Inclusion is the terminology describing the education of students with disabilities side by side with their nondisabled peers and friends in general education settings.
With the "No Child Left Behind" Act here in the US, I guess the educational system is aiming towards inclusion of students with special needs in the general education classroom.The schools would serve all students with disabilities including those with behavior disorders; thus special schools, special classes, and other placements associated with the typical continuum would no longer be available.
But this raises a lot of issues and concerns from parents and teachers; here's the most recent news about this from the CEC Smart Brief:
Reversing its long-standing position of supporting inclusion, the National Union of Teachers on Tuesday called for the government to suspend the closing of special schools and to immediately review its policy of inclusion. The union released a Cambridge University study that found inclusion caused the needs of children with disabilities to go unmet, exhausted teachers and disrupted the education of other students. The Times (London) (5/17)
3 comments:
off the topic: how long have you been a SPED teacher maa'm sol? your entry is interesting for me.
Hey Teacher Sol,
We have the same problem facing the Teachers Federation Union here. As a parent, special needs kids have different level of teaching and inclusion may serve the social aspect but will definitely leave behind other important things which are specialized in nature.
Off the topic, too - explore what's out there http://educationcanada.com/browse.phtml?sid=ab&eid=544&a=mep&lang=eng&r=
I am a year 11 student - just doing exams .. for my sociology coursework i studied inclusionrof special needs pupils in mainstream classrooms , the main problem is when it comes to setting they are placed with the lower kids who often doss around and are in the set due to lack of effot .. not saying all low set kids don't try before i get anycomebacks .. its separating physical needs from emotional and mental needs .. getting the balance right between inclussion and teaching ..
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