Introduction
Context and Thesis Statement
Although Western countries have issued acts to support students with special needs to be taught in normal schools, as part of the inclusive education program, schools are still reluctant in receiving students with different types of disabilities, facing various challenges that refer to the prestige of the school, to meeting inclusion standards and regular examinations in this purpose or to installing increased bureaucratic educational demands (Konza, 2008). Schools’ attitudes towards the children with special educational needs vary between aiming for an inclusive education and between maintaining the elitist standards, where inclusive education is not an option, and regarding the gifted students, the educational system seems unsupportive with their needs of gifted students.
Purpose of the Paper
This paper proposes to addresses the issue of teaching students with special needs and their inclusion in the mainstream classes, as strategies of accommodating them with an equal treatment. The paper also discusses about the gifted and talented students as students who require special educational training.
Literature Review
Inclusion
In the educational sociology, the term inclusion generates confusions and sometimes inappropriate use. As Hornby notes, it is used for: (1) defining the educational inclusion of students with special needs in the mainstream schools in addition to maintaining the special schools for the students who need them; (2) describing a state of affairs that implies that all children learn in the mainstream schools; (3) referring to social inclusion as educational inclusion of children with special educational needs (2012).
However, the inclusion concept comprises a much larger spectrum, going beyond education and referring to the entire social environment: employment, recreation, health and living conditions. In addition the concept of inclusive education also goes beyond the students with special needs who face various disability problems, comprising sources of disadvantage or marginalisation also, on the basis of gender, economic status (poverty), language, race or ethnicity or geographic isolation (Mitchell, 2010).
Inclusive Education
An inclusive education refers to allowing the students with special needs or disabilities to attend normal schools. This emphasizes a diverse educational environment, where all children are considered as equal, regardless of their disability or their problems and all their needs must be accomplished. In such an environment, children with disabilities not only have the opportunity to interact directly in a school context with their peers and to make a perception about how “normality” looks like, outside specialized schools or institutions that support special needs children with their education. Children with disabilities have also the opportunity to interact with their peers outside the school program, because they can be appointed to normal schools in their close proximity. Like this, special needs students can meet with normal students who attend the same school and classes and interact more easily outside the school program (Konza, 2008).
A proper inclusion of children with disabilities in the regular schools implies getting to know them and this is possible by learning about them, about their problems from studies and research, but also from spending time with them in order to understand their needs and the challenges that they have to face everyday (Konza, 2008).
The inclusion of students with special educational needs represents a whole process, because it implies developing inclusive schools, which to accommodate the students with special needs and to properly answer their necessities (Hornby, 2012).
Special Educational Needs Teachers
Educators understand that they will face greater challenges in an inclusive educational program, which consists in approaching students with diverse background and/or disabilities in their regular classes. They have to meet these challenges by providing appropriate resources, curriculum and pedagogy, with the support of the school (Aubusson & Schuck, 2008).
Moreover, authors note that a significant challenge in implementing the inclusive education in more schools is the teachers’ attitudes towards the special needs students. Elitist schools impose strict and high - demanding standards that imply a selective approach regarding who can attend these schools. In this environment, special needs students are not among the students that these schools target (Konza, 2008).
In relation to this aspect, a study conducted by Campbell, Gilmore and Cuskelly indicated that 274 teachers were surveyed at the beginning and at the end of one semester regarding their perceptions about the inclusion of children with disabilities and Down syndrome into the regular educational programs. At the end of the semester the teachers reported accurate knowledge of Down syndrome and their attitudes about people with this disability have changed, elaborating a more relaxed approach, and interacting more easily with people with Down syndrome. Likewise, they manifested a positive attitude towards inclusive education of students with this disability. As the authors observe, this exercise indicates that raising awareness towards disabilities determine changes in attitudes and an embrace of the diversity (Campbell, Gilmore & Cuskelly, 2003).
