Research on Curriculum for Students with Moderate and Severe Intellectual Disability: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Curriculum content is an essential component of the field of special education for students with moderate and severe disabilities. This study updates the twenty-year curriculum content review by Nietupski, Hamre-Nietupski, Curtin, and Shrikanth (1997) and provides an overview of the last 15 years of research on this topic. A hand search of ten relevant journals within the field was conducted to identify and categorize the research on curriculum content for students with moderate and severe intellectual disability. Results indicate a very low percentage of the research literature focused on curriculum content for this population. Curricular articles published in the past fifteen years primarily focused on functional life skills, with a recent increase in cognitive academics. The articles consist mainly of quantitative methods and non-data based studies. Over half did not clearly list the educational context of focus. Implications of these findings for the education of students with moderate and severe intellectual disability and directions for future research are discussed.