Students' Perceptions of Special Education Service Delivery Models.

Abstract

Studies about the most appropriate service delivery model for students with learning disabilities (LD) have focused on the opinions and practices of teachers, school administrators, legislators, and parents. This study focuses on the opinions of students. The study found that both students with LD and general education students in the inclusion model had more positive feelings about their classmates than their LD and general education peers in the resource room model. The study also found that students in the inclusion model, both students with LD and general education students, felt far more positive about the ways teachers assist students who need extra help. Parents, teachers, and administrators evaluating service delivery models for LD students might take into consideration the findings of this study suggesting that LD students feel better about themselves, their education, and their classmates in the inclusion setting.

Introduction

What is the most effective service delivery model for students with learning disabilities (LD)? Discussions about where students with disabilities should be instructed have received more attention and generated more controversy than any other issue concerning the education of students with disabilities, including how or what these students should be taught (e.g., Fuchs & Fuchs, 1994; Fuchs, Fuchs, & Fernstorm, 1993; Gartner & Lipsky, 1987; Roberts & Mather, 1995). The continuum of services that has been available to students with disabilities includes separate schools, full-time special classes, resource rooms, and inclusion in general education classrooms. Until recently the most frequently utilized service delivery model was the resource room, with most students placed in special education programs spending their school day in the general education classroom and receiving specialized instruction in the resource room (Vaughn & Bos, 1987). However, the debate over the most appropriate service delivery model for students with LD continues. In order to resolve this debate, the opinions and practices of teachers, school administrators, legislators, and even parents have been ascertained. But what about the principle stakeholders in education, the students? Their voices have frequently gone unheard.

Only a small number of studies have directly examined students' perceptions of the learning process. All of these studies, however, have uniformly concluded that the information garnered from students provides cogent and thoughtful insight into student learning (e.g., Babad, 1990; Babad, Bernieri, & Rosenthal, 1991; Guterman, 1995; Klingner, Vaughn, Schumm, Cohen, & Forgan, 1998; Vaughn, Schumm, Klingner, & Saumell, 1995). In addition, students communicate their preferences to teachers in many subtle and not so subtle ways, and these preferences are likely to influence instruction and its outcomes as much as teachers (Weinstein, 1983). Therefore, it is important for educators to consider students' perceptions of, and preferences for the type of service delivery model that will be used in their education program. Students' preferences for one model over another are likely to influence their academic self-concept and their overall motivation toward succeeding in school, as well as, their social self-concept, and how they believe their classmates and teachers view them.

Few studies have examined students' perceptions and preferences toward learning in general, and even fewer studies have specifically investigated students' perceptions toward their special education service delivery model. In one study conducted, individual interviews were initiated with elementary students in order to better understand their knowledge and opinion of the special education resource room in their school (Vaughn & Bos, 1987). Students with LD and general education students showed no significant differences in their knowledge and perception of the resource room. Different, however, were their views of the characteristics of students who utilize the resource room, with general education students attributing more negative attributes to students who go to the resource room. The intermediate students (grades 4-6) reported a greater understanding of special education services in general than the primary students (grades 1-3).

Interviews were also utilized in a study with general, remedial, and special education elementary students who receive a variety of service delivery models. The students were individually interviewed in order to examine their preferences for specialized instruction (Jenkins & Heinen, 1989). The majority of students preferred pull-out service delivery models although this was affected by their current delivery model (with students currently receiving pull-out programs reporting a greater preference for this model), and by their age (with older students reporting a greater preference for the pull-out model). In addition, the majority of students across groups preferred to receive the specialized instruction from their teacher versus a specialist.

A recent investigation by Klingner and colleagues (1998) focused on developing a better understanding of students' perceptions of and preferences for inclusion in general education classrooms or pull-out resource room service delivery models. Elementary students who had participated in both models were individually interviewed to determine their views. Results indicated that students' views varied, but that overall more students identified the pull-out model as the model of choice. However, many students were confident that the inclusion model was meeting their academic and social needs. The finding that students prefer to be pulled-out of their general education classroom in order to receive specialized instruction is contradictory to the view commonly held by many educators who see pull-out programs as stigmatizing to the student (e.g., Gartner & Lipsky, 1987).

There is a dearth of empirical work on students' perceptions of, and preferences for their special education service delivery model. The few research studies that have been conducted have demonstrated that youngsters have distinct opinions and preferences about where and by whom they are instructed. They do not necessarily see the world in the same way that adults think they do or should. If, as the current trend in education indicates, students are being assigned more responsibility for their own learning, then it is vital that students' perceptions and preferences be discerned.

It is clear that students themselves have a valuable and unique contribution to make to educational research. With this in mind, this study goes beyond the previous research on students' perceptions of their service delivery model. The aim of this study is to better understand both students' perceptions of, and preferences for service delivery models, as well as students' perceptions of their classmates who receive such specialized instruction.

