The document discusses a study investigating teachers' knowledge and attitudes towards inclusive education of students with special needs in international schools in Thailand. The study found teachers had a moderate knowledge of inclusion but more education is needed. The critique discusses debates around inclusion and supports for students with disabilities, and recommendations to improve inclusion through collaboration and teacher training.
The document discusses a study investigating teachers' knowledge and attitudes towards inclusive education of students with special needs in international schools in Thailand. The study found teachers had a moderate knowledge of inclusion but more education is needed. The critique discusses debates around inclusion and supports for students with disabilities, and recommendations to improve inclusion through collaboration and teacher training.
The document discusses a study investigating teachers' knowledge and attitudes towards inclusive education of students with special needs in international schools in Thailand. The study found teachers had a moderate knowledge of inclusion but more education is needed. The critique discusses debates around inclusion and supports for students with disabilities, and recommendations to improve inclusion through collaboration and teacher training.
The document discusses a study investigating teachers' knowledge and attitudes towards inclusive education of students with special needs in international schools in Thailand. The study found teachers had a moderate knowledge of inclusion but more education is needed. The critique discusses debates around inclusion and supports for students with disabilities, and recommendations to improve inclusion through collaboration and teacher training.
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1/ 5
Teachers Knowledge and
Attitude towards Inclusive
Education: Basis for an Enhanced Professional Development Program
Maria Lexie S. Intia
Student
Mrs. Grace Tomacder
Professor Summary
The main purpose of this study was to investigate international school teachers
knowledge and attitude towards inclusion of students who have special educational
needs into mainstream classrooms in the Eastern Seaboard Region of Thailand. The
researcher used the descriptive survey method in the baseline data, which is to see the
general picture of the population and the nature of its existing condition. The respondents
were full time teachers employed in all four international schools in the Eastern Seaboard
Region of Thailand during the school year 2013-2014. The data gathering tool used was
an adapted questionnaire from the Modified Opinion Relative to integration of students
with Disabilities or MORID by Dapudong (2013). Based on the data results it reveals that
teachers have a moderate knowledge on inclusive education as a way of reducing
social discrimination and as integration of Special Educational needs students in
mainstream classroom while exhibited partial knowledge on inclusive education as a
system of education for all where there is a need to educate everyone irrespective of
race, creed, gender, and socio economic status. Over all the international school
teachers exhibited a moderate knowledge on the concept of inclusive education at the
international level.
CRITIQUE
Special education has received much positive attention in recent years and
continues to enjoy an examination of delivery models. While the issue of inclusion
continues to provide food for thought in the midst of this reflective process, it appears
that there is little debate as to whether it will survive as a core principle and preferred
goal in the continuum of programming options (Putnam, Spiegel, & Bruininks, 1995). What
is debatable is whether or not it is indeed in the best interest of all students, especially
those with emotional/behavioural problems and severe developmental delays. Also
questionable are the type and degree of supports required. Special education is not a
place but a process of individualizing service based on the needs of the student (Hockenbury, Kauffman, & Hallahan, 2000). It can guide us well in ensuring that future
practice is made more effective. Teacher training, teacher support, appropriate
resources and additional research are required to assist with special education in
general. An additional challenge here appears to be the diversity in what is in the best
interests of the child and the growing demand for more services in a system that reports
to be generous as is. Perhaps this reflects more on the planning process for these children
and whether it truly is participatory in nature, resulting in mutual decisions. Besides what
is needed is the application of what has already been learned from research that special
educators do best by teaching and that energies should return to quality instruction and
move away from the system management that has dominated the special education
agenda in recent years (Kaufman, 1994; Zigmond, Jenkins, Fuchs, Deno, & Fuchs, 1995).
One area that may well provide direction with this process is planning for students with
severe emotional/behavioural needs. As recommended in Supporting Learning (2000),
that placement requires a careful planning of the needs of the child as well as the other
children and the ability of the regular classroom to balance this. Special education
introduces the difference between alternate programs and alternate sites. From the
experience of this writer, having established an alternate school and administered it for
three years, alternate sites is a complex way to meet a child's needs. At the same time,
programming for children with severe emotional/behavioural needs in the regular
classroom is also complex and not possible for all. Perhaps, the answer is in finding a
middle ground between the two extremes by focusing on diverse strategies, improved
instructional planning, and alternate programs based on individual needs. In examining
the gap between research and practice, Heward (2000) underscores this focus on
classroom approaches by stating, "While there is a significant gap between what is
relatively understood and what is poorly understood or not understood at all, the more
distressing gap may be between what research has discovered about teaching and
learning and what is practiced in the classroom" (p.38). An increased focus on what is
needed to prepare all teachers, special and general education, to enter the classroom
and support them appropriately once there might well be the true reform that is needed. Conclusion
As we begin to understand the pragmatics of educational reform, it is clear that we are
as far from solutions as we have ever been. We must find a way to balance the values of
inclusion with the commitment to teaching individual students what they need to learn.
Future reform efforts that combine inclusive schooling with the additional resources and
specially trained personnel needed to achieve the individual educational goals of
students in whatever service option is appropriate, might achieve that elusive equilibrium.
Recommendation
Inclusive Education for those who have special learning needs are very ideal to eliminate
discrimination but there are still factors that need to be consider. To improve the existing
trends and practice of teaching, students with special needs and to address the special
educational needs of those children, it requires the efforts of parents, community
members, teachers, school principals, governmental agencies.
RERENCES
Andrews, J., & Lupart, J. (2000). The Inclusive Classroom. 2nd ed. Nelson Thomson
Learning, Scarborough, ON.
Kauffman, J.M. (1994). Places of Change: Special Education's power and identity in an
era of educational reform. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 27(10). 610-618.
Heward, W.L. (2000). Exceptional Children. An Introduction to Special Education.
Prentice-Hall Inc. New Jersey.
Zigmond, N. P. (1996). Educating students with disabilities: The future of special
education. In J.W. Lloyd, E.J. Kameenui, & Chard, D. (Eds), Issues in Educating Students
Classroom-Ready Resources for Student-Centered Learning: Basic Teaching Strategies for Fostering Student Ownership, Agency, and Engagement in K–6 Classrooms
Classroom-Ready Resources for Student-Centered Learning: Basic Teaching Strategies for Fostering Student Ownership, Agency, and Engagement in K–6 Classrooms
