An inclusive education

An equal education, also known as schooling, is a tradition and a belief in which all children study in their local schools in classrooms for students their own age. This includes all pupils, students with disabilities, gifted students, children from various ethnic among cultural backgrounds, and others. Inclusive education entails truly including all children in a productive learning environment. A truly comprehensive schooling curriculum enrolls and supports all pupils, regardless of ability, by tailoring learning to specific needs and ensuring that those needs are fulfilled. Through this system of education, it goes the children to bring their unique strengths, experiences, and understanding to the classrooms. This makes the community, the society, and the nation at large to be more prosperous when all children are valued. Inclusive learning comes along with various advantages and disadvantages as discussed below.

Inclusive schooling is not all about placing the children or the students in classrooms without attending to their strengths, needs, and their unique learning requirements, as the standardized test would put it. It, does not demand that the students or the children have to learn the same thing at the same time, in similar ways and is not the sole responsibility of the class teacher to provide everything since the students are free to share their academic experiences in a different field (Best et al.1000).

As Erwin argued that, “the true essence of inclusion is based on the premise that all individuals with the disabilities have a right to be included in naturally occurring settings and activities together with their neighborhood peers, siblings and friends” (Erwin). This is a wise idea because it will enable them to learn a lot from their peers who are not disabled as they are. By being incorporated together, they get the opportunity to go through the life challenging experiences along with their peers. Something that they would not have learned if they had separated. Full inclusion is an approach in which students who are disabled or at risk receives all instruction in regular classroom setting as the rest (Best et al.1000).

Inclusive education boosts the self-esteem of the disabled children as they fight for their space in the education system. In addition, it also raises their development in acquiring social skills and exposure to curriculum activities. They get the time to interact with their fellows while in school and thus obtain that they would not have learned while on separation. Since mainstreaming of the disabled together with the rest usually is a heavy yoke for the parents to bear, but is the most appropriate system education (Malakar and Polee 64). Many people believe that mainstreaming only helps the disabled children, but many challenges hurt their training rather than help (Ponterotto, 290). Both faculty and the students might be cruel to their disable counterparts, but this is not always the case since they do get used with one another earlier in life (Best et al.1000).

Through inclusive education, families visions of typical life for their children with the disability do come true. Many parents would like their children with the disabilities to be accepted in the society by their peers, friends, lead and live regular lives like the rest. Also, is only inclusive education that can make it come true hence bringing a lot of hope, joy and brighter vision among the disabled children and their parents (Devos 960). Adoption of one education system for all under one classroom makes children to develop an accurate understanding of themselves and other disabled children in the society. Because of learning together and being exposed to the same curriculum. When children attend classes that reflect the similarities and differences of people in the real world, they learn to appreciate diversity. Respectful and diligent understanding among them does grow when the children with differing abilities and culture play and learn together. They also come to understand that disability is just a condition on their fellows otherwise; they are just equal to the same task as they do. Hence, a permanent friendship develops between them something that would not have happened if they were separated (Devos 965).

Since the philosophy of inclusive education, aims at helping Children to learn by being together, everyone in the class benefits. With diversified children learning alongside at their own pace and style within a nurturing learning environment. This act will strengthen the unity of the children and their disabled colleagues’ friendship that will last longer between them in life to come. Children with the disabilities get to learn new skills through imitation of their fellows on how things are done. This is possible since they spend most of their time together while in school with their peers. They learn new social and real-life skills that will equip them to fit better in the communities where they come from. They also have the opportunity to develop a stronger friendship with the typically developing children. Getting access to education within their schools in the community, instead of being sent away to special schools boosts their ego, which is in contrary to sending them away to special schools. In many occasions, children’s development and growth are usually compromised, and worst of all discrimination in life starts and is rooted deeply between them and other healthy growing children (Devos 962).

Moreover, children without disabilities get the opportunity to learn more realistic and accurate views about children with the limitations. They can now develop a positive attitude towards those different from them by learning from others who successively achieve despite the challenges that surround them. Both the slow and gifted learners can benefit from the inclusion. Besides, communities can now economize by providing on the program for all children rather than the separate programs for the people with the disabilities. People with the disabilities who develop their full potential through effective education no longer becomes a burden to the others in the society, but instead makes the more significant contribution to the nation something that inspires their fellows. Hence, the communities appreciating their diversity instead of rampant blames that frequently arise when someone gives birth to a disabled child (Gagnon 78).

