Creating a Responsive Curriculum for Inclusive Schools

Abstract

As school communities begin to serve students with significant disabilities in general education classrooms, there is a need to recognize and employ curriculum orientations and practices that interface with the purposes and principles of inclusive education. this article begins by offering reconstructionism---or the process of critique and reformulation of practice---as a useful orientation for viewing the design of curriculum in inclusive schools. sound theoretical foundations and the use of learner-centered, process-oriented, and communication-based instructional approaches are proposed as promising practices for designing a curriculum that is responsive to the needs of diverse learners. following this discussion, implications for future research are articulated.

Perceptions of the Value of Problem-based Learning among Students with Special Needs and Their Teachers

“…First, as we noted previously, there is little literature that examines how students with special needs respond to PBL. Our findings contribute to an understanding of how students with special needs value solving real problems in their community.Second, students and teachers in this study valued PBL because of many of its characteristics that have been shown to be helpful to students with special needs, namely, its authentic context (Scruggs et al, 1993), its experiential nature (Scruggs et al, 1993;Scruggs et al, 1998;Udvari-Solner & Thousand, 1996), and its use of cooperative learning (Barley et al, 2002;Gillies and Ashman, 2000;Jenkins et al, 2003;Malmgren, 1998). Third, and perhaps most importantly, our findings indicate that PBL has the potential to work with students with special needs.…”

“…During a PBL unit, students must interact with their environments to carry out inquiry and discovery tasks (Stepien & Pike, 1997). Many authors have demonstrated that experiential methods are helpful to students with special needs (Scruggs, Mastropieri, Bakken, & Brigham, 1993;Scruggs, Mastropieri, & Boon, 1998;Udvari-Solner & Thousand, 1996). Frew and Klein (1982) specified a possible reason why:…”

Cooking Perfect Cupcakes: Freeing Curricula Context Gives Student-Centred Pedagogy for Course on Experimental Design

“…Presenting on that choice to their peers and instructor further empowered students to share their "life-worlds" in ways that leveraged and enhanced the social aspect of learning and formed greater trust with the teacher for the part-time mentoring phase. Because students go on to also share their analyses with their work colleagues, hobby friends and family, their new knowledge is reinforced in personal ways entirely consistent with both Constructivist and Vygotsky educational theory (Udvari-Solner & Thousand, 1996). The research method used in this case study was direct observation of the students' enthusiasm and success, made possible because the teacher was also an experienced educational researcher and the number of students was small.…”

‘The right path of equality’: supporting high school students with autism who type to communicate

“…Even when included in school, levels of participation of students with disabilities are often varied and contingent (Simeonsson et al 2001). In light of this malleability and the differences in its application across educational levels, there has been reported divergence between elementary and secondary settings in the ways that students with disabilities are included with their peers and receive supports in general education classrooms (Downing 2005;Shapiro-Barnard 1998;Udvari-Solner and Thousand 1996;Sturm and Koppenhaver 2000).…”