Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities - Division on ...

<strong>in</strong>structional time can be better spent learn<strong>in</strong>g
more practical <strong>and</strong> relevant skills. In the
present study, all students across both groups
learned the strategy <strong>and</strong> achieved the mastery
criterion <strong>in</strong> from 5 to 11 <strong>in</strong>structional sessions
(mean 8.3 sessions). Clearly, the participants
had little difficulty acquir<strong>in</strong>g <strong>and</strong> apply<strong>in</strong>g
the strategy to achieve positive outcomes.
This study contributes to the emerg<strong>in</strong>g literature
support<strong>in</strong>g use of <strong>in</strong>struct<strong>in</strong>g students to
use student-directed learn<strong>in</strong>g strategies <strong>in</strong>
general education classrooms.
A student’s successful access to general education
<strong>in</strong>volves the performance of a repertoire
of skills. In an <strong>in</strong>vestigation of the curricular
skills valued most by general <strong>and</strong>
special educators for students with severe disabilities
<strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>clusive education, respondents
ranked the acquisition <strong>and</strong> execution
of self-determ<strong>in</strong>ation <strong>and</strong> studentdirected
learn<strong>in</strong>g strategies as most important
for successful <strong>in</strong>clusion (Agran & Alper,
2000). These strategies allow students to, <strong>in</strong>
effect, support themselves, <strong>and</strong> they represent
a critical educational outcome. There is no
question that successful performance <strong>in</strong> general
education requires competency <strong>in</strong> many
skills, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g core content <strong>and</strong> content facilitation
or classroom survival skills; <strong>and</strong> follow<strong>in</strong>g
directions represents one of the most
critical skills. Jackson, McCaleb, <strong>and</strong> Helwick
(2002) discussed the importance of “people
supports” <strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>clusive education <strong>and</strong> cautioned
that the over reliance of such supports
may produce undesired dependencies.
Clearly, self-monitor<strong>in</strong>g represents a support
that potentially can serve to promote <strong>in</strong>dependence,
self-reliance, <strong>and</strong>, ultimately, self-determ<strong>in</strong>ation.
Further, Jackson et al. recommend
the value of personaliz<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>struction <strong>and</strong> supports
to <strong>in</strong>dividual students. Needless to say,
what better a way to personalize <strong>in</strong>struction
than to teach students to monitor their own
behavior.
Overall, the f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs suggest that all students
acquired <strong>and</strong> successfully employed the
self-monitor<strong>in</strong>g strategy <strong>in</strong> a relatively short
period of time <strong>and</strong> successfully employed it at
levels dramatically higher than <strong>in</strong> basel<strong>in</strong>e.
Nevertheless, there are several limitations to
this study that warrant serious attention. First,
although we knew the students self-monitored
their performance <strong>and</strong> participat<strong>in</strong>g teachers
reported that the students self-monitored
12 / <strong>Education</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>Developmental</strong> <strong>Disabilities</strong>-March 2005
their behavior for the duration of the <strong>in</strong>vestigation,
we did not calculate accuracy of their
self-monitor<strong>in</strong>g. In one sense, this is may not
be an important issue s<strong>in</strong>ce there is considerable
research that suggests self-monitor<strong>in</strong>g
produces desired <strong>and</strong> reactive effects whether
students accurately or <strong>in</strong>accurately monitored
their performance (see Agran, 1997; Wehmeyer
et al., 1998). Nevertheless, it would
have been of <strong>in</strong>terest to determ<strong>in</strong>e the accuracy
of the students’ records. Second, although
participat<strong>in</strong>g teachers positively evaluated
the value of teach<strong>in</strong>g students to selfmonitor
their own behavior, logistical <strong>and</strong>
temporal constra<strong>in</strong>ts prevented collection of
student social validation data. The fact that
their use of the strategy produced positive
changes for all students represents a desired
outcome, but we do not know what the students’
perceptions were regard<strong>in</strong>g their use of
the strategy. Clearly, future research on effects
of self-monitor<strong>in</strong>g warrants the collection of
such data. Additionally, future research
should obta<strong>in</strong> social validation data from typical
peers on their op<strong>in</strong>ions about the students’
use of this strategy. Third, the <strong>in</strong>vestigation
failed to <strong>in</strong>vestigate the generalized
effects of the students’ use of the strategy. The
fact that students employed the strategy <strong>in</strong>
different sett<strong>in</strong>gs suggest, at least <strong>in</strong> part, some
generality, but no systematic efforts were
made to <strong>in</strong>vestigate generalized effects across
non-targeted behaviors or sett<strong>in</strong>gs. Such an
exam<strong>in</strong>ation is warranted <strong>in</strong> future research.
Despite these limitations, we believe that
the study contributes to the emerg<strong>in</strong>g literature
on student-directed tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>clusive
sett<strong>in</strong>gs. There are relatively few applications
of self-determ<strong>in</strong>ation or student-directed
learn<strong>in</strong>g strategies with students with moderate
to severe disabilities <strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>clusive classrooms,
especially students at the junior high
or middle school level. F<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs of this study
demonstrate that students with moderate to
severe disabilities can monitor their own behavior
<strong>in</strong> general education (Agran, 1997; Agran
et al., 2003). It is safe to say that failure to
follow directions will produce unsatisfactory
educational outcomes for all students. F<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs
of the present study suggested that students
with moderate to severe disabilities
learned to appropriately respond to their
teachers’ directions <strong>and</strong> completed the tasks
as directed by employ<strong>in</strong>g a self-directed mon-