The Integration Of Special Needs Individuals In The Society

Name
Subject
Institution
Abstract
The integration of students with disabilities into normal classrooms is a standard that was set by the United Nations to ascertain equity between able and disabled members of the society. It is the process of educating students in shared classrooms regardless of their social, physical, or mental ability. This integration has achieved significant progress in primary schools, but reduced progress in pre-school, secondary, and tertiary levels of education. It should be noted that teachers, because of the additional effort required to teach integrated classes, have reported negative attitudes. Additionally, integration has both advantages and disadvantages to students with disabilities. This calls for the use of several methods that can help students with disabilities adapt to the new environment. In short, even though integration is accompanied by various challenges, it can be implemented after careful planning.
Keywords: Students with disabilities, integration, levels of education Table of Contents
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Abstract  PAGEREF _Toc382561131 \h
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Introduction  PAGEREF _Toc382561132 \h
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Integration of Students with Disabilities in all Educational Levels  PAGEREF _Toc382561133 \h
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Integration of Students with Disabilities in Pre-school Learning  PAGEREF _Toc382561134 \h
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Integration of Students with Disabilities in Primary Schools  PAGEREF _Toc382561135 \h
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Integration of Students with Disabilities in Tertiary Education  PAGEREF _Toc382561136 \h
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Teacher Avoidance Attitudes to Special Needs Students  PAGEREF _Toc382561137 \h
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Advantages and Disadvantages of Integration to Students with Disabilities  PAGEREF _Toc382561138 \h
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Advantages of Integration to Students with Disabilities  PAGEREF _Toc382561139 \h
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Disadvantages of Integration of Students with Disabilities  PAGEREF _Toc382561140 \h
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Methods to Help Students with Disabilities Adapt to integration Environments  PAGEREF _Toc382561141 \h
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Curriculum Accommodation  PAGEREF _Toc382561142 \h
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Adaptation  PAGEREF _Toc382561143 \h
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Parallel Curriculum Outcomes  PAGEREF _Toc382561144 \h
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Overlapping Curriculum  PAGEREF _Toc382561145 \h
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Recommendation and Conclusion  PAGEREF _Toc382561146 \h
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Conclusion  PAGEREF _Toc382561147 \h
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Recommendation  PAGEREF _Toc382561148 \h
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References  PAGEREF _Toc382561149 \h
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Introduction
The subject of integrating children with disability into regular classrooms has been the epicenter of debate among scholars and practitioners in the special education industry. This owes to the reality that authors like Berg (2004) and Cassady (2011) made publications on the topic in question. It is critical that the integration of physically and mentally disabled children into regular classes is a transforming global issue. Hence, it must be subjected to various applications and interpretations. In fact, Cassady (2011) asserts that the idea of integrating students with disabilities into regular classrooms causes controversy among administrators, teachers, and parents. This topic is controversial because some scholars believe that all students qualify to attend regular classrooms while other scholars argue that only those students who maintain identified rates of academic progress should attend regular classrooms.
The idea of integrating children with disabilities into regular classes has been implemented in several nationalities. For instance, in the United States of America, seventy percent of children with disabilities spent forty percent of their day in public schools. The integration of students with disabilities (in the United States) was made possible by the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (Winter and O’Raw, 2010). Consequently, other nations emulated America because the same author affirms that all European Union countries have the necessary legislation that facilitate the integration of students with disabilities in all educational levels. As a result, the integration of students with disabilities into regular classrooms is now a central human right in liberal democracies. The underpinning philosophy of this argument is that all children have to be educated together irrespective of any disability.
It is crucial to explain the meaning of integration and children with disabilities because it lays the foundation for the upcoming discussion. To begin with, Koga (n.d) defines students with disabilities as students with a need of special education because of disabilities such as autism, deafness, emotional disturbances, communication disorders, or hearing impairments. Put simply, it is a student with little or no strength, power, or physical and mental ability. What is the meaning of integration? The term integration could be elucidated as the placement of students with disabilities in school sites that have regular and special education classes (Cassady, 2011). Therefore, the integration of students into regular classes enables the students to participate in general activities such as assemblies, clubs, recess, or dances. The same students should also have opportunities to participate in selected activities like drama, music, and art. This paper discusses the integration of students in all educational levels by focusing on teacher avoidance attitude, the advantages and disadvantages, and methods of integrating students with disabilities.
