The Implementation of Comprehensive Integration in Special Education - Research Proposal Example

Name Tutor Course Date The Implementation of Comprehensive Integration (PROPOSAL) Introduction Policies that govern the provision of special education and defining guidelines, goals, standards and priorities of children with special needs are in most cases entrusted under the responsibilities of ministry of education and also the department of Student Service. In the United Kingdom for instance, the Government entrusts the responsibility for meeting both educational, health and social needs for all children including those that have special needs to the Department of Education (DE) and Department of Health Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS). Children with special needs have exclusive rights to receive inclusive and holistic education in regular environments that provide support to their diverse special needs. This should be granted irrespective of the degree of the disability. The implicit idea of the philosophy lies within the scope of fostering equality, participation, sharing as well as dignity and worth of very individual. Additionally, the philosophy stems fro the all children irrespective of their conditions have the ability to learn and attain their full potentials if all are given the opportunity, subjected to quality and effective teaching and have access to resources. This research proposes the best learning environment for students with special needs. Background Information and Rationale Over the years, the patterns of education of children with developmental disorders have evolved from exclusion, where such children were educated in isolation, to segregation then to integration and inclusion. All the efforts have bee directed towards providing children with a good foundation in life. This implies that all children should be provided with best opportunities to succeed right from early stages of life. It attestable that lack of appropriate support both at school and other social set ups can be a disappointment to disabled children as well as those who have special educational need (SEN). The quality of lives of children with severe disabilities can significantly be affected by such occurrences. The literature review presents substantial good practice guidance for inclusive education. It also provides quality standard as well as factors that affect the quality of education for any disabled learner in regular learning environments. Basically, the effects of the attitude of the educators and the nondisabled students towards the students with special needs has been pointed out as one the key factors that affect the efforts of integrating the disabled children in the regular schools. The provision of fundamental resources, well trained and qualified teacher and good management practice are also some of the factors that generate the quality of education and ensures effective integration of SEN students in regular schools. Achieving successful inclusive programme is often faced by problems and innate challenges. Without collaborative commitment from professionals accompanied with careful planning, every effort of effective integrative education bound to fail. However, if all the initiatives are properly orchestrated, they generate impressive results. In such cases, students with intellectual and other multiple disabilities will extensively benefit specifically with regard to moral and social judgement, language and communication as well as functional academics. Similarly, it is attestable that achieving the desired outcome of integrative education enables children with disabilities and intellectual challenges to become functioning and active members of their societies. Statement of the Problem The marginalization of students in schools and other learning institutions in most cases is attributed to the attributed to the thematic components of attitudes surrounding the apparent difficulties SEN children have to learning. Some of the special needs that may affect the efficacy of children’s learning abilities include conditions that affect writing and reading abilities such as dyslexia. This condition often results from the way brains are developed. Poorly developed brains may also result in other status of learning disabilities such as recalling information, spelling and organizing information. Some of the severe developmental disabilities such as autism spectrum disorders also require special attentions. This condition affects the communications skills and disrupts social interactions as well. Scope of the Study The research will particularly pay attention on how to improve the attitudes of teachers towards embracing inclusive education. In this case, the study will examine the attitudes of the principals and the educators, and how the same affects the perception of regular students towards the SEN students. The institutional culture will be critically examined to establish its effects on the experience of the students with special educational needs. Objective of the Study The aim of the study is to provide children with special needs with best conducive school environment which has well trained and qualified staffs and teaching fraternity so as to uphold the philosophy of comprehensive integration. As such the specific objectives that are identified as the most fundamental in ensuring effective implementation of comprehensive integration include; Specific Objectives a) To establish how the attitudes of educators and principals affect effective integration of children with special needs in regular schools. b) To find out what factors compel the teachers and teachers towards having a particular types of attitudes when SEN students are integrated in mainstream schools. c) To investigate what can be done to improve the attitudes of teachers and principals in cases where their attitudes do not favour integration of students with special needs in regular schools. d) To find out if and how the attitudes of teachers affect the how