Teachers report being unprepared for the difficult behavior they encounter in classrooms, and administrators find themselves under increasing pressure to maintain safe and orderly schools. IDEA regulations have also resulted in ongoing confusion about how schools can and should discipline students with identified disabilities.
This book examines the role that technologies play in the lives of adults with learning disabilities. It analyses how design and support practices can be used to support access to technology in ways that can enhance opportunities and life experiences. Drawing on international literature and the author’s own research, the book considers what we know about past and present practices of supporting adults with learning disabilities to use technologies. It outlines how support practices can offer opportunities to overcome digital inequalities, offering a framework of core beliefs and knowledge that can inform future initiatives. The book has a particular focus on technologies, policies, practitioner communities and the characteristics of support practice. It also highlights the potential of people with learning disabilities, the potential of technology and the potential of the environment to support technology use. This important book will be highly relevant reading for academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the field of special educational needs and disabilities, digital education and learning technologies, inclusive education and social work.
Examines, from various perspectives, the school failure and success of Chicano students. The contributors include specialists in cultural and educational anthropology, bilingual and special education, educational history, developmental psychology.
How can teachers learn to teach rich, academically rigorous multicultural curricula under current standardization constraints? In her new book, Christine Sleeter offers a much-needed framework to help teachers take on this challenge. By contrasting key curricular assumptions with those of multicultural education, she reveals the aspects they share as well as the conceptual and political differences between them. Sleeter makes a strong case for what teachers can do to un-standardize knowledge in their own classrooms, while working toward high standards of academic achievement. Features: Detailed portraits of activist teachers committed to multicultural education, including the constraints and challenges they face.Guidance for teachers who want to develop their classroom practice, illustrating the possibilities and spaces teachers have within a standardized curriculum.A field-tested conceptual framework that elaborates on the following elements of curriculum design: ideology, enduring ideas, democratized assessment, transformative intellectual knowledge, students and their communities, intellectual challenge, and curriculum resources.
This book discusses key aspects of life in schools and classrooms, and surveys the changes that have occurred over the years in educational research, policy making and practice in these school and classroom settings. It not only examines cutting-edge research in these areas, but also showcases good practices in the field. Among the topics reviewed are recent developments in assessment, methods for collecting and analysing data on classroom practice, school leadership and the pros and cons of class size and small-class teaching; topics which are currently hotly debated in education systems around the globe. As such, the book objectively examines the various debates, and surveys the full range of evidence available. Education researchers, policy makers and practitioners often hold differing views about the reasons for teacher and student behaviour in classrooms and, for example, its relevance to class size. Many of these views are based on ‘gut feelings’ rather than hard evidence. Unfortunately, these three groups, with differing perspectives, often ‘talk past each other’ rather than engage in a productive, mutually beneficial dialogue. The book builds an effective bridge between researchers, policy makers and practitioners regarding the impact of these various aspects of classroom life, so that the viewpoints of each can be carefully considered and evaluated.
In the late 20th century, a tidal wave of calls for reform and inclusion of special needs students swept over public special education. The current debates over implementing these themes today are authoritatively addressed by 19 distinguished scholars in this thorough volume. Organized into three cohesive sections, it begins with the issues of educational reform and the emerging discourses of disability and integration in the inclusion movement. Respective chapters appraise specific arguments for inclusion and the federal legislation and litigation surrounding and supporting special education. The second part features the thorny issue of assessment, the technological revolution in special education, and the disposition of teacher training. The third section scrutinizes the inclusion of various populations of students with exceptional needs, particularly how teachers can make an easy transition from ideology to educational practice. Special Education in the 21st Century sets the standard for extrapolating future directions by wisely weighing classroom practices for different groups and the technical problems of resources, management, social groupings, instructional design, and the supposition that teachers will automatically change to accommodate an even greater diversity of learners.
In straightforward terms, the authors address the issues arising as a result of the legislation and the implications for the financing and management of schools through the local management of schools provision. They show that the National Curriculum poses problems concerning pupils with special needs.
This volume provides an international perspective on special education issues. There is limited literature examining issues in special education from an international perspective, as such this volume will add considerably to the knowledge base across the globe.
This volume is an excellent resource for special education professionals who teach and serve learners with disabilities, and other related professionals involved in the educational process such as administrators, school counsellors, and psychologists.
