K-12 Education: Untangled — Trends, Issues, and Parental Actions for Public Schools
Raising kids can be tough! I know because I’ve been a single mom who raised two kids on my own. And when they get in the K-12 public education system, learning the ins and outs of that system can get you all tangled up, especially when you’re a parent of color. You need to know about the current trends and issues as well as resources necessary to navigate within the system. That’s what the K-12 Education: Untangled podcast is all about — providing you with tools, information and practical actions to help you and your children succeed within the complexities of K-12 public education.
K-12 Education: Untangled — Trends, Issues, and Parental Actions for Public Schools
Episode 124: Embracing Diversity: Building Inclusive Classrooms for All Learners
The episode explores the significance of inclusive classrooms, emphasizing their benefits for all students, including those with special needs. It highlights the essential roles of tolerance, collaboration among teachers and parents, and the need for differentiated instruction in creating successful inclusive environments.
• Discusses the goals and benefits of inclusive education
• Highlights the impact of inclusion on students with and without disabilities
• Stresses the importance of tolerance and flexibility in classrooms
• Describes the role of assistive technology in promoting inclusivity
• Addresses differentiated instruction as a vital teaching method
• Emphasizes teacher-parent collaboration for student success
• Offers practical action steps for parents to engage with inclusion
• Concludes with key takeaways on the essence of inclusive education
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Welcome to another episode of K-12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr Kim J Fields, former corporate manager turned education researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the microaggressions that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids, who were in the public school system. I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children in their education and progress. This battle-tested experience is what I provide as action steps for you to take. It's like enjoying a bowl of educational research with a sprinkling of mother wisdom on top. If you're looking to find out more about current information and issues in public education that could affect you and your children, and the action steps that you can take to give your children the advantages they need, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K-12 public education trends and topics is important to you, so keep listening. In this episode, I'll be discussing the goals, benefits and impacts of inclusive classrooms. Inclusive classrooms are all about overcoming differences and barriers that limit the participation of all students. They basically allow all students to learn in social environments together. I discuss the value of inclusive classrooms and the challenges of these learning environments, as well as action steps and things you should know about an inclusive classroom environment. In this episode, let's untangle this.
Speaker 1:Inclusive education became an international human right with the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2006. Inclusion is an educational program practice that integrates all levels of learners into one classroom. All students can benefit from being in an inclusive classroom, including students with physical disabilities like being deaf or hard of hearing, and visually impaired students, students with autism, dyslexia and other students with different learning disabilities. The general goal of inclusive education is to socialize students, with socialization being used as a term that refers to individuals' attempts to participate in their immediate environment through the acquisition of certain knowledge, skills, values and behaviors. Inclusive education refers to an educational process that enables students with special needs to participate in a learning environment or classroom setting that reduces their exclusion and meets the needs of all students. The process includes educating all children in the appropriate age ranges, with a shared vision on the responsibility of the public education system, adaptation and changes in course content, teaching and learning approaches, structures and strategies. This approach allows students with special needs the opportunity to have the same teaching and learning experiences that are provided to their peers in the same classroom setting. In these classrooms, students share their experiences with one another and learn something from one another.
Speaker 1:Inclusive education also has significant effects on students with no special needs. One effect is a change in their perspective. A change in perspective affects their attitudes toward inclusive students and they become positive as a result of eliminating bias. In addition, students with no special needs learn to be tolerant toward inclusive students, to be helpful and to share in classroom activities. Students with no special needs also develop empathy in inclusive classrooms and social equality. It also contains dimensions of access to education and educational rights. Inclusive education also needs to consider classroom management and tolerance of teachers and students, and tolerance of teachers and students. Having equal rights for every student requires being flexible and tolerant of all. Tolerance is an important value for inclusive classrooms, just as sharing and cooperation are important values as well.