Families of children with the disabilities feel lesser isolated from the rest of the community. Thus developing a stronger relationship with other families who can now provide them with a support that they need. This makes them start enjoying having their children at home with them during their school years also during the holidays without the need of sending them to special schools and hostels for careful attention by the experts. Nonetheless, the families of children without t disabilities will also develop a good relationship with the families of children with the limitations and makes a proper contribution towards advising their children on the importance of understanding individual differences.

Additionally, inclusive education inspires self-confidence among students thereby stimulating effort. This is because useful inclusion involves sensitivity to and acceptance of individuals’ needs and differences. The educators cannot teach students without taking into consideration of the individual student's differences. By taking into account the factors that shape their students and make them unique. Forces such as disability, races, linguistic background, gender, and economic status interact and affect academic performance and socialization; therefore, the educators, students and the family member must be sensitive to students with the disability individual needs and differences. In inclusive classrooms, all student is valued as uniquely capable of learning and contributing to society. They are taught to embrace diversity and to appreciate and learn from each other (Wilkins).

Inclusive education encourages reflective practices among their colleagues in the education set-ups. In inclusive classrooms, the thoughtful educators do modify their attitude, ways of teaching, classroom management practices and curricula to accommodate individual’s needs. They usually think critically about their values and beliefs by routinely examining their practices for self-improvement by ensuring that all students’ needs are met. Educators individualize education for all students regarding assessment techniques, curriculum accessibility, teaching practices, physical design and a wide range of services depending on their needs. Students are given multilevel and multimodality curriculum, as well as challenging educational and social experience that are consistent with their abilities and needs (Gagnon 80).

It enhances collaboration. Useful inclusion is usually viewed as a group effort. It involves collaboration among the educators, professionals, students, families and the social agents. The support that students needs are usually provided in the regular classrooms by their fellows. People have to work together toward utilizing these facilities in the same class with the students of particular need. The students learn to share resources, responsibilities, skills, decisions, and advocacy for the student’s benefits. Schools and districts provide support, training, time, and resources to restructure their programs towards supporting the students to work collaboratively under one classroom (Malakar and Saikia 66).

Through inclusive education, normalization is encouraged. Normalization usually aims at providing social interaction and experiences that are parallel to those in the society and adults and children with the disabilities. According to Gagnon (82), educating children with the limitations under one classroom is based on the principles that education opportunities for children with the disabilities should resemble the opportunities that are enjoyed by their peers. Contrastingly, Witzel and Ben underscores that education should increase their physical motor, cognitive, language speech socialization, and self-help skills among many children with the disability. This stands as quite a commendable thing in inclusive education (218).

Inclusive education acts as greater academic exposure to children with the disabilities. When students with disabilities are put in regular education classrooms, they gain the benefits of being in appositive learning environment together with their classmates who are free from disabilities. This situation often leads to enriched growing and learning for them throughout their education (Gagnon 79). Research has it that children placed in an inclusive learning are more engaged in instructional time (Sacks and Santoshi 960). This is because there are role models in the regular education system who can facilitate communication and social adaptive behaviors Inclusion also enhances self-respect and self-esteem of the students with the disability. At the point when they start making connections with the regular education students and teachers, they usually start feeling a sense of self-worth. They now star feeling good about themselves, and about their overall school experience. They begin soon to see themselves as individuals of who can share some of the same experience and opportunities with their non-disabled peers. Improved competence is another advantage of inclusion for a child with the disability. Sacks and Santoshi argues that students with the disability normally make strong academic gains in the regular education classrooms when their colleagues usually provide unwavering support which they require (963)

Research has also shown that for students with the disabilities, inclusion has resulted in their standardized test scores, reading, performance, and mastery of the concepts and goals (Salend 8). Moreover, an inclusive education setting also enhances their general education performance by enriching their overall educational environment.

