UNIT: 4 MAIN PRINCIPLES OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION
Key Unit Competence: Appraise and assess the implementation
of the major principles guiding inclusive
and special needs education in general,
and particularly in schools. The generalprinciples of Inclusive Education
1.0. Introductory Activity
Considering your school assess how it is adhering to the generalprinciples of Inclusive Education, by responding to the following
questions:
1. How do you find the school environment, is it friendly, accessible?
2. What can you say about teachers’ competences and attitudetowards learners with Special Needs?
3. Is the curriculum flexible and adapted to meet the needs of learners with Special Needs?
4. What would you say about parents and community involvement?
5. Are the teaching/ learning materials available and adapted tomeet the needs of learners with Special
Needs and Disabilities?6. How do school leaders promote inclusive education?
4.1. Principles of Inclusive Education
Activity 4.1.
1. Explain briefly general principles that guide inclusive education?
2. Discuss with colleagues how your school is adhering to these general principles of Inclusive Education?
The fundamental principle of inclusive school is that all children should learn
together, wherever possible, regardless of any difficulties or differences they
may have. Inclusive schools must recognize and respond to the diverse
needs of their learners, accommodating both different styles and rates of
learning and ensuring quality education to all through appropriate curricula,
organizational arrangements, teaching strategies, resource use and
partnerships with their communities. The following are general principles
that guide Inclusive Education:
• Responding to learners’ needs
Learners have different ways of accessing information and making it
meaningful. Therefore, the education system is expected to respond
appropriately to learners’ learning differences:
– In planning their learning taking personal factors into account;
– In the provision of support to overcome barriers to learning that does
not stigmatize them or separate them from their peers;
– In assessment – choosing different ways of showing what they know,
understand and can do, being involved in discussions about assessment
information and how it can support future learning;
– In curriculum – having a say in relevant, meaningful, personalized
outcomes.
• Active participation of learners
All learners are entitled to be active participants in the life of the school and
community and feel valued for the individual contribution that they make.
Learners should be listened to for any additional support (e.g. assistive aids
or alternative learning approaches) needed to help them participate in the
full range of activities and experiences offered. Therefore, education system
should ensure that learners:
– Have a sense of belonging and feel secure in the school environment;
– Have opportunities for collaboration and co-operative learning, with
flexible peer groups to develop social and communication skills;
– Have their achievements recognized and celebrated;
– Take a full part in extracurricular and out-of-school activities;
– Take responsibility for their own learning and an active role in the learning
process, maintaining high expectations and increasing independence in learning; and
– Recognize their responsibilities to others in the school and community.
• Positive teacher’s attitudes
All teachers should have positive attitudes towards all learners and the will to
work collaboratively with colleagues to respond to their educational needs.
Therefore, teachers should:
– Take responsibility for all learners and show understanding of the
fundamental needs that they all have in common e.g. to feel safe, sense
of belonging to the school community, to enjoy their time in school and
achieve learning outcomes;
– Value and show commitment to meeting a broad range of outcomes
(including emotional health and well-being, social skills) and maintain
high expectations for all learners;
– Recognize when learners need support and arrange this sensitively
together with the learner, without using potentially limiting labels;
–– Have knowledge of a range of resources (including ICT tools) and the
skills to use them effectively in the classroom;
–– Have a positive attitude to innovation and be prepared to continue their
personal and professional development;
–– Collaborate with and support teachers to reflect on practice and build
‘team’ knowledge and skills in order to help learners (for example in the
development of individual support, classroom strategies or transition
plans); and
–– Communicate effectively with learners, parents and colleagues from all
service providers to benefit learners.
• Effective teacher skills
All teachers should develop appropriate pedagogical skills to enable them
meet individual learner’s needs. For example, teachers should be able to:
–– Assess learning outcomes by using a range of approaches which allow
learners to show what they know, understand and are able to do in a variety of ways;
–– Use feedback from the SEN assessment to identify barriers (physical,
attitudinal, organizational) to learning and plan strategies to support the learners;
–– Provide a range of learning opportunities in line with individual learner ability;
–– Ensure curriculum differentiation to suit the learners ‘differences and competences; and
–– Collaborate with peer educators to develop individual educational plan and monitor its implementation.
• Visionary school leadership
School leaders should value diversity among staff and learners, encourage
collegiality and support innovation. Throughout the whole school, inclusive
values should be evident in all school rules, regulations, development plans
and practices. Therefore, school leaders should:–– Establish a positive ethos and a learning culture by making their vision
and inclusive values and beliefs explicit in all aspects of school life;
–– Ensure that inclusion and learner well-being are central in school
improvement plans and evident in all practices;
–– Organize school in ways that avoid labelling or categorizing learners,
e.g. flexible, mixed groupings for different activities;
–– Encourage and empower staff to develop their capacity and competence
through different approaches in order to meet a diversity of learners ‘needs;
–– Support staff to reflect on their practices in relation with inclusiveness
in order to become autonomous lifelong learners;
–– Manage resources effectively and ensure that they reflect and respect
the diversity of learners within the school;
–– Use school funds efficiently to transform the school in an inclusive
environment accessible to all learners;
–– Develop effective monitoring of school improvement plan to ensure the
achievement of learning outcomes for all learners;
–– Manage multidisciplinary staff to take joint responsibility in facilitating
access to the curriculum and extracurricular activities for all learners;
–– Communicate effectively with the local community, interdisciplinary
support services and to ensure a holistic and multidisciplinary approach
to meeting broader needs and enhance learning;
–– Adapt universal design for learning (UDL) in all school planning
strategies.
