Planning for a More Inclusive Curriculum in Teacher Training

Throughout the nation's public school systems, a growing number of students with disabilities are being included in general education classrooms. The major goal underlying this educational trend is to enhance their learning expectations and levels of educational performance. One important outgrowth of this educational reform is the coming together of general education and special education, and herein lies the term 'collaboration.'

Alabama has been responsive to this collaborative change in-the-making. The Alabama State Department of Education and Alabama's Institutions of Higher Education, for example, have held several 2-day meetings on collaboration and its impact on teacher education. The purpose of these meetings has been to identify issues and implications associated with collaboration, as well as to 0examine strategies for preparing both general and special education teachers to better meet this inclusive challenge.

At the invitation of the state department, AU's College of Education drafted a model for offering its students a more collaborative secondary teacher education program. In other words, C&T students would be better prepared to serve students with disabilities in the regular classroom. As well, special education students would become more highly qualified in content areas. The curriculum model was developed with the intent that it had the potential for being implemented at some future point. Also, it served as the basis for an application for a planning grant that was submitted to the state department and funded this April for $18,000. The College of Education matched that grant with $7,000.

The proposed curriculum model is a result of a Collaboration Committee comprised of faculty representing the college's departments of special education and curriculum & teaching. Through several meetings, they focused on (a) examining Auburn's different secondary teacher certification programs, (b) identifying teacher training issues related to students with disabilities, (c) identifying strategies for addressing these teacher training issues, and (d) developing a model for the Planning Grant.

The committee articulated a developmental model that will incorporate collaborative elements throughout the student-teachers' curriculum program, beginning with student orientation classes and extending through internship. Starting this May, the committee will spend six months planning and pilot testing a set of collaborative strategies for the college's secondary teacher certification program(s).

Included among the strategies to be explored are co-teaching experiences between general and special education faculty; 'paired' general and special education student teachers exploring case studies of students with disabilities; special education teacher students participating in seminars on content knowledge and methods; incorporating into existing C&T courses collaborative content (e.g., curriculum adaptations); student teachers shadowing students with learning or behavior problems through service learning; and a mixed forum of workshops between general and special education student teachers, both before and after internship. These are but a few of the activities that are being considered.

The planning grant will be implemented by the collaborative committee, which is represented by C&T members Barbara Ash, Jada Kohlmeier, Gary Martin, John Saye, Marilyn Strutchen, and Kim Walls, and special education members Cari Dunn, Karen Rabren, AmySue Reilly, Peggy Shippen, and Philip Browning. Ms. Suzanne Woods, a third-year doctoral student in special education, will serve as the committee's Planning Grant coordinator (.50 FTE).

Dr. Frances Kochan, Dean of Education, is excited about the prospects of this initiative. "I am confident that the efforts put forth by the college's collaboration committee will result in a more inclusive curriculum for our secondary student-teachers." In turn, she says ". . . this improvement in their teacher preparation program will be in keeping with contemporary legislation - No Child Left Behind, as well as the college's mission, which is to build a better future for all."