Creating an Inclusive, Student Centred Learning Environment - Essay Example

Creating and Inclusive Centred Learning Environment Introduction The inclusive learner-centred system room instruction is one of the most effective tools for special needs children to be able to feel adjusted into the mainstream social milieu and eventually function as a happy, independent, and productive member of society. This paper establishes best teaching practices that are applied in such a class. The Target Group The is a kindergarten class comprised of children from 5 to 6 six years old., about 25 in number, 5 of whom are autistic. Majority, if not all, of the children attended some form of preschool class, although not necessarily inclusive. There will be some members of the class who will be meeting and interacting with an autistic classmate for the first time. The kindergarten class presents special challenges, because of the pupils’ stage of development, whether they have special needs or not. Most of the regular children will accept their SPED classmate without hesitation. On the other hand, the SPED learner may feel initially confused and out of place, depending on his preschool experienced, which most like is not inclusive. At the end, however, the aim is to form a community with a spirit of camaraderie and familiarity in the class. Music is the ideal medium, because it is usually enjoyable, it appeals to the students’ love for rhythm and melody (including the members with autism, and the course offers lots of chances for interaction and bonding. Theoretical Framework For the purpose of this activity, the theory of Shihmei Shu Barger (2005) shall be used. The Student-Centered Model of Inclusive Teaching and Learning paradigm by Barger is presented in diagram form in Appendix “A”. The diagram is comprised of an inner circle, the core of the teaching process, which represents the students not as a group but as unique individuals, each with a personal, social and cultural identity, learning style, needs, beliefs, interests, aversions, and life experiences prior to their joining the class. The outer circle is composed of three equal segments representing three operational elements of the taching process, namely Instructor, Content, and Pedagogy. Each of these segments is connected to the students in the inner circle, and to each other in the outer circle, making the model clearly student-centric. The Barger model is particularly appropriate in that it “integrates the cognitive learning theories with the scholarship and knowledge of learning” (Barger, 2005, p. 1). The conceptual framework highlights the important elements of the teaching process, as well as the interrelationships among them that enable the process. The table that follows the diagram of Barger’s model describes the elements involved and the interactions among these elements. Topic Area The topic would be to determine best teaching practices in a regular-size Kindergarten music class with one or two children diagnosed for autism joining the class on a regular basis and as an integral part. Various methods are described to ensure that the student’s needs are determined and the conduct of their lessons are adjusted to specifically meet these needs. Teaching practices are explained and how they contribute to the success of an inclusive learner-centered class. The practices for the class in general and for the SPED students are based on the Kindergarten music curriculum shown in Appendix “B”. Teaching Practices The following are teaching practices for inclusive learner-centred classes (MacLean, 2001) 1. Planning and preparation 1.1 Partnership with Parents. The teacher must establish a working relationship with parents, in order to better and more holistically approach the lesson in a manner most effective for the learner. For the kindergarten music class, the teacher could inform parents of the songs they had learned so that the parents could practice them at home with their children. 1.2 Collaboration The general education teacher in an inclusive environment will need to collaborate with the various professionals who perfrom specialized functions in the special education field. Most important among these is the special education (or SPED) teacher, who shall be responsible for coordinating student services and an Individualized Education Program or IEP, which shall be designed for each special-needs child (Friend and Bursuck, 1999 in MacLean, 2001). Frequent collaboration between the general education and SPED teachers should immediately address SPED learners’ needs by adjusting lesson content and strategy. Other professionals involved in the collaboration process conducted by the general education teacher are the school psychologist, counselors, social workers, speech and language as well as physical and occupational therapists, nurses, paraprofessionals, and school administrators. Speech and language therapists could help maximize the music therapy aspect of this music class for autistic learners. 1.3 Classroom / Teaching Environment Preparation In classroom preparation, the first consideration should always be the choice of furniture and their best arrangement to accommodate the unique needs of its occupants. This may necessitate the building of ramps where steps lead to the classroom, widening of spaces between tables and designing of special chairs, and so forth. Teaching materials and aids should also include audio-visual equipment and digital projectors on which to show interesting visual presentations that are helpful to autistic students, and that teach and entertain the whole class. 2. Conducting the class (Daack, in MacLean, 2001) 2.1 Consulting – The SPED teacher acts as consultant for SPED students to learn difficult skills or practice new skills. This is appropriate for smaller schools with few students with special needs. 