Parent and educator perceptions of the effect of a blended general education and special education co-teaching environment on the development of preschool children.

摘要

This study compared perceptions of parents and educators of general education and special education students enrolled in a blended/co-taught prekindergarten program. Ninety-seven participants from one public preschool district in the north Texas metropolitan area completed a brief Likert survey. The data were analyzed using a chi-square of independence. Within each group, the responses of each of the 23 survey items were examined and compared to each other. Significant relationships were revealed on four of the survey items. Overall, data revealed the majority (86.8%) of parents and educators of general and special education students agreed or strongly agreed that general and special education students' social-emotional, oral language, and academic skills were met in the blended co-taught program. Results of this study support other authors' findings that the majority of parents and educators of preschool students with and without disabilities perceive the blended, inclusive programs as positive. In this study, 8.1% of parents of general education students did not agree to enroll their student in a blended, co-taught classroom for the next school year. This finding parallels numerous other studies with data analysis revealing that parents of general education students may not perceive the blended co-taught program to be the most beneficial for their child. Some of the reasons could be attributed to parents perceiving fewer services and not believing they had a thorough understanding of the blended program.;Possible differences on age and years of experience between English and Spanish educator groups were assessed with independent t-tests. The English and Spanish groups were not found to differ significantly on either average age or average years of experience and the relationships between the 23 items on either age or years of experience yielded no significantly correlated survey items.;Further research on perceptions of bilingual Spanish parents appears warranted as the shift in population demographics and increase of culturally and linguistically different children with and without special needs is growing rapidly.