As a teacher of a student with a diagnosed disability* or identified learning needs in Australia NT, you are asked to participate in an EAP meeting for this student.
You will provide input on how you plan to support this student’s learning needs through curricular adjustments and accommodations in the school year ahead.
Prepare a report for the meeting. In this report you will describe the student’s learning profile (strengths, interests, learning needs, relevant education history), learning goals, and the pedagogical supports that you intend to put in place for this student.
The term inclusive education refers to an education system that includes both children with special needs with children who are normal according to the social constructs. An inclusive educational system allows both kinds of children to be present in the same classroom and learn together. According to a number of researches, this intermingling of children with special needs and the normal children bring out good results (Armstrong, Armstrong & Barton, 2016). However, it must be kept in mind that an inclusive educational system does to build it up itself simply but putting the specially abled and the normal children together in a classroom. To build a properly inclusive system, planning and organizing the class accordingly is necessary. The inclusive educational system has based itself up on certain principles, such as, all the children belong together and it is neither necessary nor justified to differentiate them on any basis, the learning style of every child is different and it is the fundamental right of every kind of children to be included in a single classroom. For the proper execution of an inclusive educational system, it is necessary that the educators of the classrooms are properly trained and know how to handle a child with special educational needs (Carrington, 2017). The government should also keep an eye on the funding of the schools that promote inclusive educational as it is necessary to have proper funding to conduct all the events and activities that would make the inclusive educational plan a success. The following report is going to focus especially on the how the inclusive educational system can prove to be beneficial for a child suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Learning Strengths and Weaknesses of a Child suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder:
The particular child who has been dealt with in the inclusive classroom had been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. As in most of the cases, this student also had some characteristics that helped him in the process of learning and worked as his strength. However, some of the regular symptoms of ASD worked as his weakness and slowed down his process and pace of learning. This particular student is in possession of a strong memory. He had been able to memorize every single thing that had been taught to him over the course of time. It was not always necessary to write him down the things that were to be taught to him. He would be able to remember even the things that were told to him and could remember it back anytime he was asked to. He had also shown skills in solving basic mathematical problems. He had been the fastest student in the entire inclusive classrooms to solve the mathematical problems that were given to them. However, he was only good at solving problems when it did not include any verbal communication. Whenever there was an oral examination of the same thing he had written on paper he could not comprehend the questions and neither could answer them rally. This has been a problem that he had faced in the classroom and given the fact that this is one of the characteristics of ASD, it served as one of his weaknesses.
This student had also an issue with the noise that was inevitable in a classroom. He could not concentrate and he could shrike panicking whenever the classroom went noisy. This was an issue that needed special attention and the authorised teacher had been very careful in dealing with that. The teacher had made sure that most of the time the classroom was not overly noisy as the student had no problem to deal with bearable hums. The teacher had to be present in the class almost all the time to make sure that the rest of the students did not behave in an unruly way. moreover, the teacher himself had to be very careful while dealing with the student as the student had issues with high voices in general, be it of an individual or of an entire class (Corkum, 2014). The teacher had to keep his patience while dealing with the student in an oral exam and in most of the cases he had to make him understand the questions in a written manner and the student responded only by writing. This has happened to be one of the major issues that the student possessed. His lack of oral skills had stood as a barrier between him and his attempts to befriend his fellow students. The teacher had to make sure that the student did not feel lonely because of lacking communicating skills and he had ensured that the student makes conversations by writing only. The rest of the students of the class had responded to this proposal with great enthusiasm and thus making the classroom a successful example of an inclusive classroom.
Furthermore, the student had also a huge problem with the shifts of routines of the class. He had to taught each subject in the same order right from the beginning. If the order was changed, he would go confused and could not respond even to the lessons that he had learnt thoroughly. Thus, the teacher in charge had to make sure that the classes were taken in the same order no matter what as that helped in accelerating the process of the learning of the student.