Despite inclusive education being of greater importance and advantages more so to the disabled children, regular education students also benefit as well in an inclusive education in the following ways

First, inclusive education creates awareness and acceptance of the disabled students into the education system (Salend 9). It enables the regular students to be more accepting of differences among other individuals. They come to understand the needs of others and begin to understand and deal with disability in their own lives. Through contact with the disabled children, regular education students are now able to learn that intellectual, physical and emotional differences are part of the human world and each and everyone needs not to be discriminated based on the disabilities (Salend 10). Moreover, interactive classroom learning which is all-inclusive creates awareness and appreciation of individual differences in all students. Regular education teachers also begin to appreciate and recognize that all students have strength and power that can be reinforced to create a meaningful school experience (Salend 11).

Through joint and inclusive education system, regular education teachers also get the exposure and skills on how to handle children and students of different categories. The new techniques that they understand and learn every day usually benefits everybody. This prepares them physically, socially and mentally on how to handle students of diversified backgrounds thus building a functional relationship between the disabled children and their teachers (Sandhu 422). Because of joint education, the regular teachers usually develops creativity when handling and teaching students of different educational needs. Thus breaking the monotony of the of traditional methods of teaching such as lecturing and note taking that they would have continuously used upon handling students without difference understanding. Thus, they come to develops ways that are appropriate for all students in a classroom. Inclusion also creates an awareness of the importance of direct individual instruction for all students, which can often get lost when using the traditional method of teaching (Sandhu 426).

By embracing inclusive education among regular students, it enables them to develop teamwork skills and proper correlation with their student's counterparts of the disabled category. While practicing inclusive education, the regular education teachers will need to have direct contact between them and other regular school professionals such as other regular education teachers, special needs education teachers, specialist and even the principal on many occasions reporting how the students make progress in the same environment (Şenay and Hakan 1547). By doing that, stronger teamwork is built amongst them. Since each of them recognizes the importance of their colleagues and the roles that they play in their capacities to ensure a successful academic excellence of all children (Şenay and Hakan 1550).

When students leave school and enter the real world, they will not always find themselves surrounded by people who are like them. Students with special needs will need to learn to function with people without special needs, and the opposite is true of students in the regular education programs. An inclusive classroom helps a student learn and understand their significant differences that make them be the way they are. They learn their differences while they are still young and this exposes them to diversity by allowing them to work and play alongside children who are different from them (Witzel and Ben 215).

Full inclusion has become a nationwide movement to include more disabled students in regular classrooms. Full integration ignores the minor issues of individual child and focuses more on the social problems (Witzel and Ben 216). While this program has been proven to be successful in some schools, it has also come with it challenges that are discussed below.

Sometimes students who require special education services need an extra accommodation to get through the school day. This might include behavioral assistance, physical learning aides or the presence of an adult person to be with them at all time. In the inclusive classroom, this might be very difficult for a single teacher to provide these facilities at the same time attending to other children or student. By him or her doing this, it may lead to a distraction of the rest of the students. The regular education program is often not equipped well to handle the diverse need of students in special education programs hence creating more burden to the educational programs scheduled for a particular day (Best et al. 1020).

A teacher in a regular education classroom may not be adequately trained as a special education teacher when it comes to providing for the educational, behavioral and physical needs of the students with the unique needs. While some schools may answer this problem by pairing a regular educator with the special educators in an inclusive classroom, this practice is not always an option as it requires additional finance to service the salaries of the contracted teachers. It may not be economical as such, for it might be that only one class benefit from the hired teachers is making learning not economical but instead bring burden to school heads so that the students may move forward together as one (Gagnon 83).

Mainstream classrooms may not be an appropriate fit for the students with disabilities because the other children may not know how to deal well with their differences. They may resort to ridiculing or outright ostracism. A child whom they perceive is not like them; they may laugh at them because of unclear speech or breathing problem that is audible when the teacher to read calls such like a child. The student may find himself in a situation where he is always the final choice for teams for games in physical education class. Many at times when this happens, a particular need child may resort to dropping out of school something that would have been prevented when he/she would have been taken too special needs school or separate class (Gagnon 75-83).

Conclusion

Inclusive education plays s significant role in shaping and encouraging learning in inclusive schools. This paper has established the advantages and disadvantages of inclusive education. One major challenge is inadequate personnel and physical resources, which complicates learning in inclusive school. Another challenge discussed is designing an interactive learning environment bearing in mind the individual differences among the students. However, more research needs to done on integration of assistive technology in inclusive schools to reinforce learning among learners with special needs. In addition, there is need to organize in-service special education training for general teachers in inclusive schools to increase their productivity.

Works cited

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