A PLACE WHERE LIVING THINGS AFFECT AND DEPEND ON EACH OTHER - QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE OUTCOMES ASSOCIATED WITH INCLUSIVE SCIENCE TEACHING

This investigation employed qualitative/quasi-experimental methods to describe the school factors associated with inclusive science instruct ion, and to evaluate the classroom achievement of students with disabi lities with respect to nondisabled students in the same class. In addi tion, achievement and attitude comparisons were made between the inclu sive science classroom and two comparison classrooms. Two of the three classroom teachers taught an ecosystems unit using the district-adopt ed textbook and accompanying materials. A third classroom, which also contained five students with various disabilities, was taught the same unit using an activities-based approach. The accommodations that were necessary to include students with disabilities in the science classr oom were documented. All students were pre-and posttested on science c ontent, concepts, and processes. Qualitative findings replicated concl usions regarding variables meaningfully associated with successful inc lusion in science. Quantitative findings suggested that students in th e activities/inclusion classroom demonstrated superior performance on content recall, higher level thinking, verbal elaboration, and affecti ve measures. Students with disabilities in the activities-based classr oom made academic gains equivalent to those of their classroom peers, and superior to most nondisabled students in textbook-based classrooms . Implications for instruction and practice are described. (C) 1998 Jo hn Wiley & Sons, Inc.