A persuasive argument can be made for the importance of students' being familiar with those works within a specific discipline that have had a major impact upon the field. The present study was an attempt to determine whether there are identifiable “seminal” works in the field of special education. A total of 67 persons out of a pool of 122 (55%) responded to a survey regarding their perceptions of the most influential research papers, position papers/research reviews, and books in the field. The results are discussed in terms of both the significance of the data as well as for their contribution to an understanding of the field of special education.
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