Course Code: A 5

● Inclusive Education
Assignment Topic.
Principles of inclusive Education

Submitted to Submitted by
Dr. Faizullah Khan sir, Mohd Shahnawaz
Assistant Professor M.ed (spl) 2nd sem

Department teacher training non formal education, IASE . Jamia Millia Islamia
University, New Delhi 110055

INTRODUCTION

That Inclusive education has been the latest trend in the field of
Education during the last two decades is an undeniable fact. Though the
term inclusive education has been in vogue for past few decades and
though the education for children with special needs along with the
general students has been spoken of strongly in recent times the attempts
to educate the disabled goes back a few centuries. It would be worth
looking at the history of educating the children with disabilities or as they
are now called children with special needs.
Inclusion' as an approach to educating students with
special educational needs. Under the inclusion model, students with special
needs spend most or all of their time with non-disabled students.
Inclusive education seeks to address the learning needs of all children,
youth and adults with a specific focus on those who are vulnerable to
marginalization and exclusion. It implies all learners, young people - with or
without disabilities being able to learn together through access to common pre-
school provisions, schools and community educational settings with an
appropriate network of support services. It aims at all stakeholders in the
system such as learners, parents, community, teachers, administrators and
policy makers to be comfortable with diversity and see it as a challenge rather
than a problem. Inclusive education means the education of all children, with
and without disabilities together in regular schools. It is an approach, which
takes into account unique characteristics, interests, abilities and learning needs
of all children. All schools have to be inclusive in their approach, so that the
children with disabilities have access to these schools that accommodate
within them a child centred pedagogy capable of meeting the needs of all
children. Inclusion in education means that all students in a school,

PRINCIPLES OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

In inclusive education each child should have the opportunity to

experience meaningful challenges, exercise choice and responsibility, interact
collaboratively with others, and be actively engaged in developmental,
academic, non-academic, inter and intra personal activities as part of the
educational process. Implementation of the plans, programmes and actions
depend upon continuous community support, broad planning, training and
evaluation. An adapted school environment is needed to suit the need of every
child ?with disabilities. The important principles of inclusion are:

Sharing of responsibilities of functionaries working at different levels;

Providing additional support to children;

Development of a collaborative framework to meet the additional.

needs and interests of children;

Implications for various types of disabilities;

Knowledge about family and social environment of children;

Modifications in Teaching-Learning strategies/modalities;

Improving professional competencies of teachers;

Ensuring community support and support of other functionaries

working at different levels

The process of inclusion starts with the planning of education for all
children under regular education in the classrooms, which is least restrictive.
Children with disabilities need improvement in cognitive and social
development and physical motor skills. All functionaries associated with
school should share responsibilities and support all children. Collaborative
efforts from school staff to meet the unique needs of all children are essential.
Rights and needs of all children need to be considered in determining how and
when to include children with disabilities in the school programmes. So far as
the provision of Individualized Education Programme is concerned, it is based
on intensity of service required. Family and social circumstances of children
are crucial to inclusion of children with disabilities.

MODELS OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION FOR CHILDRENWITH DISABILITIES

In inclusive education the general education itself makes the education of

children with disabilities as its integral part. This implies that the teacher
should be equipped with skills to address the educational needs of children
with disabilities to a minimum extent. This calls for strengthening the pre
service teacher preparation programme with adequate component of inclusion
of children with disabilities. Inclusive education creates effective classroom
where the educational needs of all children are addressed irrespective of their
ability. Total inclusion occurs when general classroom teachers take most of
the responsibilities of the classroom. If a specialist takes care of the children
with disabilities in a general classroom it is not total inclusion.
There is no clear consensus in the field about the models to be practiced in
the educational institutions. Some educational thinkers and researchers are for
the full inclusion model (Fuchs and Fuchs, 1994). A few others are in favour of
partial inclusion (Hallahan and Kauffman 1991). Let us discuss these two
models in detail.

1. MODEL OF FULL INCLUSION

The strong movement towards inclusive education demands full time

inclusion of children in regular education system. This model calls for
providing support to every type and degree of disability in the regular
classroom. Needless to say co-curricular activities also must be adapted to
cater to the needs of all the children admitted in the school. Proper
assessment and planning has to be made for every activity to be enjoyed by
a child who may require special adaptation. The following adaptations in
the classroom functioning facilitate full inclusion.

A. Co-operative Learning

This is an effective way of including children with disabilities in a

regular classroom. Here children in heterogeneous small groups work
together towards a specific goal. Before making the groups, peers are
deliberately trained to help in developing a particular academic skill in
children with disabilities.

B. Instructional Adaptations and Accommodations

Instruction may be modified for children with disabilities. Modifications

usually take the form of modified assignments or modified instructional
strategies. Children with disability feel comfortable in the group as the
modification is made to suit them.

C. Training General Education Teachers

General education teachers are content experts. But they are not well
versed with the special needs of children with disabilities. Special
education teachers usually lack expertise in teaching an individual
subject. Keeping this in mind the general education teachers are given
additional training in the area of specific disabilities and the special
instructional needs.

D. ​Practical Difficulties of Full Inclusion

Labelling​: There is a possibility that some children with disabilities

feel inferior due to their deviant condition. This may lead to poor self-
esteem in the child and hinder the child from
taking part in other ?activities of the school.

