Inclusive Education: Supporting Diversity in the Classroom - Report Example

Research Paper on Special Needs This paper endeavours to understand the steps that have been taken to ensure that with special needs students and normal students have a unitary system of education regarding PDHPE and that all the student have equal opportunity to access education facilities without those with special needs being disadvantaged. The program aims at including all the students in a common curriculum mode without the consideration of their intellectual capacities, inabilities and education background. The paper also accounts for the quality and the effectiveness of the education that those with special need will acquire in the program having understood that in the previous curriculum, students with intellectual impairment were exempted from going through certain part of the curriculum as not being productive to them. Therefore, it is interesting to understand how a single curriculum will be developed to consider the diverse interest of all the students and ensure that the quality of education provided is standardized and that all the students do benefit from the study. This assessment will be done in with reference to the evaluation of the structures put into place in the achievement of the desired learning objectives to students. Introduction In normal situations, students with a form of disability are regarded as special need students because they require extra support or aid to achieve learning outcomes as expected for them as compared to the other students with no disability. Special needs students also demonstrates a range of disability - visually impaired, physically impaired, mentally impaired and those with hearing disability. This means that at every stage of disability, a special needs facility must be put into place to for the achievement of desired objectives. In the case of developing a single curriculum that encompasses all these variability to enable all student regardless of their disability status get the same content is rather tedious. This program would require to be well researched so that it does not have or portlay any biasness towards any of the groups represented in this single curriculum. Unlike the previous PDHPE curriculum that excluded certain modules for the special needs students, this proposed program includes the special needs students and aims to give them equal content across all the key learning areas in such a way that it is relevant, meaningful and appropriate to every student’s needs. In the development of this single curriculum for all the students, the cardinal principles that guided the designing of the curriculum were divided into three spheres; the realization that all students have equal opportunities to learn and succeed given proper curriculum that is enabling to all. Furthermore, the second factor is ensuring that the content of the curriculum was entirely informed by the individual needs of the students, and in this case, having known all the needs of all the students, it was easier to come up with a single curriculum that would cater for the entire students irrespective of their peculiar needs. Thirdly, teachers and the respective schools stakeholders will have the responsibility of ensuring that the students were entitled to the full breadth of the curriculum content. With reference to the three cardinal principles of operation, the need to bring about a single curriculum for every student would be a noble and attainable initiative program that does not discriminate students based on any aspect. It would be a challenging to include all the students with the varied need within KLAs considering the diverse needs of the students. This inclusion would mean that all variables are taken into considerations when implementing a single curriculum intended to cater for all the special needs groups among the students, which include, those with intellectual, physical, sensory, and learning disabilities. These factors would include educating teachers on skills and techniques to be in a position to handle all the students in the classroom equally, and the curriculum must also include those with multiple disabilities while some will show medical needs or behavioural and emotional difficulties. Based on the assumptions made in the development of the single curriculum that caters for all students, the all-inclusive program for the students with special need will result into improved approach, which will facilitate proper development and reporting of the individual student’s outcome. In addition, it will ensure that the learning requirements for all the students are met and consequently facilitating effective and adequate training. The PDHPE Key Learning Areas for the Special Needs Students Special needs students should be exposed to a more balanced and broader curriculum that will allow them to achieve all the learning objectives, this can only be best attained through the development of an all-inclusive program for the students. However, every student with a special education need should be individually catered for because of the uniqueness of their needs that other programs may not allow them to be competent following the program tailored for such. Thus, in order to meet the individual needs of the students with special education needs, the PDHPE curriculum can be designed to meet the needs of these students by ensuring that the intended outcomes are relevant, meaningful and appropriate to the content program. In this regard, the development of a program for the PDHPE students with special need should be based on the assessment of their needs with special reference to life skills in leisure, academic curriculum areas, and vocational coupled with the present and the possible future school, community environment and home. Consequently, all the students including the special need students will be able to appreciate and commit to healthy and just way of social living. Objectives of the Inclusive Curriculum The scope of this all students inclusive curriculum will be developed to facilitate the attainment of the basic learning objectives to all students in areas such as Knowledge and understanding on performance, composition, and appraisal movement. Therefore, students will have an opportunity to understand ways of enhancing and facilitating personal and interpersonal wellbeing of their community. Moreover, the student will also acquire competence in formation and maintenance of positive