Analyzing Special Educators' Views on Community-Based Instruction for Students with Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities: Implications for Teacher Education

Community-based instruction continues to grow as a preferred curricular option for teachers of students with moderate to severe mental retardation. Although long advocated as an important instructional approach for students with mild mental retardation (Brolin, 1995; McDonnell et al., 1993), the relationship has not been very clearly established between community-based instruction (CBI) and the general education curriculum emphasizing traditional academic skills. This investigation was designed to gather relevant findings related to the process of community-based instruction and to translate these findings into implications that the implementation of this innovation may have on teacher education and future research in special education. As findings indicate, there appear to be differing attitudes between teachers who engage in CBI programming and those who do not. There also appears to be some indication that teachers who have characteristics as risk takers appear to be more able to develop CBI activities. In addition, the need for administrative support, both at the outset of program development and during the instructional process, appears to be a major indicator of success. Future researchers should investigate the effects of administrator perceptions and attitudes, CBI effects on the learning of more traditional academic skills, and the development of high-quality CBI activities.