Date of Graduation

2001

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

This study seeks to establish a benchmark on the perceptions of pre-service teachers (interns) in order to understand the factors influencing successful teaching of disabled students in the general education classroom. With the extensive body of research that indicates general educators request more training to teach disabled students, this study begins with four interns and generates information about the effects of a specific technique designed for teaching learning disabled students and observes the interns' perceptions as they teach learning disabled students. This technique predicts, organizes, searches, summarizes, and evaluates expository text (POSSE), which is characteristic of many effective reading techniques. Interns are aware that the technique is specifically designed for learning disabled students. The researcher records the interns' reflective voices through journal entries and interviews as they travel through four phases of the research, Prior Perception, Baseline, Instructional and Post Assessment phases. The conclusions describe influencing factors on the perceptions of the interns that should be considered by individuals entering the teaching profession and teacher education programs as they help interns prepare for diverse classrooms.

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