This discussion of ecological approaches to special education suggests that the relative neglect of the ecological approach is partially a result of the apparent incompatibility between ecological theory and conventional scientific approaches. It is suggested that ecological theory and positivism may be reconciled by broadening and developing…

Man engages in the continuous construction of models to describe his reality. This assumption led to some instructional research at Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, developing and testing a systems model for the classroom. A model building process labeled message storage and retrieval was developed in some detail. Using this retrieval…