Self-Efficacy In General Education

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In recent years, the inclusion of students with severe disabilities in general education classrooms has become more common practice (United States Department of Education [USDOE], 2006). With the rise in placement of students in inclusion programs, general education teachers are beginning to play a greater role in the education of students with severe disabilities. This presents a challenge to general education teachers, since students with severe disabilities often have complex needs which require the support of qualified teachers that use evidence based practices (Burns & Ysseldyke, 2009). Research has shown that many teacher training programs are not adequately preparing general education teachers in educating students with disabilities, …show more content…

Individuals with high self-efficacy believe that they possess the ability to perform well on a task, and individuals with low self-efficacy are more likely to avoid tasks because of a self-perceived inability to succeed in those tasks. According to the theory of self-efficacy, an individual's perception of self-efficacy can also causally affect their expectation of the outcomes of the task or behavior (Bandura, 1986). Therefore, if teachers possess low self-efficacy, they may be less likely to invest effort in teaching academics to students with severe disabilities, as well as hold lower expectations of their academic outcome. In contrast, it has been shown that teachers who perceive themselves as having adequate training may possess higher self-efficacy and have increased confidence in being able to positively impact the achievement of students in inclusion classrooms (Ruble, Usher, & McGrew, …show more content…

However, studies have shown that students with moderate and severe disabilities are capable of learning grade-appropriate academic content when given the opportunity to do so (Jameson, McDonnell, Johnson, Riesen, & Polychronis, 2007; Agran, Cavin, Wehmeyer, & Palmer, 2006). Academic instruction is also valuable for students with severe disabilities because it increases competence for adult living (Browder et al., 2007). Therefore, low expectations in the academic achievement of included students with severe disabilities is concerning because it may negatively impact the quality of education that the students are receiving, as general education teachers' perspectives and expecatations have been shown to affect the performance of included students with disabilities (Rubie-Davies, Peterson, Irving, Widdowson, & Dixon,

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