SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS' KNOWLEDGE AND USE OF THE FERNALD TECHNIQUE (READING, LEARNING, SEVERELY DISABLED, NONREADER)

Abstract

Thirty-two Special Education Chapter I Reading Teachers and 40 Special Education Resource Room Teachers who reportedly possessed knowledge of the Fernald Stage I Technique and who reported their use of this method in public and/or nonpublic school settings volunteered to complete a Likert type questionnaire about the Fernald Method. Both types of Special Education Teachers taught severely reading disabled Special Education pupils within a large urban school district.;Despite varieties of educational backgrounds, credentials, professional experiences, pupils' handicapping conditions the following was found: There was a significant relationship between total reported knowledge scores and total reported use scores by Special Education Teachers; there was no significant difference between the mean reported knowledge scores of the two types of Special Education Teachers; there was no significant difference between the mean reported use scores of the two types of Special Education Teachers; there was a fair partial correlation between both reported knowledge and reported use of Fernald Stage I Reading Technique with academic curriculum constraints controlling for teacher type, and there was a somewhat stronger relationship for reported knowledge than for reported use and academic personnel constraints, controlling for teacher type.;The findings of the study showed that for both groups of Special Education Teachers a discrepancy emerged between reported knowledge and reported use on the Likert Items of the questionnaire and their responses on the Constraints Section of the questionnaire. Responding to the limitation of the Constraints Sections, these teachers reported their use of the Fernald Stage I Method; on the Likert Items both groups reported knowledge and use of the method. The findings showed that Special Education Chapter I Reading Teachers and Resource Room Teachers do know and use the Fernald Stage I Reading Technique regardless of some constraints imposed by academic personnel.;Both types of Special Education Teachers demonstrated a fair correlation between reported knowledge and reported use, the correlation for Resource Room Teachers being somewhat stronger than Chapter I Reading Teachers.