Broadly defined, coaching is "a form of professional learning within the classroom or school that helps [educators] develop and apply new knowledge, make strong plans for instruction and assessment, obtain feedback, refine their practices, and examine results" (The University of Florida Lastinger Center for Learning, Learning Forward,…

The changing demands of the 21st century--and the students growing up in it--are generating fundamental challenges to historical assumptions about what education looks like. The challenge today is to provide a deeper level of personalized learning to each and every student so that all can achieve mastery of the Common Core standards and other…

This article compares two educational approaches, intensive-explicit instruction and constructivist instruction, considering how both can affect instruction for students with disabilities. It concludes by urging the integration of these two approaches, possibly by using models focused on the transformation of explicit knowledge into tacit…

The reference handbook is the product of an Iowa Department of Education, Bureau of Special Education project entitled "Accommodation Strategies." The project attempted to: facilitate mildly handicapped students in regular education through the development and utilization of unique educational strategies; enhance cooperative endeavors between…

General and specific strategies useful in facilitating an integrated educational environment for children with severe disabilities are presented. Strategies include, among others, identifying and facilitating natural supports, using a participation approach, demonstrating success locally, recruiting collaborators, communicating with all members of…

This guide, in workbook form, offers an assessment model for service learning programs that focuses on the four constituencies of service learning: students, faculty, community, and the institution. The approaches described were evaluated and refined in a pilot study with 10 service learning courses. The model provides both quantitative and…

This document presents 28 accepted principles for modifying instruction to better meet needs of handicapped and at risk students. The principles include, among others: get to know the individual student in an informal manner; examine the patterns of children's errors; sequence skills to reduce error rates; vary response, testing, and grading…

This article presents two models to assist speech-language pathologists in overcoming potential barriers to effective service delivery collaboration: peer coaching, in which teachers and therapists model techniques and lessons for each other; and coteaching, in which classroom teachers plan activities to meet curriculum goals while therapists…

This document summarizes the curriculum at the University of Tulsa School for Gifted Children in Oklahoma. The curriculum is based on enaction theory which postulates that thinking is a matter of running a simulation in one's head and involves three steps: (1) creating a mental model; (2) manipulating that model; and (3) developing a strategy for…

This booklet examines the unique difficulties of delivering education services to at-risk children and youth with exceptionalities who live in rural areas. An introductory chapter considers the extent of the problem and identifies such strategies as providing self-esteem education, appropriate preservice and inservice training,…

This guide presents a model for designing an early childhood program that educates children with and without disabilities in the same classroom setting. Its system of instruction is developmentally appropriate for preschool children and provides effective early intervention for young children with disabilities. It focuses on creating an…

This paper proposes a five-step model intended to meet the needs of gifted students in the context of the mixed ability reality that most teachers in regular classrooms encounter. The model consists of five steps each of which has several components. The steps and components are: (1) acceptance (initiatives must start out small and sound to be…

This document explores the United Kingdom's developing practice of recognizing adult students' achievement in ways that make flexible use of the learning outcomes methodology, provide a mix of accredited and non-credited work, and are sensitive to the ethos of adult learning. (That ethos is often characterized by adult students' desire for…