Thomas E. Scruggs

Teacher Perceptions of Mainstreaming/Inclusion, 1958–1995: A Research Synthesis

Twenty-eight investigations were identified in which general education teachers were surveyed regarding their perceptions of including students with disabilities in their classes. Research synthesis procedures were employed to summarize responses and examine the consistency of responses across time, geographical location, and item type. Overall, we found that about two thirds of general classroom teachers supported the concept of mainstreaming/inclusion. A smaller majority were willing to include students with disabilities in their own classes, but responses appeared to vary according to disabling condition and implicit obligations on the teacher. Although about half or more of the teachers felt that mainstreaming/inclusion could provide some benefits, only one third or less of teachers believed they had sufficient time, skills, training or resources necessary for mainstreaming/inclusion. Reported attitudes did not appear to covary with either geographical region or time of publication. Implications for policy and practice are provided.

The Quantitative Synthesis of Single-Subject Research Methodology and Validation

This article describes procedures recently employed for the quantitative synthesis of single-subject research literature in special education. First, the need for objective, systematic review procedures is discussed. Second, previous approaches for quantitative evaluation of outcomes of single-case research designs are reviewed. Third, procedures employed by the present authors are outlined using examples from recent synthesis efforts. Finally, implications for future reviews of single-subject research are described.

Summarizing Single-Subject Research Issues and Applications

In this article, literature concerning the quantitative synthesis (meta-analysis) of single-subject research literature is reviewed. First, the general rationale for such an approach is discussed. Next, procedures for synthesizing single-subject literature are described, followed by comments and critiques of those procedures. Finally, a review is presented of the results of applications of those procedures. The authors suggest that procedures based on percentage of nonoverlapping data (PND) between baseline and treatment are justifiable, meaningful, and-across nine applications have produced results that are highly meaningful and faithful to the original research reports.

Co-Teaching in Inclusive Classrooms: A Metasynthesis of Qualitative Research

Thirty-two qualitative investigations of co-teaching in inclusive classrooms were included in a metasynthesis employing qualitative research integration techniques. It was concluded that co-teachers generally supported co-teaching, although a number of important needs were identified, including planning time, student skill level, and training; many of these needs were linked to administrative support. The dominant co-teaching role was found to be “one teach, one assist,” in classrooms characterized by traditional instruction, even though this method is not highly recommended in the literature. The special education teacher was often observed to play a subordinate role. Techniques often recommended for special education teachers, such as peer mediation, strategy instruction, mnemonics, and training of study skills, self-advocacy skills, and self-monitoring, were infrequently observed.

Case Studies in Co-Teaching in the Content Areas Successes, Failures, and Challenges

This article presents recent findings from several long-term qualitative investigations of co-teaching in science and social studies content-area classes, in which collaborating teachers and students with and without disabilities were observed and interviewed regarding effective practices and challenges associated with inclusion. In some sites, collaborating teachers were provided with research-based effective strategies and materials for including students with disabilities in specific activities. Results were equivocal in that in some cases, collaboration was extremely effective and conducive for promoting success for students with disabilities in inclusive classes. In others, challenges remained that presented barriers for successful collaboration and inclusion for students with disabilities. Important mediating variables were identified as academic content knowledge, high-stakes testing, and co-teacher compatibility. Findings are discussed with respect to both successes and remaining challenges.

Reading Comprehension Instruction for Secondary Students: Challenges for Struggling Students and Teachers

This article describes research on reading comprehension instruction with secondary students with learning disabilities. Specific difficulties for the struggling reader at the secondary level are described, followed by a review of reviews of the reading comprehension instruction research. Specific details from the most promising practices that have scientific evidence are highlighted. These practices include peer tutoring that incorporates comprehension strategy instruction and elaborative strategies in history and science classes. Research using Inspiration software to generate spatially organized graphic organizers to facilitate comprehension of content-area instruction is presented. Finally, implications for practice and for future research are discussed.

Best Practices in Promoting Reading Comprehension in Students with Learning Disabilities 1976 to 1996

Abstract In this review, the best practices for facilitating reading comprehension for students with learning disabilities are described and summarized. these best practices were derived from the results of an extensive literature review of research in reading comprehension with students with learning disabilities. analysis of all relevant literature revealed consistently high effects for some reading comprehension strategies. strongest outcomes were observed for teacher-led questioning and self-questioning strategies, followed by text-en hancem ent strategies, and, finally, strategies involving basic skills instruction and reinforcement. the few studies that were located in the area of whole language yielded less positive outcomes. implications for effective practice are described.

How To Summarize Single-Participant Research: Ideas and Applications.

This article describes the need for systematic methods for summarizing single-participant research, describes various approaches for quantitative synthesis, and reviews conclusions of completed synthesis efforts. There is general, but not universal, agreement for the need for systematic literature-review procedures. Areas of disagreement center around the issue of whether outcomes of single-participant research studies can be represented by a single common metric and, if so, which metric is the most useful. Although several alternatives are reviewed, we recommend the use of the percentage of nonoverlapping data metric, and we describe several instances in which it has been employed effectively.

ON BABIES AND BATHWATER: ADDRESSING THE PROBLEMS OF IDENTIFICATION OF LEARNING DISABILITIES

In this article, we review problems in identification of learning disabilities and consider proposed alternatives to present procedures. We argue that no proposed alternative meets all the necessary criteria for identification of learning disabilities, and that radically altering or eliminating current conceptualizations of learning disabilities may amount to “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.” We conclude that the major problems of identification of learning disabilities — including overidentification, variability, and specificity — can be eliminated by increasing specificity and consistency of state criteria and strict adherence to identification criteria on the local implementation level. Finally, we argue that scarce special education funds should not be employed to address the problems of general education.

Early Intervention for Children with Conduct Disorders: A Quantitative Synthesis of Single-Subject Research.

To evaluate treatment of preschool children with conduct disorders, 16 studies were reviewed in which single-subject methodology was employed. Studies were coded for a number of variables including (a) description of target subjects, (b) type of intervention, (c) length and intensity of intervention, (d) primary intervenor, and (e) setting as well as a quantitative outcome variable, percent of treatment data points nonoverlapping with previous baseline phases. Variables were analyzed for covanation between outcomes and study characteristics. Results indicated that (a) reinforcement produced most positive outcomes, followed by punishment timeout and differential attention, respectively: and (b) subject characteristics such as sex, handicapping condition, and target behavior generally bore little relation to treatment outcome. Finally, stronger outcomes were found for homebased interventions and younger subjects, but these findings were inconsistent and were thought to reflect the effects of other variables. Implications for further research are given.