Integrating Down Syndrome Learners into Mainstream School - Assignment Example

To investigate the prospect of successfully integrating Down Syndrome learners into mainstream school   A Brief Rationale of Topic Choice (including research aim and objectives). Currently I am on a placement working within Special Needs Education in School, therefore undertaking an investigation into the prospects of integrating Down Syndrome children into the mainstream is of great interest. The 2001 SEN and Disability Act (SENDA)(an amendment to the 1995 Act) specified the following, in line with the UNESCO Salamanca Declaration of 1994: All children have the right to be educated in mainstream schools and no disabled child should be treated less favourably than a non-disabled child. (Disability Equality in Education, 2002: 4). The aim of this research is to find out whether integrating Down Syndrome learners into mainstream education is something beneficial to their learning and emotional well being. The three areas to be investigated,as key questions would be: 1. Is the social, emotional and intellectual development of the learners enhanced within a mainstream setting? 2. Does inclusion equate with integration? The objective is to consider whether a special school base or a mainstream base is best for the child. Taking a social model of thinking on disability it would be important to consider whether the physical environment is changed to accommodate the learner and that suitable adjustments are made in the learning environment for them. The ‘problem’ is not the disability but the way we consider it as a society (Bryan, 2006: 16). If we consider the social model, in some thinking it places the term ‘disability’ as a form of social repression (Gabel, 2005: 2). Rather than consider a condition such as Down’s a ‘problem,’ the aim should be to open up education and make it accessible for all. Approach to Acquiring Information relating to secondary Research In approaching the reading for this study there are two different areas. One is material relating to inclusion and the other relates directly to Down Syndrome as a condition. The Down Syndrome Association has a website and is responsible for a number of publications written with the support of these learners in mind. There are also campaigners for Down Syndrome, individuals such as Anya Souza (a high profile freelance artist) who as a Downs sufferer herself is married and supports herself through her career. To be able to research it is important to be able to ask the right questions, to frame them from a position of knowledge. The Journals can be accessed using JSTOR or by going through the University Library. There are also a number of books written specifically on Downs Children in the education system, and these include input from parents and educators. Wider projects that promote Down’s awareness were also accessed for information. One prominent venture is the “I Have a Voice” project,a wandering gallery encouraging Down’s syndrome mindfulness with portrait photography by Thomas Balsamo. It is disseminated on YouTube (http://youtu.be/t_0K-gPlyb0) and Thomas Balsamo’s blog (http://thomasbalsamo.wordpress.com). The poster (above) and motto for ‘I have a Voice’ reads: “To look at the world and never judge, To accept people for who they are, To love with hearts that do not discriminate.” The ‘I have a Voice’ Project makes accessing key facts on Downs straightforward and the information comes from within Downs families, it is compassionate and shows individuals, not stereotypes. The literature searches should include the internet where much material is now uploaded. Key terms for the search engine would include: Down’s syndrome, special needs, parental involvement, and special schools. This is not all embracing, and as reading advances diverse routes begin to open. The literature on Down’s syndrome is variable, much of it aimed at helping parents and professionals who work with and care for these children. Key words are important since they enable the people reading the findings of the research to clearly understand each and every explanation and discussion. The key words are a core to getting to the main parts and the content of the research. Key Themes and Ideas Derived from Secondary Research According to the Down’s Association, language development is a key issue for working with Down’s children and 15% of children by the age of 11 will have a normative level of speech development (Buckley & Bird 2001). Therefore, a learning program needs to be put in place for these children, and this should be happening as early as possible. According to Buckley and Bird (2001), there is considerable support for placing Down’s children in the mainstream. They argue that although they are supportive of integration, there are still notable concerns. “In the mainstream primary school classroom, a child with Down syndrome will talk much less than most of the other children; this stand is supported by several authors apart from Buckley and Bird. This means less practice at talking, which will reduce opportunities to practice planning and producing words and sentences (using grammar) and reduce speech practice (using articulatory and phonological skills).” Concerns over language development are supported by Yarter (1980), who recognised that the expressive language of Down’s children fell below their language comprehension. In recognising these concerns the literature looks for parents to work alongside the school in supporting the children. Down’s children require constant interaction at home and close attention in school in order to encourage them to express themselves verbally. The Down’s Association’s motto is “comprehension before production” (Young, 2007). With this in mind, we