students without disabilities perceive inclusion of SEN students in their classrooms. e) To establish how teachers can be trained to derive their competency in handling comprehensive education. f) To establish the difference between the qualifications of teachers in special schools an those in mainstream schools. Methodology a) Research Design The research will be designed with the aim of establishing solutions to the research problems. The research will employ qualitative research methodologies to collect vital information. In this case, the study will identify a specific mainstream school and special school to use as a qualitative case study. Mainstream schools refers to the schools in which students with disabilities have been enrolled and allocated in regular classrooms to undertake the normal activities and be educated together with nondisabled peers. Both in-depth and semi structured interviews will be conducted in the identified schools. This methodology is chosen because it will set a stage for significant discussion on the real issues that are affecting efficient integration of the SEN students. Additionally, the study will also explore other methodologies such as quantitative methodology and literature reviews to analyze the extensive existing data on the SEN practices and prevalence. a) Population Sampling A total of thirty nine participants will be sampled to be interviewed and to answer the structured questionnaires. The target group will be made up of five teachers from mainstream school teachers, five teachers from special school, fifteen students with no disabilities from the mainstream school, ten SEN students with less sever disabilities especially those with intellectual challenges both from the mainstream school and special school and the principals of both school. Data Collection Procedure Based on the nature of the study, the data will primarily be collected from the field under close supervision and control of the researchers. The researchers have gained substantial insight of the major issues of focus through review of secondary sources such as review of literature. The primary data collection has therefore been chosen as the most effective data collection method. In-depth individual interviews will be conducted. The questionnaires will also be ministered. This research design will enable the researchers to focus on both qualitative and quantitative issues. In this case the researchers will focus both the numerical presentation of the sampled population as well as investigate more detail with regard to how the attitudes of the teachers affect inclusive education. Furthermore, primary research design will enable the researcher to focus on specific objectives of the research. Research Questions The research will be conducted in a couple of specified mainstream secondary schools to examine the attitudes of principals, teachers and regular students have toward students with special needs in the regular schools. The motive underpinning this investigation is to establish the nature of the attitudes the teachers have and how the influence they have on the attitudes of the regular students. Therefore, the following research questions have been formulated to aid the investigation. 1) What is the difference between the attitudes of the principals and teachers compared to the perception of the regular students towards the students with special needs? 2) Does the inclusion of students with special needs in mainstream schools affect the attitudes of the regular students towards them? 3) What attitudes do the regular students have when they interact with their peers with special needs? Literature Review Implementation of integrated education Various significant reviews of literature on SEN education and services indicate that multiple models that have been implemented, either in general education or in special education can bear positive social and academic results for students with physical challenges (Hocutt pp 77). The 1990 World Conference on Education for All children, which stressed so much on the provision of basic learning needs and challenged exclusion from education systems, provided crucial foundation on which most countries have pushed for integration as a political agenda (Ainscow & Haile-Giorgis pp 3). However, the models of resource allocation are not unanimous across all countries. According to Griffin, each country has its own unique models or systems of allocating resources to identify and assist children with special educational needs (26). The variation is caused by the difference in cultural, socio-economic and political factors in many countries. The interventions that have been designed cannot eliminate the impact of disabilities in any population set up. On the contrary, Gove and Teather observe that the recent years have seen increase in the number of c children with SEN (20). This has subsequently led to the increase in a given number of basic needs for children with SEN conditions in the recent decades. For instance in UK, the data on SEN students indicate that the children with special educational needs, such as those with emotional, behavioural and social difficulties have gone up by twenty three percent between 2005 and 2010 to a total of about 158,000 students. Similarly, those with language, speech and communication challenges have also increased alarmingly by fifty eight percent to 113, 000 pupils while those with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have also increased to a total of 56,000 pupils over the same period of time (Gove and Teather 21). One of the most stumbling blocks of effective integration of children with special needs in regular schools is the kind of attitude that has been given to the issues of such integration (Errol, Dupoux and Hammond p 5). Attitude is a learned susceptibility to react to given person, circumstance or a set of indications in a consistent way (Phiri pp 31). The cluster of attitudes, feeling and behaviours projected by principals, educators and regular