Inclusive School Practice

Students use basic skills every day from looking at the clock to tell the time to handling money when paying and making change. Students who have jobs need to

Inclusive practice is about adapting what is being delivered to make learning accessible to everyone regardless of ability, special education need (SEN) or any other barrier that might exist. When planning to meet the needs of everyone in the group it is essential that the teacher has as much information about everyone as possible. (The City and Guilds textbook level 3 Award in Education and Training). Features of inclusive teaching and learning starts with knowing which learning styles your learners prefer, to do this you can use VARK (visual, aural, read/write and kinetic) test which was designed by Neil Fleming to help learners and teachers know what learning methods they are best suited to e.g. in the first lesson my tutor asked for us

An inclusive environment is a condition where everyone has an opportunity to fully participate. In education, this means everyone has the same opportunity, there should be no borders such as ethnicity, gender or disability. All students should feel valued, be able to mix and participate with all members of the group be in a safe and positive environment.

Teaching Strategies” by Brown (2002) explored the relationship of the environment created by Mrs. Boyd, a fifth grade teacher who “[nurtured] academic excellence” (p.127). The objective of the study was to see what strategies Mrs. Boyd used to encourage success in the classroom. The population was elementary school kids in grades 4-6 whose ethnicity was varied from African American to Asian and biracial. The examiner observed six of Mrs. Boyd’s morning and afternoon sessions and interviewed her after about the strategies used to educate their students. The study found several key elements to providing a comfortable environment,

In Australia, educators and schools must accept all children as they have the right to learn alongside same age peers within a mainstream education, no matter their diversity. Inclusive schooling supports all children with disabilities and learning disorders and allows children to learn. Inclusive education recognises and complies with a range of different government acts. These include Equal Opportunity Act (1984) and Disability Discrimination Act (1992), which protect the rights of all children. In 1970 students with disabilities began to attend mainstream education as researched proved that having children with special needs segregated was not how they deserve to be educated as they have the same rights as every other student (Konza, 2008, p.39). A series of documents and policies were put in place, offering students with disabilities the education they were entitled to and making inclusive education a part of Australian education. These documents include the National Disability Strategy, the National Quality Framework, the Early Years Learning Framework of Australia, the Australian Curriculum, and the Australian Professional Standards for Educators. This report looks at these policies and different services, which have been implemented in Western Australia. This report builds an awareness of the views the community, parents and educators of children with special needs have on inclusive education and what recommendations educators can implement in

As Robert Frost once stated, “I am not a teacher, but an awakener” (Quotes about Education, 2017). Teachers are given the extraordinary task to awaken the minds of all learners. Every student deserves the opportunity to achieve educational success. In order to be given the opportunity for educational attainment an inclusive environment is needed for a student with special needs. General and special education teachers must acquire specific skills to achieve an effective inclusion environment. The ability to communicate for collaborations, understanding the needs of students and implementing learning strategies are critical skills educators must possess in an inclusive environment.

Campaigning for exclusion, quoting Mary Warnock (2005), Cigman (2007, p. 23) debates that children with ASD have quite specific needs that most often are difficult or even impossible to meet in a mainstream classroom. Mixing autistic children in mainstream schools exposes them to a loud, brightly light and dynamic environment that they find frightening. Furthermore, providing a one-to-one assistant does not seem to work at all. It is seldom to find someone with the right qualifications and skills needed to teach an autistic child to work as a teaching assistant. Children with these difficulties need their own space in a small, highly organised classroom with enough experienced and skilled teachers to provide sufficient one-to-one teaching time for each individual.

I think that all the strategies mentioned in the readings are very important, they are design to help the students in their learning process in very unique ways. However, one of the strategies that I would use within the inclusion classroom is accommodations and modifications. Many students have different needs in the classroom and doing the necessary accommodations and modifications to help them reach their full potential is one strategy that as an educator I will use. For example, making sure the student who has hearing loss be sitting in the front aisle close to where I will be standing, keeping the door close to reduce extraneous noises. The use of technologies such as the FM system and remote microphones also will help have a better communication

“Many students who are gifted require differentiated programming and supports to meet their exceptional learning needs” (Alberta Education, p.172). Can the regular inclusive classroom, a heterogeneous program, be enough of a challenge to stimulate the thinking to reach the gifted learner? Or, is a homogenous classroom, comprised of only gifted individuals, be the best academic solution for these exceptional students?

The inclusion movement is a full inclusion of special education students into regular classrooms. The inclusion movement suggests that inclusion should be one of several alternatives to meeting the educational needs. Inclusion advocates typically support the argument that the segregation of a child by diagnosis or handicap is not in the best interest of the child (CDC,2016). The impact of this movement forces the teachers to look beyond the situation and focus on the educational need of the student. It also forces the requirement that special needs students be educated in the "Least restrictive environment.

As part of a broader diversity initiative, elementary educators take a proactive stance in dealing with diversity by addressing heterosexism and homophobia. The article discusses the importance of becoming allies for each other to address issues of oppression and bias through the curriculum (Schniedewind & Cathers 2003).

Pedagogical effectiveness, was reviewed by Lewis and Norwich (2005), they examined varying approaches of inclusion in mainstream schools. Lewis and Norwich found that the notion of differentiation for children with SEBD and ASD was lacking.

S: Page 16 was mostly about things to expect in an inclusion classroom. The page first talked about how it is better if the inclusion class has a low child to teacher ratio because then the teacher or teachers in the classroom can better adjust to the needs of the students. Page 16 then talked about how there may be people, other than the teacher, that are in the inclusion classroom, such as paraeducators, volunteers, and related service professionals. The page talks about effective ways to work with the other people in the classroom, and how it is important to have communication, collaboration and respect for the other people in your classroom. The page also talked about how to have effective collaboration by having the staff, children, and their families support each other. The last thing the page talks about is how inclusion classes may have a lack of support through funding, tools, training, etc.

Each child is unique and learns in different ways; however, most schools still have a tendency to cling to the one-size-fits-all education philosophy. It is often overviewed when catering to a classroom that each child has specific needs, and that a small group of children within the class may also need further attention. Disability isn’t always visible nor is it always what we think it is. A child may have an undiagnosed hearing or vision problem, he or she may have difficulty with attention or with sitting still, or may have difficulties comprehending instructions. Whatever the need, the issue of whether or not that child should be pulled from the classroom and work with a specialist in a resource room,

Inclusive education means that all children with different abilities, cultural differences, economic background etc. attend and are welcomed by schools in age-appropriate, regular classes and are supported to learn, contribute and participate in all aspects of the life of the school. Education systems have changed drastically in the last few decades as educating children with disabilities in regular schools has become an important goal in many countries.