Method

Participants

Participants were 167 elementary school students (123 general education students and 44 students with LD) in second through fifth grade. Students were recruited from three elementary schools. The schools were located in a large, urban school district in the southeastern United States. Two of the schools had an inclusive special education model, in which students with LD remained in the general education classroom all day and received services from a special education teacher in the classroom. The third school had a resource room model, in which students with LD left the general education classroom to receive services from a special education teacher in a resource room for ninety minutes to two hours daily.

Measures and Procedure

The Student Perceptions of Service Delivery Model Questionnaire (SPSDM) was designed to elicit students' perceptions about their teacher, classmates, and instruction. The first part of the measure included five items with pictures of dogs to represent a continuum of "very happy" to "very unhappy" on a 5-point Likert-type scale. The students were required to rate their feelings about their general education teacher and classmates, how the general education teacher helps students who do not learn as quickly as others, how they would feel about leaving the classroom to receive extra help, and how they would feel about having another teacher come into the classroom to provide extra help. After providing a rating the students were asked open-ended questions corresponding to each item. For each item, the students were asked to explain why they felt as they had indicated on the survey. For example, "From looking at this picture of the dog you circled, I can see that you feel happy about the way your teacher helps children who do not learn as quickly as others. Tell me why you feel this way." The researchers recorded the students' responses to each interview question. All interviews were conducted by the researchers who had participated in an extensive training on conducting the interviews with children prior to the study. Training included procedures for rapport building, questioning techniques, and probing procedures. Each interview lasted approximately fifteen minutes.

Data Analysis

A Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance was conducted for each Likert-type item to compare group ratings for each of the five items. Post hoc analyses were conducted using the Mann-Whitney test. Qualitative analysis procedures were applied to the obtained data in the open-ended questions to explore student responses. Information was unitized, and compared using the constant-comparison method to detect relationships and identify trends in the data (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). The steps in the data analysis were based on those recommended by Lincoln and Guba (1989). Each researcher read the interviews looking for salient phrases and sentences. After the phrases and sentences were identified, they were sorted into categories. Categories were reviewed for overlap and completeness. After each researcher developed categories individually, the researcher met with a partner to compare and negotiate the categories. Categories that emerged for each item during the qualitative analysis were then rank ordered based on the percentage of student responses in each category.

Results

Medians, means, and standard deviations for all items are reported in Table 1 by group: students with LD in inclusion model; general education students in inclusion model; students with LD in resource room model; and general education students not in an inclusion model. A Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance was conducted for each survey item to compare group ratings for each of the five items. Differences among groups proved statistically significant (p [is less than] 0.01) for three items: Feelings about classmates; Feelings about teacher; and Feelings about how students receive help. No significant differences were found for Feelings about leaving the class for extra help or Feelings about having another teacher come into the class to provide extra help (Table 1). See issue's website http://www.rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/sump.htm

Feelings about Classmates

Follow-up questions for this item asked students what they liked and did not like about their classmates. Responses were fairly evenly divided among respondent groups in the three categories with the exception of the category, "they are my friends." It was interesting to note that while this category was evenly represented among the other three groups, no student with LD in the resource room model gave this response. In response to this question, students made comments such as,

   Everybody in my class is real nice," and "There are a lot of good friends
   in my class, I like almost everyone," or "I like it when they let me do
   things with them, play games, use their stuff.

In response to the question regarding what they did not like about their classmates, greater percentages of the students in the resource room model, both students with LD and general education students, seemed to have concerns about other students being mean to them or about students misbehaving. On the other hand, while some students in the inclusion model were concerned with fighting, none of the students in resource room model mentioned students fighting. Typical students responses included comments such as, "Some of them behave crazy, some are rude," "These people start hitting me when I sit down," or "They fight."

Feelings about the General Education Teacher

The interview question asked students what they liked about their teachers. School administrators did not allow students to be asked what they did not like about their teachers. Responses to what students liked about their teacher included comments such as, "She does a lot of fun stuff with us of fun activities to do," and "She teaches us things we want to know in a fun way." Most interesting among responses to this item was that, although the majority of students in the inclusion model responded that their general education teacher helps them when they do not understand, this response did not occur among the students with LD in the resource room model or general education students not in an inclusion model. Also, although some students responded that their general education teacher makes learning fun, no students with LD in resource room model gave this response.

Feelings about How Students Receive Help

In response to how students felt about the way their teacher helped students, students said things such as, "The people that don't learn as quickly as me and other people get easy work but for them it's kind of hard and she stays back longer than other teachers;" "If she teaches, some don't understand. She says, `You should have been listening;" and "Sometimes she doesn't wait for slow people." In general, both students with LD in the resource room model and general education students not in an inclusion model appeared to be expressing dissatisfaction with the way that students who need help received that help. However, some of the general education students not in an inclusion model said that the teacher provides extended teaching assistance to these students.

