Exceptional Learners: An Introduction to Special Education [with eText & MyEducationLab Access Codes]

by Daniel P. Hallahan, James M. Kauffman, Paige C. Pullen

“Over the years the Hallahan and Kauffman text has remained a constant and credible source for our candidates seeking certification. As the legislation is updated, the text has been updated to reflect the changes, issues, and trends. Students taking the state certification exams report that review of the text and practice questions before sitting for a state exam actually helped them achieve the desired passing score.”

–Maribeth Montgomery Kasik, Governors State University

Exceptional Learners is an outstanding introduction to the characteristics of exceptional learners and their education, emphasizing classroom practices as well as the psychological, sociological, and medical aspects of disabilities and giftedness. In keeping with this era of accountability, all discussions and examples of educational practices are grounded in a sound research base.

What’s New to this Edition?

NEW Assessment of Progress sections provide readers with category-specific information about Progress Monitoring, Outcome Measures, Testing Accommodations, and Alternative Assessment. Significantly reorganized Chapter 2, "Integration, Inclusion, and Support of Positive Outcomes," provides new information on Universal Design, use of technologies, differentiated instruction, response to intervention (RTI), and assessment of academic progress and student outcomes. Increased coverage of response to intervention (RTI) emphasizes the importance of multi-tiered assessment in accordance with changes to federal law (Chapters 2 & 6). Relevant multimedia assets are incorporated into the text to help students improve their mastery of key concepts, including the MyEducationLab website, created specifically to accompany the Exceptional Learners, Eleventh Edition.

Integrated Multimedia Resources

MyEducationLab is a research-based learning tool that brings special education teaching to life. Through authentic in-class video footage, interactive simulations, rich case studies, and more, MyEducationLab prepares you for your teaching career by showing you what quality special education instruction looks like, providing examples of authentic teacher and student work, and much more. What’s more, MyEducationLab is easy to use.

In your textbook look for the MyEducationLab logo in the margins of the text and follow the simple link instructions to access the MyEducationLab video or activity that corresponds with the chapter content. For more information turn to the MyEducationLab walkthrough preface or go to www.myeducationlab.com.

Genres: Education, Textbooks, Professional Development, Nonfiction, Teaching, School, Grad School

451 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1996

Reviews

[Lindsey]

read cover to cover so yes I'm logging my textbook

[Patrick McDermott]

I enjoyed it.

[Essie-Marie F.]

Cool book except for the introduction which had weird eugenicist vibes. Other than that it was great.

[Jeannette]

I don't know that I can rate a textbook the same way I do my personal reading, but here goes: I liked the format of the book; it was consistent and made things easy to find from chapter to chapter. It gives a pretty good general overview on the various subjects it covers (and it covers quite a few areas of disability, as well as gifted and talented students). It's not very specific, and I don't think it's intended to be, so it would be a frustrating reference if you're looking for details on a certain topic or intervention. Still it's one that I plan to keep around for a good quick reference on general disability subjects.

I can't believe I finished the first textbook of my Special Education graduate career!

[Christy George]

This is a really great resource that I will keep in my teacher library forever. I learned so much about different exceptionalities, including great details about my own child that I hadn't considered before. Unlike most textbooks, this was actually readable and enjoyable.

[Mutiazahida]

I think it's a must read book for special education students. It has many contents and this is one of the book that I'm looking for. I just wanna start read this book :)

[Tiffeny]

A good intro to special education.

[Rocio]

Very informative in a simplistic manner. Really enjoyed reading this book to further understand how working with exceptional children is practiced.

[ابراهيم القادري]

full

[Edie Walls]

This could have been a lot worse but thankfully it was written pretty lightly.

[Vanessa Dookram]

Outstanding introduction to exceptional learners and their education, emphasizing classroom practices ,the psychological, sociological, and medical aspects of disabilities and giftedness.

[Olivia]

I only had to read like 5 chapters of this for class but idk how else to mark it because this isn't a DNF situation, so. The overall book is fairly balanced and updated (my class...less so).

Previously:
Despite this being an updated edition published LAST YEAR, I've already found that it uses the actual phrase "transgendered to male" so this should be fun...

[Jamie]

I had so many problems with this textbook. It does try to cover a huge amount of content in fewer than 400 pages, but this means that many issues are glossed over or ignored. Massive amounts of text are used detailing history and causes (which are interesting) while topics more relevant to educators such as diagnosis and teaching strategies are far less detailed. There are also many examples of political and cultural bias in the book that will leave new educators wondering why they are getting pushback from parents and community members if they speak on some disabilities the way that the book does. And even though my edition was printed in 2015, there are several errors I found regarding IDEA and Section 504 laws. There are many errors in the text. I'm not talking about typos, but entire lines of print that repeat themselves. I also did not like the formatting of the book. I understand that a lot of students may purchase an electronic copy of the book, making the hyperlinks that are embedded in the text easy to follow, but this is not the case if you have a print edition. Hyperlinks in the main text are written out, but links within captions or special focus sections are hidden under linked key words, making them completely unavailable to a reader. Even if I had an electronic copy I would prefer a section at the end with the links listed, because leaving in the middle of the text would probably lead me into hours of off-topic link-chasing, but that's just a personal preference.

[Amanda Salisbury]

Pretty standard textbook. Each chapter follows a similar format so it is rather predictable. At times I found the subjects extremely interesting and other times I found them boring and redundant. One of my pet peeves is when a book says the same thing over and over again. I did end up learning a lot but would not recommend for light reading or in-depth study.

[Erin O'sullivan]

I did not find this book a particularly helpful resource. It is heavy on anecdotes, which I understand is an important way to better understand a disability, but I find video interviews and resources (like F.A.T. City) much more helpful in this regard.

[Ellen]

Seriously, this text has the most abstract, worst prose of any text I've ever read. I have a friend who prefers a poor grade to reading it. It is, however, very informative, with good politics.

[Jeff La Marca]

non-fiction,special education

[Elaine]

Zzzzzzz. Pretty standard textbook, I suppose. They could have included a lot more teaching methods and a lot less history, though.

[Theresa]

required for education classes talks about individuals and case work behind exceptional learners, very breif

[B]

REALLY great text for school!

[Heather]

Informative and comprehensive as far as reference texts go; however, it was at times poorly organized and structured.

[Ronni]

Pretty good for a textbook...

[Dawn]

nice

[Brooke]

Very useful resource for those working with children with special needs.

[Seto]

good book