Self-Determination: Instructional and Assessment Strategies

Michael L. Wehmeyer, Ph.D. is Professor of Special Education; Director, Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities; and Associate Director, Beach Center on Disability, all at the University of Kansas. Dr. Wehmeyer is engaged in teacher personnel preparation in the area of severe, multiple disabilities and directs multiple federally funded projects conducting research and model development in the education of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He is the author of more than 180 articles or book chapters and has authored, co-authored or co-edited 19 books on disability and education-related issues, including issues pertaining to self-determination, transition, universal design for learning and access to the general curriculum for students with significant disabilities, and technology use by people with cognitive disabilities. He is a Fellow of the American Association on Mental Retardation, a past president of the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division on Career Development and Transition, and is Editor-in-Chief for the journal Remedial and Special Education. In 1999 Dr. Wehmeyer was the inaugural recipient of the Distinguished Early Career Research Award from the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division for Research. In May, 2003 he was awarded the American Association on Mental Retardation’s National Education award. Dr. Wehmeyer holds undergraduate and Masters degrees in special education from the University of Tulsa and a Masters degree in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex in Brighton, England, where he was a Rotary International Teacher of the Handicapped Fellow. He earned his Ph.D. in Human Development and Communication Sciences from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Sharon Field, Ed.D., is Professor (Research) and Co-director of the Center for Self-Determination and Transition in the College of Education at Wayne State University. Her areas of specialization include self-determination, transition and life skills, and applied positive psychological practices. She has directed several federally funded transition and self-determination projects. Through these projects she developed, with Dr. Alan Hoffman, a model of self-determination and the Steps to Self-Determination curriculum and, with Drs. Alan Hoffman and Shlomo Sawilowsky, a self-determination assessment battery. She has written extensively on self-determination for persons with and without disabilities. Her work has included development of materials and strategies to promote self-determination at the early childhood, elementary, secondary and post-secondary levels. She is also the lead author of The Self-Determined Educator, a set of instructional modules for use in initial preparation and staff development settings designed to promote self-determination for teachers and Self-Determined Parenting, an instructional support program for parents. She has direct service experience in schools as a special education teacher, job placement specialist and administrator. Dr. Field earned her Master’s degree in Special Education from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and her Ed.D. in Educational Policy, Governance and Administration from the University of Washington.