Speaker 1:Children with autism have a right to be within inclusive classrooms and there are several benefits to having them in inclusive classrooms, including reducing stigma surrounding autism, creating respectful relationships between all students within the class, teaching all students how to act positively with others, as well as increasing the knowledge about autism. Students with autism who are in inclusive classrooms demonstrate better cognitive and adaptive characteristics because they're able to observe and practice interacting with their peers, and their peers are more likely to respond in a socially appropriate way. It would be beneficial for the teacher and the family to meet prior to school starting so that the teacher is comfortable and understanding of what successful integration with a student with autism is. Into a junior classroom, it will require the teacher to consider teaching to the student's interests and abilities. So that the student with autism is successful in the inclusive classroom, it may also be necessary for the teacher to have training on autism. Inclusion benefits students within the classroom by minimizing stereotypes, while also encouraging learning to occur between all peers. It allows students to work appropriately with all types of students, which improves attitudes toward autism. Children learn from a young age how to be accepting of others. Inclusive classrooms should exhibit differentiated learning, which includes providing visual and auditory instruction to ensure that all students are able to receive instruction, especially if there are students with autism. Students with autism thrive on receiving individual affirmation from the teacher and are more engaged in class when the teacher praises them individually. To have a successful, inclusive classroom for a student with autism, it would be beneficial for teachers to teach to that child's interests and strengths. This may include the teacher providing choices for students by allowing them to choose assignments that match their personal abilities and interests. Teachers who have confidence in how to assist an autistic child due to having some education or training in dealing with special needs children will have a more positive demeanor and the students will pick up on that. This positivity is needed for successful inclusive classrooms. Students with autism not only learn from their peers in inclusive classrooms, but they also teach their peers about autism while reducing stigma, which creates more positive attitudes and relationships regarding autism and inclusion relationships regarding autism and inclusion.
Speaker 1:Inclusion education also supports visually impaired students, who have the right to improve their quality of life through educational attainment. It's important that the classroom is set up to accommodate these students, who can experience challenges in inclusive education. Elements consisting of learning materials, assistive technology and classroom accommodations, including the use of braille Assistive technologies, can be very helpful for visually impaired students. However, reading speed can be delayed due to such assistive devices, for example when using a stylus while learning in class. Difficulty may be encountered for the visually impaired students because they will need to focus on more than one task at a time. Inclusive classrooms for students with visual impairments rely on the skills of the teacher in providing a positive environment in which students can thrive.
Speaker 1:Inclusive classrooms have become increasingly common, even at the preschool level. They allow new opportunities for children with and without disabilities to experience positive social interactions and to form friendships. Peer interactions in preschool set the stage for social relationships that positively impact health, cognitive and emotional development and overall quality of life. Children with and without disabilities may not be fully benefiting from inclusive classrooms if they are unable to communicate effectively and socially interact with one another. Children with disabilities may require alternative communication styles to supplement or replace speech, as well as support for participation in class. Also, children with disabilities may need supports in order to understand how alternative communication modalities can be integrated during the social interactions in the classroom. Assistive technology may help teachers provide support for the social interactions between children in inclusive preschool classrooms.
Speaker 1:One type of assistive technology tool is a visual scene display, which can be used to support social communication between children with disabilities and their peers, thereby promoting inclusion within the preschool setting. This technology is particularly appropriate and effective in supporting social interactions between young children. Visual scene displays, or VSDs, are one example of the type of communication technology that's particularly suited to young children who are at the beginning stages of language development. Suited to young children who are at the beginning stages of language development, visual scene displays are photographs of scenes from a child's life that are presented on a touchscreen tablet and may contain hotspots over key people, objects or events on the screen. When activated by touch, these hotspots produce voice output words or phrases related to the screen. When activated by touch, these hotspots produce voice output words or phrases related to the scene. This technology can also incorporate video scenes. Visual scene displays can also be used to support shared storybook reading in an inclusive preschool classroom.