Inclusive Learning Expectations from the Child:
Keeping in mind the particular strengths and weaknesses of the student diagnosed with ASD a certain number of outcomes were expected of him from being a part of the inclusive classroom. Given the fact that the student has good abilities in solving mathematical skills it is expected that he will show good performance in the other subjects of science as well. It is important that the skills that the student posses, is nurtured properly as it is on those skills that the future of the student will be shaped. The teacher who is in charge has made it sure that the child practices the subject of mathematics in a proper manner and has ensured that all of his mathematics tests are taken in a written manner as he has issues with verbal communication. There are a number of goals that has been set by the educator of the inclusive classroom. As a teacher of a student who has been diagnosed with ASD he has set the goals for himself as a teacher. The teacher has decided that he will eventually get the student rid of his problems of communication. For this he had decided to take a number of pedagogical steps so that he can get rid the student of his communicating problems. Given the fact that the student cannot succeed in any of the oral tests, the teacher had decided that he will start with having oral conversations with the student. For this he had worked on the personal interests of the student and found out what his personal interests are. The teacher had started discussing those subjects only with the student that interested him. This gradually led to the student becoming familiar with oral conversation. The teacher had then taken help of the fellow classmates of the student who had been diagnosed with ASD and the students had responded positively by having conversations with the particular student on the topics he had only liked. This had led to a group bonding and the concerned student had gradually been able to make eye contact and physical conversation. It is important for the educators of the ASD diagnosed students that they keep their patience as the positive outcome might take a lot of time to come out (Knowles, 2017). However, once the positive results came out, the student was habituated to that only and oral conversations were no longer a problem. The teacher then started to question the student about the lessons he had learnt and the student had been able to answer the questions though his responses had been slow comparing to his written responses. However, the teacher in charge had held on to his patience and the given the student ample time to get used to the concept of oral tests. The particular student, having in possessing of a good memory had remembered the rules of an oral test well and had gradually made himself accustomed to it. The goal that the teacher had set himself for having the student getting rid of the communicating problems has been addressed successfully in by the pedagogical steps taken. Another issue that the student had was having a problem with the change of a routine. This issue had also been addressed by the student, though not completely eradicated. The teacher had tried to get the student accustomed to the change of routine by bringing in slight changes to the routine. But it has been observed that the student had reacted violently to even the slightest change in the order of the subjects in which the classes were being taken. The teacher has thus for now stopped his attempts at making the student getting habituated to changes, however, this remains among one of his pedagogical goals as concerned about the student (Mastropieri & Scruggs, 2017).
Justification of the Pedagogical Approach taken:
The teacher in charge of the student diagnosed with ASD had to apply a number of pedagogical approaches in combination for the best results in the part of the student. The term pedagogy refers to the interactions that take place between the students and the teacher and also includes the environment in which the learning is taking place. In a broader sense the term refers to the fact that how the teachers and the students are relating to each other and what learning outcomes are brought out by that. In general the pedagogical approaches can be divided into two types broadly, i.e. teacher centric pedagogy and learner centric pedagogy. The approach that was taken by the teacher in this particular case of the student diagnosed with ASD is a mixture of both the approaches. In a number of aspects the methods taken by the teacher was centred on the student and in a number of aspects the teacher took the lead. For example, while guiding the student through an oral conversation the approach taken was undoubtedly teacher centric as it was the teacher who had to take the lead there. However, while encouraging the student to make conversations on his own or telling him to solve the problems given to him the approach was definitely a student centric one. This approach taken by the concerned teacher can be labelled by a relatively new term, ‘learning centric pedagogical approach’. This term refers to the approach that focuses mainly on the learning and not on the people associated with it. Given the fact that the learning needs of every child are different, the learning centred pedagogical approach is quite effective. It focuses on how the concerned student is learning and gives the teacher an opportunity to be flexible with his teaching module. With this particular student, the teacher had to take the learning centric approach because the teacher had observed that it brought out the best of the student when he was given equal space of voicing his opinions alongside the teachers. The student had responded best when the process of learning was a two way one. The teacher had observed this in the course of the class and had thus given the student equal space to make use of his previously learned knowledge about the subjects that were being taught in the class. This had helped the student respond more spontaneously to the problems that were given to him and also made him gradually overcome his problem of communicating with other people. The mixed pedagogical approach that had been taken up by the teacher has proven to be fruitful, as it has not only brought visible upliftment in the educational performance of the student but also had made him eligible to acquire a number of technical skills that will further help him to enhance his social skills as well.
