Inclusion Main Page

Research Highlights
    

Frequently Asked Questions

Classroom Instruction and Models

Case Study

Product Reviews

Book Reviews

Return to Home Page

Principles and Tips

Develop an Inclusive Philosophy
Support Collaboration/Teaming in Classrooms
Select Appropriate Instructional Methods
Promote Socialization
Assess All Learners

Develop an Inclusive Philosophy
General education teachers, special education teachers, administrators, parents, related service providers, paraprofessionals, and community members must all support the belief that they are responsible for educating ALL children in their neighborhood. It is important to discontinue labeling of children as "your kids" vs. "my kids" and ensure that everyone feels that they are "our kids". It is often stated that the best way to facilitate inclusive opportunities is to implement methods of joint accountability and learn to celebrate differences. In addition, school personnel and community members should take the following steps:

• Conduct an analysis of the school's mission or vision to ensure that inclusion of all children is a top priority.
  
  
• Develop a commitment to accepting responsibility for the learning outcomes of all students, not just those with disabilities or without disabilities.
  
  
• Train school personnel, parents, and students to help them develop an awareness of the disability issues relevant to the students who will be included in the school. This training should include adequate staff development and technical assistance, based on the needs of the school personnel, students and community members such as information on disabilities, instructional methods, awareness, and acceptance activities for students, and team-building skills.
  
  
• Keep all parents and community members informed and encourage volunteering in classrooms so that they can support programs and the mission of the school. Effective and consistent methods of parent communication should be established at the beginning of the school year.
  
  
• Ensure that all services/service providers offered to the students with disabilities are available in the school (e.g., medical service providers, physical and/or occupational therapists, and speech and language clinicians).
  
  
• Assess the school building and equipment to determine whether or not they are adequate to meet the student's needs (e.g. wheelchair ramps, elevators, accessible doors, toys, playground facilities, learning materials, and assistive devices.)
  
  
• Reevaluate staffing allocations to ensure that there are adequate numbers of personnel, including aides and support personnel in the school building. Implement flexible use of staff members by creating a master schedule in which the needs of all students are considered.
  
  
• Implement policies and procedures for monitoring individual student progress, including grading, testing, and formal and informal assessments.
  
  
• Establish relationships with members of the community whose work or interests are related to themes or units being studied in the classroom. Letters of introduction and meetings with these individuals creates relationships for planning student activities.
  

back to top

Support Collaboration/Teaming in Classrooms
Encouraging the formation of and providing on-going support for collaborative teams in classrooms is one of the most important factors in enabling access to the general education curriculum. The teaming situation begins by defining the roles and responsibilities of the teacher, paraprofessional, school administrator, and parent. Some important things to do in order to support teaming are:

• Ensure that both general and special educators are part of the instructional or planning team.
  
  
• Utilize teaming approaches for both problem solving and program implementation.
  
  
• Support collaboration at various levels and in multiple ways: encourage general education teachers, special education teachers, and other specialists to work together with a variety of instructional methods (e.g., co-teaching, team teaching, teacher assistance teams, cross-grade grouping, and peer tutoring).
  
  
• Foster an environment that encourages teammates to communicate their teaching styles and philosophies as teaching begins.
  
  
• Encourage teachers to develop a system of communication so that they are consistently aware of team member and student experiences.
  
  
• Provide teams with a team liaison, whose role is to help problem-solve disagreements that may arise.
  
  
• Make sure that team members have access to training opportunities regarding working with other individuals, planning with others and problem-solving team issues.
  
  
• Facilitate the establishment and support of planning time for teammates to meet on a regular basis (weekly, if not daily).
  
  
• Collaborate with teachers who supervise scheduling to ensure that children are receiving the services required by their IEPs while in the general education classroom.

Select Appropriate Instructional Methods
Teachers need to have the knowledge and skills required to select and adapt curricula and instructional methods according to individual student needs and diverse ability levels. Teachers can be supported in this learning by encouraging them to:

• Develop lesson plans that have varying goals to meet diverse ability levels.
  
  
• Receive training in developmentally appropriate and best practices.
  
  
• Provide materials that are accessible to all students.
  
  
• Learn about adaptive technology, which can assist in facilitating the student's learning.
  

Promote Socialization
Teachers need to continuously foster a cooperative learning environment and promote socialization. This can be done by keeping in mind the following recommendations:

• Plan activities to encourage safety. This encourages children to feel safe acknowledging their strengths and weaknesses. It further allows them to ask friends and teachers for help.
  
  
• Promote cooperative learning opportunities that allow children to build on strengths while working cooperatively to produce a product or integrate learning. This also encourages them to build on skills that prove to be challenging by following peer models.
  
  
• Create buddy or mentor systems as a means of support for all children in the classroom. By providing opportunities for buddies or mentors to learn how to provide for one another, a support system at the students' peer level is established.
  
  
• Establish class meetings as an opportunity for students to bring up issues and resolve them. Some teachers use clipboards or problem boxes that allow children the anonymity to bring an issue to the group. Some teachers establish a peer jury system that allows outcomes to be determined by the student's peers.

Assess All Learners
The progress and pace of all children should be constantly and consistently monitored not only to provide feedback and encouragement to the child, but also to reinforce that the instructional methods in place are actually working. Some of the ways to ensure that this is occurring are:

• Use portfolios and anecdotes as a means of assessing an individual child's growth in core areas. They are a useful method of comparing a child's progress over time.
  
  
• Develop checklists and rubrics to evaluate students' achievement of specific skills or tasks. These methods are used as a means to evaluate a child based on developmental expectations that are set during the creation of the lesson.
  
  
• Develop tests to assess whether a child is able to demonstrate knowledge in a specific core area. They are used to compare a child to his/her class or the developmental norm.

back to top