Preparing General Educators To Serve Students with Learning Disabilities: Rural Classroom Applications.

Overview & Synopsis

Most children with learning disabilities receive all or part of their instructional programs in the general education classroom. To prepare teachers to meet the needs of these students, the Department of Special Education at West Virginia University designed a course of studies for rural regular education teachers leading to teacher certification in learning disabilities. The program targets the regular educators of entire rural schools and expects program competencies to be demonstrated in the teachers' own classrooms and school, thereby institutionalizing program effects. Parents are involved in training and preparation of training materials. A major program innovation is the integration of applied classroom assignments with coursework. Each course includes assignments that require the application of specific methods or procedures in the general education classroom, thereby enhancing the connection between theory and practice. Applied assignments are briefly described for six courses: Introduction to Special Education, Curriculum and Methods, Assessment in Special Education, Classroom and Behavior Management, Introduction to Learning Disabilities, and Teaching Strategies in Learning Disabilities. Over a 3-year period, the program will train a maximum of 40 rural teachers, who will likely remain in their respective rural counties. (SV)