Sample # 6

“Children who learn together , learn to live together”

Factors related to INCLUSION of Children with Disabilities into Regular Education classes:

Inclusive education means that all students in a school, regardless of their strengths or weaknesses in any area, become part of the school community. They are included in the feeling of belonging among other students, teachers, and support staff. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its 1997 amendments make it clear that schools have a duty to educate children with disabilities in general education classrooms.

Teachers who have taught in an inclusive classroom say the philosophy of inclusion hinges on helping students and teachers become better members of a community by creating new visions for communities and for schools. Inclusion is about membership and belonging to a community.

Here’s what some teachers say about the philosophy of inclusion:

"Inclusion involves all kinds of practices that are ultimately practices of good teaching. What good teachers do is to think thoughtfully about children and develop ways to reach all children.

"Ultimately good teaching is a relationship between two people; teachers get good results because they enter into that relationship. Inclusion is providing more options for children as ways to learn. It’s structuring schools as community where all children can learn. But there’s no recipe for becoming an inclusive teacher or an inclusive school. It’s not a mechanized format."  --  Dr. Chris Kliewer, Associate Professor of Special Education, University of Northern Iowa, (taught second grade in an inclusive school in Syracuse, NY, for four years).

"Inclusion is based on the belief that people/adults work in inclusive communities, work with people of different races, religions, aspirations, disabilities. In the same vein, children of all ages should learn and grow in environments that resemble the environments that they will eventually work in."  --  Dr. Susan Etscheidt, Professor of Special Education, UNI

"When good inclusion is in place, the child who needs the inclusion does not stand out. The inclusive curriculum includes strong parental involvement, students making choices, and a lot of hands-on and heads-on involvement."  --  Dr. Melissa Heston, Associate Professor of Education, University of Northern Iowa.

"If you run a school like a business or with a factory model, you automatically exclude about one-third of the people because they don’t fit that model. Under the factory model, schools set standards for grade levels; this emphasizes producing a standard product with a focus on mentality. If students are not up to the standards, then you have to put them aside. But inclusion is not just about ‘where’ children are educated; it’s a philosophy that includes a whole school and it’s everyone’s responsibility. Compare that to the one-room school house that had multi-grades 1-8 and one teacher. Kids learned from one another, and the teacher was expected to teach all kids who entered the class."  --  Dr. Barry Wilson, Department Head, Educational Psychology and Foundations, UNI

"After my son is out of public school, he’ll be living and working with a diverse population of people. I want him to be accepted after he’s out of school as much as when he’s in school. For me, that’s why inclusion is a key while he’s in school."  --  Parent of child with disabilities who attends Waverly Public Schools, Waverly, Iowa

"Inclusive education means teachers working with students in a context that is suitable to a diverse population of students. It also means the teacher may need alternative expectations and goals for students, and it’s difficult to get teachers to do this."  --  Dr. Kathy East, Support Services Coordinator, Price Laboratory School, UNI

"Inclusive education operates from the assumption that almost all students should start in a general classroom, and then, depending on their needs, move into more restrictive environments. Research shows that inclusive education helps the development of all children in different ways. Students with specific challenges make gains in cognitive and social development and physical motor skills. They do well when the general environment is adjusted to meet their needs. Children with more typical development gain higher levels of tolerance for people with differences. They learn to make the most of whoever they’re playing with. When we exclude people, it ultimately costs more than the original effort to include them."  --  Dr. Melissa Heston, Associate Professor, UNI

"If you view schools as inclusive and are looking for ways to educate that benefit all students, then that’s inclusive."  --  Dr. Barry Wilson, head, Dept. of Ed Psych and Foundations, UNI

"The millions of no disabled students currently enrolled in schools are future firefighters, nurses, store clerks, teachers, job coaches, legislators, secretaries, physicians, school board members, employers, voters, doctors, lawyers, budget determiners, policy analysts, co-workers, police officers, and taxpayers. Approximately 15% of them will become parents of children with disabilities. A larger proportion will have a friend, neighbor, or relative who is the parent of a child with a disability and many others will be paid to provide services to people with disabilities." Lou Brown, University of Wisconsin, Madison

"...This perspective seems to reflect a relatively widespread belief that students with disabilities should be returned to the general education classroom only if their disabilities are ‘cured.’ If this belief prevails, most persons with disabilities will never be included?  --  McLeskey & Waldron, Phi Delta Kappan, October, 1996

"You could just see the difference in him; he had done like a 180 degree turnaround. He was just so happy - and he talked about kids in school all the time."

