As increasing numbers of students with disabilities are taught in general education classrooms, co-teaching has become an established method of special education service provision. No longer viewed by education professionals as a collaborative model-come-lately, this shared approach of working side by side with a colleague in a classroom can be a…

There is little question that today's society is a litigious one, and few professions can escape the realities of such. Although there is no mandate for national data collection on special education due process hearings (Ahearn, 2002), Chambers, Harr, and Dhanani (2003) estimate that more than 9,000 requests for dispute resolution are made per…

Students with learning and behavioral disorders often lack the requisite academic skills and behavioral self-control to remain engaged during passive seatwork activities. Because independent seatwork composes a large portion of the instructional time in general education classrooms and teachers expect students to demonstrate self-control in these…

Research begun in the 1960s provided the impetus for teacher educators to urge classroom teachers to establish classroom rules, deliver high rates of verbal/nonverbal praise, and, whenever possible, to ignore minor student provocations. In that there have been significant advances in the knowledge of what constitutes effective classroom…

Too frequently, current approaches to discipline de-emphasize the importance of social, emotional, and behavioral instruction and overemphasize the use of punishment. When reactive, punitive consequences are the primary form of discipline, a negative school climate emerges. To prevent an unconstructive learning environment, educators need to teach…