2.2 Teaming – The SPED teacher is assigned to a grade level team to provide support in instructional strategies, adaptations and behavior strategies 2.3 Co-teaching – There are several arrangements between SPED and general education teachers in working together, such as one teacher, one support (one is more knowledgeable about the unit than the other), parallel teaching (each teaches the same material to half the class simultaneously), station teaching (teachers rotate with different content), alternative teaching (one teacher re-teaches a small group while the other teaches a different activity), and team teaching (teachers work together in teaching the whole class). Any of the co-teaching methods appears best for the Kindergarten music class, because little children, especially autistic ones, need to establish a familiar bond with their teachers in order to foster the highest level of confidence and encourage the greatest degree of learning and performance for both SPED and regular learners. 3. Evaluation & Feedback The evaluation of work performance of learners must be done objectively, with the purpose of providing recorded feedback of all positive and negative performance aspects in order to provide sufficient basis for the other expert collaborators to form useful and informed assessments. Understandably, while numerical ratings may for the most part be sufficient for the regular class members, detailed qualitative descriptions and an estimate of the degree of improvement or deterioration are important to chart the progress of the special needs learner. At the heart of the evaluation process is the determination of what the learner needs and on the basis of his capabilities, not to indiscriminately employ the school’s rating system which may not provide any useful information that could help in the learner’s improvement process. The end result is not to merely attain a grade, but to enable the child to attain a satisfactory level of useful knowledge and skills, which he will need to lead a happy and productive life. Specific Practices for Autistic Learners Autism is a lifelong neurological, developmental disorder that prevents the afflicted from understanding what they see, hear, and otherwise sense, and for which there is presently no known cure (British Columbia, 2000; Batson, 2001). More common in boys than in girls, it impacts on the social, communication and behavioural skills of about half a million persons in the US alone. Autism is a hidden disability, and the absence of external signs lead others to think the autistic individual is normal. This increases the frustration of the autistic individual because he is expected to comply with instructions communicated to him in a language he could not understand (Renna, 2004). The following are some strategies particularly for the autistic learner, but which would also prove useful for his regular classmates. (Sources: British Columbia, 2000; Batson, 2001; Villa & Thousand, 2005; Zieve, 2006). 1) Introduce the Child – Introduce the child to the class while sharing how all of us have differences and similarities. Tell the children their friend has autism and he communicates and plays a little differently. 2) Use Simple Language – Use simple language with the child such as, “Sit. Sit chair.” Point to the chair as you speak. Many times children with autism will “read” your body language. 3) Give Concrete Cues – While giving a direction, pair it with a concrete cue. For example, take a musical instrument to the child, such as a toy drum and drumsticks, and ask him to sit down and beat on the drum. 4) Offer the Child Choices – Allow the child to select which song she would like to sing or which instrument she would like to play. 5) Prepare a Place – Prepare a place for the child during each activity and always give him the snack or learning materials even if the child is engaged in an alternate activity. 6) Establish a Routine – Predictability and routine are benchmarks to help the child with autism cope with his involvement in a classroom, new environment, or a social setting. 7) Use the Child’s Name – Speak the child’s name frequently even if the child is engaged in another activity. For example: “Joshua, that was a good song. You really have a good voice, Joshua.” 8) Prepare a Hobby Box – Prepare a plastic box placed in sight but out of reach with 5-10 highly motivating activities or toys for the child. When the child becomes upset or disinterested during the regular schedule, allow him to select one item at a time to play with. Other classmates will understand that this box (the hobby box) belongs to their friend. It also becomes a tool to teach sharing, if other children wish to share in his toys. 9) Use Picture Symbols and Visual Aids – Have a symbol for the child, such as a car or dolphin, and tape it to the child’s items to help him know where she should sit, which book is hers, and where to hang her coat. Use picture/visual schedules to show the day’s activities, one picture per activity. It is also useful to make visual images of the lessons. For instance, pictures of animals could be shown on the LCD projector as the class sing “Old McDonald Had a Farm”. 10) Enlist a Shadow (One-to-One Aide) – The shadow could follow the child and help her participate in the day’s activities while continuing to try to engage her with her peers. This frees the teacher to be able to focus more fully on the entire class. 11) Include Aerobic Activity – At the beginning of class, have the child run outside, or participate in some kind of aerobic activity. It can be very helpful just before a sit-down or socially demanding situation. This type of activity can help the individual with autism to be more focused and attentive. 12) Follow the Child’s Lead – Allow the child to show you his likes and interests. Use these opportunities to teach him that his interests are important. 13) Modify Lessons – Change lessons to match the ability level of the child. Frustration from being unable to perform difficult tasks easily distracts an autistic child to the point of being unreceptive to learn. 