One of the most difficult tasks faced by the collective leadership of a nation is the design and maintenance of its schools. Leaders must decide what is to be taught, by whom, and who to teach. The membership of the teacher and the student groups, in turn, help determine how the subject matter is to be taught. The what, who, and how issues are further complicated by rapid changes in cultural values and priorities, political and economic issues and legal interpretations. These complications require strenuous policy discussions and often agonizing reappraisals as the nation’s political leaders interact with their constituents, including groups representing parents, educators, scientists and economists.

It is now 18 years since Lloyd Dunn (1968) wrote his seminal paper “Special Education for the Mildly Retarded: Is much of it justified?” In the meantime, there has been major legislation in USA in the form of Public Law 94-142 (1975) which has been widely interpreted as a blueprint for improved services for the handicapped and for their integration into ordinary schools. In Britain, Section 10 of the Education Act (1976), the Warnock Report (1978) and the Education Act (1981) have provided, in varying degrees, official encouragement for integration.

In recent years much interest has been expressed about the possibilities of teaching thinking skills to special education populations. Instrumental Enrichment (IE) is a programme designed to achieve significant modification in cognitive abilities in retarded adolescents (Feuerstein, Rand, Hoffman & Miller, 1980). The purpose of this paper is to attempt to review the major concepts and philosophy underlying IE, and consider the available research that has been published by way of evaluation of the programme.

The theme of the 11th National Conference of the Australian Association of Special Education was Responding to Expectations. Responding to expectations requires anticipation of correct educational directions and proper teaching strategies to accommodate such directions. All decisions that result from responding to expectations are fundamentally controversial and should be challenged. Through the process of challenge, expectations change, and this has been the case in the development of teaching strategies to improve communication for those who have a limited response repertoire.

How can we use computers effectively? This paper, which is intended for teachers already using computers in their classrooms, outlines and discusses three approaches to using and managing microcomputers with children who have special learning needs. The approaches describe computer-based classroom learning environments for children with a range of learning difficulties and are based on classroom work with children at D’Alton Special School, Hobart. Responses from some children working in these environments are also discussed.