Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
com/pre-k-12/what-is-special-education/
A Brief History
Before you can really begin to understand Special Education, you need to understand
its history. Quite simply, it all began with the parents.
Remember that scene in Forrest Gump when Sally Field’s character sat in the
principal’s office of her local public school and learned that her child would not be
allowed to attend school with other students? The principal told her that Forrest’s IQ
was too low for the state standard. You can see the look of determination cross Mrs.
Gump’s face, and you know she will not be taking “no” for an answer. Although you may
not realize it, this scene is actually a fairly accurate portrayal of what parents of students
with disabilities faced prior to the mid-1970s. It was parents such as Ms. Field’s
character—people who did not accept that their children deserved sub-par educations in
separate schools—who took on the school districts. These brave parents sued for, and
finally won, the right to send their children to public schools.
Although we now take it for granted that students with disabilities are allowed to attend
public schools, it was only in 1975 that it became law. The Education of all Handicapped
Children Act of 1975 was the first legislation to protect the educational rights of students
with disabilities. This law was later amended to become the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA), which is how we know it today. Although the law’s name changed
and new provisions have since been added, its overall purpose remains the same; IDEA
guarantees educational rights to all students with disabilities and makes it illegal for
school districts to refuse to educate a student based on a student’s disability.
1. Autism
2. Deaf-Blindness
3. Deafness
4. Emotional Disturbance
5. Hearing Impairment
6. Intellectual Disability*
7. Orthopedic Impairment
8. Specific Learning Disability
9. Speech or Language Impairment
10. Traumatic Brain Injury
11. Visual Impairment
12. Multiple Disabilities
13. Other Health Impairments
Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), students with special
needs are entitled to “free and appropriate public education” (FAPE) in the “least
restrictive environment” (LRE). This means that your child’s school district must work
with you to provide your child with a public education that is as close as possible to the
education received by students without disabilities. For more information regarding your
child’s rights, and your rights as a parent, please refer to Legal Rights to Services.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/special-education
Special education
WRITTEN BY:
The goals of special education are similar to the educational goals for ordinary
children; only the techniques for attaining them are different. An effort is
made, for example, to teach all children with special needs (except those
unable to profit at all from school experience) to read. Children who have
learning and mental disabilities require prolonged periods of intensive and
more-individualized instruction; for them the learning process might include
techniques to maintain interest, more active participation, and much more
repetition of similar material in varied form. Children with severe sensory
handicaps (such as deafness and blindness) must learn to read through other
sense modalities. Deaf individuals learn to read through visual methods, while
blind individuals learn to read Braille through the tactile sense.
Children who have motor handicaps require few, if any, academic
adjustments. Unless they have additional problems such as learning
disabilities, intellectual disabilities, or speech disorders (which are often found
among the cerebral palsied), children with motor disabilities learn like other
children, and they can follow the same classroom materials. Special
techniques are necessary, however, to help such children adapt to
their environment and to adapt the environment to their disability.
Wheelchairs, modified desks, and other apparatuses aid in mobility and the
manipulation of classroom materials. One of the most important aspects of the
education of the orthopedically disabled is attitudinal—that is, preparing
children for adapting to the world outside the classroom and maximizing their
potential for leading relatively normal lives.
Children with learning disabilities and those with speech defects require highly
specialized techniques, usually on an individual basis. For children with social
and emotional problems, special therapeutic and clinical services may be
provided. Psychotherapy and behaviour therapy by clinical psychologists,
social workers, and psychiatrists are generally a part of the educational
program. Academic teachers in these classes stress personality development,
social adjustment, and habits of interpersonal relations. With this group of
children, these factors are prerequisite to academic achievement. Academic
work is, however, sometimes therapeutic in itself and is promoted as much as
possible.
Grouping patterns
Special classes for children who have above-average intelligence, who have
intellectual disabilities, who have visual or hearing impairments, or who have
been diagnosed with other disabilities are found in many school systems
throughout the world. This type of organization allows children to attend
neighbourhood schools that offer specialized instruction, such
as remedial classes for students who need extra help. By contrast, “residential
schools” enroll special-needs children for 24 hours a day and are usually
attended by those who cannot obtain services in their community. For gifted
students, specialized programs offered by neighbourhood schools include
advanced classes that differ from the regular curriculum (an approach known
as enrichment) and grade-level advancement linked to educational
achievement (an approach known as acceleration).
Increasing criticism of programs that segregate children with special needs
has stirred efforts to integrate the special-needs child with other children. The
World Conference on Special Needs Education: Access and Quality, held in
1994 in Salamanca, Spain, endorsed inclusive schooling on a worldwide
basis. As a result of this conference, UNESCO was charged with promoting
special education concerns among teachers, documenting progress in various
regions and among different programs, and encouraging research in special-
needs education. For the gifted, special programs of enrichment and
acceleration are increasingly preferred to special classes. Resource rooms for
those with sight or hearing impairments allow children to participate in regular
classroom activities for part of the day. Older, educable persons with
intellectual disabilities can be assigned to regular workshops, physical
education classes, and other nonacademic classes. The eventual goal
(beyond developing skills and imparting information) is to prepare these
students for life in the larger society.
