Requirements for Preparing Regular Class Elementary Teachers for Education of Exceptional Children.

Overview & Synopsis

A descriptive study designed to assess the types of requirements used to prepare elementary preservice regular class teachers for education of the handicapped surveyed 102 schools granting a baccalaureate degree in elementary education and accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. Most accredited programs either had requirements or are planning to implement requirements for training regular class elementary teachers for work with the handicapped. Results indicated that a variety of special education courses and a combination of requirements are used to prepare regular classroom teachers for educating exceptional children. A "survey" class and/or "mainstreaming" course are the two most widely required special education classes. Additionally, most schools infuse special education information into required regular education classes. Experience with exceptional children in a special education setting was not found to be a widely used requirement in these teacher preparation programs. Requirements were also not found to be different or specific to public or private institutions or related to the population size of the schools. (Author/CL)