Analyzing special educators' views on community-based instruction for students with mental retardation and developmental disabilities: Implications for teacher education

Community-based instruction continues to grow as a preferred curricular opt ion for teachers of students with moderate to severe mental retardation. Al though long advocated as an important instructional approach for students w ith mild mental retardation (Brolin, 1995; McDonnell et al., 1993), the rel ationship has nor been very clearly established between community-based ins truction (CBI) and the general education curriculum emphasizing traditional academic skills. This investigation was designed to gather relevant findin gs related to the process of community-based instruction and to translate t hese findings into implications that the implementation of this innovation may have on teacher education and future research in special education. As findings indicate, there appear to be differing attitudes between teachers who engage in CBI programming and those who no not. There also appears to b e some indication that teachers who have characteristics as risk takers app ear To be more able to develop CBI activities. In addition, the need for ad ministrative support, both at the outset of program development and during the instructional process, appears to be a major indicator of success. Futu re researchers should investigate the effects of administrator perceptions and attitudes, CBI effects on the learning of more traditional academic ski lls, and the development of high-quality CBI activities.