Special Instructional Needs:​ Few children with disabilities

depending on the type and severity of their disability call for special
material and method in the instructional setting. It may be difficult to
provide those in a regular school and hence full inclusion may not ?serve all children.

Stigma of Groupism:​ Children with disabilities may be viewed as a

group and this will divert the attention from the individual. They
may be treated as yet another minority group, adding to the already ?existing groups in the
society.

Attitude of General Educators:​ Most teachers in the general stream

feel that they are not capable of handling children with disabilities.
Teachers already have a tedious job of catering to a huge number.
Due to this over burdening situation, they are unwilling to do extra
work. It results in negative attitude of teachers and heads of institutes
they feel that taking children with disabilities in the school will be an
additional liability on them.

E. Conditions for Full Inclusion

It is clear now that full inclusion calls for total preparedness on the part of the school authorities.
This model requires the classroom environment
to be fully conducive for learning for all the children. The physical
environment should be modified to suit the needs of children. For
example in case of a child having hearing impairment there are certain
prerequisites to be kept in mind while admitting the child to a regular
education stream. Some of the crucial points regarding hearing ?impairment are given below.

Early intervention is essential that hearing impairment is identified ?and intervened before 6
months of age.

Suitable hearing device has to be used after proper diagnosis and ?medical intervention, if
necessary

Listening training has to begin immediately to make up for the delay

in auditory input. Development of age appropriate language and ?social skills.

In case the child is not comfortable with lip reading the option of sign
language should be considered and efforts needs to be taken for using
sign language in the school for teaching the child.

2. MODELS OF PARTIAL INCLUSION

These models came as a viable option to full inclusion. Some educators are
in favour of these models as this is more practical. Unlike in integration,
here the system of education and the teachers adjust or prepare to take care
of the needs of the child with disability. The child is in the classroom
throughout as per the ideology of inclusion. The partial inclusion models
suggested by Hallahan, Kauffman and Pullen (2009) are given below.
A. Collaborative Consultation

In this approach a special educator and a general educator collaborate to

identify teaching strategists for a student with disability. Regular
meetings are scheduled between the two. The relationship between the
two professionals is based on the premise of shared responsibility and
equal authority. Special educator will see the child in a resource room or
other setting. A change to the instruction is suggested to the regular
classroom teacher, which is practiced in the classroom along with the
regular plan of the teacher. Special educator helps the student to practice
newly acquired skill and re teach difficult skills. This model is suitable
for an area where there is low incidence of students with special needs. If
a school has got lesser number of students with special needs, this is a
very useful model. In collaborative consultation a specialist will provide
support to the general education teacher.

B. Teaming Model

A team is assigned for each grade level. A period per week will be
assigned to the team for planning. Team members meet with the special
educators on a regular basis. In the meetings, the special educator
provides information like the possible instructional strategies,
modifications, and ideas for assignment of students depending on the
requirement of each team. This model is suitable when student to
teacher ratio is high. But the special educator gets limited opportunities
to work in general education classrooms for the children with
disabilities.

C. Cooperative Teaching

A special educator and a general educator will teach the diverse group of
students in the same classroom. Both educators are responsible for
instructional planning and delivery, student achievements, assessment
and discipline. Commonly it looks like one teacher is teaching and the
other teacher assisting. In reality both of them would have worked
together before the class, keeping in mind the requirement of the
children who need special attention to learn the particular concept.
Students receive age appropriate academic support service and possible
modified instructions. There are minimum scheduling problems as
general educators and special educators work together. This fosters
continuous and on going communication between educators. This
model is appropriate when the student to teacher ratio is small and this
takes care of more number of children with disability included in a class.

CHALLENGES FOR INCLUSION

Adequate academic as well as administrative support is the key for the success
of inclusion of children with disabilities in general schools. Simply enrolment
of these children will not serve the purpose of inclusion. Respecting need of
each child is a real challenge for the teachers and administrators. The basic
challenges confronted by the stakeholders associated with inclusive education
are:

1. School reforms.

2. Attitude of teachers, parents and community.

3. Curricular adaptations for effective classroom processes.

4. Capacity building of teachers and other functionaries

5. Adapting need based instructional strategies

6. Provision of adequate human resources and material resources

7. Facilitating collaborative learning.

8. Developing partnership with professionals and organizations.

CONCLUSION

In the model of inclusive education, it is not the Child, but the education
system, which is seen as a problem. Therefore, it is the system (with all its
components) which should be changed, modified & made flexible enough to
accommodate the diverse needs of all learners, including children with
disabilities. The onus for success is therefore on the flexibility of the system. It
focuses on the environment, as the “disabling” cause because it fails to provide
appropriate access to equal opportunities for all persons to participate fully in
social life.
It is essential to build an inclusive society through an inclusive approach.
Success of inclusion demands effective collaboration and meaningful
cooperation from all stakeholders associated with education of children. It
would be pragmatic to chalk out the ways and means to make schools more
accessible for children with disabilities. We need to develop an inclusive
design of learing to make the education joyful for all children so that the
education for them is welcoming, learner friendly and beneficial and they feel
as a part of it not apart from it.

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