First published in 1995. This book responds to the multiplying demands for support and training for teachers of integrated classes in mainstream schools. Such support through school-based development initiatives enhances teachers’ abilities to meet the emotional, behavioural and learning needs of their pupils. This volume aims to assist school staff to further their efforts in curriculum content and delivery, teacher-pupil and classroom relationships and parent involvement.
In Schools and Special Needs, the authors provide a critical perspective on the dominant `inclusion' model of special needs education, in terms of implementation in schools and effectiveness of pupil learning outcomes. They take issues with the major advocates of the inclusion model and argue that a different way of understanding special educational needs in mainstream schools is both possible and necessary. The authors, who are eminent in the special needs field, use up-to-date material to develop a new model for special education in schools.
Explore the challenges, opportunities, and pitfalls of the inclusion of students with disabilities in your classroom! Exciting, complex, and challenging shifts in American education are occurring today. First, schools are moving to embrace student diversity and accommodate the classroom experience to support diverse ways of organizing students for learning. Second, teachers are moving away from a traditional didactic instructional mode and embracing a facilitator role that encourages creating innovative classroom learning opportunities. Third, there is a shift from the view of the school as providing educational and psychoeducational services for students to providing educational supports for learning. Coinciding with these changes is the growing movement in special education that enourages full inclusion of students with special needs. This is a far cry from the exclusionary and separatist movements of special education less than twenty years ago. Now American education is facing the challenging situation of working with students with disabilities in the regular classroom. Inclusion Practices with Special Needs Students provides a much needed overview of the issues faced by educators committed to understanding how to best serve children with disabilities in schools. Inclusion Practices with Special Needs Students: Theory, Research, and Application provides an overview of the origins, evolution, and recent developments regarding the inclusion of students with disabilities into general education classrooms. The book critically challenges the overriding assumptions that support the philosophy of inclusion with a balanced presentation or research and theory that both supports and raises questions about the viability of this practice. The contributors are authorities in their respective areas of inclusionary practices. Some of the issues you will explore in Inclusion Practices with Special Needs Students are: political, fiscal, and legal events that have shaped inclusion practices implications for school psychologists handling students with serious emotional, behavioral, or developmental problems remaining in regular education agenda for future research priorities for research, training, and policy reform Inclusion Practices with Special Needs Students addresses practical, psychoeducational, philosophical, legal, ethical, and financial issues surrounding the inclusionary initiative in special education.
The two-volume set LNCS 8547 and 8548 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs, ICCHP 2014, held in Paris, France, in July 2014. The 132 revised full papers and 55 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 362 submissions. The papers included in the second volume are organized in the following topical sections: tactile graphics and models for blind people and recognition of shapes by touch; mobility support and accessible tourism; smart and assistive environments: ambient assisted living (AAL); text entry for accessible computing; people with motor and mobility disabilities: AT and accessibility; assistive technology: service and practice; ICT-based learning technologies for disabled and non-disabled people; universal learning design: methodology; universal learning design: hearing impaired and deaf people; universal learning design: sign language in education; sign language transcription, recognition and generation; universal learning design: accessibility and AT; differentiation, individualisation and influencing factors in ICT-assisted learning for people with special needs; developing accessible teaching and learning materials within a user centred design framework and using mobile technologies to support individuals with special needs in educational environments.
This book contains a collection of brief case studies of children, families, professionals, curricula and schools which illustrate and illuminate contemporary methodes in special education. Together they demonstrate the wide range of sympathies, experience and knowledge required for the special education of a child in any instance. It considers children with mild and severe handicaps, both physical and sensory, and those with educational difficulties ranging from reading problems to profound mental handicap. Children in care and in poverty are also represented - they can be said to be socially handicapped by their circumstances, often experiencing educational difficulties as well. All the case studies emphasise the needs and wishes of children and their families, and encourage greater involvement for children with special needs in ordinary schools.
