Inclusion

What does research into special needs tell us?

Dr Melanie Nind

Why bother?

• Because of efforts to make teaching an evidence-based profession

• Because the inclusion agenda is here to stay

• Because knowledge is power

• Because it’s interesting!

Learning outcomes

• A sense of what inclusion is all about

• A desire to be an inclusive teacher

• Some knowledge and understanding to enable this to happen

• A sense of your own agency

Inclusion – contested territory

The term inclusive education has itself come to mean many different things ... It is in fact a contestable term used to different effect by politicians, bureaucrats and academics. ‘Inclusion’ is not a single movement; it is made up of many strong currents of belief, many different local struggles and a myriad forms of practice.

(Clough, 2000, p.6)

• The government version• The activists’ version• The sceptics’ version

Academics’ definitions

• Inclusive schools are diverse problem solving organisations with a common mission that emphasizes learning for all students (Rouse and Florian, 1996)

• Being a full member of an age-appropriate class in your local school doing the same lessons as the other pupils and it mattering if you are not there. Plus you have friends who spend time with you outside of school (Hall, 1996)

• Inclusion can be understood as a move towards extending the scope of ‘ordinary’ schools so they can include a greater diversity of children (Clark et al, 1995)

• Increasing participation and decreasing exclusion from mainstream social settings (Potts, 1997)

• Inclusion describes the process by which a school attempts to respond to all pupils as individuals by reconsidering its curricula organisation and provision (Sebba, 1996)

• An inclusive school is one that is accepting of all children (Thomas, 1997)

Dimensions of inclusion

• Values/ethical dimension

• Organizational dimension

• Curricular dimension

• Teaching and learning dimension

How do we know how to do inclusive teaching?

• The old evidence

• The new evidence

• Personal evidence

The old evidence

• Special pupils need special teaching by special teachers in special places

Based on the deficit model

Pupils seen as: • having something wrong with them• having identifiable symptoms• needing their difficulties diagnosed• in need of repair• needing a treatment prescribedTeachers/professionals seen as• knowing best• in control• having expertise• prescribers of programmes• assessors/diagnosers

The critique – moral imperative

• It limits us as teachers and learners

Hart (1996, p.6) - I believe that in order to open up new possibilities we can and should now set aside once and for all the language of ‘learning difficulties’ and ‘special needs’. This language shapes and constrains our thinking, limiting our sense of the scope available to us for positive intervention to a narrowly circumscribed set of possibilities. It has discouraged mainstream teachers from using their knowledge, expertise and experience as fully and powerfully as they might in pursuing concerns about children’s learning.

The critique – moral imperative

• It is wrong to divide pupils –

“the experience of being isolated form our peer-group, and brothers and sisters, produced loneliness and isolation”

“No common schooling meant no common ground for play or association”

The evidence

• surprising lack of success of the segregated system

• plus, the special system selected disproportionately children from ethnic minorities and children from lower socio-economic groups

New evidence

• TTA systematic literature review

• Small evidence base

• Range of pedagogies with outcomes

Approaches to choose from

• adaptation of instruction• adaptation of curriculum • adaptation of materials• adaptation of assessment• adaptation of environment• behavioural intervention• computer-assisted • team teaching • peer-supported - peer tutoring and peer group interactive

approaches.

Based on inclusion model

Pupils seen as • disabled/impeded by others' attitudes• facing barriers which must be removed• ordinary – not requiring labelsTeachers/professionals seen as• having skills and knowledge relevant for all pupils• flexible in their approaches• problem-solvers• providing the context in which difficulties in learning may

or may not arise• able to change things for the good of all.

Why are peer group interactive approaches effective?

• a clear understanding of the model of student as having active agency in the construction of personal knowledge and of all students as capable of learning

• attention to social grouping and individual roles and academic achievement

• learning related to peers’ own worlds

• sense of learning community

How do we know which to adopt

• research evidence, • practical experience, • match with what we know about disability,• match with what we know about teaching and

learning, • match with what we know about pupils (ask

them!), • trial and error, • reflective practice.

Personal evidence

• What works for you

• There are no experts just people willing to have a go

• Values base leads to a ‘can do’ attitude

• We can develop inclusive teaching through reflective practice

Can we afford to wait?

Principles are the key. Research can only provide a crude pointer to the success or appropriateness of inclusion. Ultimately, whether or not desegregation proceeds and mainstream schools become more inclusive will hinge on society's values and its attitudes. (Thomas, 1997, p.104)

Your role!

• Statutory requirement on mainstream schools to provide ‘effective learning opportunities for all pupils’ according to three key principles for inclusion:– Setting suitable learning challenges;– Responding to pupils’ diverse learning needs;– Overcoming potential barriers to learning and

assessment for individuals and groups of learners.

Your role 2!

• Everything we propose is within the grasp of the system if we all want it enough, because its full growth or its seeds are already present somewhere: we are not recommending an idealistic dream, but the reality of extending widely the high quality which already exists in pockets, locked in the minds and actions of the few who must become the many.

(Tomlinson, 1996, p.11)

For seminars

How can we make inclusion work at the classroom level?

What positive action can you take in an imperfect world?

Further reading

• Nind, M. & Wearmouth, J. with Collins, J., Hall, K., Rix, J. & Sheehy, K. (2004) A Systematic Review of Pedagogical Approaches that can effectively include children with special educational needs in mainstream classrooms with a particular focus on peer group interactive approaches. London: Teacher Training Agency.

• http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/EPPIWeb/home.aspx?page=/reel/review_groups/TTA_SEN/review