The few studies that have examined teacher effectiveness in special education settings have typically neglected to examine how teaching behaviors vary in light of contextual factors. In this study we investigated whether learning disabilities teachers differed significantly across grade level (elementary and secondary) and educational setting (resource and self-contained) in the occurrences of teaching behaviors that have previously been associated with increased student outcomes in general education. The subjects included 65 beginning teachers of learning disabled students representing each of the nine Virginia school regions who participated in the Beginning Teacher Assistance Program (BTAP) during the fall of 1986. We used multivariate analysis of variance procedures to test for main and interaction effects on the mean frequencies of 22 teacher behaviors demonstrated by the LD teacher sample. There were significant main effects for both grade level and educational setting. There were no significant interaction effects.
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