Teacher Evaluation and Monitoring of Students Performance with Special Needs - Research Paper Example

?How does an inclusive general education and special education teacher evaluate instruction and monitor progress with special needs? Introduction Teachers have a great task to play for the development of the society. The society has great responsibility to provide smooth and equal education for all the subjects irrespective of the status. The old practice of marginalizing the children with special needs is replaced to inclusive education where all categories of students are learned together. So the role of teachers in inclusive education is a challenging one as he or she has to envisage the developments of all the students in the classroom. The students with special needs are the ones to be cared mostly by the teachers and the society. They have to be given instructions in accordance with the talents in them. They are also a part of the general education. James R. Delisle et al put inclusive education as, “inclusion would mean that students with special learning or behavioral needs would spend their days in regular classroom, accompanied by a special education teacher or an aide who would assist them in acclimatizing to their setting” (Delisle et al., 2002, p.72). The writers still say that a teacher should understand the way to arrange the students to different groups in order to enhance their learning abilities. Different norms have to be followed to group the students. Sometimes the teacher should make ability grouping, and mixed ability grouping and at other occasions ability co-operative groups and cluster grouping (Delisle et al., 2002, p.72). All these have to enable a clear cut strategy for the evaluation and monitoring of students with special needs in the classroom. The present essay tries to make the different ways of evaluating and monitoring the instructions and its results in inclusive education with a special emphasis to the tool of assessment. The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) arranges many programs for the students who are with special needs. It is “the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving the educational success of individuals with disabilities and /or gifts and talents” (Council for Exceptional Children, 2011). The CEC has put forth certain standards with which the teachers can incorporate the learning outcome of the students. The standard 8 of this program involves with Assessment. It assesses the children with the learning aspects. The proponents of this council say that with the standard 8 certain skills are to be achieved by the students. And so it assesses “the development and learning of young children.” It gives suitable and “specialized formal and informal assessments for infants, young children and their families” (Council for Exceptional Children, 2011). This program arranges the need for the specially needed children and their families. It does not stop with their services to the families but evaluate their services to the families of such students. A child’s confrontation with the learning materials is analyzed through assessment and also a teacher can find out whether the materials given to the student is appropriate or not. So assessment helps both the inclusive educator and also the student who is involved in it. Peer reviewed Empirical study If an empirical study is conducted on the tools of evaluation and monitoring of inclusive education it can very well be found out that among various tools and techniques assessment secure a firm place. In the inclusive general education, an educator uses all the sources for the needs of the children. The students are put into various types of assessments and assignments that suit their age and talent. As the standard 8 of the CEC states the children in this level are to be well assessed to keep abreast with the objectives suited to their ability. The writer, Richard M. Gargiulo states the experience of being a teacher in an inclusive classroom. Being a teacher in an inclusive classroom filled with many students with different needs, “I have come to understand the importance of community and peer support.” The writer moves on to say, “The teacher in any classroom, but especially the inclusive classroom, becomes the coach or facilitator of learning. The teacher must meet the student where he or she is in the learning process and built from that point” (Gargiulo, 2010, p.176). So the role of the teacher is immense in an inclusive classroom. The teacher should have to arrange suitable measures for the learning ability of the students. A teacher alone cannot make wonders in the classroom but a teacher who has an ardent desire in enacting the learning materials can make wonders in a classroom. The teacher should seek help from the parents too. Gargiulo gives an example that, “Sending a portfolio during each grading period gives parents an opportunity to see growth in writing skills of progress in reading comprehension (Gargiulo, 2010, p.177). So a teacher can take multiple measures to enhance the different skills of a child. All students are born with some kind of skills. The teacher must find out the talents of the children by engaging the students with task based learning experience. This will lead them to focus on their skill. Once the skill is found out the task of the teacher is to lead the child through the right path. Here the teacher can give many assessment tasks both for the parents and for the other educators of this child. Among the assessment of a child the best tool is the close observation. John Salvia, James Ysseldyke, and Sara Bolt in their work named, Assessment: In Special and Inclusive Education state two types of observations-Qualitative and Quantitative (Salvia, Ysseldyke & Bolt, 2009, p.97). Both these help a teacher to find out two aspects of the behavioral pattern in a child thus enabling to understand the child better. This leads to find out the strengths and weaknesses in a child. Further the difficult areas of a child can be spotted and remedial measures can be provided. The empirical studies on the use of measures used to evaluate the teacher’s instruction and the progress of the students in inclusive education prove that assessment play a crucial role. The