SAN PASCUAL POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE

Bolod, San Pascual, Masbate

Module in
Professional Education 2- Foundation of Special and Inclusive Education
Module 3/ Week 5
First Semester-S.Y. 2020-2021

Name of Student _______________________________

Teacher: Erich A. Flores

TOPIC: Strategies for Effective Inclusion

ACTIVITY:
Direction: Recall your experiences back in elementary days. Could you tell you were given support?
by whom? how? Write briefly your experience relating to this.

ANALYSIS:
Reflect on your answer in the activity above then answer the following questions.
1. How did you feel about it?

2. Would you consider giving the same kind/amount of support that you were given before?

3. If there is one person you would like to offer to offer your support to, who would this be? Why?

ABSTRACTION
Direction: Read and understand the following concepts.

Kirschner identified three strategies for effective instruction. These are the following:
1. A flexible approach to providing support.
In an effectively inclusive environment, teachers and staff are open to finding creative ways
of helping a child function in the class. The goal is to provide all children with what they need
in order to accomplish their best learning and to become members of the classroom
community. A school day is made up of a series of social rituals, in the sense that students
and teachers engage in routinized interactions that are repeated every day. In preschool and
early elementary grades, these rituals can include dropoff, circle time, choice time, snack, rest
time, and outdoor time. In order to participate in these rituals, some students require
individualized forms of support. For example, some young children need additional sensory
 input in order to sit quietly or pay attention. During circle time in an inclusive class, one
might observe children sitting in several different kinds of seats, depending on what has been
found (often through trial-and-error) to work best for each particular child. These seats can
include rocking chairs, “beanbag” chairs, floor cushions, benches or even assistant teachers’
laps.
As teachers get to know their students’ individual limitations and sensitivities, they
often can anticipate situations that are likely to prove especially difficult or overly
stimulating. They can take preemptive steps to minimize a student’s discomfort and thereby
help to preserve the harmony of the group. If the class is going on a field trip, teachers and
parents can prepare the child beforehand, explaining what to expect and rehearsing what the
class will be doing. When a music performance took place at an early elementary school, the
teachers asked a relative of a very young child diagnosed with sensory integration dysfunction
to be with her. This enabled the child to attend the performance, because there was also a
provision for her to leave the room unobtrusively if she began to show signs of distress.
In more advanced grades, where academic instruction takes up much of the day,
many different kinds of accommodations enable students to overcome limitations that might
interfere with their learning or their ability to demonstrate what they know. For example,
students who have the fine motor impairments can use slanted writing boards, a student who
is unable to write her name can use a stamp and a non-verbal student may be able to
communicate effectively using a text-to-sound (Kurzweil) machine. A visually impaired
student, who cannot see the board or screen from a distance, can be permitted to get up from
his chair and go to the front of the room to read what is written or displayed. All of these
examples underscore a few basic themes: attentiveness to children’s individual needs,
flexibility and openness to trying new strategies, and a collaborative attitude.

2. Integration of universal design and differentiated instruction

There are many ways to adapt pedagogical techniques, curricula and other aspects of teaching
and learning to the varied needs and abilities of students. Universal design and differentiated
instruction are two types of strategies that can make schooling accessible to a wide range of
learners. Both strategies intersect and complement each other.
A. Universal design- The term “universal design” refers to the construction of environments
to be accessible to everyone. Although often associated with the need to make physical
spaces accessible to those with motor or sensory impairments, the principle of universal
design is also relevant to other aspects of education. It can be applied to the way material
objects are used, as well as to how teachers plan and execute curricula. For example, in
many early elementary classes, children “sign in” when they arrive in the morning. This is
not only a technique for teaching children to spell their own names and read the names of
others, but also a ritual that helps them make the transition to starting the school day.
Universal design can also involve building an individualized approach into the way
the curriculum is constructed and lessons are taught. This type of curricular planning and
presentation is analogous to designing an elevator so that people can enter it using walkers
and wheelchairs as well as by walking unassisted., and so that the floor numbers are
perceptible not only visually, but also through touch (braille) and hearing (recorded
announcements).
B. Differentiated instruction- While universal design denotes techniques that help make
academic and social aspects of school accessible to all learners, the concept of
“differentiated instruction” highlights the importance of tailoring what is taught, and how
it is taught, to individual students’ learning styles and differences. Differentiation can
 involve teaching the same concepts in several different ways, so that there are multiple
points of entry into the same or similar material. But it can also involve teaching
substantially different material to different students. One debate within the field of
inclusive education pits the view that most students can be taught essentially the same
things (although through adapted means) against the view that some students will require
significantly different curricula and learning goals.

