Community-Referenced Learning and the Inclusive Classroom

In years past, students with and without disabilities have used the community as a classroom. Community-referenced instruction has been part of the educational history of both special and general education, and both groups have noted benefits from instruction provided beyond school walls. The emergence of community-referenced instruction as a general and special education phenomenon and as a tool for learning in the inclusive classroom is examined in this article. In addition, three specific types of instruction that can be implemented beyond school walls are presented: work experiences, research teams, and service learning.