Foundations and Assessment of Education/Edition 1/In Today's Schools Table of Contents/Inclusion

 Inclusion   Observations and Reflections from Today's Classrooms

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Students with special needs benefit from the social interaction obtained during PE classes with their non-disabled peers. However, if skill acquisition is the focus, I have found that students with special needs benefit more from adaptive PE classes. Therefore, my elementary school provides students with special needs the opportunity to attend both inclusive and adaptive PE classes each week. Jtmitchem (talk) 19:48, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

I have not yet completed my 30 hour observation, so I will write about inclusion from past experiences during my school career. When I was in school, special education students had their own classrooms where they interacted only with other special education students. There were few times when special education students interacted with students in the general classroom. Teachers and administrators believed the best thing to do was to separate the special ed students from the general classroom. However, inclusion has come to show positive effects on both special education students and regular education students.

Inclusion education means that all students, 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 IDEA Act and its 1997 amendments make it clear that schools have a duty to educate children with disabilities in general education classrooms. Studies have shown that special education students who remain in regular education classrooms outperform those who get pulled out. They have better social adjustment and reported improved behavior. With inclusion, regular education students have improved performance and they become more tolerant of students with disabilities. They become more responsive to others' needs and develop warm friendships. If I work with special education students in my future classroom, I plan to use the inclusion model because of the many benefits it provides. Afett001 (talk) 23:05, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

I observed two classrooms, one of which was a special education classroom. Those students had different challenges, some of them had developmental delays and some had severe learning disabilities. All of the students had the ability to participate in learning, there were some that needed extra assistance and reiteration to stay on task. The greatest part of the observation was the chance to spend a picnic day with the students outside and watch them interact with other children in the first grade setting. They loved the time that they were included. I also observed a 4th grade class that had many gifted students. It is really the opposite of what some would think inclusion means because these students are exceptional learners and generally do well in their classrooms, but I was informed by the teacher that some of those students have a hard time socially and also at times are not accepted by some class members because they have the opportunity to leave the class and the other students see that as unfair. I experienced this when I was in school as a child. I was treated unfairly by a teacher that was not happy that I left class to go to gifted, therefore her attitude created a situation that was not positive while in class. I think that in all aspects, it is important for teachers to remember that each student is an individual. They will all be different in their learning styles and it is our job to ensure that they all get the chance to find what works for them without feeling different.Jnewh001 (talk) 00:27, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

At the high school where I did my observations I only observed one classroom that had students with an IEP. There were several students with various learning disabilities. The special education teacher, who came to the classroom during that class period, assisted all the students in the class. I knew the special education teacher was there because a few of the students required extra help, but because help was available for all the students, if I had not been told ahead of time that it was an inclusive class I would never have known.Mlipl001 (talk) 17:18, 2 August 2009 (UT

I have not done my observations yet, but I have some insight on how inclusion is working in schools in Southwest Virginia. While talking to several different regular education teachers they all told me somewhat the same thing; inclusion is working quite well for both the children and the teachers. Some teachers even commented on how nice it was to have an extra teacher in the classroom. They said it made them strive to do better themselves. One teacher said she thought inclusion would be a flop because she felt like special education students would feel singled out by receiving extra help within a classroom of regular education students. She also thought that there would be more bullying and picking placed upon the special education students. However, this has not been the case for teachers in Russell County, VA. Each one thinks it has went quite beautifully and thinks it was an excellent idea. I did find one special education teacher who stated she felt nervous sometimes in the regular education classroom. She couldn't explain why, but said she felt like that often. The teachers said the students have adapted well and look to see something great come of inclusion. By the way, various school assessments have shown inclusion to be a success.Hcomb003 (talk) 22:09, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

I teach inclusion math to high school students. Legally, a school is not supposed to have a majority of special needs students with regular students in a class. However this is what usually happens, not to mention with 20 out of 23 being special needs, I had no inclusion teacher or aid. Although the idea of inclusion teaching is inspiring and seems to have positive benefits for all parties, the reality of the situation is that most times the regular students become behind because of the overwhelming issues of the special needs individuals, especially with the lack of school support offered to the regular education teacher. In the secondary setting, I am a math teacher, I have no specialized training to deal with some of the more extensive needs of some of the kids, but yet am expected to teach them just as I do the regular ed kids with no added help. Who is this system really doing justice to? Scrai010 (talk) 01:54, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Inclusion is a very important part of educating the students at the high school where I work. I have never had an inclusion teacher in my own class, but I have observed other classes where inclusion is taking place. Last semester, there was an Algebra I course for all students who had previously failed Algebra I. So in total, everyone in the class had failed Algebra I before. This class is traditionally very difficult to manage because it tends to have students who are the least motivated and prone to misbehave. For this particular course, there were a number of special education students in the class, and there was an inclusion teacher. The inclusion teacher would spend most of her time around special students, and the inclusion teacher would be there to offer these students extra individual attention. Her presence also helped with classroom management. This fits with some of what I learned that inclusion teachers should be doing in the classroom. Mbrowder (talk) 13:27, 17 August 2009 (UTC)