Cross-Training: Faculty-Sharing between General and Special Teacher Education Programs.

Overview & Synopsis

Children with mildly handicapping conditions spend a considerable amount of their instructional lives receiving instruction from general education teachers. At the preservice level, efforts to assist general education teachers have employed one of two models--the inclusion of special education topics into general education coursework and a specific course in special education. This paper reviews previous efforts to provide sufficient expertise in special education; describes models currently being employed at Valparaiso University (Indiana); and reports preliminary results of a student poll. The literature review concludes that teachers with enhanced coursework in education may be best prepared for meeting the needs of students with mild disabilities both in general and special education settings. At Valparaiso University two team-teaching models have been employed. In the first model, the load of a 3-hour foundations class was split between an elementary-education and a special-education professor. The second model involved general and special education faculty cooperatively teaching different sections of the same course, Educational Psychology. Upon completion of coursework, students were asked to respond to a questionnaire soliciting their attitudes toward the team-teaching experience. Respondents endorsed the inclusion of special education faculty into general coursework; however, they were unwilling to eliminate special education-specific courses from their program of study. Student responses to the questionnaire are appended. (Contains 20 references.) (LL)