Supporting Students with Learning Disabilities in High School Science

Key Researchers in the Field

Researchers in this section are included because their work is current, it relates directly to students with learning disabilities in high school science, and/or it is foundational to the research on supporting students with learning disabilities in high school science.

• Lynn Anderson-Inman
• Sheryl Burgstahler
• Libby G. Cohen and colleagues Nancy Lightbody and Cynthia Curry
• Donald Deshler and colleagues
• Margo A. Mastropieri and Thomas E. Scruggs
• David H. Rose and Anne Meyer
• Greg Stefanich

 

Lynn Anderson-Inman

Director of the Center for Advanced Technology in Education (CATE) at the College of Education, University of Oregon.
Anderson-Inman’s research at the University of Oregon has included several projects funded by the U. S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education, to investigate computer-based concept mapping as a learning strategy for students with disabilities. One of these projects (Project COMPASS) specifically used concept mapping in science classes, and, although not targeted to students with learning disabilities, research was conducted in inclusive classrooms. Follow this link to access Anderson’s description of this and other research on computer-based concept mapping in science for students with disabilities in her article “Computer-Based Concept Mapping: Promoting Meaningful Learning in Science for Students with Disabilities.”
http://www.rit.edu/~easi/itd/itdv5n12/article2.htm

Anderson-Inman, L., Ditson, A., & Ditson, M. T. (1998). Computer-based concept mapping: Promoting meaningful learning in science for students with disabilities. Information, Technology and Disabilities Journal, 5.

CATE is a research and outreach center of the College of Education dedicated to investigating, promoting, and sharing information about the use of advanced technology in education. Its Web site lists and describes many affiliated projects and resources that feature computer-based study strategies and tools for secondary and post-secondary students.
http://cate.uoregon.edu/

Sheryl Burgstahler

University of Washington
Burgstahler is director of DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking and Technology) and the University of Washington Accessible Technology Services and Outreach. Her work since the early 1980s has involved using technology to support the education of students with disabilities. Her vita (http://staff.washington.edu/sherylb/vita.html) includes references to her extensive publications and presentations. Although much of her work focuses on post-secondary students and includes disabilities beyond learning disabilities, many of the resources linked on her Web sites are directly applicable to supporting in science those high school students with learning disabilities. See, in particular, the AccessSTEM Resources http://www.washington.edu/doit/Stem/resources.html
and the DO-IT Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics resources
http://www.washington.edu/doit/Resources/sem.html

Bergstahler’s work and the DO-IT and AccessSTEM programs are also discussed in Regional Alliances for STEM. 

Libby G. Cohen and colleagues Nancy Lightbody and Cynthia Curry

University of Southern Maine, and the Spurwink Institute, New Gloucester, Maine
Cohen is professor emerita of special education at the University of Southern Maine, a lead researcher in the field of assistive technology and accessibility in science, and the author of grants that have funded a number of technology projects of national scope, including Biotechnology Works, ACCESS Earth, and the Genasys (Generating Assistive Technology Systematically) Project, all based at the University of Southern Maine.

Cohen’s work is now based in the Spurwink Institute, a not-for-profit organization whose programs and services include special education; assistive technology; universal design; Web accessibility; and student accessibility to science, mathematics, and literacy. For further information on the institute, see its Web site at http://www.spurwinkinstitute.org/index.htm

Of particular relevance to this resource is the following article, authored by Curry, Cohen, and Lightbody, and recently published in the NSTA publication The Science Teacher. It describes how universal design and technology tools can be used in high school science classes to support the needs of diverse learners. (You must be a member of NSTA to access this link): http://www.nsta.org/main/news/stories/science_teacher.php?category_ID=88&news_story_ID=51695 

Curry, C., Cohen, L. G., & Lightbody, N. (2006, March). Universal design in science learning. The Science Teacher, 73(3), 32–37.

Cohen, Lightbody and Curry’s work in the Eastern Alliance in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (EAST) is also discussed in Regional Alliances for STEM. 

Donald Deshler and colleagues

University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning
Deshler has been a lead researcher in the field of special education at the secondary level for many years. Although he and his colleagues do not focus specifically on science, they have written extensively on supporting students with learning disabilities in the classroom. A comprehensive service delivery model for students with learning disabilities developed at the Center for Research on Learning (the “supported inclusion model”) is described in Instructional Models and Strategies and in their article “Ensuring content-area learning by secondary students with learning disabilities.”

Deshler, D. D., Schumaker, J. B., Lenz, B. K., Bulgren, J. A., Hock, M. F., Knight, J., et al. (2001). Ensuring content-area learning by secondary students with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 16(2), 96–108.

