Lately full inclusion is a potato in special education. It insists to get rid of the previous connective system of special education and all disabled students should be educated in general education classrooms with non-disabled ones. It reflects the n...
Lately full inclusion is a potato in special education. It insists to get rid of the previous connective system of special education and all disabled students should be educated in general education classrooms with non-disabled ones. It reflects the new point of view of the inclusion in special education. It claims that inclusion is accomplished by restructuring general education and special education. Therefore it integrates general education and special education to provide more flexible educational circumstances for both students and teachers than before. And a newly-made universal curriculum is applied for the disabled students. It is sure that inclusive education provides proper educational circumstances for all the students, but some people think it is too early to adopt it because of poor educational circumstances at schools for the present.
However, nowadays as interests in the academic achievements of inclusive education pick up, they are followed by many related researches. Disabled students' academic and behavior achievements are not accomplished simply by positional displacement which means placing disabled students in general education classrooms, but by the quality of school curriculums and teachers. Therefore, it cannot be overemphasized that general educators and special educators must cooperate with each other for instructional adaptation and curriculum restructuring.
This study surveys how inclusive elementary school teachers adapt their instructions, what their needs and their problems are in instructional adaptation. Finally for successful inclusive education it seeks to find out effective ways of the instructional adaptations by organization, operation of school curriculum. By using questionnaires, I surveyed one hundred fifty inclusive elementary school teachers in Masan and Changwon. I analyzed their replies according to factors. I wish the results will be good resources to find ways for instructional adaptation and training course of instructional adaptation.
The results of my survey on inclusive classes include the followings:
First, inclusive classes were run by the general curriculums for non-disabled students without any extra program for disabled students. The most common type of instructional adaptation have something to do with the organization of instructional groups and teachers felt difficulties most in adapting teaching methods. In terms of instructional circumstances adaptation the teachers divided students into peer groups which enabled students to feel sociality and psychological stability. Collaborative learning groups were commonly adopted in terms of instructional group adaptation. Many teachers modified the degree of difficulty in terms of teaching methods adaptation. They considered the quantity of task most in terms of the teaching method adaptation. They also gave additional time for test in terms of test method adaptation.
Second, the inclusive class teachers demanded strongly the support of assistant teachers. They thought special education teachers must cooperate closely with them on instructional adaptations.
I drew the following conclusions on the basis of the survey.
First, inclusive classes were not run by satisfactory curriculums for disabled students. Even though there were five aspects of instructional adaptation, the adaptations of instructional groups and teaching circumstances were overwhelming. It indicates that the quality of inclusive education was not considered. Therefore we must make efforts for the adaptation of teaching methods, teaching contents, and tests. Inclusive class teachers' backgrounds resulted in meaningful differences in their ways of instructional modification and adaptation. Even the teachers who had took the courses of special education training didn't have more instructional adaptation than those who hadn't. It seemed that the contents of the courses were not sufficient for them, so they couldn't find how to adopt the courses to their classes. Therefore, appropriate training courses and guides according to the type of disability must be provided with the teachers.
Second, inclusive class teachers demanded special education teachers' close cooperation for their instructional adaptations. Most of all, they needed the support of assistant teachers, detailed guidelines about the instructional adaptations and more chances for training courses for successful inclusive education.
On the basis of this study, I suggest several things for follow-up studies.
First, nationwide surveys about instructional adaptation are needed for generalization and the profound interviews with inclusive class teachers must be followed.
Second, it is necessary to compare the inclusive class teachers' recognitions about instructional adaptations with the special education teachers' ones.
Third, practical instructional adaptation models must be developed for the students with various educational desires and needs on the basis of this study.