Exceptional Learners: An Introduction to Special Education

 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.

With hundreds of new references added to the 12^th edition, the authors are committed to bringing the most current and credible perspectives to bear on the ever-increasing complexity of educating students with special needs in today’s schools.  The authors have written a text that reaches the heart as well as the mind, promoting a conviction that professionals working with exceptional learners need to develop not only a solid base of knowledge, but also a healthy attitude toward their work and the people whom they serve, and constantly challenge themselves to acquire a solid understanding of current theory, research, and practice in special education and to develop an ever more sensitive understanding of exceptional learners and their families.

Daniel P. Hallahan is the the Charles S. Robb Professor of Education and Director of Doctoral Studies for the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. He was the inaugural occupant of the Virgil S. Ward Professor of Education Endowed Chair from 1996 to 1998 and was appointed to the university’s Cavaliers’ Distinguished Teaching Professorship from 2002 to 2004. He received the University of Virginia Outstanding Teaching Award in 1998. In 2003, he was one of ten recipients of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia’s Outstanding Faculty Award.

He has served on numerous editorial boards and was the inaugural editor of Exceptionality. He is a past president of the Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), and in 2000 he received the CEC Career Research Award. He has contributed over 100 journal articles and co-authored or co-edited 17 books. In addition to Exceptional Learners, his most recent Allyn & Bacon books are Hallahan, Lloyd, Kauffman, Weiss, & Martinez (2005), Learning disabilities: Foundations, characteristics, and effective teaching (3rd ed.) and Kauffman, J. M., & Hallahan, D. P. (2005). Special education: What it is and why we need it.

James M. Kauffman is Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Virginia, where he held both the William Clay Parrish chair (1992-1994) and the Charles S. Robb chair (1999 until retirement in 2003) in education.  In 2007, his former students edited a book in his honor, Crockette, J.B., Gerber, M.M., & Landrum, T.J. (Eds.), Achieving the Radical Reform of Special Education:  Essays in Honor of James M.Kauffman.  Among his other honors and awards are the 2006 Award for Effective Presentation of Behavior Analysis in the Mass Media from the Society for Applied Behavior Analysis, the 2002 Outstanding Leadership Award from the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders, the 1997 OUtstanding Faculty Award from the Curry School of Education Foundation, and the 1994 Research Award from the Countil for Exceptional Children.  He is a past president of the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders (CCBD) and a former teacher in both general elementary and special education for students with emotional or behavioral disorders.  He is author or co-author of more than 100 journal publications in special education and author or co-author of numerous books, including the following:  Kauffman, J.M., & Landrum, T.J., Characteristics of Emotinal and Behavioral Disorders of Children and Youth (9th ed.); Kauffman, J.M., & Brigham, F.J., Working with Troubled Children; and Kauffman, J.M. The Tragicomedy of Public Education:  Laughing and Crying, Thinking and Fixing. 

Paige C. Pullen is an associate professor of special education at the University of Virginia. Dr. Pullen teaches courses in reading methods for students with reading disabilities and reading diagnosis and remediation. She has served as an investigator on several large-scale projects funded by the NICHD and OSEP. Her primary area of interest and research is early literacy development and the prevention of reading disabilities. Pullen has also worked extensively with schools and serves as a consultant for the Eastern Regional Reading First Technical Assistance Center (ERRFTAC). She is the co-author of Phonological Awareness Assessment and Instruction with Dr. Holly Lane, and Students with Learning Disabilities, with Dr. Cecil Mercer.