Effects of an adapted physical education teaching model on special educator teaching approaches for students with low incidence disabilities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a training package, which consisted of the Flex Grid Teaching Model along with adapted physical education consultation, on special education teacher instruction of functional motor skill acquisition instruction to secondary students with low incidence disabilities. Special education teachers were trained on use of the Flex Grid Teaching Model for functional motor skill acquisition instruction in addition to receiving adapted physical education consultation to support teacher planning and instruction. In this study, I investigated the extent to which the training package increased teacher use of three teaching methods (systematic prompting, specific reinforcement plan, chained individualized task analysis sequence) designed to support functional motor skill acquisition. Using a multiple baseline across subjects design, teacher performance providing functional motor skill acquisition instruction across baseline and intervention phases was measured. Results indicated a functional relationship exists between the training package and an increase in teacher performance to provide functional motor skill acquisition instruction to secondary students with low incidence disabilities. Teacher performance for delivering systematic prompting teaching methods also increased upon receiving the training package. Although further investigation is needed, this study showed that use of the Flex Grid Teaching Model along with adapted physical education consultation can benefit special education teachers tasked with providing functional motor skill acquisition instruction to secondary students with low incidence disabilities.