students towards the concept of inclusive education influences the nature of inclusive and integrative education (Avramidis and Burden p 278). Wang (p 156) reports that teachers hold a negative opinion over the initiative of placing children with disabilities in regular classrooms will not be beneficial to such children. Such attitudes are usual spurred by the constant dilemmas that educators face. Such dilemmas are commonly associated with slow learning pace, individualized attention that each learner with special needs requires and seating arrangements. It is notable that the accommodation of children with special needs in regular classes presents new responsibilities to teachers which they may not like. It is very essential for the Department of Education (DE) to provide aids so that every learner may attain their optimal potentials. To attain effective integration of children with special needs with regular students, the disability should not be overemphasized with a mindset of splintering the pupils along their physical status. To further this vision, this proposal will provide additional support to SEN students in the normal school set up to enhance affective inclusive education so as to help them reach their potentials without isolation. Generally, the concept of inclusive education has been met by strong negative opposition from educators over the years (Wang 157). The conception of the ideology of integrating students with intellectual challenges with ordinary students has been supported by educators in England (Phiri 35). However, other studies point it out that teachers’ attitude has been altered in favour of integration in the recent years. As time elapse teachers in mainstream schools master the expertise needed for integration. Therefore, their confidence and commitment increases which in turn nurtures positive attitude. It is noteworthy to observe that the institutional culture influence the outcome of integration efforts. Yuen and Eastwood observe that integration can thrive in learning environments where teachers display positive and accommodative attitude towards children with special needs (72). Children with special SEN and young learners with disabilities can be empowered to learn and attain the optimum potentials just like the ordinary children. This can easily be achieved not only through specialized schools but also through integration of these categories of learners with the regular students. However, inclusive education requires allocation of sufficient resources. In this instance, funding is required to facilitate provision of teaching materials, learning activities and appropriate curriculum. According to Konza (p 44), insufficiency in curricular and aid support has detrimental impact not only on the inclusive integrative education but also the general quality of education of SEN pupils both in mainstream and in specialised schools. Sometimes teachers view inclusive education with negativity due lack of appropriate and sufficient facilities in schools and in classrooms. Therefore, is evident that SEN students mostly benefit from systems that provide them with immediate accesses to essential levels of extra teaching resources in schools (NSCE 7). The support systems should also be specifically targeted to improve the integration processes. Leadership quality is paramount in managing learning environments with both regular children as well as SEN students. It is arguable that appropriate education of children with SEN conditions can be enhanced though principles of good practice (Lewis et al 11). Effective leadership and management will enable early identification of the special needs right fro the nursery classes. This is made possible in schools with management system that have established well stated procedures for identifying and satisfying the special needs of disadvantaged children. Similarly, a good management will ensure effective communication within the school. This helps in communicating the mission and goals of the schools in meeting the needs of children with special conditions, and relaying the roles and responsibility of the teaching staffs, class assistants and the non-teaching staffs. Additionally, this requires principals and the teaching fraternity to be wholeheartedly committed to the inclusion processes. The qualification of the educators is vital component in enhancing effective integrative education. The training of teachers to render them qualified and ready to offer standardized services that positively impact on the integration effort can be conducted at various forms. For instance, teachers can be trained before they commence their services. This is also referred to a pre-service training. Pre-service education is fundamental and provides the desired change in the education systems. This ensures that all teachers are capable and committed to teach all children. The pre-service training of teachers should include impacting teachers with necessary skills and strategies to handle diverse groups of students including knowledge about disabilities and other special educational needs (Calderbank 89). Teachers can also be trained through special training platforms. It is noteworthy to observe that teachers who handle SEN students in special schools always receive specialised training programmes. The result is that SEN students in specialised schools receive quality education than their counterparts in regular schools. Therefore, all teachers should be trained on equal measures to ensure uniformity across the education systems of various sovereign states. Finally, teachers can be subjected to in-service training. Calderbank points out that this training raises awareness and enhances development of positives attitudes and teaching strategies efficient for children with various special needs (90). Ethical Considerations The research will be conduced with regard to the ethics governing the professionalism. The researchers will seek consent from the relevant authorities prior to conducting the study. In