Strategies for Teaching Learners with Special Needs - Softcover

Preface

With this new edition, we have endeavored to retain the positive features of earlier editions while incorporating new information within the profession. In writing the seventh edition of this text, we have been committed to changes that reflect the realities of education at the turn of the century. Thus the text includes increased attention to many contemporary themes in education, including inclusion, collaboration, cooperative teaching, strategy training, the importance of phonological awareness, holistic perspectives, home-school collaboration, ethical issues in the education profession, transition, and positive educational outcomes.

The title, Strategies for Teaching Learners with Special Needs, reflects the generic focus consistent with the previous editions of the text. This scope reflects our belief that appropriate teaching methods are rarely category-specific but instead represent good teaching strategies that benefit many learners. As the title of the book acknowledges, methods that are effective for students with various disabilities as well as those at risk are best selected from the broad domain of effective instructional practices and then matched to individual needs.

While this text is designed for the realities of programs for learners with diverse exceptional needs, we are also committed to the belief that all learners with disabilities need a comprehensive curriculum. Therefore, the discussion of curricular design, the clarifications within content chapters, and the further attention to transitional and career concerns emphasize that differences among subgroups of students with special needs must be reflected in differentiated programming.

This edition is a major revision of previous editions, but, like its predecessors, it reflects our commitment to equipping educators with appropriate and practical methods for teaching. Our assumption is that learning can be considered a direct result of the quality of instruction. Effective education must be based on a systematic program that has been organized and structured to maximize the progress of individual students. The goal of the book is thus to present proven approaches that will foster educational success.

As we have tried to integrate the old and the new, we continue to be inspired by the memory of Ruth Ann Payne and James E. Smith, Jr., close friends and coauthors of the first two editions of the text. Those who were fortunate enough to count themselves among their friends know that they lost a significant piece of themselves when Ruth Ann and Smitty died. We hope that through the successive revisions of this text we have continued to communicate their commitment to effective education for students with special needs.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Along with the text revisions comes the need to acknowledge the support of colleagues. The work of Jim Payne, our lifelong mentor, on the first four editions of the text was critical in shaping the focus and content of the book. Chapters written by Ginger Blalock, Jane Nowacek, John Hoover, and Glenn Buck represent major contributions to this edition. We also acknowledge the support of Ann Davis, our editor, and of Pat Grogg, her assistant. Additionally, we thank Phyllis Lane and Karen Canfield for their important contributions to the development of this seventh edition, and Kathy Fad, Joy Kataoka, and Robin Lock for prior contributions to the special features that accompany the text.

Special thanks go also to the reviewers of this edition: Greg Conderman, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire; Zoe Locklear, University of North Carolina at Pembroke; Cynthia M. Okolo, University of Delaware; Chris Ormsbee, University of Oklahoma; and Roberta Strosnider, Hood College.

E.A.P.
J.R.P.
L.S.