Speaker 1:Teaching in an inclusive classroom requires differentiated instruction. Differentiated instruction means matching students' approaches to learning with the most appropriate teaching methods, curriculum goals and opportunities for displaying knowledge. Teaching methods, curriculum goals and opportunities for displaying knowledge. Differentiation is the practice of modifying and adapting instruction materials, content, student projects and assessments to meet the learning needs of each student. Differentiating instruction means giving students multiple options for taking in information. It requires employing multiple teaching approaches in the same classroom to accommodate the variety of aptitudes, needs, personalities and experiences of all students. It's inquiry-based, interest-based, learner-oriented and activity-intensive, because the classroom is a collection of learners with different ability levels, readiness and interests. Teachers who do not differentiate instruction teach only a fraction of their students. Differentiated instruction, therefore, is an instructional approach that provides learners with multiple options, alternatives and avenues to what they learn, how they learn and how they express what they have learned. Research indicates that differentiated instruction improves learning achievement of all students because it engages students, stimulates their interests and provides gratifying experiences. Children learn best using their preferred learning style. Teachers need additional professional training to fully incorporate differentiated instruction in inclusive classrooms. Teachers can more effectively provide differentiated instruction only when they understand how diverse students learn and think, when they know a range of teaching options for differentiating their teaching, when they can apply differentiated teaching to various topics in their classrooms, when they have the appropriate motivation to provide different types of instruction, and when they can read the culture and climate in their school and their classroom.
Speaker 1:In terms of inclusiveness, differentiated instruction is a flexible, equitable and intelligent way to approach teaching and learning. Inclusive classrooms have a clear direction to help their students and to work as a team with parents by educating parents about inclusion. The inclusive classroom environment should be one that respects diversity, where all students feel they have the support and are truly part of the classroom. Having open discussions about differences, backgrounds and abilities is crucial in developing student confidence and comfort in the inclusive classroom environment. Providing teachers with necessary training to understand all pieces of inclusive practice helps to provide them with confidence and a clear understanding of inclusion, which leads to an inclusive classroom and which enables the teacher to apply appropriate strategies and techniques. Teachers, then, should be able to embrace the diversity in their classrooms, not only students with disabilities, but students with a variety of ethnic background values, creating inclusion across the classroom. There's a correlation between differentiated instruction and inclusion. Both of these increase student engagement for all students. To engage students in the learning process, lessons should include and publicly value participation of all students across the social and cultural backgrounds found in a typical classroom.
Speaker 1:Creating an inclusive classroom doesn't happen overnight, though. It could take months for a teacher to create a safe and inclusive classroom where all students in the class feel comfortable and are reaching their fullest potential. It does require an ongoing commitment to creating an environment where everyone in the classroom respects diversity. Creating an environment where everyone in the classroom respects diversity, using inclusion methods, creates and maintains a warm and welcoming environment for all students, not just those with exceptionalities. Is there a difference between how teachers respond to students with intellectual disabilities in inclusive classrooms? How readily do other students accept students with intellectual differences in inclusive classrooms? These questions were addressed in recent research study.
Speaker 1:Inclusive education also needs to include support services and practices such as developing and implementing social integration programs, as well as enabling positive relationships among students in the class. Families, students, school administrators, physical environments and teachers factor into implementing these programs and establishing positive relationships among students in an inclusive classroom. The most significant factor are the teachers, who play a critical role in meeting the needs of students in class, as well as establishing and maintaining in-class interactions and maintaining in-class interactions. The type of communication and interactive behavior that a teacher uses in the class affects student behavior and becomes a model for students. The social interaction between teachers and students affects students' achievements and learning processes, as well as how students interact with each other, and learning processes, as well as how students interact with each other. That's why it's important that the in-class environment is a positive one. The bottom line is that the teachers' behaviors affect student behaviors, especially social behaviors.
Speaker 1:This study found that inclusive classroom teachers in class behaviors towards students with normal development and towards those with intellectual disabilities was different, especially when it came to negative or positive behaviors that were exhibited in class. These teachers offered more help and clues to students with special needs, rewarded them, listened to them when they began speaking and conducted individual work with them. The teachers also provided more feedback to the students with special needs as compared to students with normal development. Students were accepting of their classmates who had special needs. Students with intellectual disabilities were chosen by their peers to sit together and play games together, although they were reluctant to study together. When students with intellectual disabilities have their peers' acceptance and they are supported throughout by an effective teaching practice, the students are secure against encountering serious issues or problems in school and in their social lives after school.