Benefits of Inclusive Classrooms for AllChildren with Special Needs

· affords a sense of belonging to the diverse human family

· provides a diverse stimulating environment in which to grow and learn

· evolves in feelings of being a member of a diverse community

· enables development of friendships

· provides opportunities to develop neighborhood friends

· enhances self-respect

· provides affirmations of individuality

· provides peer models

· provides opportunities to be educated with same-age peers

General Education

· provides opportunities to experience diversity of society on a small scale in a classroom

· develops an appreciation that everyone has unique and beautiful characteristics and abilities

· develops respect for others with diverse characteristics

· develops sensitivity toward others' limitations

· develops feelings of empowerment and the ability to make a difference

· increases abilities to help and teach all classmates

· develops empathetic skills

· provides opportunities to vicariously put their feet in another child's shoes

· enhances appreciation for the diversity of the human family

Teachers

·  helps teachers appreciate the diversity of the human family

· helps teachers recognize that all students have strengths

· creates an awareness of the importance of direct individualized instruction

· increases ways of creatively addressing challenges

· teaches collaborative problem solving skills

· develops teamwork skills

· acquires different ways of perceiving challenges as a result of being on a multi-disciplinary team

· enhances accountability skills

· combats monotony

Teacher Competencies Needed 

What competencies do general education teachers and special education teachers need to be competent inclusive teachers?

· Ability to problem solve, to be able to informally assess the skills a student needs (rather than relying solely on standardized curriculum).

· Ability to take advantage of children's individual interests and use their internal motivation for developing needed skills.

· Ability to set high but alternative expectations that are suitable for the students; this means developing alternative assessments.

· Ability to make appropriate expectations for EACH student, regardless of the student's capabilities. If teachers can do this, it allows all students to be included in a class and school.

· Ability to determine how to modify assignments for students; how to design classroom activities with so many levels that all students have a part. This teaching skill can apply not just at the elementary or secondary level, but at the college level as well. It will mean more activity-based teaching rather than seat-based teaching.

· Ability to learn how to value all kinds of skills that students bring to a class, not just the academic skills. In doing this, teachers will make it explicit that in their classrooms they value all skills, even if that is not a clear value of a w hole school.

· Ability to provide daily success for all students. Teachers have to work to counteract the message all students get when certain students are continually taken out of class for special work.

Other competencies that will help general education teachers in an inclusive environment include:

· a realization that every child in the class is their responsibility. Teachers need to find out how to work with each child rather than assuming someone else will tell them how to educate a child.

· knowing a variety of instructional strategies and how to use them effectively. This includes the ability to adapt materials and rewrite objectives for a child's needs.

· working as a team with parents and special education teachers to learn what skills a child needs and to provide the best teaching approach.

· viewing each child in the class as an opportunity to become a better teacher rather than a problem to be coped with or have someone else fix.

· flexibility and a high tolerance for ambiguity.

Teachers today more fully recognize the value of inclusion because they see its power as an effective instructional practice. We feel that two factors are critical to the effectiveness of the district's inclusion efforts: effective collaborating on among classroom teachers and the special education staff, and a weekly block of instructional planning time.

Teaching strategies

Content / Behavior Strategies

Ideas for content area instruction

Dr. Christopher Kliewer, who taught for four years in an inclusive elementary school, offers the following broad outline for an inclusive classroom:

· inclusive education is nothing more than good teaching for all students.

· students take responsibility for their education; they help create the structure of the classroom, including helping to establish rules and academic program.

· teachers have high expectations that all students will meet the rules and academic challenges.

· families are involved.

· curriculum is focused on humanity, on one another's worth. The students tell their own stories or other's stories and learn about things that matter in their lives.

· Teachers throw out the worksheets and basal reader system; they create curriculum that involves students.

Ideas for behavior strategies

Kliewer says it's time to reconceptualize the classroom and not automatically think bad behavior is the student's problem and something that needs to be controlled. Here are some ways to begin:

· Classrooms need one main rule - respect one another. After this, if students and teachers create interesting curriculum with material that matters in the students' lives, then students will be interested, involved, and focused on what they've designed.

· Teachers need excellent observational skills to determine what caused a behavior problem.

· Structure the environment so students are actively engaged and motivated. That will be good teaching for all students. This will involve collaboration and networking. It also means the teacher is not always in control, but is one of a team of problem solvers including students, parents, and other teachers.

· Other common strategies for content area instruction and solving behavior problems include peer tutoring, cooperative learning, and reciprocal teaching. These are all instructional techniques that have been around for a long time and provide ways for a class to work together toward a common goal, but don't mean that everyone is doing the same thing.

Problem-Solving Approach for Behavior Strategies

A functional assessment of problem behaviors can help general education teachers deal with behavior assessment and curriculum modifications. This is a proactive, deliberative approach that involves a team consisting of the student, parents, professionals, and teachers who ask questions about the physical environment, social interactions, instructional environment, and non-school factors.