The advisory Committee on the Supply of Education of Teachers (ACSET) states, among others, that the educators should receive more specific training for responding to special needs. However, this should be a criterion for teachers who already possess a background in dealing with children with special educational needs. The ACSET’s program aims for a co-operative mode of educating in a complex community, comprising special educational needs among its complex elements (Sayer & Jones, 1985).
In theory, in the regular classes that apply inclusive education, there should be special educators to assist the regular teachers with their classes, in order to help them use the appropriate methods and strategies for transmitting the information to the students with disabilities. In practice, however, this does not happen. Nevertheless, for supporting the inclusion of students with special needs, nowadays there are educational training programs for teachers developed, in order to learn the teachers during a given period of time, how to deal with the students with disabilities and how to make them comprehend school curricula (Giangreco, 2013).
As such, Jennifer Stepenson talks about her experience of teaching educators who will teach students special needs, in their regular classes. During a semester, the teacher students gather 30 hours of methods for teaching students with disabilities, focusing on effective teaching, through classroom practices. Teachers students learn “basic skills (phonemic awareness, phonics), explicit instruction in cognitive and meta – cognitive strategies (such as reading comprehension strategies), mnemonic instruction, curriculum – based assessment and measurement, self – monitoring, and approaches drawn from applied behaviour analysis such as functional assessment and related intervention design for students with problem behaviour (in Aubusson & Schuck, 2008, p. 120)
This strategy proposes a curriculum focused approach on learning students with special needs in a regular classroom. However, Mitchell proposes a student – centred pedagogy, aligned with the UNESCO provisions. Based on this approach, the success of the inclusive education implies having the same curriculum for all the students in a regular classroom, not one that varies for children with special needs from the one of regular children. Like this, as the author perceives it, inclusive education is like a Trojan Horse, because it implies accommodating students with special needs on the regular classroom programs and it also means adjusting the teaching strategies in order to meet the whole range of needs of students in the mainstream class (Mitchell, 2010).
Stephenson also understands that an assessment of the students’ abilities and their weak points is useful for understanding where they have gaps to fill. The special education teacher observes that in a regular classroom setting the focus should be on developing the skills of children with disabilities, rather than spanning over the class curriculum with all students. She also states that the explicit teaching strategies should be caricaturized, so that the children to have the permanent feeling that they are involved in meaningful activities, which are, most of all, enjoying (in Aubusson & Schuck, 2008).
Mitchell considers that an inclusive education is accomplished with the help of professional educators, trained for special education, but also the contribution of therapists, teaching assistants, and parents (2008; Bourke, 2010). Likewise, a policy published by the Commonwealth Act also provides that for implementing effective inclusive education, the schools’ staffs should provide information for the teaching programs to the family members of the students with educational needs, as well as they should also require for the parents or the carer’s or the entire community’s help in developing the Individual Learning Plan (ILP) throughout the educational program (“Students with a Disability”, 2008).
Both references indicate the significance of having trained staff, prepared to teach students with special needs, to assist the teachers in the regular classes. Scholars state that training future teachers to deal with inclusive education in a 30 hours program, during a course semester is insufficient and they would need to adjust to the actual situation of teaching to special needs students and in the same time to regular students, providing non discriminative attention to each student in the classroom (Stephenson in Aubusson & Schuck, 2008; Farrington, n.d).
Nonetheless, while there are supporters of the inclusion of students with special educational needs in the mainstream schools, there are also critics, who sustain that indeed, for some special educational needs cases the inclusion is the correct measure to be adopted, but for more severe cases the students should be kept in special education schools (Hornby, 2012).
Gifted Students
Gagne defines the gifted students as pupils with a potential “above average in one or more of the following domains of human ability: intellectual, creative, social and physical” and the talented students as “those whose skills are distinctly above the average in one or more areas of human performance” (2007, p. 2).
