Students with disabilities and paraprofessional supports: Benefits, balance, and band-aids

Focus on Exceptional Children, Mar 2002 by Giangreco, Michael F, Doyle, Mary Beth

,What the Literature Says About Question 3

The term teacher engagement in this context refers to general education teachers having: (a) ongoing instructional contact with students with disabilities who are placed in their class, and (b) active involvement in planning and implementing their instruction along with other appropriate team members (e.g., special educator). Teacher engagement is a critical variable that can affect the appropriateness and quality of a general education placement (Hunt & Goetz, 1997; Villa & Thousand, 2000; York-Barr, Schultz, Doyle, Kronberg, & Crossett, 1996).

To date, only one study has reported a primary focus on the relationship between the utilization of paraprofessionals and teacher engagement. Giangreco, Broer, and Edelman (2001 b) reported data based on 56 semistructured interviews and 51 hours of observation in four schools (grades K-12) across a full school year. They found that paraprofessionals were utilized in two primary ways: as one-on-one or program/classroom-based paraprofessionals.

The study's findings suggested that general education teachers were more engaged with their students with disabilities when the paraprofessionals supporting those students were program/classroom-based and that the general education teachers tended to be less engaged when the paraprofessionals were assigned one-on-one to a student with disabilities. The authors cautioned that the differences in teacher engagement were not necessarily the result of the paraprofessional service models alone.

The study described the characteristics when teachers were more and less engaged with students with disabilities as summarized in Table 1. The study further described phenomena associated with teacher disengagement, such as isolation of students with disabilities within the classroom, insular relationships between students with disabilities and one-on-one paraprofessionals, and stigma experienced by students with disabilities as a result of receiving one-on-one paraprofessional supports (Giangreco et al., 2001b).

Implications for Practice Pertaining to Question 3

The primary consideration of the aforementioned information for educational teams and administrators is whether the roles of paraprofessionals and existing models of service delivery are contributing to, hindering, or replacing teacher engagement. The characteristics of teacher engagement (see Table 1) can be utilized by educational team members as a form of self-assessment or as a set of reflective prompts to identify areas of concern to improve practices. It is vital to take actions that account for variations in the reasons that have contributed to teachers' lack of engagement.

For example, if a general education teacher thinks she is not supposed to be very involved in the instruction of a student with disabilities in her classroom, this might call for role clarification among the team members. If a teacher expresses a willingness to be instructionally engaged with his students with disabilities but does not know how to accomplish this, it might call for capacity building, such as more collaboration with special educators, consultation, training, or structural changes (e.g., class size, ratios of students with and without disabilities). Changes such as these can create conditions for teachers to become more instructionally engaged with their students who have disabilities.