For example, questions concerning the physical environment may include:

· are there too many people in the room?

· what about the physical arrangement of the class?

· what about the lighting of the room?

Instruction environment questions the team could ask:

· is the work too hard? too easy?

· is the pace too fast? too slow?

· is the teacher too loud?

Social and non-school factor questions:

 · has the student had enough sleep?

· enough to eat?

·  is the student involved in delinquent behavior?

Based on the assessment answers, the team plans a strategy to modify the environment so the child's problem behavior does not occur. Dr. Susan Etschedit points out that this is just good teaching. "If I change the material I'm using because I realize it's redundant for one student, all the other students who were a little bit bored also benefit and find the work more interesting."

In considering answers and strategy plans, be sure to get input from the students. Etschedit says there's also a whole list of questions to ask the student. "Students are willing to share their honest reactions if they see the whole team of people is trying to help solve the problem with them."

Program Planning Steps for an Inclusive Education Program
 

1. Identify Team Members Necessary
These may include the multi-disciplinary team members, general and special educators, local administrators, related services providers, parents, people who know the child or have expertise in a specific needed area, the student, if appropriate.

2. Identify the Student's Strengths and Educational Needs
Team members need to fully understand these. The multi-disciplinary team may need to complete an evaluation if one has not be done recently. In addition, parents need to give the team any helpful information they have about their child.

3. Describe the Student's Current Education Program
This description should clarify what modifications, materials, and teaching strategies are used. In addition, parents should list the main goals they would like to see addressed in the coming year.

4. Identify and Describe Potential Classrooms
Analyze each general education classroom available and determine which is the most appropriate. Choice should be age-appropriate. Other factors to consider are location, class size, instructional strategies, teaching styles, materials used, and the willingness of classroom teachers to participate.

5. Select the Classroom for the Student
The outcome of the team's decision concerning selecting a classroom should be a recommendation regarding placement and the initiation of local school procedures for obtaining that placement.

6. Develop a Schedule of Activities
This important step in the planning process describes in detail needed adaptations, materials, location of services, people responsible for providing those services, and any other resources needed. As the daily schedule is formed, insure that the student' s IEP goals are being addressed in some part of the schedule.

7. Develop Transition Activities
Determine which activities may be needed to prepare for the student's arrival to the new placement (i.e. student visits new classroom). In addition, any special instructions needed to prepare the students should begin (i.e. a student going into junior high will need to know how to operate a locker or have one modified for ease of use).

8. Provide for Additional Resources to the Student's Program as Needed
Advance preparation should be made to add needed resources (for example, budgeting for an instructional aide, or developing a peer tutoring system).

9. Provide for Technical Assistance to the Student's Program as Needed
If technical assistance is needed, the team must decide who will provide it, how it will be implemented, and how often it should be provided?

10. Train School Staff and Students without Disabilities as Needed
Training topics can cover disability awareness, specialized care instruction, clarification of personnel responsibilities, cooperative teaching strategies, etc. The appropriate administrators should be notified of needed training.

11. Provide for Continued Parental Involvement
The planning team should develop a system for parent/teacher communication. Determine who will be responsible for communication, (i.e. teacher, instructional aides, and case manager) to be the primary contact person. Parents' input should be encouraged and seriously considered throughout the planning process.

12. Monitor Student's Progress and Modify Plan as Needed
Planning does not stop when the student is placed. The team is an ongoing resource to be used throughout the school year. A schedule of follow-up meetings should be determined, allowing for 'emergency' meetings when needed. Monitoring should be done to observe how the existing program is going and if existing supports are adequate or need to be altered, added, or eliminated.

Schools have found creative ways of insuring that teaching teams have consistent meeting times to plan to students. These include "bloc" scheduling and use of support personnel to free staff for planning.

Successful student teams create a classroom atmosphere where each student is viewed as having something to offer. Opportunities are found or developed to present students with disabilities as valued members o the classroom. The student is se en as a person who can engage in reciprocal relationships, instead of always being on the receiving end of assistance.

Preparing for Inclusive:

Involving Everyone as Part of an Inclusive Classroom Setting

"It's so powerful to see what happens when we don't divide people. Whether you can talk or not has nothing to do with whether you're my friend or not, was the feeling I got at a birthday party I went to for 6-year-olds. They accepted their friend s as they were and had incredible friendships. So what can we do? We need to restructure schools into communities that support children. Once we create good schools and good classrooms in that vein, then inclusion will happen." Chris Lieder, Associate Professor of Special Education, UNI

" One way to help prepare students would be to provide opportunities for all students to improve their self-esteem, not just students with specific challenges. We need to provide opportunities daily as part of the curriculum for students to self-reflect, self-evaluate to know themselves better." Susan Etschedit, Professor of Special Education, UNI

" We need to provide opportunities for all kids to have success every day of their lives." Kathy East, Support Services Coordinator, Price Lab School, UNI

Here are a few starting points for working to prepare students, teachers, and administrators to be part of an inclusive school.

