Preparing Pre-Service Teachers for the Inclusive Classroom

Editors Dickenson, Keough, and Courduff present readers with a collection of academic essays and scholarly articles focused on the approaches, skills, and methodologies for teachers to use in supporting special needs students. The editors have organized the fourteen selections that make up the main body of the text in four parts devoted to meeting content demands, the pre-service teacher, designing instruction, and teaching the individual. Patricia Dickenson and Penelope Keough are faculty members of National University in California.

General and special education staff work hand in hand in the twenty-first-century classroom. Chapters present framework, strategies, models, and supportive legislation that demonstrate critical skills and tools that prepare PSTs for teaching diverse learners. Customary processes, such as the Individual Education Plan (IEP), are explained. Information about specific learning disabilities are discussed in chapter five which is designed with a focus on the thought that “it is essential that the secondary pre-service teacher be knowledgeable about the different categories of disabilities listed in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) and understand how to develop their instruction and assignments to properly educate students in their classrooms who fall into one or more of these categories” (p. 75). Using the model for Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and alignment with Common Core State Standards represents collaborative measures between general education and special education in chapter six. The inherent plausibility of collaborative planning is demonstrated in consistent examples. This book prepares inexperienced future educators for inclusive and results-oriented teaching experiences.