NEW-Three important themes-positive outcomes, partnerships, and trust. These are critical in ensuring teachers, related service personnel, and families collaborate and advocate for children with special needs.
o “Positive Outcomes”—Emphasizes that special education and related services are now part of the entire school reform movement—resulting from constantly trying to improve our schools, and due to the No Child Left Behind Act—to secure demonstrable outcomes in students’ academic skills.
o “Partnerships”—Focuses on how families and professionals can enter into trusted relationships with each other. New, current research is cited and the authors’ own experiences working with families and professionals is given consideration.
o “Trust”—Relying on the new research literature and theory, readers will learn how to apply this concept to the family-professional partnerships in education.
NEW-Four authentic families and their professionals sharing stories and lessons exemplifying effective practices and principles.
o These families share the joys and challenges having a child with disabilities as well as working with teachers and other service providers in obtaining the best services for their child.
NEW—Framing Questions found at the beginning of each chapter--These questions ask students to critically think about the issues to be discussed in that chapter.
NEW-Advocacy Partners-Discusses how families and professionals have become partners to advocate and secure positive outcomes, trust, and partnerships for students, families, and professionals alike.
NEW—Tips—Practical, how-to guide on how to apply the research, theory, and best practices in teaching.
NEW--Updated coverage of the No Child Left Behind Act and the School Reform Movement (Chapter 6).
NEW-Part of the Merrill Teacher Prep Textbook Series. Your students' textbook is now the ultimate resource for applying learned strategies to classroom practice.
o "Things to Take into the Classroom" featured on the inside front and back covers of every Teacher Prep text—lists page references for the book's strategies, plans, activities, lessons, and other resourceful materials for students to use in the classroom—making this text not just a book for learning, but a book for teaching.
Greater emphasis placed on collaboration involving families from diverse backgrounds. This benefits students in preparing them to work with families who have been most disenfranchised from collaborative decision-making within the special education process.
A number of new families, many of whom have children with mild disabilities are featured. Students have more information in how to develop partnerships with families whose children are most represented in special education.
State-of-the-art research/practice models and techniques–Reports nearly all research on family-professional collaboration that has been conducted since the date of the last edition (1996). Students learn how to implement state-of-the-art practices for all students, not just those receiving special education services.
An empowerment model of collaboration is enhanced, and empowerment is defined according to the most relevant and recent research on that construct. Students learn how to take action themselves to create successful partnerships and how to support families to take action (empowerment). Furthermore, readers are encouraged to reflect on their own experiences through the "Ehancing Your Self-Awareness" feature.
Family voices, in each chapter–Portray a family in the opening and closing vignette and rely on the family's experience and voice throughout the chapter. This book does an excellent job of merging research and reality–The family voices add that reality.
Vignettes and a feature, My Voice –Instrumental in linking the concepts and content of the chapter to real families, real professionals, and real schools. Students get a firsthand perspective of family reality, perspectives, visions, and concerns. Additionally, vignettes are followed by end-of-chapter reflective questions for further discussion.
Potpourri of time-tested strategies for building reliable alliances between families and educators. Students not only learn what they should do but also how they should go about it. This book prepares educators to implement partnerships, not just understand them.
Companion website– www.prenhall.com/turnbull Written by H. Corine Frankland, this robust and text-specific website provides overviews for each chapter, Chapter Objectives, a listing of key terms from the text, True/False Questions, Multiple Choice Questions, Short Answer/Discussion Questions, Essay Questions, as well as web links and resources explicitly tied to the text.
Instructor Resources at www.prenhall.com Downloadable Instructor Resources and PowerPoints can be accessed via the Prentice Hall/Merrill website.