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Current Approaches to Science Education

Implications for Mainstream Instruction of Students with Disabilities

Thomas E. Scruggs is professor of special education, Department of Educational Studies, at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. He received his PhD from Arizona State University in 1982. His research interests include research synthesis, elaborative learning strategies, and science education for students with disabilities. Dr. Scruggs currently serves as editor for practice for the CEC journal Learning Disabilities Research & Practice and is coeditor of the research annual Advances in Learning and Behavioral Disabilities. He is the coeditor of Intervention Research in Learning Disabilities (Springer-Verlag) and the coauthor of Teaching Test-Taking Skills: Helping Students Show What They Know (Brookline). Address: Thomas E. Scruggs, Purdue University, Department of Educational Studies, South Campus Courts, Building E, West Lafayette, IN 47907.

Margo A. Mastropieri

Margo A. Mastropieri is professor of special education at Purdue University. She received her PhD from Arizona State University in 1983. Her present research interests include teacher effectiveness, learning and memory strategies, and science education for students with disabilities. Dr. Mastropieri currently serves as editor for research for the CEC journal Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, and is coeditor of the research annual Advances in Learning and Behavioral Disabilities. She is the coauthor of Effective Instruction for Special Education (PRO-ED) and Teaching Students Ways to Remember: Strategies for Learning Mnemonically (Brookline).

In this article, different curriculum approaches to science education are discussed with respect to characteristics of students with disabilities. Science education is an area of increasing national interest as well as one that a recent survey of teachers identified as a highly suitable subject area for mainstreaming. A cross-categorical perspective is presented on the characteristics that serve to limit mainstream success for students with disabilities. Four major domains of functioning are identified, including language and literacy, cognitive-conceptual development, psychosocial functioning, and sensory-physical abilities. Although functioning in each of these areas can be improved through special education methods, it can also be argued that mainstream curriculum approaches themselves, representing textbook-content approaches as well as activity-inquiry approaches, interact with these disability areas. A case is made that different curriculum approaches to science education can differentially facilitate or inhibit mainstreaming success of students with disabilities.

Remedial and Special Education, Vol. 14, No. 1, 15-24 (1993)
DOI: 10.1177/074193259301400104


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