The educational environment is considered to serve as the engine that supports and develop the gifted students’ abilities into real talents (“Gifted and Talented Education”, 2007). However, in Australia, the educational environment seems to be unsupportive for the gifted and talented students, since it does not offer proper conditions for developing their special needs. Under the arguments that elitism or special gifted students do not need special training, Lassig’s report indicates that in general, the Australian teachers do not consider that gifted people need proper, special education (2009).
The Education of Gifted and Talented Children act issued by Commonwealth of Australia (2001) states that if gifted children do not receive proper training, according to their special needs, they might suffer underachievement, psychological distress, frustration or boredom. Moreover, the act states that these children are found in any socio – economic, ethnic or underprivileged environment and they need to be attended without biases. The solution that this Commonwealth act proposes is to have better trained teachers, just as special education for disabilities required special trained teachers (in Beattie, Watters, Stewart & Devlin 2006).
Beattie et al. argue that the educational needs of gifted people must be addressed through dedicated pre- service educational programs. Moreover, the authors note that through official reports, educational institutions are recommended to provide at least one semester trainings for their teachers to deal with special education students, learning strategies that teachers should possess for using when teaching gifted students (2006).
Conclusion
The gap between students with special educational needs and regular students should be filled by having trained teachers, prepared to offer curricula in an inclusive educational environment in a mainstream class. Practicians indicate that solely a semester of training the future teachers how to deal with children with various disabilities in a regular class is insufficient and they would need the assistance of more specialized teachers, but also the involvement of the parents and carers of students with special needs. Moreover, the entire educational system within schools should be redesigned, in order to adjust the special needs of all children, learning in a diverse environment.
This research paper indicates that the educational system is somehow unsupportive with the special needs of the gifted students. However, governmental acts state the significance of having special trained teachers, in order to respond to the needs of the gifted children, so that they can achieve their maximum competences into an environment that encourage their development.
One concern needs to be further approached. If regular students are learning in the same classrooms with the special needs students, how are the schools providing them (the regular students) the necessary resources to evolve, while they are learning in the rhythm of the special needs’ students?
References
Aubusson P. & Schuck, S. (2008) Teacher learning and development: the mirror maze. Springer: Sydney.
Beattie, J., Watters, J., Stewart, W. & Devlin, N. (2006) Australian association for education of the gifted and talented. Australian Association for Education of the Gifted and Talented Ltd.
Bourke, P., E. (2010) “Inclusive education reform in Queensland: implications for policy and practice” The International Journal of Inclusive Education. Vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 183 – 193.
Campbell, J., Gilmore, L. & Cuskelly, M. (2003) “Changing student teachers’ attitudes towards disability and inclusion”. Journal of Intelectual & Developmental Disability. Vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 369 – 379.
Farrington, J. (n.d.) The full inclusion of students with special needs in all aspects of the “regular classroom”.
Giangreco, M., F. (2013) “Teacher assistant supports in inclusive schools: research, practices and alternatives”. Australasian Journal of Special Education. Pp 1 - 14
Gifted and talented education. (2007) State of NewSouth Wales the NSW Department of Education and Training.
Hornby, G. (2012) “Inclusive education for children with special educational needs”. Journal of International and Comparative Education. Vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 52 – 60.
Konza, D. (2008) Inclusion of students with disabilities in new times: responding to the challenge. University of Wollongong Research Online.
Lassig, C., J. (2009) “Teachers’ attitudes towards the gifted: the importance of professional development and school culture”. Australian Journal of Gifted Education. Vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 33 – 42.
Mitchel, D. (2010) Education that fits: review of international trends in the education of students with special educational needs. Retrieved from http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/special_education/education-that-fits-review-of-international-trends-in-the-education-of-students-with-special-educational-needs/chapter-eleven-inclusive-education.
Sayer, J. & Jones, N. (1985) Teacher training special educational needs. Croom Helm Australia Ltd.: Surry Hills.
Students with disability: meeting their educational needs. (2008) Act of Government Education and Training.
