Differences in Teaching Self-Determination between General and Special Education Teachers in Elementary Schools

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there are differences in the teaching of self-determination between general and special education teachers in Taiwan. The participants were 380 teachers recruited from elementary schools nationwide in Taiwan. Among them, 128 were general education teachers, while the others were special educators providing services in either resource rooms (n = 125) or self-contained classrooms (n = 127). The Teaching Self-Determination Scale (TSDS) was used to collect data. Descriptive statistics, t tests, analyses of variance (ANOVAs) and multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) were employed to analyze data. Findings showed that both general and special education teachers’ level of teaching self-determination was in the range of “sometimes to often”. Nevertheless, general education teachers’ level in teaching psychological empowerment, self-regulation, and autonomous skills was higher than that of their special education counterparts. Additionally, general educators tended to focus the most on instructing psychological empowerment abilities, while the self-contained classroom teachers paid intense attention to the teaching of autonomous skills. Resource room teachers demonstrated a relatively balanced instruction of various skills. Findings of this study enabled us to further understand elementary school teachers’ level of teaching self-determination and its characteristics as well. Suggestion and implications are provided.