might think that with regard to social development the mainstream setting may be more dauntingfor the child in the early stages than the special school environment? Yet this need not be so. The social model would look for changes to be made to support the learner in the mainstream setting. We could ask why the child should be taken away from the regular classroom when conversation is so important. Using the Down’s Association website it was clear that introducing picture cards to model verbs was one important starting point. Bird et al (2001) raise the need for the classroom environment to encourage the visualisation of words, the use of visual dictionaries and posters for example. However Bird et al (2001) also note that most people with Downs are able to read using normal text from the start and therefore the introduction of symbol systems to support reading can introduce confusion where none is needed (Bird et al, 2001: 13). In adapting a classroom to support a Down’s child in the mainstream,general recommendations include using a picture timetable or signing alongside the pictures to help with word and action recognition (Lorenz, 2012: 37). These ‘adaption’s’ are slight and should be achievable, enhancing the learning development within the mainstream setting. In the following research it could be looked into how well the mainstream setting is using these learning aids to support the children. Down’s children are strong visual, but poor auditory, learners (MacIntyre, 2005:132), yet many of our classrooms are still based around auditory teaching methods. Emotional well being is one of the areas being proposed for research and for all children the development of friendship groups can be of great importance. If any individual feels different, and in the mainstream setting this may be more commonplace than within a special school setting, then it may be too easy to feel isolated and alone (Pavri&Monda, 2001).For children with Down’s once they reach the teenage years there may be concerns that alongside the normal teenage angst, they may feel they do not fit in with peers and suffer from low self esteem (Zetlin, 1988). No-one wants to feel that people are friends with them only because the teacher has directed them to be. Does inclusion lead to integration? It would appear, not necessarily. In spite of much of the reading, and the research focus, being to show how well Down’s children can learn, with teacher’s appreciative of what they can do. There are concerns that staffs often have low perceptions of their ability, and sometimes this may have justification. Buckley et al (2002) show that as young adults many with Down’s struggle to achieve full independence with only 40% able to cross the road unaided and only 20% being able to tell the time when aged 20. With this in mind, a mainstream setting would have to have in place a classroom assistant to support a Down’s child or teenager, as a safety issue. Getting the ‘balance’ correct would appear to be a key issue. Some Down’s children speak of feeling undermined by class teachers and assistants who assume they can’t do something, and where all the other children get to do an activity they are expected to watch. SHE assumed I was stupid; incapable of doing anything for myself. This was the first time I had been treated differently and I felt shocked and confused. My mother had brought me up to believe I was equal to my two older sisters, yet in this woman’s eyes, I was just someone with a condition (Souza, as cited in Palmer 2009). Inclusion should equal equality; equality cannot occur if the perception of the ability of the individual prejudices the teacher/assistant into treating them differently. Perhaps Down’s children suffer from the prejudice of past history where they were seen as somehow inferior. In Germany, under the Nazi’s, Downs children and adults were euthanized using the Aktion T-4 Program (Young, 2007: 54). This was an extension of prevailing views based on Darwinism, not all these old prejudices have died. You cannot have inclusion work properly if the older Medical Models of thinking on disability still prevail. Therefore teacher education and training can be seen as a key to improving the teaching and learning of Down’s children within the mainstream, adapting the learning environment so that it is more for the visual learner, but not undervaluing the potential of the individual. Justification of Choice of Primary Research, instrument and Design. How could Primary Research be conducted? In primary research for this subject area it is planned to use a questionnaire given out to the staff involved in teaching Down ’s syndrome Children. It is better to use the adults as research involving vulnerable children has considerable ethical implications. The choice of the questionnaire is based around the fact that the self-completion questionnaire is one of the most widespread forms of data gathering for research by students and professional researchers alike. It has much to acclaim it as a “research tool through which people are asked to respond to the same set of questions in a predetermined order” (Gray, 2004: 187). The questionnaire allows respondents to fill in the information in their own time, the advent of the email allows you to send in the questionnaire without requiring to print off lots of sheets. It is also time saving as it requires no lengthy transcribing such as the interview, and also it allows itself to be shown in easy to read graphical form afterward. There are also many benefits for the participant in using a questionnaire.It is straightforward; the basic responses often require very little thought beyond a simple circling of a number on a sliding scale(Wilson and McLean, 1994). Thus the questionnaire is aflexible and