The
effective inclusive classroom exhibits diversity, creativity,
flexibility, and compatibility between students. Instruction provided by the teacher sparks
achievement by all regardless of the students’ diverse current level of
academic achievement and functional performance. The successful “differentiated classroom” (Tomlinson, 1999) includes instructional staff that
consistently:
·
Studies
the diversity of students for planning purposes
·
Utilizes
assessment processes to inform instruction as an ongoing process
·
Caters
to multiple areas of intelligence
·
Uses
data, whereby student success is measurable: recording where the student began
and ended
·
Includes
student choice-making to link their interests with instructional relevance
Teachers
need to transmit information to students in clearly stated objectives as
efficiently as possible. To optimize
student success in the least restrictive environment (LRE) a disability
studies approach to inclusive practices (Valle
& Connor, 2011) will be helpful.
To begin,
teachers need to effectively incorporate the Nine Principles of Universal Design for Instruction:
1. Equitable Use: Teaching
techniques that serve all students of varying abilities. For example, using Text to Speech software
for hard of hearing students.
2. Flexibility of Use: Meeting
each student’s preferences and abilities through differentiated teaching
design. For example, providing students
with choices that suit their preference in presenting work (verbal presentation
or written paper)
3. Simple and Intuitive:
Planning the teacher’s presentation to promote understanding regardless of
student’s knowledge, experience, language skills, or current concentration
level. For example, express clear oral or written instructions. Asking students to read aloud or paraphrase
instructions to be sure they understand expectations. Another example is presenting clearly stated
outcomes through teacher-provided rubrics
4. Perceptible Information: Communicating
information successfully regardless of the child’s sensory abilities. For example, allowing students to audiotape
the class or providing large print for visually impaired students
5. Tolerance for Error: Planning
for different learning paces and skills.
For example, providing one on one tutoring to help students build
necessary skills. Reading Recovery or
Reading Rescue are two early intervention programs that emphasize 1:1
interventions.
6. Low Physical Effort: Reducing
the need for students following instruction to exert physical effort. For example, within an environment, desks and
chairs should provide enough space for a wheelchair to move with ease and
without barriers.
7. Size and Space for Approach
and Use: Allowing adequate space for approach, reach, manipulation, and use,
regardless of the student’s size, mobility, and posture. For example, varying desk sizes to ensure suitability
for taller students or providing smaller chairs and desks for more petite
students.
8. A Community of Learners: Encouraging
interaction between classmates during instructional activities. For example, planning for group work, class
discussions, and peer teaching.
9. Instructional Climate: Creating
an inviting and comfortable classroom
environment
that optimizes learning and time on task.
For example, expressing respect for diversity with a class motto
displayed prominently on the classroom walls
Teachers
seeking to implement a disability
studies approach to inclusive practices find it essential to follow a process
for teaching grounded in universal design for learning:
·
Identify
course goals and content.
·
Become
familiar in advance with each student and identify diversity within the group.
·
Apply
universal design principles.
·
Implement
universal design process.
·
Apply
universal design assessments.
·
Monitor
student learning through formative feedback, including student participation.
·
Modify
instruction based on feedback
Teachers
seeking to implement a disability
studies approach to inclusive practices effectively utilize Bloom’s Taxonomy for planning
and questioning. Knowledge of Bloom’s Taxonomy allows educators
to plan and ask questions that require students to respond with increasingly
higher order thinking skills (HOTS).
Planning for students to think critically when responding to questions and
using higher cognitive thinking during activities promotes learning and
optimizes success with future problem-solving.
Teachers
seeking to implement a disability
studies approach to inclusive practices accommodate all learning styles. Teachers must plan and utilize different approaches and
strategies to
optimize learning for all. By utilizing brain-based
learning strategies
(Jensen, 1998), teachers exhibit an acceptance that students have diverse
learning preferences. For example, auditory-learners
prefer learning opportunities that allow them to hear, visual-learners prefer
learning opportunities that allow them to see demonstrations or read material,
and tactile/kinesthetic learners prefer learning that allows them to touch or
utilize the environment.
Teachers
seeking to implement a disability
studies approach to inclusive practices respect Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence. Everyone exhibits strengths and
less-developed competencies. The ideal
for respecting diversity in the inclusive classroom is to identify each student’s
strengths and planning to utilize these areas to increase motivation, build
relevance, and mitigate frustration or anxiety when increasing skills related
to less-developed competencies. “We
succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but
excel in those which can also make use of our defects” (de
Tocqueville, n.d). Eight areas of
diverse intelligence identified by Gardner (2011) include:
1.
Verbal-Linguistic
2.
Visual-Spatial
3.
Logical-Mathematical
4.
Bodily-Kinesthetic
5.
Musical
6.
Interpersonal
7.
Intrapersonal
8.
Naturalistic
Teachers
seeking to implement a disability
studies approach to inclusive practices recognize that students may exhibit
a preference for learning
environment and
conditions. Knowledge of these preferences
help teachers predict, to some degree, which learning environments will be most
effective for diverse students. Effective teachers consider room temperature,
desk and seating arrangements, wall design, lighting, sound, and other factors
that may impact each students overall comfort.
Thoughtful
and purposeful planning create conditions for success. Planning pyramids, curriculum maps, and
calendars, allow delivery of instruction throughout the school year that
reflective recognize the diversity of students and need to link to
relevance. Planning backward from the
destination point to the starting point is a proven strategy (Covey, 1989).
To summarize, each student presents
unique strengths, preferences, and needs.
Students will differ in cultural background, performance level, learning
pace, learning style, areas of interests, and other flexible variables. Classrooms designed around the students increase
their involvement. Teachers seeking to
implement a disability studies approach
to inclusive practices willingly provide different activities that range
from simple to complex, thereby addressing each student’s needs. Careful and purposeful planning of long-term,
medium, and short-term outcomes allow teachers to more effectively deliver and
assess instruction.
Since the
authorization of PL 94-142 (1975) a student with
disabilities has the civil right to be placed within his or her least restrictive
environment as appropriate to his or her needs (IDEA, 2004). General education teachers will increasingly have
more diverse children, some with mild or moderate disabilities in their
classroom. Effective inclusive classroom
teachers must be prepared for the challenges of diverse students. Educational planning is a starting point
within the teaching process. Teachers
seeking to implement a disability
studies approach to inclusive practices adapt strategies to meet the
needs of students with disabilities. For
example, planning for alternate modes of communication is one way a teacher accommodate
diverse students. When a child is currently
less capable of responding to a writing task, the teacher can elicit his or her
response verbally, through speech to text software or through a private
conversation. When a teacher reviews any
student's IEP and uses formative data to
understand that child’s present level of academic achievement and functional performance,
subsequent goals and objectives for all students are more valid, reliable,
and realizable.
References
UDI Online
Project. (2009). Examples of UDI in online and blended courses. Center
on Postsecondary Education and Disability, University of Connecticut, Storrs. Retrieved
from: http://udi.uconn.edu/index.php?q=content/examples-udi-online-and-blended....
Valle, J.,
& Connor, D. (2011). Rethinking disability: A disability studies
approach to inclusive practices. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
To cite:
Anderson,
C.J. (November 22, 2015) Implementing a disability studies approach to inclusive
