Obstacles to Teaching in the Face of Academic Diversity: Implcations for Planning for Students with Disabilities

Abstract

This study was a collaborative project the incorporated the concerns and insights of 52 secondary science and social studies teachers in identifying the major obstacles in planning to teach academically diverse groups of students. These teachers participated in a series of Cooperative Study Groups (CSG ) to answer questions related to teaching and planning for their most academically diverse classes. The results of the first question posed at the CSG meetings are presented here. That question was "Thinking back on the last year of teaching, what would you say has been the most difficult obstacle that you have had to overcome in teaching science or social studies to an academically diverse group of students."