HOW TEACHERS USE PEER INTERACTIONS TO INCLUDE STUDENTS WITH MODERATE AND SEVERE DISABILITIES IN ELEMENTARY GENERAL-EDUCATION CLASSES

This study investigated the way teachers in Jive elementary classrooms used peer interactions to facilitate the inclusion of a student with moderate or severe disabilities. Four themes describing the strategies used to encourage and shape interactions between students with and wi thout disabilities were identified: new rules about helping, ''just an other student,'' age appropriateness, and ''backing off.'' The discuss ion focuses on the complexity of facilitating peer helping roles witho ut encroaching on the social reciprocity found in friendships. The dev elopment of inclusion practices based on cooperation and mutual assist ance for all students, rather than only for students with identified d isabilities, is recommended.