this case, the study will ensure adherence to the laws governing education of children wit special needs in Saudi Arabia. On that note, the relevant consent will be sought from district education offices. Similarly, consent will be obtained from the identified mainstream schools and the private school in which the research will be conducted. The respondents will be reminded that their autonomy. Their participation will basically be based on their willingness. The study will ensure anonymity and confidentiality of the respondents. The questionnaires are also designed in a way that they do not manipulate the respondents to give desired response. The researchers will take necessary precautions to protect the identity of the participants such as using their age, gender and job titles instead of their names. The researchers will take particularly care since the field entails dealing with vulnerable group. Time Management Plan The proposed research has been scheduled to be conducted within three months time frame. The research projects will culminate in a formal report that will fully be ready by April 4th, 2015. To obtain n its objectives, we will follow and adhere to the time scale schedule shown in figure 1 below. 5/1 12/1 23/1 3/2 10/2 28/2 8/3 17/3 25/3 Obtaining resources Seeking consent Preparing questionnaires and research question Administering questionnaires ( Primary data collection) Data analysis Data presentation Preparing illustrations for the final report Drafting the final report Binding the final report Figure 1Time frame for the research Dissemination The main objective of disseminating the research is to lay foundation necessary for effective implementation of comprehensive integration of students with special needs in regular schools. The researchers hope to establish effective learning environments with well qualified and supportive staffs who will foster integrity of children with special educational needs. The research will be a valuable tool for teachers, parents and all stakeholders including government agencies responsible for the welfare of children with special intellectual needs. The information contained in the final report will be published and copies be taken to all stakeholders. Other than the distribution of hard copies, the information will also be presented in the upcoming professional and academic conferences. Conclusion The organization for inclusion of the students with special educational needs requires appropriate arrangement which can be achieved through provision of curriculum options that are suitable, and organization for provision of additional teaching materials. The qualification of the practitioners handling the students with special needs also plays a central role in the integration process. As such, this study proposes that SEN students should not be allocated under the care of teachers on the on assumption that any teacher can qualify to handle this category of learners. The school should se up criteria of identifying well trained and highly qualified educators for this purpose. Works Cited Ainscow, Mel and Haile-Giorgis, M. “The Education of Children with Special Needs: Barriers and Opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe.” September 1998. Web. 29 December 2014. http://www.education-inclusive.com/wp-content/docs/2013/02/eps67.pdf Avramidis, Elias, Bayliss, Phil Burden, Robert. “Student teachers' attitudes towards the inclusion of children with special educational needs in the ordinary school” Teaching and Teacher Education 16 (2000) 277-293 Calderbank, Daniel “Towards Inclusive Education for Children with Disabilities: A Guideline” 2009. Web. 29 December, 2014. http://www.uis.unesco.org/Library/Documents/disabchild09-en.pdf Errol Dupoux, Helen Hammond, Lawrence Ingalls and Clara Wolman Teachers Attitudes Towards Chlildren with Special Needs in Haiti. International Journal of Special Education 21.3 (2006) pp1-14 Gove Michael and Teather, Sarah. “Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability” 2011. Web. 29 December, 2014. http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/https://www.education.gov.u k/publications/eorderingdownload/green-paper-sen.pdf Griffin T. “NCSE Policy Advice Paper: Supporting Students with Special Educational Needs in Schools” 2013. Web. 29 December, 2014. http://ncse.ie/wp- content/uploads/2014/09/Supporting_14_05_13_web.pdf Hocutt, Anne. “Effectiveness of Special Education: Is Placement the Critical Factor?” The Future of Children 6.1 (1996) pp 77-102. Print. Konza, Delsea. “Inclusion of students with disabilities in new times: responding to the challenge” 2008. Web. 29 December, 2014. http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=edupapers. Lewis, Jane, Ann Mooney, Louca-Mai Brady, Chloe Gill, Amanda Henshall, Natasha Willmott, Charlie Owen, Kate Evans and June Statham. “Special Educational Needs and Disability: Understanding Local Variation in Prevalence, Service Provision and Support” February 2010. Web. 29 December, 2014. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/221968/D CSF-RR211.pdf Phiri, Partson. “An Investigation into the Attitudes of Head teachers and Teachers towards the Inclusion of Children with Special Educational Needs in the Regular School in Four Education Regions of Zimbabwe”. 2004. Web. 29 December, 2014. http://www.academia.edu/768745/An_Investigation_into_the_Attitudes_of_Headteachers _and_Teachers_towards_the_Inclusion_of_Children_with_Special_Educational_Needs_i n_the_Regular_School_in_Four_Education_Regions_of_Zimbabwe Wang, Huei. “Should All Students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) Be Included in Mainstream Education Provision? - A Critical Analysis”, International Education Studies 2.4 (2009) pp 154-169. Print. Yuen, Mantak & Westwood, Peter. “Integrating Students With Special Needs in Hong Kong Secondary Schools: Teachers’ Attitudes And their Possible Relationship to Guidance Training”. International Journal of Special Education, 16.2 (2001) pp 68-84. Print. Read More