Students' responses to what the school should do for students who do not learn as quickly, included suggestions such as: "Put them all in one big class apart and put others in other side of the building;" "Put them in a special class so they can learn much faster;" and "Get more teachers in these classes and make them teach more kids," It is interesting to note that the largest group suggesting that students be placed in special classes were the general education students in the inclusion model; however, few students with LD offered this suggestion.

Feelings about Leaving the Class to Get Extra Help

Students also seemed to have difficulty responding to what they would not like about leaving the class for extra help, with many students indicating that they could not think of anything that they would not like. Those who did respond seemed to be most concerned about missing work and activities in their home classroom while they were gone. Both groups of general education students expressed greater concern than students with LD about missing their classmates. Students responses included comments such as, "Not being around a lot of people I know," or "Could be missing another class."

Feelings about Having Another Teacher Come into the Classroom

Follow-up questions asked students what they would like best and what they would like least about having another teacher come into the classroom. Student responses to what they would like about having another teacher come into the class included statements such as, "She might be really nice if I'm really nice to her;" "You would have more help" and "Wouldn't have to raise my hand as much." Students also shared what they would not like about having another teacher come into their class to provide assistance. Common responses included: "If you have someone else in the class you won't get as much attention from regular teacher;" "Other students will make fun;" and "People would probably laugh at me."

Discussion

The results of this study would appear to support the notion that students participating in an inclusion general education service delivery model have positive perceptions about their general education teachers and classmates. Both students with LD and general education students in the inclusion model had more positive feelings about their classmates than their LD and general education peers in the resource room model. This feeling was true across students of all grades. Poignant support for the role of inclusive general education classrooms in social acceptance is found in the responses to the follow-up interview question that asked students what they liked most about their classmates. While evenly representative percentages of students with LD and general education students in the inclusion model and general education students not in the inclusion model responded that "they are my friends," not one student with LD in the resource room model gave this response. Perhaps some further examination of the nature of friendships among students with LD and general education students in inclusive and resource room models is warranted. In addition, further study is needed to understand how these peer relationships can foster learning for students with LD.

A second interesting finding in this study was the examination of the way that students feel about how students receive extra help in the general education classroom. Some arguments against inclusion have asserted that general education students in these classrooms would get short-changed, continually waiting to go on with their learning as the teacher helps the "slower" students. Theoretically this would not build tolerance among the general education students, but rather resentment. Our data does not support this assertion. The students in the inclusion model, both students with LD and general education students, felt far more positive about the ways teachers assist students who need extra help. Furthermore, in considering the questions which focused on feelings about leaving the class for extra help and feelings about another teacher coming into the class to provide extra help, significant differences did not appear between groups on either question. All of the groups expressed more positive feelings about having an additional teacher in the classroom to help students having difficulties, as opposed to students leaving the classroom for extra help. This is in contrast to the Jenkins and Heinen (1989) study examining the preferences of remedial, LD, and general education students which found that the majority of students preferred pull out service delivery models for extra help. In their discussion, Jenkins and Heinen suggested that the greater preference for the pull out model may have been influenced by the fact that this was the model in which students included in the study were being served. Yet, the present study included students from both inclusion and resource room (pull out programs) models and found no significant differences between these groups with the majority of the students preferring not to leave the classroom for extra help regardless of which type of service delivery model was employed in their particular school.

Implication

The role of students' perceptions, how they feel about their education and about themselves, has been shown to play an influential role in their academic achievement and school success (Weinstein, 1983). This study suggests that these students feel better about themselves, their education, and their classmates in the inclusion setting. Although those who would argue against inclusion would say that students with LD cannot receive an adequate education in the general education classroom setting, they may not have considered the power of student perceptions in student success. The receipt of an appropriate education is not only a right but also the law. What the results of this study suggest is that children have their own ideas about what is appropriate for them. Obviously, it is not realistic to expect that children know unequivocally what is in fact best for them educationally and thus program determinations can not be made based solely on what the child finds desirable. Nevertheless, if students' perceptions of where and by whom they are instructed impact their academic success, educators may wish to consider these preferences when making determination about the ways in which special education services will be delivered.

References

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Marie Tejero Hughes, University of Miami, FL Linda Saumell, University of Miami, FL Jane Sinagub, University of Miami, FL

Marie Tejero Hughes is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Miami. Her research interests include instructional practices for students with disabilities in general education classes and parental involvement. Linda Saumell is the Director of the Academic Development Center at the University of Miami. Her research focuses mainly on reading and study skills for students with learning disabilities. Jane Sinagub is a doctoral candidate in the counseling program at the University of Miami.