Prioritizing Inservice Needs for Educators of Students with Severe Handicaps in Heterogeneous Integrated Settings

Abstract

Many educators currently serving students with severe handicaps are unaware of state-of-the-art educational practices for educating their students. In addition, local educators are now called upon to provide services to students with severe handicaps in heterogeneous, integrated educational settings. Education agencies need to gather information to prioritize specific new instructional skills that educators need in order to provide quality services. The current study was conducted by the Oregon Department of Education in order to formulate a long-range plan of inservice education for educators serving students with severe handicaps. The study examined a population of educators who were teaching heterogeneous groups of students with severe handicaps in integrated settings. It determined the educators’ perceived needs for future inservice training while verifying and contrasting those needs through onsite teacher interviews. The four major inservice categories prioritized by educators as future inservice training needs were 1) Teaching Students Having Specific Handicapping Conditions, 2) Teaching Functional Communication, 3) Teaching Appropriate Behavior and Modifying Inappropriate Behavior and 4) Identifying | Designing Appropriate Curriculum Materials and Specific Instructional Programs to Implement IEPs. Specific inservice priorities by educators included: Teaching Students With the Handicapping Condition of Autism, Teaching Students to Spontaneously Interact with Others, and Teaching Students to Engage in Appropriate Social Inter-actions.