Deshler and Jean B. Schumaker are co project directors of the Institute for Academic Access (IAA), a collaboration between the University of Kansas and the University of Oregon.
http://www.ku-crl.org/IAA%20Web/index.html 

Margo A. Mastropieri and Thomas E. Scruggs

Graduate School of Education, George Mason University
Mastropieri and Scruggs have written extensively since the early 1990s on strategies and models for effectively mainstreaming special needs students in science (as well as other domains) at the elementary and secondary level. Since the early 1990s, their research has highlighted the relative effectiveness of inquiry-oriented approaches to teaching science, over a more textbook approach, for students with disabilities. They have also examined the benefits of assistive technologies for students with disabilities. Very recent research (2003, see citation below) examines the use of interactive peer tutoring in inclusive high school chemistry class.

Scruggs, T. E. & Mastropieri, M. A. (2003). Recent research applications in secondary content areas for students with learning and behavioral disabilities. In T.E. Scruggs & M. A. Mastropieri (Eds.), Identification and assessment of learning disorders: Advances in learning and behavioral disabilities (Vol. 16, pp. 223–230). Oxford, UK: Elsevier Science/JAI Press.

The faculty pages of Mastropieri and Scruggs, linked below, provide extensive bibliographies of their publications: http://gse.gmu.edu/facultystaff/profiles/mmastrop.htm
http://gse.gmu.edu/facultystaff/profiles/tscruggs.htm 

David H. Rose and Anne Meyer and their colleagues

Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)

CAST “is a nonprofit organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals, especially those with disabilities, through the research and development of innovative, technology-based educational resources and strategies” (CAST Web site home page: http://www.cast.org).

Rose and Meyer are the co-founders of CAST and have co-authored (with each other and with other CAST colleagues) numerous articles and books on technology-based educational resources and strategies, and on Universal Design for Learning (UDL): described in detail in Universal Design for Learning.

While the CAST researchers do not focus specifically on learning disabilities,  high school students, or science, the premise that underlies much of their work is that universally designed curriculum and instruction can be used to support the diverse learning needs of all students, and technology can be used to support specific learning needs.

The CAST Web site describes in detail its many products, services, research, and publications. We cite two publications here of particular note:

• Rose and Meyer’s most recent book, edited with CAST colleague Chuck Hitchcock and with contributions from other CAST researchers:
  Rose, D. H., Meyer, A., & Hitchcock, C. (Eds.). (2005). The universally designed classroom: Accessible curriculum and digital technologies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
  
  Follow this link to read the review, published in Teacher’s College Record, April 24, 2006 (must be a member to access link) http://www.tcrecord.org/content.asp?contentid=12497

• A policy brief for the National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum (NCAC) http://www.cast.org/publications/ncac/ncac_accessible.html
  Stahl, S. (n.d.). The promise of accessible textbooks: Increased achievement for all students (Policy Brief). Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum.

CAST was instrumental in the development of the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS), which was incorporated into IDEA in 2004. As a result of NIMAS, state and local educational agencies will be able to require textbook publishers to provide electronic files of any print instructional materials that they purchase. The NIMAS Development and Technical Assistance Centers (both based at CAST) are involved in refining the standard and facilitating distribution of electronic instructional materials to students with disabilities. Stahl (whose policy brief is referenced above) is project director for the NIMAS Development Center at CAST.

Greg Stefanich

College of Education, University of Northern Iowa
Stefanich’s work has been making science K–12 accessible to students with disabilities. His particular emphases are on the preparation of science teachers, how to teach science to students with disabilities, and heightening teachers’ awareness of assistive resources that have been developed for these students.

In an address to the RASEM Symposium in August 2005 entitled “The Status of Students with Disabilities in Science,” Stefanich argues that science teachers are unprepared to respond to the needs of their disabled students. “Few science teachers have any preparation or exposure to what assistive tools exists and where they could get them. Assistive technology specialists are generally itinerant and lack in science content knowledge. As a result, science specific accommodations are too often overlooked.” Further, he notes that, although “research from the fields of special education, literacy education, effective schools, and best practice have generated a plethora of information about strategies that improve participation and performance of students with disabilities…these are not readily disseminated to teachers of science. Unfortunately, the amount of research specific to science learning is lacking.”  Stefanich goes on to note several “excellent examples of internet resources” as well as a number of programs and projects described in and linked to from the Regional Alliances for STEM section of this resource, notably Do-IT at the University of Washington, EAST at the University of Southern Maine, and RASEM² at New Mexico State University. For the full text of the address see:

http://rasem.nmsu.edu/Htmls/symposium_05/symposium.htm (You can follow this link to the symposium, and click on Stefanich’s name to access his white paper.)
Stefanich, G. P. (2005). White paper: The status of students with disabilities in science. Las Cruses, NM: Regional
Alliance for Science, Engineering and Mathematics (RASEM).

For a complete list of publications, see his faculty profile at the University of Northern Iowa:
http://www.uni.edu/coe/_profiles/ci/greg_s.shtml

 

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