3. Normalizing the reality of human differences.

Inclusive educational practices do not deny or disavow the existence of differences,
including ability differences. Rather, a key element of effective inclusion is that it makes
differentiated needs and supports seem less strange or disturbing, by teaching children to
regard them as a routine fact of life. Thus, inclusive education is not only about
improving access and opportunity for those whose impairments might otherwise limit
them. It is also about making impairments less central to the way a child is viewed by
others, as well as to the way she sees herself.

Inclusive education is facilitated by lessons and activities that encourage

students (as well as adults) to reflect on the fact that everyone has strengths, as well as
limitations and areas they can try to improve. It is also helpful to offer formal and
informal lessons that promote empathy and perspective-taking. These dimensions of
inclusive education are important because effectively managing an inclusive classroom
has a much to do with influencing all students’ sense of self and relationships, as it does
with developing teaching techniques that are accessible to, and maximize the potential of
all students.

Answer the following questions.

1. Give one instance by which support is manifested in an inclusive learning environment.

2. Compare and contrast Universal Design and Differentiated Instruction.

APPLICATION
In an environment where there are individuals with physical impairments, how may you show
that impairments are but a routine fact of life?

REFERENCES: Kirschner, Suzanne R., Inclusive Education, (2015), W.George Scarlett (ED.) Sage
Encyclopedia of Classroom Management
 SAN PASCUAL POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE
Bolod, San Pascual, Masbate

Module in
Professional Education 2- Foundation of Special and Inclusive Education
Module 3/ Week 6
First Semester-S.Y. 2020-2021

Name of Student _______________________________

Teacher: Erich A. Flores

TOPIC: Inclusive Education: Our Meaning and Yours

ACTIVITY:
Direction: Think about your own experience of inclusive education. You may need to identify who
was to be “included” in these situations or definitions. Once you have done this, consider
why such inclusion mattered and for whom it was important.

ANALYSIS:
Direction: Reflect on how your experience of inclusion compares with what you believe inclusion
should be about. Write your reflection below.

ABSTRACTION
Direction: Read and understand the concepts that follow.

The following are perspectives on Inclusive Education coming from a range of viewpoints: disabled
activists, professionals working with children, government documents and a campaigning
organization.
 1. The Equity Group (a group that is based in Scotland and describes itself as “a group of
disabled people, parents of disabled children and other interested supporters”)
“Fundamentally, we believe that inclusive education is about recognizing children as
having equal rights and being of equal value. This should be a basic starting-point for
educational and social policy in a modern society. (The Equity Group, 2004)
2. Chris Darlington (president of the National Association for Special Educational Needs
(NASEN), a national organization for professionals working in the area of inclusion.
He defines inclusive education as a process, not a state… inclusion is not a simple
concept restricted to issues of placement…Key principles are valuing diversity, entitlement,
dignity, individual needs, planning, collective responsibility, professional development, and
equal opportunities. (Darlington, 2003)
3. Simone Aspis (who describes herself as “a special school survivor”) offers the following
definition:
Inclusive education should create opportunities for all learners to work together. This
requires a recognition that learning is enhanced when individuals of different
abilities, skills and aspirations can work together in a joint enterprise. (Aspis,2002)
4. Inclusive Schooling (DfES, 2001b)- the official document issued by the Department for
Education and Skills following changes in the law in 2001 which strengthened students’
rights to mainstream placement gives this quote:
Schools supported by local education authorities and others should actively seek to
remove the barriers to learning and participation that can hinder or exclude pupils with special
education need. (DfES, 2001b)
5. Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education (CSIE- a campaigning organization promoting
the growth of inclusive schools:
Inclusion means enabling all students to participate fully in the life and work of
mainstream settings, whatever their needs…
Inclusion may also be seen as a continuing process of breaking down barriers to
learning and participation for all children and young people. Segregation, on the other hand, is
a recurring tendency to exclude difference. (CSIE, 2002)

Answer the following questions.

1. What similarities do you notice among the definitions of inclusive education above?

2. What are the variations do you notice?

APPLICATION
Direction: What does inclusion mean to you? Re-read the definitions above, compare them with
your ideas, then note down your own definition of “inclusive education”. (You may use a separate
sheet of paper for this activity)

Who is being “included”?

What key words would you include in your own definition?

Does this differ from the experiences of inclusion that you have encountered before?
REFERENCES: https: //www.open.edu/openlearn/education/educational-technology-and-practice/
educational-practice/inclusive-education-knowing-what-we-mean/content-section-1