Consultation And Collaboration For Students With Special Needs

Consultation and Collaboration for Students with Special Needs
Name
Institution
Consultation and Collaboration for Students with Special Needs
1 Models of Consultation and Collaboration
Placing special needs students in resource classrooms restrict them from having or rather enjoying a holistic approach to education that all students deserve at both the elementary and junior high school levels. The case for William Perry and Janna Small, from Calgary Public School, requires such a comprehensive approach involving the collaboration and consultation of all the stakeholders involved in providing quality education to students. William’s attention deficit disorder affects his performance in the classroom while Janna’s negative behavioral changes are also giving both the teacher and other students a hard time to cope. The lead-teacher consultation and collaboration model would serve as the ideal strategy for addressing William’s special needs CITATION Det05 \l 1033 (Dettmer, 2005). The classroom teacher provides the home-room teacher with a report on William’s progress and needs for the subject area in class after which the latter uses the special needs’ expertise to impact the necessary and knowledge and skills for the study question. The approach would also be effective for Janna’s case, but that would only serve to improve her academic performances. A consultative and collaborative team teaching model would be the most efficient approach for Janna’s case. Both the special needs and the regular classroom teachers would take turns in teaching the same class, inclusive of both the special needs and regular students, in a concerted team effort towards providing education for all the students CITATION Det05 \l 1033 (Dettmer, 2005). The approach would serve to provide the other students with the knowledge, skill, and understanding of the special needs students and thus helping in the development of the latter across all fields of the education program. The approach would also involve the parents of both students and others with special needs to create an understanding of the special attention required by the students.
2 Problem Solving
Janna’s case offers an excellent platform for implementing the outlined consultation and collaborative model.
1 Step 1- Identify the Current Teaching Practices at the Institution
A collection of data and information on various aspects such as the number of special needs students or students are requiring the same attention as Janna to identify the current practices at the learning institution. Currently, the school lacks an effective system or approach for addressing such challenges while the previous strategy involves the sole involvement of the resource teacher in providing learning assistance to special needs students.
2 Step 2- Establish a Collaborative Team for Implementing the Learning Model
Calgary Public School lacks an effective learning system to address the needs of students with special needs. Hence, forming a team to spearhead the new learning program or strategies for the benefits of all students from across the different disciplines serves as an excellent platform for making positive changes. The team would comprise of Mr. Jones and Mrs. Balance as well as the valuable input of the former resource teacher. The outlined teachers bring the experience of both the challenges and possible solutions towards providing learning assistance to students with special needs.
3 Step 3- Developing an Effective Action Plan
The selected team should come up with an actionable plan involving all the stakeholders and thus promoting the collaborative and consultative principle of the program. The plan should highlight potential challenges of embracing the new learning approach and the desired outcomes CITATION Nov05 \l 1033 (Education, 2005). The action plan should be updated regularly to address any emerging changes and issues facing both the student and all the stakeholders involved in providing learning assistance to Janna for that matter.
4 Step 4-Implementation of the Plan
Implementing the team working model requires clear identification of the key areas that would be affected by the plan. Thus the leading team should investigate and identify the demands of students with special needs, the scheduling of the provision of such needs, timetables of regular classes, the number of special needs students and the number of staff available for executing the plan CITATION Det05 \l 1033 (Dettmer, 2005). The successful implementation of the plan depends on a comprehensive analysis of the outlined parameters.
5 Step 5-Providing Professional Development to all Stakeholders
It is important to increase the awareness of both the teaching staff on how to handle and deal with students who have special needs. The professional development of the teaching staff would help the likes of Mrs. Ballance in understanding the needs of the students such as Janna.
6 Step 6-Family Engagement
Parents of students with special needs should also be active participants in the program as they have the first-hand experience of the behavioral or intellectual changes in their children. Engaging the parents helps to enhance the efficiency of the learning approach as it reduces the occurrence of confrontations and conflicts between them and the teachers. Such conflicts of interest would have adverse effects on the desired outcome of the program.
7 Step 7-Developing Performance Indicators for the Model
It is also important for the team leading the implementation of the program to highlight some of the aspects and features to look out for in students with special needs once the program rolls out. Improved academic performances and increased concentration in Janna’s case would be positive indicators of the model’s efficiency.
8 Step 8-Monitoring the Implementation of the Model
It is also essential to have a monitoring system for the program as it will help all the stakeholders involved in appreciating the input of their participation or diverse roles towards the smooth running of the model. The data collected from the performance indicators would also serve as a valuable element of monitoring the program.
9 Step 9-Reviewing of the Model
Constant reviewing of the program serves to provide the team with insights into the emerging needs of the special needs students. It also serves to address the confrontational differences that may arise during the implementation of the program. Continuous improvement and running of the model for the long-term depends on the constant reviewing of the model.
10 Step 10-Recognizing the Success of the Program
It is advisable to celebrate the achievements of the model as it encourages all the stakeholders to maintain the good work they are doing at the institution. Since the model involves the co-teaching of students with special needs and those without such demands, it is important to engage all the students and teachers in recognizing the collective effort.
3 Communication Strategies and Interpersonal Skills
Achievement of the desired outcomes form the implementation of the model requires the collaborative effort of all the stakeholders. Both the team leading in the process and all the other participants should work together towards the realization of the said outcomes. Nevertheless, differences are bound to arise from the diverse personalities, skills, and preferences from all the members involved. The team leader should embrace an effective communication strategy through which emerging issues, conflicts, or confrontations can be addressed. The listening approach of communication provides an excellent platform for addressing all the issues raised by the members of the team, which may range from personality differences to preferred approach of addressing a particular problem CITATION Det05 \l 1033 (Dettmer, 2005). One should also develop a friendly personality as an essential element for easier communication of ensuing problems by the members. A friendly personality coupled with good listening skills allows the consultant or the team leader to be aware of the challenges arising during the implementation of the problem and to amicably address the differences CITATION Det05 \l 1033 (Dettmer, 2005). Objections to the team’s progress or approach towards a given problem may thus be disarmed through listening and providing the opponents with opportunities to air their views and distinct opinions. The team leader would then allow those in support of the approach taken by the group to provide their perceptions before giving an unbiased verdict. In essence, a collective decision-making process would be highly effective in providing the final solution to such problems.
4 Ethics
One of the first ethical issues to take into consideration before proposing and implementing a consultative and collaborative learning assistance model for students with special needs is whether or not it meets both the legal and ethical threshold research-based interventions. The constitution provides guidelines on the recommended standards that a model should meet before implementation in a given school. The application of the model may also face ethical issues or differences arising from the cultural diversity of student fraternity. Some students may have unique cultural backgrounds with a distinct culture that find some teaching practices unacceptable and thus raising legal or ethical challenges. Ethnic or cultural diversity may pose the outlined challenges especially in schools which did not have such learning practices for students with special needs CITATION Det05 \l 1033 (Dettmer, 2005). Unresponsive students to the learning assistance model may also pose an ethical or legal problem to both the institution and the team as they may be lacking an appropriate strategy for handling such outcomes CITATION Det05 \l 1033 (Dettmer, 2005). Parents of such students may take offense in the results of the monitoring processes, which may deem or recommend their children to district schools for the special needs, and thus raising ethical issues. The fact that Calgary Public school lacks a program in place for addressing the demands of students of special needs calls for a holistic consultative approach involving all the stakeholders. Such initiative serves to reduce the chances of unethical behavior among the teaching staff when dealing with an identified case of a special needs student. The collab...