methods like peer support, child oriented tasks, grouping in accordance with the tasks, and above all close observation on the learning habit of the child make out that these evaluation tools are highly valuable in the inclusive education. Both the teacher and student profit from these. Descriptive study The theoretical studies on the evaluation tools on teacher’s instruction and student’s progress level mark that these tools are shaped with its practicability. The students with special care or attention are the students whom a teacher must have to keep very special. A teacher can make use the multi-modal approaches in enacting the class room transactions. The teacher should use visual, auditory learning materials in his or her study learning strategy. If children are given the examples and works that are kinesthetic, the basic skill in students can be improved. The children are much attached to play and a teacher who is focusing on the method of play and learn the outcome of the teaching strategy would be optimum success. The students with special needs are the students who can be developed through very planned and systematic approaches. So assessment as detailed in standard 8 of CEC is more advisory. Assessment works as a great help in the practical side of teaching the students with special needs. Just as the programs that CEC standard 8 puts forward the assessments of the student and the family in which a child is brought up are very important. The child should be assessed from every moment to moment. Tim Loreman, Joanne Deppeler, and David Harvey state, “Classroom assessments generally work best when they are conducted within the natural context of classroom activities.” Further they point out that “The child should demonstrate the acquisition of skills, knowledge or attributes in the context in which he/she has learned it” (Loreman, Deppeler & Harvey, 2005, p.66). The assessment of the child enables a teacher to find out how much the objectives are comprehended by the student. Two types of assessment can be used. One is teacher based assessments and the second one is the curriculum based assessments. The first one is informal and it helps the teacher to analyze a student’s growth with his her past knowledge. The second assessment, namely curriculum based is more formal and it enables whether a student is able to comprehend the curricular objectives designed for him or her. It works as a performance test. Inclusive practice is pressing much background work for the teachers. Teachers should have to plan a lot to arrange the learning instructions for the students with special needs. The book, How to Guide: Preparing Teachers for Inclusive Education says that, “Teachers in inclusive classes must be adept at adjusting lessons so that children with special needs can participate.” The writers go on to say, “The teacher must set out specific objectives for each child according to his/her abilities and needs” (Dinh & Le, n.d, p.28). The inclusive education provides many chances for the use of current technologies for the development of the children. At present lot of technologies are there to help students to develop their skills. Jack Snowman, Rick Mc Cown and Robert Biehler use more psychological measures to apply in teaching the specially needed children. They say that at present many technologies are used as “closed captioning, speech synthesis, voice recognition, screen magnifiers, special keyboards, writing tools, and distance education” (Snowman, McCown & Biehler, 2011, p.222). These technical supports help a child with different needs to pick up the learning habits easily and with much fastness. In considering the level of the child a teacher can take the appropriate method to suit the overall development of the child. Conclusions The special education teachers and inclusive education takes different methods to evaluate and monitor the progress of the students taking from observation to the more task oriented tests. The Council For Exceptional Children have worked out in this regard rather well and have come up with the standard 8 that is ‘assessment’ as one of the best tools for evaluating the student’s progress. These assessments have to concentrate on the usefulness of the instructions arranged by the teachers, the appropriate methods through which these instructions are used and finally assessing or evaluating how much these learning materials through the medium have to develop the students with special needs. When all these come appropriate the learning outcome of the students increase and they can improve a lot their skills. So the role of teachers in considering the system of inclusive education stands as supreme and at the same time challenging. When the teachers and parents become more and more committed the state accomplishes its task of giving education for all. Works Cited Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) (2011). Arlington: Retrieved November 10, 2011, from http://www.cec.sped.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=About_CEC Council for Exceptional Children (2011). CEC Standards for All Beginning Special Education Teachers of Early Childhood Students. Council for Exceptional Children. Arlington: Retrieved November 10, 2011, from http://www.cec.sped.org/Content/NavigationMenu/ProfessionalDevelopment/ProfessionalStandards/EthicsPracticeStandards/SpecialEdTeachers/default.htm Delisle, James R., Delisle, Jim., Lewis, Barbara A., Lisovskis, Marjorie. (2002). The Survival Guide for Teachers of Gifted Kids: How to Plan, Manage, and Evaluate Programs for Gifted Youth K-12. Illustrated edn. Free Spirit Publishing. Dinh Thi Nguyet, Le Thu Ha (n.d). How-To Guide: Preparing Teachers for Inclusive Education. Catholic Relief Services. Gargiulo, Richard M. (2010). Special Education in Contemporary Society: An Introduction to Exceptionality. SAGE. Loreman, Tim., Deppeler, Joanne., Harvey, David. (2005). Inclusive education: a practical guide to supporting diversity in the classroom. Illustrated edn. Routledge. Salvia, John., Ysseldyke, James., Bolt, Sara. (2009). Assessment: In Special and Inclusive Education. 11th edn. Cengage Learning. Snowman, Jack., McCown, Rick., Biehler, Robert. (2011). Psychology Applied to Teaching. 13th edn. Cengage Learning. Read More