Planning for Inclusion: Special Education Teachers’ Experiences With a Collaborative Unit Priority Planning Tool

The current study investigated a collaborative planning process and a unit priority planning tool to support special education teachers in developing strategic plans to include students with extensive support needs in the general education curriculum. We examined how teachers applied the skills introduced in the teacher training intervention and the collaborative planning tool to identify and design supports for a student with extensive support needs in a general education instructional unit and assessed how they perceived the implementation of the planning process after using the unit priority planning tool. Following the implementation, a 28-item survey was administered to participants to reflect on their planning and instructional activities. Responses were examined using descriptive statistics, and open-ended survey responses were analyzed qualitatively using a reflexive thematic approach. Most participants reported they planned additional opportunities for specially designed instruction. Many participants found the planning process impactful, reporting positive outcomes for their students. However, some participants reported challenges related to the amount of time available for collaboration with general education teachers and access to information about the general education curricula as barriers to successful planning.