Classic articles: A reflection into the field of mental retardation.

Co-editors, Associate Editors, and Cohort Review Team members for TEACHING Exceptional Children were asked to nominate qualified individuals to identify seminal articles in the area of mental retardation. A panel of 178 persons were identified and asked to select the top five classic works published in the area of mental retardation. This study identifies the top 25 classic contributions in this area from of list of 11,330 citations from ERIC since 1966. Results are discussed in terms of another study that examined seminal contributions in the broader area of special education. John Steinbeck in 1939 wrote The Grapes of "classic works." Kauffman (1987) in discuss Wrath which is by any standard a classic being research in special education, reiterated cause it served to alter public opinion, to the importance of a historical perspective in change viewpoints, and to prompt people, in training and research. fact, a whole society to question its belief sysIn what may be the only existing study to tern. Few persons in America are unfamiliar extract "classic works" in special education with The Grapes of Wrath because it has bePatton, Polloway, and Epstein (1989) asked come a part of the core literature taught in the question "Are There Seminal Works in this nation's public schools and colleges. No Special Education?" They used the consult one can read Steinbeck s work and not be ing ecIj rot s of special education journals in captured by the emotions of its characters high-incidence areas of exceptionality (e.g., and the events impacting upon their lives. Behavior Disorders, Education and Training in While much smaller in scope perhaps but Mental Retardation, Exceptional Children), and nonetheless as strong in terms of impact, speanalyzed their data by data-based papers, cial education has also had, and will continue non-data-based paper (conceptual, review, to have, its own versions of The Grapes of and position papers), and books. Results indi Wrath. There have been a number of articles cated ^ dassks cou,d be identified and that written which, like Steinbeck's book, have sQme of them wou|d fae wha£ m of us CQI> served to awaken people to the plight and sider f() be a c|assjc ( Dunn's 1968, "Spe needs of others. These articles have served to . , • c . w-ui n . j j r , , r i • i-«.cia' Education tor the Mildly Retarded—Is alter beliefs and practices and indeed, in Much of It Justifiable?") c/\rvio /"irftr rioiro 1 n /i nrn c\4ma ' The articles most valued; the ones that some cases, have altered the practices of spe cial educators and special education forever. .... .-r. j . c i i • „ have appeared to change the way in which 1 he need to focus on classic works is not , r new to the field of education. For example, professionals view special education for per Hahn (1985) proposed seminal works as a vesons wlth mental hand,caPs were wntten be" hicle for exploring the foundation and later fore many of the students currently majoring critical developments within academic disciln thls dlsc'Pllne were born. How many times plines. Others within the field of special eduhas L,oyd Dunn's 1968 artlcle been c,ted cation have also discussed the importance of only to have a student indicate tbat he or she was only three years old at the time! It seems that in order to understand why Correspondence concerning this manuscript sPecial education for persons with mental should be addressed to H. William Heller, College handicaps has developed as it has, one must of Education and Allied Professions, The Univerunderstand how its professional foundation sity of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC was laid. In looking at this area of study the 28223. questions arise, "Are there classic articles in 202 / Education and Training in Mental Retardation-June 1991 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.45 on Sun, 27 Mar 2016 05:26:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms the area of Mental Retardation?" "Are there which individuals often referred their prob articles that have made a difference and aflems (Broadbent, 1989), was used to solicit fected many professionals over time?" The responses from the panel members. The purpose of this article is to begin to answer RAND Corporation originally formulated these very questions. and used the technique as a way to probe group opinions about defense needs Method (Helmer, 1967). With the Delphi technique, typically, opinions from a group of experts Panel of Experts are polled across multiple administrations of a questionnaire. After each round of re in an attempt to identify a panel of experts, sponses feedback is provided to the group the Co-Editors, Associate Editors, and Coand panel members as asked to reevaluate hort Review Teams for TEACHING Exceptheir responses in light of the feedback. tional Children were surveyed and each was Each of the 178 judges, who formed the asked to nominate three (3) individuals who, panel in the area of mental retardation, was in their judgment, were qualified to identify then surveyed and asked to nominate articles classic or seminal articles in various areas of that each felt had made a major impact in the special education. This nomination process field of mental retardation. This request pro yielded a total of 432 persons to serve as the duced a list of 25 literature citations, some panel of judges across all categorical areas of with multiple occurrences, representing the special education (e.g., LD, BD, MR). Of following types of entries (books, chapters in these 432 experts, 178 (41%) persons were edited books, journal articles) specific to the identified in the area of mental retardation. area of mental retardation. The 178 persons identified in the area of As a consequence the first round process, a mental retardation were a diverse group both list of 25 seminal works were then sent back geographically and the in number of years to the panel of 178 MR judges and they were since they had received their terminal deasked to select the top five classic pieces. Each gree. first place vote received a score of 5 points, a second place vote received a score of 4, third Instrument place a score of 3, fourth place a score of 2, and a fifth place a score of 1. The study was based on the distribution of a cover letter and a survey form. The cover let ter cited a rationale for the survey, cited „ . Dunn's (1968) "Special Education for the Mildly Retarded—Is Much of It Justifiable?" Table 1 presents the top 25 nominated arti as an example of a classic, and indicated the cles in the field of mental retardation. Also special educator who had nominated the perdepicted in the Table are the number of son to whom the letter was addressed. The votes given for 1st through 5th place for each survey form included two major compoarticle, the total score, and the ranking of the nents: (a) the experts' name and complete entries based on the total score, mailing address, and (b) an identification of As can be observed from the Table, Wol the experts top three rank-ordered articles fensberger's (1972) book on normalization with complete bibliographic information was the primary vote getter with a total of (i.e., title, author, journal, volume, issue, 175 points. Using total points as the indicator date). of the 1 to 25 rank ordered list, point totals ranged from 175 (Wolfensberger, 1972) to Lance (1966) which received 6 votes. About one half of the 25 articles received 100 points A Delphi technique (Heath, Neimeyer, & Peor greater. The top 25 vote getters also dersen, 1988; Orlich, 1978), as delineated in ranged in year of publication from 1941 ancient Greece from the Oracle at Delphi (Doll, 1941) to 1984 (Ramey & Campbell, who was a revered source of authority to 1984). Additionally, Wolfensberger, Jensen, Classic MR / 203 Procedure This content downloaded from 207.46.13.45 on Sun, 27 Mar 2016 05:26:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms