This topic interests me because I am fascinated by psychology, the human mind and how or why people act the way they do.  Even though I am no longer planning to pursue a career in education to teach students with learning disabilities, I was interested in it for a long time.  This does not affect my values because my topic does not really have to do with values.  My aunt teaches students with learning disabilities and I've job shadowed her before; so, I've heard a lot about what she does and different situations she's been in.  Also, my high school mainstreamed students with learning  disabilities so i've had first hand experience of what it is like for the other students; I have watched it be successful but i have also seen the kids with disabilities struggle to keep up or be made fun of.  I am qualified to write about this because I have an interest in the topic and am doing a lot of research to make sure I have enough knowledge and information to create the best argument possible.  

The article, Teachers Perspectives on Suitable Learning Environments for Students with Disabilities, is about a qualitative study on inclusive, resource, and self contained classrooms for students with learning disabilities.  Special educators were interviewed for their observations on each of the classroom types and what they thought was best.  Overall, most teachers found that an inclusive classroom is the best educational approach if the student can handle it; however, for more severe disability students they cannot handle it and will get made fun of or fall behind.  It is difficult to do studies on this topic because the students' educations are at stake and so it would be unethical to place children in each type and see which one thrives more.  So, they interview the teachers to get an opinion from someone who has had experience with both types and can explain it best.  The main author, Poonam Dev, is a professor of education and the other author, Leslie Haynes, is a teacher at a charter school.  Even in the discussion, they do not have much of a bias and are being mainly factual.  They do sway towards integrating the students but they go off of what the interviewed teachers had said. 

The next journal is about mainstreaming students at a school in Minnesota and it explores the schools' model of inclusion, role of special education teachers and two students' experiences.   The teachers think that the students education is helped by the inclusion and the students enjoy being able to be in both the main class to make friends and learn like they do and the small group for extra help.  The two students focus more on the social aspect of it; one of the students originally did not enjoy being pulled out to go to the separate group because it made him uncomfortable around his peers, but he made much better friends in the program and enjoys it now.  The teachers like this method because the students learn at the fast pace of the main class but still get extra help every day if they need it and tips to stay focused in class which improves their academic outcome. The author is an instructor of special education in the department of instruction and learning at Vanderbilt.  So, not only has she taught children with learning disabilities directly, but now she is teaching other students about how to teach them and is very knowledgable in the subject. 

The next journal is about students with learning disabilities who were able to be successfully integrated into general classes because they had help from non disabled student aids.  The article emphasizes the support of other students because the LD students had increased social skills, independence and academic skills.  The aids, however, had many concerns about certain behavioral convicts they faced with the disability students.  The only issue was the concern that the disabled students would disrupt the learning of other students; however, with the help of the aids, there was rarely any issues.  The skills that developed and improved displays that LD students are able to be integrated into general classrooms as long as they have a support system.  The authors are part of a research group for inclusive schools so they do studies at different schools to analyze how mainstreaming has the best effects.  They attempt to persuade the readers that even the more severe cases of disabilities can be included as long as they have support. 

My research question is arguable because there are many different ways a student can be mainstreamed into general classrooms whether it is full time, getting pulled out occasionally or only doing a few classes mainstreamed.  I have found studies for all three types but most of them are very inconclusive on which type seems to work the best; it is highly dependent on the situation because each student has a different level of disability and learns in their own way.  Because no two students are the same, my opinion has been swayed from one method to the other until I realized that, in my opinion, it needs to be taken on a case by case basis and there is not one "best" way to mainstream the students.  Originally, my research question was whether or not students should be mainstreamed but after doing research I realized it is a unanimous yes from everyone and I have not found any articles against it; so, I changed my question to how it should happen instead. 