14) Place Hand Over Hand – To get the child to draw musical notes, point to a verse, or color a picture, assist him by placing your hand over his hand to gently guide or aide him in completing the task. 15) Encourage individual effort – Where appropriate and only when the child is able, try to gradually encourage independence by using visual aids to decrease reliance on the parent, teacher or teacher assistant. Schedules, task outlines, and checklists can be rendered in pictograph form and posted in easy view on the wall. Effectivity of practices for special and regular learners The teaching methods and strategies described here are effective when applied to both special needs and regular students. Referring to the Barger framework in Appendix “A”, by inclusion the students relate to each other to form a community, despite their individual uniqueness. Even regular children have differences among themselves as to needs, interests, preferred learning styles, and so forth. Their interactions with each other, both SPED and non-SPED, is a microcosm of the bigger society which they will have to deal with on their own someday. The teaching practices foster teachers’ focus on the students’ particular needs especially where students are allowed choices, and given the chance to express what he wants. Their needs influence pedagogy by determining the appropriate method of delivery, and influence content through modification of lessons to suit them, among others. It should be noted also that the use of SPED devices (pictorgraphs or visual aids, establishment of routine, role modeling, parental collaboration, etc) are likewise not only useful but desirable for regular learners of this age, to increase understanding and foster independence. Likewise, regular kids get to understand why children with special needs are not different from them in many ways, improving understanding about how to deal with each other. WORDCOUNT = 2,200 excluding title Critical Reflection In this second assignment, what I had done was to flesh out in the most concrete manner possible the particulars of inclusive, student-centred instruction. It brought to my recall the many debates about inclusion being policy-rhetoric, but impratical because according to the arguments, SPED learners tend to disrupt, delay, or distract regular learners in a “normal” classroom setting. The studies I have come across on this point prove only the opposite. By accepting peers with disabilities in their midst, children are taught not only acceptance of others, but acceptance of themselves. If the message is sent that it’s alright for other people not to be perfect, then it’s alright for “ME” not to be perfect. For the SPED child, it goes without saying that finding unconditional acceptance among his peers, then he gains confidence in himself. These are powerful insights for this teacher, who is quite humbled that all the lesson plans, deadlines, testpapers and grades are empty activities if they are not learner-centric, if they do not serve the purpose of helping children learn. It brings to mind my old mentor’s comment: “If the student has not learned, then the teacher has not taught.” This assignment is weakest in finding concrete results on the espoused teaching practices, because it lacks the decisive empirical validation. Its strength is in establishing a theory-practice link that could prove inclusive learner-centred instruction is not a rhetoric. I conducted my research mainly on the basis of a scan of academic journals and reliable internet resources, but if I could do it again and given enough time, I would embark on an empirical study and visitation of inclusive, learner-centred classes. It is only by direct observation that one may appreciate the compex relationships involved in this system that have been described in the Barger study. WORDCOUNT = 300 excluding title REFERENCES Barger, S S 2005 Student-Centered Model of Inclusive Teaching and Learning. Accessed 10 May 2010 Batson, R D 2001 “Teaching the Learner with Autism”, Special Education Today, vol. 6, no. 4, 15 May 2001 British Columbia Ministry of Education 2000 Teaching Students with Autism: A Resource Guide for Schools, Special Programs Branch, Ministry of Education, British Columbia. Accessed 10 May 2010 Chorzempa, B F; Lapidus, L 2009 "To Find Yourself, Think for Yourself." Teaching Exceptional Children, Jan/Feb 2009, Vol. 41 Issue 3, p54-59 Renna, R 2004 “Autism Spectrum Disorders”, International Journal of Reality Therapy, Spring 2004, Vol. 23 Issue 2, p17-22 Villa, R A & Thousand, J S 2005 Creating an inclusive school, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), Alexandria, VA. Zieve, W 2006 Music Therapy Interventions for Young Children. Accessed 10 May 2010 APPENDIX “A” Student-Centered Model of Inclusive Teaching and Learning By Shihmei Shu Barger, 2005 (Continued on next page) (Continued from previous page) APPENDIX “B” Music Curriculum (USA) http://www.musicbulletinboards.net/pdf_downloads/music%20curriculum%20COMBINED.xls Music Curriculum (with skills checklist and songs for each grade level) (Excel document) "To Find Yourself, Think for Yourself.".Full Text Available By: Chorzempa, Barbara Fink; Lapidus, Laurie. Teaching Exceptional Children, Jan/Feb2009, Vol. 41 Issue 3, p54-59, 6p; (AN 36125691) AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS.Full Text Available By: Renna, Robert. International Journal of Reality Therapy, Spring2004, Vol. 23 Issue 2, p17-22, 6p; (AN 13083566) Zieve, W 2006 Music Therapy Interventions for Young Children. Accessed 10 May 2010 Villa, R A & Thousand, J S 2005 Creating an inclusive school, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), Alexandria, VA. http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=LmGUwULs6c8C&pg=PA10&dq=inclusive+student+centered+learning&hl=en&ei=PTrtS7CgF46trAfcsO2lBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=inclusive%20student%20centered%20learning&f=false Zieve, W 2006 Music Therapy Interventions for Young Children. Accessed 10 May 2010 Read More