Inclusive Education: What Makes it a Good Education for Students with Moderate to Severe Disabilities?

Abstract

Parents, teachers, and paraeducators at three inclusive schools were interviewed as part of a qualitative study to investigate perceptions regarding a quality educational program for students with moderate–severe disabilities. Instead of looking at schools engaged in a systematic change process from separate to inclusive education for students with severe disabilities, a major premise of this study was that all students, regardless of ability or disability, were educated together in chronologically age appropriate general education classrooms (preschool through 8th grade). The intent of this study was to determine what key stakeholders (parents, teachers, and paraeducators) felt was a good educational program for students with moderate–severe disabilities after an inclusive placement was a given. Fifty-eight participants were interviewed (18 parents, 23 teachers, and 17 paraeducators) representing four preschool children, nine elementary students, and five middle school students all having moderate–severe and multiple disabilities. A constant comparison methodology was used to analyze the data across both age of target child and role of stakeholder. Findings revealed 12 themes that highlighted the benefits of inclusive education for all students, specific components that needed to be in place to ensure a quality education, and typical goals for the future. Implications for the field were discussed.

Generating Vocabulary Knowledge for At-Risk Middle School Readers: Contrasting Program Effects and Growth Trajectories

“…There is an increasing tendency for secondary-school classrooms to include students with IEPs (Downing & Peckham-Hardin, 2007;McLeskey, Henry, & Hodges, 1999), which in some cases may allow for more flexible use of available teachers in schools with large numbers of students at risk for reading difficulty (with or without IEPs). Research suggests some support for vocabulary in embedded classrooms: Older children can learn and generalize vocabulary in these settings (McDonnell et al, 2006), and inclusion can promote peer tutoring between learning-disabled and general education students (Hughes & Fredrick, 2006).…”

Re-Imagining Inclusive Education for Young Children: A Kaleidoscope of Bourdieuian Theorisation

“…This is opposed to a new sociology of childhood, which considers all children as capable individuals in their own right, who are curious and have rights and responsibilities to make significant contributions to society (Agbenyega, 2009;Fleer, 2011). Inclusive education is a philosophy that supports this notion, and is aimed at transforming schools to value individual children and meet their educational needs (Downing & Peckingham-Hardin, 2007;Thousand, Villa, & Nevin, 2002;Timmons, 2002).…”

The Positive Impact of Collaborative Learning for Student with Intellectual Disability in Inclusive School

“…Schools do not do the separation of the place and time of learning between regular students and special needs students, but all students were blended in the same classrooms at the times to learn the same anyway. (Downing & Peckham-Hardin, 2007) The absence of a special modification of the curriculum also do not make regular students discriminates against students with intellectuaal disability. (Shogren, et.al, 2015) In contrast, peer tutorial is automatically created in heterogeneous learning environments like this.…”