Transenvironmental Programming: Promoting Success in the Regular Class by Maximizing the Effect of Resource Room Instruction

Abstract

With the growth in popularity of special education resource rooms, effective strategies are needed to promote the transfer of learned skills from one educational setting to another. “Transenvironmental programming” is presented as a data-based approach for promoting regular class success for handicapped students by carefully programming resource room instruction. An experimental study is described which illustrates the tenets of transenvironmental programming and supports Its efficacy as an approach to promoting the transfer of skills across settings. Throughout the four phases of a reversed design, the accuracy of one handicapped student's written and oral spelling responses are monitored during spelling instruction in the regular classroom. Daily preteaching sessions in the resource room, using materials matched for content and format with those of the regular classroom, increased regular class spetling accuracy to a level comparable to the mean performance of the subject's peers. The data are discussed with respect to transenvironmental programming. and implications of the study for providing effective resource room instruction are presented.