Program
Education Doctorate
Year Approved
2020
First Advisor
Lindstrom, Michael
Abstract
This study explored how the special education inclusion model impacted students with disabilities in several South Georgia counties. The researcher determined there were differences in perceptions and actual progression based on the findings from educators’ survey responses and standardized test results concerning the impact of the inclusion model on special education students in general education classrooms. This difference in perception versus reality emerged as a theme and may be attributed to educator’s negative experiences. Specific interest was given to students with disabilities in the categories of specific learning disability (SLD), emotional behavioral disability (EBD), mild intellectual disability (MI), and other health impairment (OHI) disability that received special education services in general education classrooms. The increase of academic success among students with disabilities on standardized tests over the last five years in some high schools caused this researcher to question why general education teachers, special education teachers, and paraprofessionals were not aware that the inclusive classroom model was responsible for positive changes. Surprisingly, the researcher discovered the dissonance that about half of the educators that would rather return to a segregated resource classroom model instead of an inclusion model for students with disabilities. Educators reported many challenges that led to the likelihood of failure of students with disabilities in general education classrooms. Initial evidence of these challenges included declining completion of classwork and homework assignments by students with disabilities. The researcher found these challenges to be present in classroom settings as evidenced by the educators’ response to survey questions relating to lack of completion of daily classwork and homework assignments.
Degree Name
Education Doctorate
Document Type
Doctoral dissertation
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Adams, M. A. (2020). Inclusion Model Impact on Students with Disabilities in Academic Settings [Doctoral dissertation, Bethel University]. Spark Repository. https://spark.bethel.edu/etd/8