Chapter One
Understanding Inclusion
Chapter one of the textbook gave a great foundation of the basics on inclusion and how it works. Most notably were the principles of effective inclusion, least restrictive environments, and factors that contribute to the possibitlity of full inclusion. The chapter was also helpful in breaking down federal laws that affect special education. Finally, the book discussed the various impacts of inclusion not just on the student with the disability, but all of the students. After reading and having many of my questions answered for me, my brain woudl not stop with more questions about various aspects discussed in the chapter. Below are a few of my main areas of interest as well as some links to good websites dealing with these issues.
1. As I was reading about universal design and how it could be applied to apecial educaiton, I think I got it's definition completely wrong. I was under the impression that universal design as related to education was to design all education resources and procedures so that they may be easily understood by all. With this thought, I wasn't sure how significant this idea was. In hindsight, I should have thought about it more clearly and closer related to architecture. In architecture, making things with a universal design simply means to make it accessible to greatest amount of people. In looking at it like this, it is easy to see our goal with inclusion in the classroom. By making a general education easily accessible to as many kids as we can, we are practicing universal design. The link below is a great website that clarifies universal desing in education by not only defining it, but also by compary it to the universal design of learning. The website also includes how to use universal design in creating your classromm instruction.
A Primer on Universal Design (UD) in Education
2. Another aspect in this chapter that had me reeling was the idea of how rampant overrepresentation of group within the special education arena. From all the things I have read, I can see that students are sometimes put into special education wrongly. Especially with the amount of culturally diverse learners growing rapidly within our school system, I worry for these and I wonder how prominant the problem is here in Charleston. As I perused the iris website, I found the case study on Serge who was mistakingly put into special education up his enrollment into the school system because they gave him tests in English as opposed to his native tongue. Unfortunately, it was a few years before teachers realized the mistake in placement. This can be incredibly negative toward a student's academic success. The website below is basically a FAQ site about dispoportionate representation. It had quality answers to a lot of various questions like
What is disproportionality? What is the role of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) indisproportionality? Why should parents, educators, and community members be concerned about disproportionality? How is disproportionality monitored in school districts? Does disproportionality refer only to ethnicity in special education or specific disability categories? What is the most effective strategy for reducing disproportionality for ethnic minority students? What disability categories have an overrepresentation of ethnically and racially diverse students? |
The Disproportionate Representation of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in Special Education 3. In examining the effect of inclusion on disabled students, it is imperative to also look into it's effect on all of the students in the classroom. It is easy to assume that inclusion would have a positive effect on disabled students as they will have a general education environment with a lot of peers to learn from. From the perspective of inclusions effect on students without disabilities, I wondered whether the impact would be positive or negative. Academically, I assumed there would be little impact, but I felt that social impacts of inclusion could be amazingly positive for both parties. Learning that many elementary students have a positive attitude toward inclusion made me believe that these peers could actually become advocates for their special education peers. I also believe by having an inclusion classroom detracts form the stereotypes placed on the disabled. The website below had some great info on the social impact of inclusion including The 5 reactions of nondisabled students about inclusion. 1) reduced fear of human differences accompanied by increased awareness, 2) growth in social cognition, 3) improvements in self-concept, 4) development of personal principles, 5) warm and caring friendships. What is the impact of inclusion on students and staff in the middle school setting? http://www.ncmsa.net/ressum14.htm |
What a creative and informative guide, Hillary!
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