relationships, moving with confidence and competence and making sound communication on matters of health decisions. Suggested Content Therefore, taking cognisant the uniqueness of the suggested curriculum, it will organized into eight content strands that aim to impact differently on the student’s various development areas. In active lifestyle, in this case, students will be trained on how to evaluate the necessities of a balanced lifestyle and at the same time explore the various options of recreation in efforts to develop skills and attitudes required for active lifestyle. In dance, the students will develop the ability to be able to express themselves through movement as well as sharpening their communication skills. Games and sports on the other hand will be instrumental in building and developing the confidence and competence of the student in a range of sports, physical activities, and in games. In growth and development aspect, the curriculum aims at making students understand the cycles of life in which the students are involved in those activities that increases their chances of building confidence and competence in giving solutions to a myriad of challenges. In gymnastics, will help the student to make full exploration on how the body can and should move. There is also the interpersonal relationship strand that helps the students to build a positive and responsible relationship with others to enable them effectively go about their lives. While in personal health choices, the strand deals with issues related to health with references to nutrition, drugs use, hygiene, consumerism, and modes of disease prevention and environment. The last strand-safe living emphasize on the ability of the student to keep themselves as well as others from harmful objects and situation. Student Centred Program In order to have an education program for the students with special education needs, many factors will have to be considered such that it should be individually centred on students, there should also be a focus on the required support by the student so that the required outcomes can be maximized. In this relation, the content of the education program should satisfy certain criteria such as; reflection on the student specific interests, abilities and educational needs, it should also consider reflection of the curriculum experience, and relevancy to the present environment of the student. In this program, the special need students will have equal leverage to grasp the objectives of the study, this is because the individual need of the student will be assessed through collection of the relevant information and then the student priorities be determined. After the conclusion of this, the student goals will be enumerated as individual education goals following the different needs of the students. This will pave ways for the development and implementation of the program with the set goals and objectives after which monitoring and reviewing of the program will have to follow in assessing the efficacy of the program in achieving the intended purpose. If there are few elements for adjustment, review of the program will be considered appropriately. Impact of the Inclusive Curriculum Following the decision to centre the programs for all categories of students, the realization of the objective has been realized with ease and there is no seclusion of some of the students based on their disability. The inclusive curriculum has identified what is required to make all students comprehend the curriculum and at the end of the syllabus every student, irrespective of their status demonstrate the ability of comprehension. This program has proven that if correct steps are taken towards understanding the students needs, they can be made more effective in learning than just segregating them according to their ability and disability. It is an opportunity to realize that policy framework and the need to understand the student is what maters the most in influencing knowledge in to the student (Loreman, Deppeler and Harvey, 2005). PDHPE curriculum has been segregating students and no single curriculum that identifies each student with their peculiar need and responding to them individually. Even though the program has proven to be reliable in addressing the challenges of the students of various backgrounds in a single curriculum, there are few challenges that it faces in proper accomplishment of the objective. The program requires a large network of human resource given the fact the all the student with special education needs have to be considered individually. There is also the need for more resources in accomplishing the objective, the development of the curriculum is heterogeneous with the recognition that every student with special need should be dealt with individually. This dictates that even those students with similar disability may not be dealt with similarly due to difference in preferences and choices as will be demonstrated by the students. Time allocation for each module will also be affected because student with disability problems are not able to cope with those without any disability, this will in turn requires that time allocation for each module to be changed for the interest of every student as far as the study objectives are concerned. Some students with visual and sensory challenges are disadvantaged and have to be allocated for more time so that they can be at par with their normal counterparts. Conclusion It is important to note that students with disability problems have been discriminated against for long on grounds that their inability reduces their ability to compete favourably with the rest and in most cases, we find that they are exempted on some modules or given a very different treatment on grounds that they are inferior. Thorough this program, it will be appreciated that it has just been the question of proper channel to follow in dealing with the disabled student. With the right curriculum and system that recognizes their disability and knowing what the how the disability should be handled in an academic environment, remarkable improvement will be realized to most people astonishment. This is what the new curriculum under the PDHPE has demonstrated; it is all about the right decision and program for these students’ potential to be tapped. References Loreman, T., Deppeler, J. and Harvey, D. 2005. Inclusive Education: A Practical Guide To Supporting Diversity In The Classroom. London: Routledge Read More