Integration of Students with Disabilities in all Educational Levels
Integration of Students with Disabilities in Pre-school Learning
It is crucial to note that pre-school learning is not available in many nations of the region, but it is widely being accepted as a fundamental foundation in education. As a result, pre-school learning is provided by non-governmental organizations that embrace the idea of integrating students with disabilities into regular classrooms. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge that the integration of students with disabilities is present in pre-school learning. As Berg (2004) reveals, the integration of students with disabilities (SWD) into regular classrooms aids in the development of social skills, which is necessary if they have to proceed with learning in regular classrooms. This owes to the truth that students with disabilities will be required to interact with their peers as they progress with education. It follows that embracing the integration of SWD as early as pre-school learning is important. However, the integration of SWD into in pre-school education is limited hence, the need to expand the policy.
Integration of Students with Disabilities in Primary Schools
Winter and O’Raw (2010) aver that few countries have explicit policies and legislation on the education of students with disabilities in primary schools. Nonetheless, several countries have initiated the process of integrating SWD in regular classrooms. For example, twenty-nine nationalities reported that they educate children with disabilities in separate primary schools, while twenty-seven countries mentioned that they had plans for integrating SWD in regular classrooms. The aforementioned example was from a UNESCAP (2002) survey that was cited by Winter and O’Raw (2010). It is notable that both SWD and schools face difficulties during the transition process. Some of the challenges of integrating students with disabilities include First, SWD may face negative attitudes and hatred if teachers are not prepared for the integration process. In addition, SWD may be physically included, but be excluded from meaningful participation in learning activities.
Integration of Students with Disabilities in Secondary Schools
Concern for the integration of SWD has been focused in primary school education. It follows that little attention has been paid to the integration of students with disabilities in secondary school education. Winter and O’Raw (2010) acknowledge that the integration of students with disabilities is relatively high in primary, but the converse is true for high school and tertiary levels of education. This reveals that school drop out for SWD in high schools is high. Even though the attendance of SWD into regular classes is low in high schools, some students with special needs have attended high schools in public schools. However, they faced multiple challenges such as the lack of adequate facilities and exclusion from school activities. In short, school dropouts for students with disabilities in high schools are a major problem that must be tackled.
Integration of Students with Disabilities in Tertiary Education
Just like the integration of SWD into secondary school education, the integration of SWD into tertiary education also has challenges. Winter and O’Raw (2010) argue that young students with disabilities are rarely accepted into vocational training programs. This owes to the reality that number of vocational training programs that provide training and high employment rates exist. One of the areas with high employment rates is the field of information technology. However, students with disabilities have little opportunities of acquiring this education because the training is available for the fortunate and able students. In the past, universities have declined to accept students, but this trend is changing gradually. Students with disabilities (who accessed higher education) report the lack of provisions and systems that make study materials available. Clearly, if integration of SWD is to be achieved at all education levels, much has to be done.
Teacher Avoidance Attitudes to Special Needs Students
Implementing the integration of SWD into regular classrooms has a huge effect on regular education teachers. This has led to several negative attitudes on the possibility of integrating SWD into regular classes (that require a lot of effort to overcome). One of the attitudes brought about by integration is fear. Since fear is a principal emotion, many regular educators fear the idea of failing to implement the integration process. This s because they acknowledge the fact that they are accountable for all the students (both able and disable), yet they may lack the necessary training to educate students with special needs. After training as educators in tertiary institutions, it becomes demoralizing for teachers to think of undertaking their daily chores without meeting students’ (students with special needs) needs. This calls for additional training for regular education teachers. This is the reason why Winter and O’Raw (2010) argue that fear leads to a negative attitude (from teachers) towards the integration of SWD into regular classrooms.
Another attitude that incites teachers to avoid the integration of SWD is discomfort and reluctance of giving up mandate of their classrooms. It is critical that the process of integration will require regular education teachers to source for help from professionals in the field of special education. This is enhanced by the truth that regular educators do not possess sufficient skills for dealing with students with special needs hence, have to seek help from qualified sources. As argued by Cassady (2011), many regular educators enjoy and are proud of controlling their classrooms, which makes them oppose the notion of handing over or sharing control of their classrooms with other teachers. In fact, the same author asserts that such a process will intimidate regular education teachers before their students. Therefore, it can be deduced that the discomfort bro...