Speaker 1:Teachers and parents need to collaborate in an inclusive classroom so that every child succeeds. Parents who have children with special needs welcome the fact that, regardless of their child's special needs, he or she can attend school together with other students in an inclusive classroom. Part of the inclusive process is the readiness of students with special education needs. These students typically undergo a transition from segregated special classrooms with low performance expectations to a more challenging mainstream education classroom with high outcome expectations. That's why the collaboration between teachers and parents is necessary and vital, so that both parties understand their role in supporting the students to be successful in this inclusive classroom environment.
Speaker 1:The successful, inclusive classroom requires collaboration between teachers and parents. Perhaps the process of collaboration itself reflects what inclusion is all about. What inclusion is all about? Differences can be a strength in the creative process when they are collectively focused on accomplishing a single mission or goal. The diversity and difference of each person in the collaborative team results in a creative synergy that cannot be achieved by members individually. Therefore, the teacher-parent collaboration provides a pathway to successful achievement of inclusive classrooms.
Speaker 1:With this discussion in mind, how does what I've just shared apply to you? Here are the action steps you can take regarding this topic just shared. Apply to you. Here are the action steps you can take regarding this topic. When was the last time you visited your child's classroom? Doing this on a regular basis can be quite eye-opening for you. Observing the workings of your child's classroom is vital. Once in the classroom, you can observe how the teacher interacts with all students. It's important to note that the teacher acknowledges the interests of students in the class, make eye contact with students, addresses students by name, approaches them with love and compassion, behaves respectfully, supports students' positive behaviors using gestures such as smiles, encourages students' positive behaviors with positive words and emphasizes students' positive behaviors. These in-class interactive verbal and nonverbal behaviors towards students in the class affect students' behavior.
Speaker 1:Being educated on what inclusion means and the benefits that inclusive classrooms have on your children is very important. When you're educated on the benefits that an inclusive classroom can have on your child, with or without disabilities, you gain confidence in the capacity of the school to understand and educate your children, and when you see the positive socialization among all students, with or without disabilities, you develop a positive attitude toward inclusion. It's also crucial that you understand that it's not necessary for your child to keep up with other students in an inclusive classroom, especially if your child has special educational needs. In order to have an inclusive classroom, not all students will be performing at grade level. Not all students will be performing at grade level. That's why a successful collaboration between you and your child's teacher is important, because the teacher can explain that inclusive classrooms ensure that all students have success at their own level and that, while doing so, the students gain a sense of belonging in the classroom. The students gain the sense of belonging in the classroom Because an inclusive classroom is about the socialization that occurs between all the students in the class. Here are this episode's takeaways Learning in an inclusive classroom helps all students gain confidence in their personal abilities and shapes them to accept others for who they are is a multi-dimensional concept as well as a socio-political educational model that includes values such as human rights, social justice and social equality.
Speaker 1:It also contains dimensions of access to education and educational rights. Inclusive education needs to consider classroom management and tolerance of teachers and students. Having equal rights for every student requires being flexible and tolerant to all. Tolerance is an important value for inclusive classrooms, just as sharing and cooperation are important values as well. Teaching in an inclusive classroom requires differentiated instruction. Differentiated instruction means matching students' approaches to learning with the most appropriate teaching methods, curriculum goals and opportunities for displaying knowledge. Differentiation is the practice of modifying and adapting instruction materials, content, student projects and assessment to meet the learning needs of each student. The inclusive classroom environment should be one that respects diversity, where all students feel that they have the support and are truly part of the classroom. Having open conversations about differences, backgrounds and abilities is crucial in developing student confidence and comfort in the inclusive classroom environment.
Speaker 1:Did you enjoy this episode? Well, if you don't want to miss out on any of the content that I'll be providing in previous episodes or in episodes to come, then be sure to subscribe to my podcast, on whatever platform you're listening to this. What's been your experience with inclusive classrooms? Let me know your thoughts by leaving a text comment on my podcast website, k12educationuntangledbuzzsproutcom. That's k12educationuntangledbuzzsproutcom. Thanks for tuning in and listening to this episode. I hope you'll come back for more K-12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle. Until next time, aim to learn something new every day.
