Placing Children in Special Education A Strategy for Equity (1982) / Chapter Skim
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4 Effective Instruction for Mildly Mentally Retarded Children
4 Effective Instruction for Mildly Mentally Retarded Children
Pages 74-91
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From page 74... ...
Are separate classes for mildly mentally retarded children needed, or can such children be as well or better served in the regular classroom?
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From page 75... ...
Some of the difficulties that we address here emerge from attempts to transform educational practices that were originally based on clinical practice for a highly select population into a special education program for a much wider range of students that must accommodate the bureaucratic constraints of the public school. In the area of mental retardation, as in other areas of special education such as learning disabilities, many accepted principles of instruction have been based on careful observation and a tutorial type of instruction with highly atypical children.
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From page 76... ...
Special education for mildly mentally retarded children has grown from the widespread observation that children with generally low mental ability fare poorly in regular school programs. It is generally assumed that such children lack abilities, such as the ability to abstract or to transfer knowledge, that are assumed in regular instruction.
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From page 77... ...
EVIDENCE ON EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION FOR MILDLY MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN Despite several decades of research it remains difficult to gather definitive evidence on the nature of effective instruction for mildly mentally retarded children. In addition to problems created by shifting definitions of the EMR population?
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From page 78... ...
With these limitations in mind we turn to a consideration of the research on effective instruction for mildly mentally retarded children. We consider first the pervading question of setting do mildly mentally retarded children fare best in separate classes, or do they do better when allowed to remain in regular classrooms?
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From page 79... ...
The resource room, a special instructional environment to which children are assigned for a part of the day, spending the remainder in the regular classroom, often but not always shows favorable effects in comparison with separate classes and full-time placement in regular classes. But children sometimes do best in regular classrooms in which their own teachers are assisted in providing special instruction.
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From page 80... ...
FEATURES OF EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION The most obvious conclusions from these kinds of inconclusive findings over several decades of research is that the instructional setting per se does not matter, that mildly mentally retarded children can do equally well or equally poorly in both kinds of settings. Yet this finding may mask some very real and important regularity in effects on children.
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From page 81... ...
. Social Outcomes As we indicated earlier, the rationale for special education for mildly mentally retarded students includes, even stresses, the social goals and outcomes that should be part of an educational plan for such children.
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From page 82... ...
Furthermore, while a considerable body of research points toward the general effectiveness of behavioral and social learning methods, there is a paucity of demonstrations of effectiveness in actual classrooms for mildly mentally retarded children. A few comprehensive intervention programs for mildly mentally retarded students have focused on social skills.
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From page 83... ...
In general there does not seem to be as clear a set of conclusions to draw about the effective teaching of social skills and the promotion of social acceptance of mildly mentally retarded children as there is for academic development. Cognitive Process Skills There is a line of instructional research on mentally retarded children that has been increasingly prominent in recent years and that may have important practical applications in the future.
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From page 84... ...
CONCLU SIONS INSTRUCTIONAL SErrING What conclusions can be drawn from the research literature concerning the appropriate setting and instructional processes for mildly mentally retarded students? On the whole we are forced to conclude that administrative setting, in and of itself, does not determine whether an educational program is effective or appropriate.
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From page 85... ...
That is, do EMR and LD children profit from distinctly different instructional treatments, or do the same features of effective instruction apply to both groups? An extensive body of theory discriminates LD children from mildly mentally retarded children (Cruickshank et al., 1961; Lerner, 1976;
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From page 86... ...
The key features of this direct instruction are shared with those identified as effective for mildly mentally retarded children. On the basis of documented effective practice in schools to date, it appears that basically the same kind of instructional processes may be needed for LD children as for mildly mentally retarded children.
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From page 87... ...
SUMMARY AND SOME CAUTIONS The current evidence on instruction for mildly mentally retarded students seems to offer some clear directions for policy and for classroom practice. First, we can find little empirical justification for categorical labeling that discriminates mildly mentally retarded children from other children with academic difficulties, such as LD children or children receiving compensatory education.2 Second, while there are fewer well-documented studies with clear results than we might wish, the weight of the evidence clearly points to a group of instructional practices that seem to benefit all of these types of children.
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From page 88... ...
If the definitions of mild mental retardation and learning disability were to be made tighter in future research- so that only individuals who were clearly those hypothesized to benefit most from a particular treatment were included in an evaluation we might begin to obtain a clearer picture of effects. Such a trend in research findings would surely temper the conclusion that there is little basis for distinguishing between mildly mentally retarded children and others with academic difficulties.
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From page 89... ...
Along with research that identifies specific features of effective instruction for the special child should be an equally direct look at the effects of these features on other students in the classroom as well. Research in two related areas the effects of grouping by ability or "tracking" and aptitude-treatment interactions may shed some light on this issue.
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From page 90... ...
For children who continue to have difficulty in acquiring basic skills, other educational goals and curricula, especially those related to specific vocational and social adaptive skills, take on increasing importance. It may well be the case that a differentiated set of outcomes for older mildly mentally retarded children will prescribe somewhat more education in separate classes than is necessary for younger children who have recently been identified as having academic problems.
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From page 91... ...
Thus, we do not recommend any single structure for the organization of special education. Rather we endorse a policy that allows for new approaches side by side with vigorous application of our best current knowledge about effective instruction.
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