Barriers Associated with Inclusion in Education Expense

Barriers Associated with Inclusion in Education

Expense

Funding is a major constraint to the practice of inclusion. Teaching students with disabilities in general education classrooms takes specialists and additional staff to support students’ needs. Coordinating services and offering individual supports to children requires additional money that many school districts do not have, particularly in a tight economy. Inadequate funding can hinder ongoing professional development that keeps both specialists and classroom teachers updated on the best practices of inclusion.

Mis-Information

Some of the greatest barriers associated with inclusion in education are negative attitudes. As with society in general, these attitudes and stereotypes are often caused by a lack of knowledge and understanding. The attitudes and abilities of general education teachers and paraeducators in particular can be major limitations in inclusive education. Training teachers and paraeducators to understand and work with children with disabilities is often inadequate, or it may be fragmented and uncoordinated. If educators have negative attitudes toward students with special needs or have low expectations of them, children will unlikely receive a satisfactory, inclusive education.

Accessibility

Obviously, a student with a disability cannot learn in an inclusive classroom if he cannot enter the room, let alone the school building. Some schools are still inaccessible to students in wheelchairs or to those other mobility aides and need elevators, ramps, paved pathways and lifts to get in and around buildings. Accessibility can go beyond passageways, stairs, and ramps to recreational areas, paved pathways, and door handles. A student with cerebral palsy, for instance, may not have the ability to grasp and turn a traditional doorknob. Classrooms must be able to accommodate a student’s assistive technology devices, as well as other furniture to meet individual needs.

Educational Modifications

Just as the environment must be accessible to students with disabilities, the curriculum must facilitate inclusive education, too. General educators must be willing to work with inclusion specialists to make modifications and accommodations in both teaching methods and classroom and homework assignments. Teachers should be flexible in how students learn and demonstrate knowledge and understanding. Written work, for example, should be limited if a student cannot write and can accomplish the same or similar learning objective through a different method.

Cooperation

One of the final barriers associated with inclusion education is a lack of communication among administrators, teachers, specialists, staff, parents, and students. Open communication and coordinated planning between general education teachers and special education staff are essential for inclusion to work. Time is needed for teachers and specialists to meet and create well-constructed plans to identify and implement modifications the, accommodations, and specific goals for individual students. Collaboration must also exist among teachers, staff, and parents to meet a student’s needs and facilitate learning at home.

These are just five factors that can affect students with disabilities in a general education classroom. Only a deep understanding of these factors, and other issues that hinder inclusion, and the elimination of them will make true inclusion a reality for all children to learn together.

Early schooling matters most for children

Nursery and primary school are more important than home environment, study shows

Attending a good pre-school and primary has more impact on children's academic progress than their gender or family background, researchers claimed today.

The Institute of Education study found that the quality of teaching children receive is more important than their gender or family income.

A high quality pre-school followed by an academically effective primary school gives children's development a significant boost, the researchers found.

But they said children also need a stimulating early years home-learning environment to build upon.

The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education project tracked almost 3,000 children from the time they started pre-school until age 11.

While all children benefit from a good pre-school, high quality is particularly important for children with special educational needs, those with mothers with low qualifications or children who come from unstimulating homes, the project found.

At primary school, the quality of teaching affects both children's social behaviour and intellectual development.

The researchers found much variation in the quality of teaching at age 10 and said this had a more powerful impact on children's academic progress than their gender or whether or not they receive free school meals.

Children who attend a more academically effective primary school show better attainment and progress in key stage 2 (ages 7 to 11) than children with similar characteristics who attend a less effective school, they said.

Going to a highly academically effective primary school gives a particular boost to very disadvantaged children.

But home matters too, the researchers found.

A stimulating home learning environment at age 3 to 4 is linked to long-term gains in children's development and has an equal impact to the mother's qualification level.

The higher their parents' qualification levels, the more likely children are to do well at school and be good socially at age 11.

Prof Pam Sammons from the University of Nottingham, one of the project's lead researchers, said: "The research confirms the importance of early experiences and the powerful combination of home, pre-school and primary school in improving