Inclusion
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/what-inclusion-how-do-we-implement-it
here are special departments in many educational institutions, especially in the public
sector, which focus just on how to create and maintain inclusive work environments.
So what is inclusion and why is it important? It is not just about including learners with
Specific Learning Differences (SpLDs). Inclusion is a basic right of everyone and its
objective should be to embrace everyone regardless of race, age, gender, disability,
religious and cultural beliefs and sexual orientation. When we have true inclusion, it is
when we have removed all barriers, discrimination and intolerance. When implemented
properly, it should make everyone feel included and supported, whichever environment
they are in.
What does inclusive practices mean, and how can we ensure that all our
classrooms and work environments are truly inclusive?
Inclusion is about how we structure our schools, our classrooms and our lessons so that
all our students learn and participate together. An inclusive classroom is one that
creates a supportive environment for all learners, including those with learning
differences, and can also challenge and engage gifted and talented learners by building
a more responsive learning environment.
Inclusivity also means respecting people from all backgrounds and cultures, and by
teaching our students the importance of this we create a much more tolerant and
understanding environment, not just in the classroom and school but also in wider
society.
An inclusive school or classroom can only be successful when all students feel that they
are truly part of the school community. This can only happen through open, honest
discussion about differences and understanding and respecting people from all abilities
and backgrounds. An inclusive environment is one where everyone feels valued.
Think about your own values and approach to disability, gender, race, etc. Does how
you teach acknowledge the experiences of the students from different backgrounds? Is
your approach non-stereotypical? Using stereotypes can alienate and marginalise
people, and using generalisations can have a negative effect on learners. Do you
encourage alternative perspectives, debate ideas, create an environment which is open
to representation of different viewpoints?
Are your students treated as individuals, encouraged to share their own lives and
interests? Building a good rapport with your students helps with this. If your students
feel comfortable and supported by you, then they will be more open to sharing their
ideas, thoughts and interests with you and the other students. This can be achieved
quite easily. On the first day of class, share some information about yourself with your
students. Tell them what your interests are, why you like teaching, etc. Another activity
you could do in the first lesson is to write five words on the board about yourself. Tell
your students that they have to ask you questions to find out what the words are the
answers to. Then get the students to do the same activity for themselves in groups.
In an ELT racially diverse classroom, have you thought about your own conscious or
unconscious biases about people from other cultures? Do you have different
expectations of students of colour than you do of white students, of male or female
student, of students from the LGBTQ community?
This can be created by thinking about a couple of things: Think about how you deal
with student–student interaction. The way you deal with negative interaction is very
important.
Also think about the interaction between teacher and student. Are you an approachable
teacher? ‘Students who felt that their teacher was approachable, had concern for
minority student issues and treated students as individuals and with respect reported a
better course climate’ (Astin, 1993). If you establish some ground rules about
acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, this will help students understand more clearly
both your and other students’ expectations. You can do this at the beginning of each
course and involve your students in putting together what everyone feels is acceptable
and unacceptable. It is always a good idea to revisit this from time to time as a
reminder to everyone.
Have high expectations of all your students. Research shows that students respond
better when they feel that their teacher has faith in their abilities and is not focusing on
their inabilities.
Plan learning which includes participation from everyone and encourages success. You
can do this by creating an environment which is personalised to the students’ needs
and talking about learning that focuses on what students can do and what they would
like to do next. This can be done through tutorials, individual learning plans (ILPs) and
short- and long-term goal-setting by the learner so that they feel they have ownership
of their learning. If you provide students with opportunities to tell you what is working
and what needs attention, you will have a better idea of what to focus on.
Take a ‘community’ approach to learning and teaching. Inclusive values are developed
through a student’s lived experiences and their exposure to other cultures and world-
views. Bring your community into the classroom and take your classroom out to the
community.
Creating an inclusive environment will not only help those students with learning
differences, it will also support those students who don’t have a learning difference by
making them more aware, tolerant and understanding of each other.
References:
Hall, S. (1982). The classroom climate: A chilly one for women? Washington
D.C.: Association of American Colleges.
Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M.W., DiPietro, M. & Lovett, M.C. (2010). How learning
works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey
Bass.
Astin, A. W., (1993). What matters in college: Four critical years revisited. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
History
http://neiuelcentro.tripod.com/id10.html
References
http://www.ibe.unesco.org/sites/default/files/History_Inclusive_Education.pdf
https://www.alleducationschools.com/blog/history-of-special-education/
https://prezi.com/g6otunbtjgx-/history-of-special-education-in-the-philippines/