Factors that Aid and Impede Reading Programs of Students with and Without Learning Disabilities: Five Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions

Abstract

 Five undergraduate, dual preparation pre-service teachers who began their program in the fall of 2005 were followed through their second and third semesters of their two-year program of study. The study examined their (a) beliefs about how to teach reading to students with learning disabilities and to students without learning disabilities, and (b) if conceptual differences existed in the teachers’ beliefs between these two groups of students. A qualitative study using a collective case study method addressed three research questions. Data collected and analyzed in the qualitative study  included journal writing in the second and third semesters of a two-year program in general and special education, one-on-one digitally recorded interviews, an implementation of a reading lesson, and its lesson reflection. Pre-service teachers’ instructional and conceptual beliefs differed between students with and without learning disabilities. An analysis across cases resulted in the identification  of factors that were believed to aid and impede reading progress for students with and without learning disabilities. Pre-service teachers believed that students with learning disabilities academic learning behaviors impeded the teachers’ ability the most to teach reading. Results from this study can contribute to a national database in reading teacher education, especially reading instruction for students with learning disabilities.