Educating students with mild handicaps in general classrooms: essential teaching practices for general and special...

Area of Science:

• Education
• Special Education
• Inclusion

Background:

• General education classrooms increasingly include students with mild handicaps.
• Effective teaching strategies are needed for successful mainstreaming.
• Educator preparedness is key to supporting diverse student needs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and validate essential teaching practices for educating students with mild handicaps in general classrooms.
• To determine if these practices are essential for both general and special educators.
• To inform teacher preparation and professional development programs.

Main Methods:

• An interdisciplinary panel of 105 experts participated in a two-round Delphi procedure.
• Experts rated 125 teaching practices for their essentiality in mainstreaming mild handicaps.
• Data analysis focused on consensus among experts and differences across educator roles.

Main Results:

• 96 out of 125 practices were validated as essential for teaching students with mild handicaps.
• A significant majority (82%) of practices were deemed essential for both general and special educators.
• Special educators rated practices higher than general educators in four of six categories.

Conclusions:

• A core set of essential teaching practices benefits both general and special educators for inclusive settings.
• Teacher preparation and staff development should integrate these validated practices.
• Further research may explore specific training needs for general educators.