This article reports on a survey of 37 educators regarding future directions in the education of students with disabilities. The survey used the Delphi technique. For the decade of the 1990s and after the year 2000, respondents' predictions included the following: The movement toward increasing inclusion will occur; the belief will prevail that people with disabilities have a right to participate in inclusive environments; students with mild disabilities will be educated in general classrooms; teachers will increase their use of instructional approaches such as cooperative learning and instructional technology; and researchers will focus on matching instructional needs with learner characteristics.

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Structuring cooperative learning activities has been shown to be an effective technique for integrating handicapped and nonhandicapped students. Previous research in this area has focused on the relative effects of cooperative versus competitive and individualistic learning situations upon peer relations and academic achievement. Few investigations have examined the various elements within the cooperative learning model that appear to promote positive peer interactions among handicapped and nonhandicapped students. The present study evaluated the influence of collaborative skill instruction versus no collaborative skill instruction on the social interaction behaviors of moderately/severely handicapped and nonhandicapped students participating in group science activities. These data reveal that students receiving collaborative skill instruction interacted more positively with one another than those who did not receive, the instruction.

The effects of cooperative learning on 417 regular-education students, acceptance of 41 of their special-education classmates were examined in an 8-month study. The participants were in Grades 5-8 in 21 classes in 2 U.S. schools. The 3 conditions were cooperative learning and competitive learning, taught by the same teachers, and competitive learning, taught by a random sample of teachers. In October and in May, the regular-education students rated each classmate's desirability as a work partner. The students' peer ratings were generally very stable, for both their regular-education classmates and their special-education classmates. Positive changes in peer ratings for both types of classmates occurred more frequently in the cooperative-learning condition than in the competitive-learning conditions.

A Delphi survey procedure was used to forecast future events and set goals relative to deinstitutionalization and educational services for handicapped children and youth. Thirty-three persons of varying organizational affiliations, occupations, and geographical locations participated in two rounds of mail surveys. Questionnaires presented forecasts for deinstitutionalization and residential services spanning the entire life cycle and educational services directed more at children and youth below 25 years of age. Among some of the major trends predicted were that the deinstitutionalization movement would not lose momentum and that community-based residential services would increasingly become available to all persons with handicaps. Panelists anticipated that children and youth with handicaps would be educated more in natural environments and situations, but did not foresee a wholesale movement of mildly handicapped students or special education teachers into regular classroom settings in the near future.