Designed as a guide for practitioners, this book draws on over 600 sources to discuss school restructuring definitions, trends, and issues; achievements of a few select schools; and implementation techniques and strategies. Two overarching, indirectly stated issues pervading the reconceptualization of schooling are multiculturalism and a caring school staff. The book is organized into four parts. Part 1, Rationale and Context, presents a historical context for restructuring and a summary of the current motivations for, and implications of, educational restructuring. Part 2, Changing Roles and Responsibilities, examines the evolution of new roles for essentially all the groups that participate in public education. Part 3, Dimensions of Restructuring, explores the concepts of incremental and discontinuous change and extensively discusses current school restructuring activities along 12 dimensions: learner outcomes, curriculum, instruction, assessment, learning environment, technology, school-community relations, time schedules, governance, teacher leadership, personnel definitions and roles, and working relationships. Part 4, Process of Restructuring, captures the lessons being learned about the restructuring process and presents examples of strategies and techniques. (Contains over 600 references.) (MLH)
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004 has placed a renewed emphasis on the importance of the regular classroom, the regular classroom teacher and the general curriculum as the primary focus of special education. This book contains over 100 topics that deal with real issues and concerns regarding the regular classroom and the special education process. These concerns range from requirements for referring a child for an individual evaluation, school discipline, classroom-based assessment, IEP meetings, inclusion and mainstreaming, and various legal requirements relating to IDEA, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the No Child Left Behind act. It stresses the importance that every child with a disability must have goals "to enable the child to be involved in and make progress in the general education curriculum." Other issues interspersed within this text include classroom needs, the planning of individualized education programs, and participation in all aspects of the general curriculum. In order to achieve these goals, support for the regular classroom teacher must be provided so that children with disabilities can be involved in, and make progress in, the curriculum and participate in nonacademic activities.
This unequaled, all-encompassing collection of international programs on special education will enable educators worldwide to investigate special education practice within its social context to enhance their own initiatives with new ideas.Comparative Studies divides into five sections, each with an introduction to the chapters within. This thorough text begins with limited special education in such venues as South Africa, and Senegal. Section Two addresses emerging special education in Nigeria, Brazil, and several other locales. Segregated special education in Japan, Russia, and other countries makes up Section Three, and Section Four explores countries that are approaching integration, such as Poland and Australia. Integrated special education is described in Scandinavia, New Zealand, and other nations in the final section.More than 50 noted scholars have contributed to this important work, offering every involved student and practitioner an indispensable, detailed frame of reference in which to assess education programs worldwide for all special populations -- blind, deaf, physically and mentally disabled, and all others.
As the integration of children with special educational needs into ordinary classrooms progresses, most special needs professionals spend an increasing amount of time in mainstream schools, working with teachers in the classroom on interventions for individual children and with head teachers and senior management teams on whole school policy. Skills in Classroom Consultation is a practical guide to the tools and techniques required to work effectively with colleagues in defining goals, allocating responsibility and formulating strategies. It shows how consultative skills can be used to solve particular educational problems and also how the consultant professional can act in a more far-reaching way as an agent of change within an institution.
By adopting a comparative approach, this book investigates the philosophy, policy, practices, and challenges of inclusive education in the Chinese contexts, recognizing influences of Chinese culture, such as Confucianism, collectivism, and familism. In the 1980s, the Chinese government promoted a policy named “Learning in Regular Classroom” to ensure educational rights for children with disabilities, which subsequently turned into an inclusive education program in the western sense. Starting from this point, the policy and practice of inclusive education have developed tremendously. To facilitate reflection and future development, this is the latest and most comprehensive attempt at understanding the status quo of inclusive education in China from a variety of perspectives: from early childhood to higher education, from family to schools and communities, from peers to teachers and parents. It also analyzed the unique Chinese philosophy of inclusive education, adding to current debates with a Chinese lens. This book will appeal to academics, students, and practitioners in disciplines such as education, early childhood studies, sociology, social work, social policy, disability studies, and youth studies.
