Including Special Needs Students in Ag Ed

Beginning of article

AS REPORTED IN APRIL, A 2008-2009 DOCTORAL DISSSERTATION

research study of secondary agricultural education teachers was conducted in Washington, Texas, Iowa, Kentucky, Tennessee and Delaware to determine how often the educators in the study sample use each of 26 identified strategies in serving students with mild to moderate disabilities. This second pan of the article looks at teacher confidence levels regarding inclusion, and how inclusion practices in agricultural education can be improved.

Are We Effectively Working with Special Heeds Students?

The next part of the study analyzed teacher confidence levels when working with students with special needs in their classes. Teachers were given 12 different statements and asked to respond whether they strongly disagreed, disagreed, agreed, or strongly agreed. Teachers overall were very positive about their abilities to provide a positive classroom atmosphere (M = 3.39). Teachers also generally agreed that they were capable of following the requirements found in special education legislation (M = 3.15), involving students with disabilities in their local FFA chapter (M = 3,14), managing the behavior of students (M = 3.13), and modifying assignments or activities according to a student's IEP (M = 3.11). Of the 12 statements, teachers were least confident that their teacher training …