Judging by the performance of the student at the end of the course, it can be said in a quite justified manner that the pedagogical approach taken by the teacher was the right approach. However, it would have helped if the teacher had taken up the learning centric pedagogical approach from the very beginning of the course. At the beginning the teacher in charge had tried to make the learning process a teacher centric one and the student could not respond properly. It was only after a number of failed attempts to make the student respond in the expected manner that the teacher had changed his approach and succeeded.
Conclusion:
The report can thus be concluded by saying the inclusive classrooms in most of the cases help in the learning process of children who have special educational needs. An inclusive classroom can only be a successful one if the students and the teachers cooperate with each other and help the student with special needs together. The picture of the classroom that has been presented in the report had been a successful example of an inclusive classroom as the students present in the class had done everything possible to help the student diagnosed with ASD and help his communicating skills and skills of solving problems orally. The teacher had also been flexible with his module of teaching and thus had made the classroom a successful example of an inclusive classroom.
References
Ahmad, F. K. (2015). Use of assistive technology in inclusive education: making room for diverse learning needs. Transcience, 6(2), 62-77.
Armstrong, F., Armstrong, D., & Barton, L. (Eds.). (2016). Inclusive education: Policy, contexts and comparative perspectives. Routledge.
Carrington, S. (2017). Inclusive Education. In Inclusive Education (pp. 233-248). SensePublishers.
Corkum, P., Bryson, S. E., Smith, I. M., Giffin, C., Hume, K., & Power, A. (2014). Professional development needs for educators working with children with autism spectrum disorders in inclusive school environments. Exceptionality Education International, 24(1), 33-47.
Ip, H. H., Wong, S. W., Chan, D. F., Byrne, J., Li, C., Yuan, V. S., … & Wong, J. Y. (2016, July). Virtual reality enabled training for social adaptation in inclusive education settings for school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In International Conference on Blending Learning (pp. 94-102). Springer International Publishing.
Knowles, G. (2017). What do we mean by inclusive practice?. Supporting Inclusive Practice and Ensuring Opportunity is Equal for All, 7.
Mastropieri, M. A., & Scruggs, T. E. (2017). The inclusive classroom: Strategies for effective differentiated instruction. Pearson.
McCurdy, E. E., & Cole, C. L. (2014). Use of a peer support intervention for promoting academic engagement of students with autism in general education settings. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 44(4), 883-893.
Mitchell, D. (2014). What really works in special and inclusive education: Using evidence-based teaching strategies. Routledge.
Owen, C., McCann, D., Rayner, C., Devereaux, C., Sheehan, F., & Quarmby, L. (2016). Supporting students with autism spectrum disorder in higher education.
Page, A., & Davis, A. (2016). The Alignment of Innovative Learning Environments and Inclusive Education: How Effective is the New Learning Environment in Meeting the Needs of Special Education Learners?. New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work, 13(2), 81-98.
Salend, S. J. (2015). Creating inclusive classrooms: Effective, differentiated and reflective practices. Pearson.
Sharma, U., Forlin, C., & Furlonger, B. (2015). Contemporary models of funding inclusive education for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Smith, T. E., Polloway, E. A., Patton, J. R., Dowdy, C. A., & Doughty, T. T. (2015). Teaching students with special needs in inclusive settings. Pearson.
Van Hees, V., Moyson, T., & Roeyers, H. (2015). Higher education experiences of students with autism spectrum disorder: Challenges, benefits and support needs. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 45(6), 1673-1688.
Watkins, L., O’Reilly, M., Kuhn, M., Gevarter, C., Lancioni, G. E., Sigafoos, J., & Lang, R. (2015). A review of peer-mediated social interaction interventions for students with autism in inclusive settings. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 45(4), 1070-1083
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