Samuel L. Guskin

Educational Research in Mental Retardation

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the educational research in mental retardation reported between 1960 and 1967. Whereas most learning research is carried out in a controlled laboratory setting, most educational research is carried out in a relatively uncontrolled natural school environment. Educational research also includes areas other than applied learning research. This chapter discusses about Kirks investigation and the implementation of Project head start in 1965. One of the early replications of Kirks study was conducted by Fouracre, Connor, and Goldberg. The major goal of the investigation was to develop and evaluate a curriculum specifically designed for preschool educable mentally retarded children. The objectives of the curriculum included intellectual development, imagination and creative expression, social development, motor development, emotional development, manipulative development, and self-help. Although the study was successful, in producing a curriculum guide for preschool retarded children, the evaluation aspect of the study appears to have been far from successful. Originally designed to include experimental and at-home contrast groups, problems of case finding forced the investigators to eliminate the contrast groups and substitute seven year old educable mental retardates (EMR) special class comparison groups.

Self-interest and Liberal Educational Discourse: How Ideology Works for Middle-Class Mothers

Middle-class mothers typically are viewed as ideal models in terms of their values and goals related to education, participation in their children’s education, and professional involvement in schooling. Yet, the results of this study indicate that educated, middle-class mothers, perceived as liberals who believe in integrated and inclusive education, still support segregated and stratified school structures that mainly benefit students of the middle class. Thompson’s (1990) modes of operation of ideology and strategies of symbolic construction shed light on the ways ideology works to establish and sustain high-income parents’ self-interested educational choices while, at the same time, allowing them to maintain a liberal image. The study illustrates how ideology allows parents to bridge disparate streams of thought and salve the dissonance that results from the contradiction between their desired liberal identity and class positionality.

Being Labeled Gifted or Talented: Meanings and Effects Perceived by Students in Special Programs

Questionnaires were administered to 295 students in summer programs for 9-15 year old academically gifted and artistically talented students, asking for their conceptions of giftedness and talent and their perceptions of the causes and consequences of being so identified. Findings suggested that their stereotypes regarding gifted and talented students were highly positive. These students reported that giftedness can be attained by hard work, that they are not very different from others, and that others treat them well. A minority reported negative reactions from peers.

Evaluating Mainstreaming Programs: Models, Caveats, Considerations, and Guidelines:

A variety of practical and theoretical issues pertinent to the evaluation of mainstreaming programs are presented, including (a) a critique of large and small mainstreaming evaluation studies, with emphasis upon the adequacy of models and the insights they yield for improved evaluation designs; (b) problems and issues in the evaluation of educational treatments, including attention to the variables of instructional time, instructional integration, stating goals and objectives, assessing teacher willingness to accommodate the handicapped child, and monitoring child progress; (c) considerations related to appraising dependent measures (attitudes, achievement, acceptance, cost/effectiveness); and (d) a discussion of issues unique to the evaluation requirements of Public Law 94–142. The paper concludes with a presentation of guidelines for developing and appraising mainstream evaluation reports, and the observation that problems related to the evaluation of mainstreaming programs are not insurmountable.

Theoretical and Empirical Strategies for the Study of the Labeling of Mentally Retarded Persons

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses theoretical and empirical strategies for the study of labeling of mentally retarded persons. Labeling refers to a number of phenomena that needs to be clarified and empirically explored. There is the concern that a child who is labeled retarded is seen less favorably than before he was labeled. It is held to be likely that a child so labeled is treated in a less pleasant or less appropriate way than if he were not so labeled and this behavior by others would have negative consequences for the achievement and adjustment of the retarded. There has been inadequate analysis of the variables entering into the labeling process. Labeling of the retarded has been of great practical concern and has led to a number of investigations; an understanding of the phenomena involved by the overly simplified models has been used to think about and study the process. The chapter presents some suggestions that can lead to more appropriate theoretical models and empirical strategies for studying and describing labeling phenomena in the field of mental retardation.

Problems and Promises of Meta-Analysis in Special Education

The paper discusses problems resulting from the substitution of meta-analysis for qualitative reviewing of special education research, employing Coopers (1982) framework for assessing integrative research reviews and using illustrations from research on class placement and mainstreaming. The pressure to maximize the number of observations in a meta-analysis may lead to the inclusion of inappropriate subject, treatment, and measurement categories. Meta-analysts often fail to meet the criteria for the inferential tests they apply. They also tend to underplay methodological problems common to a body of research. Meta-analysts could make more useful contributions if they were more thoughtful about both the methodology and substance of special education rather than tending toward blind empiricism. The greatest promise of meta-analysis is to encourage numerous small-scale studies which can then be quantitatively integrated. The development of meta-analytic techniques for qualitative research is another promising area.

Community Attitudes toward Community Placement of Mentally Retarded Persons

Publisher Summary This chapter explores the possibility of vociferous community members irrationally attacking proposals for humane, normal appearing residences for retarded persons in their neighborhood, thereby driving these unhappy persons back to bedlam like state hospitals. The community attitudes toward community placement of mentally retarded persons appear to be based on a core set of assumptions. First, it is assumed that the most appropriate residential placement is generally in the normal community, which to most professionals suggests a home and neighborhood much like the place in which they choose to live. A second assumption is that placement in large, isolated institutions is the result of hostile community attitudes toward the mentally retarded and that these same attitudes are a major source of the problems that have arisen in trying to establish small “community residential facilities” (CRFs) for mentally retarded persons. Third, it is assumed that community resistance is irrational and unrealistic and that if community members only knew the truth about the retarded and CRFs, they would be supportive. Finally, it is assumed that verbally expressed attitudes relate to overt behavior, for example, resistance to CRFs.