simpleinstrument for the respondent, and teacher’s are often in a hurry! They are also easy to make anonymous, even in a small sample,and under the ethics of research, anonymity of response is a very important guarantee. The primary research could then be conducted at a distance, without making an invasive presence in the classroom. The perceptions of the teachers would be used, and compared to the secondary reading and perspectives drawn from the literature review. Findings would be presented as graphs and compared for patterns. Procedure, Sampling and Ethical Considerations Ethically, in seeking to research into SEN and disability a paper should seek to avoid labelling any individual by a condition. Campaigner, and freelance artist, Anya Souza says, “I would like to be called by my name, not by what’s wrong with me” (Newton, 2004: 1). Also, as previously noted, ethical considerations are very important when asking questions of anyone perceived as vulnerable. The Down’s children themselves as vulnerable young people should not be used directly within the research. Having received acceptance from the school to put out the questionnaires, they were given to a selection of teachers involved in classes where Down Children were present. A useful comparison was made to ask teachers in a special school and in a mainstream setting. A small sample questionnaire was given out first and then reviewed to see if the questions were formed correctly. Development of a Primary Research Instrument This paper considers the process involved with conducting a pilot of a primary research instrument, based on a research proposal from an earlier assignment. The topic chosen was the effectiveness of differing strategies with regard to integrating Down Syndrome children into mainstream schooling, as I am currently on placement in a Special School. Bell (2010) shows how important it is to identify the purpose of the study, as without purpose the research lacks direction. Given the current move toward inclusion (Nind et al, 2003), but with the concerns over how well certain groups of children socially and educationally cope within the mainstream (Bennett, 2010), the purpose of this study is to explore teacher perceptions over the inclusion of Downs children. Demonstrate an understanding of the piloting and development of an appropriate primary research instrument. Connected into the inclusion of Down Syndrome children into the mainstream of schooling, two key questions were identified as: 1. Is the social, emotional and intellectual development of the learners enhanced within a mainstream setting? 2. Does inclusion equate with integration? The Primary Research instrument piloted for this study is the questionnaire, which was given out to the staff involved with teaching Down Syndrome children. It was considered appropriate to ask the staff only, as there are far less ethical considerations involved when asking staff as opposed to vulnerable young people (Cohen et al, 2005). By the nature of using the questionnaire this project would be quantitative in nature (Hannan, 2007), although some of the answers were based on the perceptions of the teachers, therefore making it a perception-based study. Cohen et al (2005) note that for a questionnaire the wording is of paramount importance and crucial to its success (Cohen et al, 2005: 260). Cohen et al (2005) consider the piloting of the questionnaire as integral to the success of the research and in the development of the end questionnaire to be used in the full project. They list a number of functions the pilot project must fulfil: Checking the Clarity of the Questionnaire. Gaining Feedback on the validity of the questions. Gaining feedback on the type of question and its format (rating scale, open/closed etc) Gaining Feedback on the layout/time taken etc (Cohen et al, 2005: 260) Oppenheim (1992: 48) comments that in the pilot: everything in the questionnaire should be piloted, even the means of ‘delivery’ and the type of paper used (or non if via email as for this pilot) should be considered. An essential part of the pilot for this study is the end section that asks the recipient to respond to the questionnaire itself; this provides the documented feedback on the questionnaire presented in the last section of this report. At this stage the questionnaire is being developed. The pilot does not include a full questionnaire, this would be in the final research questionnaire after adapting the feedback from the pilot. Questions such as identifying the sex of the respondent, the time they have been in the profession and other such general context questions are not present in the pilot. The pilot is rather ‘testing’ how practical the questions are and whether they shed light on the research question. A brief rationale on how any data collected could be analyzed. Data would be collected through the questionnaire, which could be handed out personally to the recipient, or alternatively it could be emailed to the recipients (Cargan, 2007). Email cuts down on the paper used, but the recipients do need to be aware of its presence, otherwise it could be ignored, deleted, or placed in ‘junk.’ The analysis needs to show an understanding about what is collated and what that information actually means, in relation to the study. Naturally, within a pilot study the amount of returns will be very small (in this case eight returns), but in a full scale study the returns can be shown in an easy to follow graphical form and then a written analysis can accompany, with parallels drawn from the literature review since the respondents are aware of the study taking place (Cargan, 2007). The pilot study involved two respondents however taking one question as an example: the information could be shown as follows – 6. In regard to teaching Downs children indicate on a scale of 1-5 your general level of concern for them in the classroom (where 1 is low and 5 is high), thus showing where strategies need to be placed to aid the inclusive process. Literacy- this aspect should be given priority in the education of downs children since it is the epitome of understanding and comprehension. Numeracy-The study needs to considered numeracy too since it is criticap in the measurement skills of the Downs children. Social Skills/making and sustaining friendships- it needs to be a base since it has a great impact in the way the society around the children is shaped. Physical (co-ordination, P.E.)- It puts the children in good shape to acquire numeric and other skills in the system Behaviour- finally the general behaviour of the children should be a priority in ensuring that data collected covers their psychological make-up. Even though the sample was very small, the findings from this pilot study show that the concerns from staff were far more over the social side of school life compared to the behaviour. This could be compared with literature drawing parallels with some studies that do show Downs adolescents within mainstream education do feel they find sustaining friendships difficult, and this can make them feel isolated and depressed (D’Haem, 2008). On the question as to if we over label children with SEN, the respondents answered: This indicates that there are concerns over labelling of SEN, and this does support the comment by Anya Souza that we should not identify people by their condition. Possibly the placing of this quote inside the pilot questionnaire influenced the answers to this question. Derive appropriate conclusions and recommendations from an evaluation of the primary research instrument. The evaluation of the research showed that the staff did feel that the questionnaire was easy to use: 70% of the respondents found the questionnaire easy to use while 20% of them took it to be quite difficult while 10% did not fully comprehend the questions in the questionnaire. The respondents all considered that the questionnaire was easy to use. However, a disadvantage that was noted by the respondents was that sometimes they wished to add information to a question, but there was no means to do so. The yes/no style of response is generally limited in its flexibility, the Likert scaling of question 6 was more effective in giving a fuller picture of concerns. There was one of the respondents who felt that question one was “over wordy,” and therefore confusing. Another comment over question one was that there was “too much reading before you got to the question.” Documented feedback from the piloting of the primary research instrument. Although all respondents were promised anonymity as part of the ethics of research, the following are examples of the feedback from the questionnaire, showing strengths and weaknesses within it. (B) What did you dislike about the questionnaire? “Question one was over wordy, you shouldn’t have to read all that before answering a question.” “It needed more opportunities to add information to your answer, I often wanted to explain something but there was no place in the questionnaire to do so.” (C) What did you like about the questionnaire. “It was generally easy to follow and I though the questions were good.” “I think the questions showed knowledge of Downs Syndrome and the ‘problems’ you can face if you have it.” “It was well set out, easy to follow.” (D) What would you add to this questionnaire that is presently missing? “Space to write a few extra thoughts, to show why you have answered in a certain way.” “Maybe some specific questions relating to the role of the Special School, as I work in a special school.” References Bird, G & Buckley S &Beadman, J (2001) Reading and Writing Development for children with Down Syndrome, London, DSE Enterprises. Buckley, S., Bird, G., Sacks B. and Archer T. (2002). A comparison of mainstream and special education for teenagers with Down syndrome: Implications for parents and teachers. Down Syndrome News and Update, 2(2), 46-54. Bryan, W (2006) ‘In Search of Freedom: How Persons with Disabilities Have Been Disenfranchised from the Mainstream of American Society and how the Search for Freedom Continues,’ New York, Charles Thomas. Buckley, S.J, & Bird G. (2001) ‘Speech and language development for children with Down syndrome (5-11 years).Down Syndrome Issues and Information. Disability Equality in Education (2002) Inclusion in Early years: Disability Equality in Education Course Book, http://www.worldofinclusion.com/res/early/Early_Years_coursebook.pdf [accessed March 2014] Gabel, S (2005) ‘Disability Studies in Education,’ London, Peter Lang. Gray, D,( 2004) Doing Research in the Real World. London, Sage Publications Lorenz, S (2012) Children with Down Syndrome, London: Routledge. MacIntyre, C (2005) Identifying Additional Learning Needs, London, Psychology Press. Newton, R (2004) ‘The Down’s Syndrome Handbook,’ London, Random House in Association with the Down Syndrome Association. Palmer, J (18th September, 2003) ‘I lead a Fulfilling Life: Interview with Anya Souza,’ Daily Mail Newspaper. Pavri S,&Monda-Amaya L.(2001) Social support in inclusive schools: Student and teacher perspectives. Exceptional Children67:391-411. Wilson, N. &. McLean. S., (1994) Questionnaire Design: A Practical Design. Dublin: University of Ulser Young, A (2007) Theology and Down Syndrome, Waco, Baylor University Press. Zetlin AG, (1988) Friendship patterns of mildly learning handicapped and non-handicapped high school students. American Journal on Mental Retardation. 92: 447-453. Also Used: You Tube: ‘I have a Voice’ http://youtu.be/t_0K-gPlyb0-accessed March 2014. Read More