A Case Study: A Paraprofessional’s Involvement in Including A Student With Multiple Disabilities in General Education

• Main Authors: Ching-Yi Huang, 黃靜怡
• Other Authors: Chiou-Shiue Ko
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/03104017953157359588

碩士 === 國立臺北教育大學 === 特殊教育學系碩士班 === 98 === With the prevalence of inclusive education, paraprofessionals became the major resources for children with disabilities in inclusive settings. The purpose of this study was to explore a paraprofessional’s experiences, roles, problems encountered and solutions used while assisting a student with multiple disabilities being included in a general education classroom. Adopting a case study approach, this study collected data by conducting semi-structured interviews and observations and by collecting relevant documents. Data were analyzed to address the research questions of this study. There were three major findings: (a) The paraprofessional had positive attitudes toward inclusive education, especially when having good interactions with general education teachers; (b) the paraprofessional played four roles, including caregiver, learning assistant, coordinator, and friend; and (c) the biggest difficulty faced by the paraprofessional was the lack of adequate training for helping students with disabilities learning and interacting with others. Based on the findings, implications for practice and future research were discussed.