How to integrate inclusive education into the family and society

Integrating Inclusive Education
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Integrating Inclusive Education
Each child is unique in his or her own way, with some being bright and other dull. All in all, irrespective of these differences, every one of them has a right to activate their potential and develop their talents. According to Passiatore et al. (2019), inclusive education protects the rights of all disabled children by integrating them their non-disabled classmates in regular classroom settings, with the former being provided with additional help. Family involvement and support is among the factors that determine whether inclusion succeeds. Parents are usually the initial teacher of their child and they continue to shape his or her development and learning for a lifetime. Involvement by family members can significantly impact the child’s learning process irrespective of the family’s cultural or social background.
Most parents would want their disabled children to feel welcome in the real world, and be provided with the resources and respect they deserve and need, just like children with no disabilities. Families can actively participate in promoting inclusive education by working with school authorities. For instance, they can provide necessary accommodation or make arrangements for how special peers go about learning. When a family gets involved in its child’s education, the student is able to engage in learning activities more fully, stay in school longer, and achieve more(Passiatore ,2019).
The various family members could be parents, older siblings, grandparents, guardians, aunts, uncles, and other close relatives. Their participation in all aspects of a child’s life plays an important role in shaping and determining his or her personality. Parental participation in inclusive education programs tends to encourage new behaviors and build positive relationships. It also increases optimism and self-satisfaction in the parents, their children, and the teaching staff. Such involvement by family members is a key component that leads to a student’s success (Xu, 2019).
Any parent would definitely want their child with special needs benefit fully from the school experience. Disabled children require educational opportunities that are appropriate for their respective ages and abilities. When parents and teachers work together, they present the ideal support for disabled children. Together, they can ensure special students as much necessary knowledge and skills as possible needed to succeed in life (Francis et al, 2016).
No one knows children better than their parents. They know their abilities, strong and weak points, likes and dislikes, desires and needs, challenges, capacities, and capabilities. Sharing this information with teachers is of great value when coming up with an education plan for the student. It is important for parents to be fully involved in all aspects of decision making related to a child’s education. There are instances where a child’s disability is identified quite early in his or her life by family members. In such cases, it becomes their responsibility to inform school authorities about their child’s disabilities and special needs.
Parents having children with special needs tend to play a crucial role in their education. Special education teachers generally put a lot of effort in making a difference. However, they cannot be expected to do everything on their own. They need support from students’ parents and other family members. These members need to encourage the children in order to make them attain their potential. According to Alegre de la Rosa & Villar Angulo (2019), they are expected to work on their goals at the home front while also cooperating with special education teachers. By parents working with their disabled children at home, the learning process will be faster and the results much better. Also, the students will realize how committed and dedicated the family members are to their education. Time spent together tends to bring parents and their children much closer to one another.
A notable way that the family can participate in inclusive education is through the IEP (individual education program). Parental participation in decision making related to special education is quite important. The best thing that parents can do is to join the IEP team, become fully involved as a member, and play an active role. The IEP team determines a disabled student’s path, and is tasked with making educational decisions on behalf of the students. It addresses issues to do with eligibility, program development, evaluation, and placement of children in gifted or special education programs.
Parents and other family members play quite a critical role in the IEP team process. For one, they offer valuable insight into the child’s strengths and shortcomings while at home as well as background info on his or her history, progress and development. They can also provide information on any other family-related matter that may affect the student’s learning. Family members should be willing to offer insight into whether current learning instructions or strategies are helping the student learn. They may do this even when they have not been specifically requested to do so, and may even offer suggestions for improvement and change. There has to be some kind of back and forth communication. The parents listen to the child’s teachers so that they can practice while at home. On their part, educators hear the parents’ thoughts so that they can follow it through in the classroom.
According to Choi et al. (2020), integrating inclusive education in the family and society through schools happens by accepting and understanding students based on their differences and diversity. These may include cognitive, physical, emotional, social, and academic differences. Choi et al. (2020) also note that students need time outside their daily education classes. Hence, for successful integration within the school, students need to participate in other activities such as sports, drama, debate, and speech writing. Inclusive education was introduced to make students feel comfortable and welcome. In addition to this, students need to be challenged and supported in their academic and non-academic efforts.
The need to support students also extends to their teachers and parents. Szumski et al. (2017) find that support should be provided to parents, regular teachers, special needs teachers as well other faculty and staff who are key stakeholders. Their study also shows that through inclusive classrooms, students with disabilities and those without pick up more. Moreover, recent studies have shown that challenged students have higher levels of achievement and better skills as a result of inclusive education (Szumski et al., 2017). Most importantly, their peers, who are without challenges, also tend to benefit.
Benefits for students with disabilities include improved literacy in math and social studies, better communication skills, social skills, and friendships. According to Szumski et al. (2017), the more time students with disabilities have in inclusive classrooms, the less they are likely to be absent or referred for disruptive behavior. These latter benefits are related to findings on student attitude, which have proven that this category of students tends to exhibit better self-concept and a liking for their schools and teachers. In addition to this, the research has shown that they appear motivated and more willing to learn in school (Szumski et al., 2017).
Students without disabilities have also shown desired attitudes in the same areas as a result of inclusive education. Students without disabilities show higher academic performance in math, English, and literature. Also, a review by Amor et al. (2019) shows that the presence of students with disabilities presents new learning opportunities. An example of how inclusive education helps students without disabilities and those who are challenged is through peer coaching. When students without disabilities learn how to help their peers who are challenged, their performance improves. Also, when teachers begin to take into consideration the diversity of their challenged learners, they can provide instructions through a more extensive array of teaching modalities such as visual, kinesthetic, and auditory techniques, which also benefit regular students (Amor et al., 2019).
There are significant benefits associated with implementing inclusive education in school. However, there is a particular need for teachers to learn how they can integrate inclusive learning in their classrooms. Research-based evidence shows that for educators to be effective in executing inclusive education, they require knowledge on the best teaching practices (Van Mieghem et al., 2020). In particular, teachers need to learn about adapted instruction for students with disabilities. Additionally, teachers need to develop positive attitudes towards inclusion to create working inclusive classrooms.
One of the proven techniques is the use of different instructional formats. Existing evidence suggests that teachers should begin with whole-group teaching and then shift to flexible-group instruction (Choi et al., 2020). Flexible groups can include small learning groups or paired learning. In whole-group instruction, the use of interactive whiteboards has been shown to improve student engagement. In flexible-group instruction, teachers should lead classroom activities among younger students (Choi et al., 2020). Among older students, however, classroom activities can be student-led. Learning through peer groups is also encouraged and can be conducted in the form of peer-tutoring, pair-work, and student-led illustrations.
Another proven technique is the use of universal learning design. According to Amor et al. (2019), universal learning design has teaching approaches that are varied and supportive of all learners’ needs. These methods include various ways of presenting content to learners, such as images, modeling, ...