1. Address attitudes and values - Have involved persons identify what areas of inclusion they are comfortable with and what they are not comfortable with. Don't put values on these; just identify them.

2. Information - Read books, watch videos, talk to teachers of inclusive classrooms, do simulation activities for an inclusive classroom, visit inclusive schools to get information to build self-confidence and self-esteem for teachers and students to be part of inclusive education.

3. Application - Take the risk with a support system in place to be receptive and willing to accommodate children with greater needs. This takes leadership from principals, teachers, and students and means a whole attitude of acceptance, tolerance, and respect.

Inclusion Models for a Building Level.
 

More and more general education and resource teachers are working together using different forms of teaming. A number of these models been successfully implemented at building level in school districts across the United States. Three of those models are a consultant approach, teaming, and co-teaching.

Consultant Model - In a building with a low incidence of special needs students and overall low student population, this model would be very compatible. The special education teacher is made available to re teach a difficult skill or to help the student(s) practice a newly acquired skill. This is a non-intrusive approach that provides the special needs students with at least two teachers to ask for help with curriculum problems. Regularly scheduled meetings are recommended rather than communication on an as-needed basis.

Teaming Model - The special education teacher is assigned to one grade level team with one planning period per week for the team. The special ed teacher provides student information, possible instructional strategies, modification ideas for assignments/tests, and behavior strategies. The team meets on a regular basis, establishing consistent communication among the team members. The team model is presented so teachers are not working independently to achieve success with their students. All team members work together and broaden their knowledge in various areas, whether they are from general education or special education.

The disadvantages of this model could include possible resistance to implementing the modifications, delayed assistance for students with difficulty, high student to teacher ratio, and limited opportunities for special ed teachers to work in the general education classroom.

Collaborative, Co-teaching Model - Using this model, the general education and special education teachers work together to teach students with/without disabilities in a shared classroom. Both are responsible for instruction planning and deliver y, student achievement, assessment, and discipline. Students receive age-appropriate academics, support services, and possible modified instruction. This model provides a minimum of scheduling problems, continuous and ongoing communication between educators, and lower student to teacher ratio than the teaming or consultant models.

Collaborative teaching can be organized in a number of ways:

One teacher, one support - This organization works well for teaching a unit where one teacher is more expert than the other. Students still have two teachers to ask questions of and get help.

Parallel teaching design - The teacher divides the class into groups and teaches them simultaneously. The student to teacher ratio is low, more time is devoted to learning versus students waiting for help, opportunities for re-teaching are immediate, support for the teacher is present, communication is constant, and behavior problems can be minimized.

Station teaching - This collaborative teaching model divides up content and students so that teachers or students rotate at the end of a unit. It is ideal for subject matter taught in units with no particular sequence. Benefits include the opportunities for re-teaching are immediate, the student to teacher ratio is low, teachers become experts with material, and communication among teachers is constant.

Alternative teaching design - In this model, one teacher leads an enrichment or alternative activity while a second teacher re-teaches small group of students if they are having difficulty with content. Math is compatible with this design where a lot of re-teaching is done.

Team teaching - Teachers work together to deliver the same material to the entire class. Teachers circulate around the class providing immediate re-teaching and a lower student to teacher ratio.

Bibliography:

1. "Creative Educators at Work:  All Children Including Those with Disabilities Can Play Traditional Classroom Games," by Donna Raschke, Ph.D., and Jodi Bronson, Ed.S., 1999.

2. " Logan, Diaz, Piperno, Rankin, MacFarland, & Bargamian. (December 1994/January 1995). Educational Leadership.

3. Wang, Reynolds, & Walberg. (1994). Educational Leadership.

4. Inclusion Models for a Building Level
by Elaine E. Daack, UNI masters thesis (1999).

5. Gartner, A., & Lipsky, D. D. (1997). Inclusion and school reform: Transferring America's classrooms. Baltimore: P. H. Brookes Publishing.

6. Alper, S. (1995). Inclusion - Are We Abandoning or Helping Students? Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

7. All Children Including Those with Disabilities Can Play Traditional Classroom Games, by Donna Raschke, Ph.D. and Jodi Bronson, Ed.S.

Reference:

1. http://interact.uoregon.edu/wrrc/AKInclusion.html

2. http://www.uni.edu/coe/inclusion/decision_making/planning_steps.html

3. http://www.uni.edu/coe/inclusion/strategies/inclusive_classroom.html

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