein, G. Sociocultural issues: privacy, needs, and benevolence. Paper presented at the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, San Francisco, March 1979. Field, T. M. Interaction patterns of preterm and term infants. In T. M. Field [Ed.), Infants born at risk: Behavior and development. New York: Spectrum, 1979. Fraiberg, S. Intervention in infancy: A program for blind infants. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 1970, 10, 381405. Fraiberg, S. Insights from the blind: Comparative studies of blind and sighted infants. New York: Basic Books, 1977. Lacoste, R. J. Early intervention: Can it hurt? Mental Retardation, 1978, 16, 266-268. Murdock, J. B. The separation-individuation process and developmental disabilities. Exceptional Children, 1979, 46, 176-184. Schaffer, R. Mothering. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977. Shearer, D., & Shearer, M. The Portage Project: A model for early childhood intervention. In T. Thossem (Ed.), Intervention strategies for high risk infants and young children. Baltimore: University Park Press, 1976.

Recognition of Emotions in Facial Expressions by Emotionally Disturbed and Nondisturbed Children.

Groups of emotionally disturbed and nondisturbed elementary and junior high subjects were tested for ability to recognize primary emotions in facial expressions. Emotionally disturbed groups were found to be significantly less proficient both for overall emotion recognition ability and for several individual emotions. On the whole, the junior high groups were found to be better identifiers of emotion than the younger groups, but precise relationships between emotion recognition ability and age and also intelligence were unclear. Several possible interpretations of these findings and their implications for educational planning are discussed, and suggestions for additional research are presented.

Burnout Among Special Education Teachers: The Role of Experience, Training, and Age

Relationships between three personal characteristics of special education teachers-amount of teaching experience, amount of training, and age—and job-related burnout are examined in this article. Data drawn from a survey of 601 teachers of exceptional children indicate that more experienced, more highly trained, and older teachers tend to experience less emotional exhaustion, less depersonalization toward their students, and greater feelings of personal accomplishment in their jobs than their less experienced, less trained, younger colleagues.

Cascade of Services Model and Emotionally Disabled Students

The Cascade of Services Model has become an essential component of modern special education, but questions remain about how the Cascade actually operates and whether progams at different levels actually differ as presumed. The present study provides data relating to three areas of presumed differences between resource, self-contained, and residential programs serving emotionally disabled students: type or severity of students, amount of student integration, and allocation of teacher time. While the trends of the data indicate some validity for the assumptions implicit in the Cascade, differences between the levels of the Cascade may be overstated, and levels may overlap to the point where differences are inconsequential.

Saving Children in the Age of Big Brother: Moral and Ethical Issues in the Identification of Deviance

Thirty-six years ago George Orwells novel 1984 popularized the spectre of behavior control by a totalitarian state. His small volume has now sensitized generations to the horror of control that is destructive of the human spirit. In this year that served as the title of Orwells story, educators will do well to consider how totalitarianism could be related to the problems and needs of emotionally disturbed children, their families, and their teachers. A totalitarian state manipulates the behavior of its citizens in an immoral or unethical way. All states control the behavior of their citizens, of course, but totalitarian states control people through coercion and the denial of rights and freedoms that we consider inviolable. As agents of the state, teachers and other school personnel obviously are in the business of controlling childrens behavior. The issue for us as special educators is the extent to which our control techniques are morally and ethically defensible. We would like to control childrens behavior in the interest of their individual happiness and self-realization in a humane society, not only in the interest of the state.

Factors of Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Sense of Accomplishment Among Teachers of the Gifted

A recent teacher poll (McGuire, 1979) revealed that one out of every three teachers surveyed would not choose teaching as a career if the decision were to be made again. Four out of ten teachers do not plan to remain in teaching until retirement, and the number of teachers with twenty or more years of experience has dropped by nearly half within the past 15 years. Over 75% of teachers questioned by Miller (1979) stated that their absences from school were fre-

An Oral History of First-Generation Leaders in Education of Children with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders, Part 2: Important Events, Developments, and People.

As the second part of an oral history of education of students with emotional and behavioral disorders, 15 first-generation leaders were asked about the events, policies, and people that have had the most influence on their professional lives and to identify the most positive and most negative influences. Their videotaped responses to these questions were transcribed and analyzed and are reported here together with discussion of several themes that emerged. Among the most cited positive influences were passage of the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (precursor to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) in 1975, development and application of behavioral approaches, contributions of talented people, and involvement in professional organizations and activities in the field. The most often identified negative influences were the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, zero-tolerance policies, inadequate federal definitions of serious emotional disturbance, isolation from other disciplines with potentially relevant knowledge and practices, and resistance to prevention and early intervention approaches.

Ethological approaches with autistic and other abnormal populations

The relevance of ethology for the study of autistic and other abnormal populations is discussed in the context of both its theoretical bases and its methodological approaches. Examples of ethological studies involving autistic children are included in the review.

A Good Time A Conversation With C. Michael Nelson

C. Michael Nelson began his special education career as a teacher of adolescents with learning and behavior disorders. He has worked as a child psychologist and as a professor with the Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling at the University of Kentucky. He coordinated the graduate Personnel Preparation Program for Teachers of Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities. Dr. Nelson has authored or edited over 100 professional publications. He has prepared teachers of children and youth with behavior disorders at the pre- and in-service levels and has served as principal investigator on a number of research and personnel preparation grants. He has served as president of the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders. Dr. Nelson shared with reflections and thoughts with members of the Janus Project on what he describes as a career that came at a good time.

Use of Time by Teachers of Behaviorally Disordered Students: A Replication.

To help evaluate the operation of the least restrictive environment mandate, the use of time by resource teachers and self-contained classroom teachers of behaviorally disordered students was examined. Teachers from three states were asked how much time they typically spend each week in teaching, evaluation, preparation and planning, consultation and indirect services, and other activities. Data for the two groups were compared with one another and with data collected 5 years earlier. No significant differences were found between resource and self-contained classroom teachers, and no changes were apparent in their use of time between 1980 and 1985. Interpretations for the absence of differences between the two delivery models include inadequate preparation of teachers to serve in different roles, administrative barriers, and preferred teaching roles of teachers of the behaviorally disordered. Suggestions for addressing these factors are offered.