Interactive Multimedia
The students in America’s classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse (Hodgkinson, 1997). This diversity is not only ethnic, cultural, and economic, but also academic. One factor contributing to the increase in academic diversity has been the movement to include students with learning disabilities (LD) within general education classrooms for most if not all of the school day (Kauffman, 1994). Needless to say, appropriately addressing the educational needs of these students is a challenge for teachers (Zigmond et al., 1995). Teachers and administrators have indicated that they want to meet this challenge (Felner, 1997; McIntosh, Vaughn, Schumm, Haager, & Lee, 1993) and that they recognize the need for training in empirically validated inclusive practices that enhance the learning of all students (Joint Committee on Teacher Planning for Students with Disabilities, 1995). Although inclusive practices designed to improve the achievement of students with LD in inclusive classes have been developed and validated (see Fisher, Schumaker, & Deshler, 1995 for a review), teacher-development programs have not proved successful in keeping pace with these innovations and in translating such instructional innovations into classroom practice on a broad scale (Malouf & Schiller, 1995). Often, these programs involve one-shot sessions (Kline, Deshler, & Schumaker, 1991), focus on practices frequently not perceived as needed by teachers (Fullan with Steigerlbauer, 1991), provide few, if any, opportunities to practice and receive feedback (Cruickshank & Metcalf, 1990), and offer little or no follow-up classroom support (Hoover & Boethel, 1991).