• Coherent interdisciplinary services
Every school should have access to the support of interdisciplinary community
services. Children and young people will not be successful in their learning
if their basic health, social and emotional needs are not met. This may
require support for families and communities and will need services such
as health and social services to collaborate and ensure a holistic approach.
Interdisciplinary services should:–– Demonstrate good working relationships and effective communication
across and between different sectors/services and schools in thecommunity. They should enable information to be shared and
appropriate and timely support provided to address additional needs
(such as special educational needs assessment/diagnosis results,
therapies for medical needs, mental health support etc.);
–– Work closely with parents and learners to strengthen partnership
between the family, school and the interdisciplinary team; and
–– Work with schools to involve all stakeholders, including local special
schools/settings in their support networks and seek innovative ways to
share knowledge and expertise.
Self assesment 4.1
1. Children with Special Education Needs and Disabilities will require
interdisciplinary services to be successful in learning. Name at
least five of the services and who should provide those services?
2. In groups, discuss how you should actively engage a learner using
a wheelchair in Physical Education lesson?
4.2. Characteristics of inclusive classroom
Activity 4.2
1. Classroom environment is a second teacher for any student.
Using concrete examples, discuss the validity of this statement
It is every child’s right to be supported by their parents and by the community
to develop a positive understanding of themselves and others, regardless of
their differences, culture and abilities. Schools that aim to actively involve
all children by utilising various ways of teaching and promoting diversity
practice inclusive teaching. Applying an inclusion system in school promotes
the development of social interactions where every child feels a sense of belonging.
When implemented well, inclusive education provides better quality
education for the students. Here are some of the characteristics of inclusiveclassrooms:
• Classroom environment
As you might be aware, classroom environment is a second teacher for
any student. A large amount of the child’s time is spent sitting in a school
classroom. This place is where they will learn the various skills deemed
necessary and proper for them to achieve success in the global society. An
inclusive classroom should be; bright, vibrant, stimulating, plenty of visual
evidence related to current learning and learner achievement on display,and constantly changing.
• Seating arrangement
Teachers should be able to arrange classroom in way that facilitate optimal
learning for all. Grouping students gives them an opportunity to interact
with their fellow classmates as well as bond and learn from them as well.
There are numerous positive effects of using this approach like a sudden
boost of self-esteem, healthy intergroup relations, respect for academically
handicapped students, positive attitude towards school, and the ability towork as a team.
• Teacher/ Learner relationships
The relationships between a teacher and a learner should be friendly and
encouraging. Learners should be able to openly ask question and respond to
teacher who encourages them to think and work things out for themselves.
They discuss their work with the teacher and with each other.
• Discipline
The teacher is relaxed and respects learners as individuals. The teacher
maintains discipline through mutual respect and trust.
• Teaching methodology
Teacher uses a wide variety of different activities and methods to allow
learners to learn from experience. Lessons are planned with different
activities and outcomes to accommodate different levels of ability.
Self assesment 4.2
Taking into considerations all characteristics of inclusive classroom,
assess how inclusive is your classroom and discuss findings with your class mates
4.3. Qualities and practices of inclusive school
Activity 4.2
1. Imagine a picture of an inclusive school. What does an inclusive
school look like in the picture? Please describe some features
of inclusive school as you imagined? Now, please look at your
school. Compare the current status of your school and the school
that you have imagined. What are some aspects that correspond
between the two? What aspects differ between the two?
Children with disabilities face many barriers in accessing the education theyneed to become healthy, happy and productive citizens of the world.
Self assesment 4.3
1. Which of the following statements best describes the philosophy of Inclusive Education?
a. All learners regardless of individual differences are excluded in some educational activities
b. All learners regardless of individual differences participate in all educational activities
c. Considering their individual differences, all learners should be involved in all educational
activities as much as possible.d. All the above.
4.4. Barriers to Inclusive Education and how they can be overcome
Activity 4.2
1. How can we as teachers overcome negative attitudes among
stakeholders in education and in the community towards learners
with Special Needs Education?
Various factors may hinder the practice of Inclusive Education. Most of our
schools may not be able to effectively accommodate learners with various
diversities of learning needs. This is because of the many existing barriers
in our education system towards learners with special needs. The barriers
include:–– Negative attitudeLet us discuss these barriers briefly:
–– Teachers expectations from learners
–– Curriculum barriers
–– Rigid educational approaches
–– Insufficient human and materials resources
–– Lack of community involvement
• Negative attitude towards persons with disabilities and other Special
Educational Needs
In many African Communities, disabilities are explained to be results from
God’s punishment for some wrongs done to the ancestors or to some
persons’ problems. As such, the child experiencing any of these conditions
is seen as a curse or possessed by the spirits. Such superstitions have led
many parents who give birth to children who deviate from the” normal” to
hide the child, hence deny him access to education.
The effects of these attitudes may be reflected on parents, educators, policy
makers as follows:
Parents
• Parents prioritizing taking their other children without disabilities to
school and only considering the one with disabilities if finance re still available.
• Low expectations from the learners with SNE by parents leading to low
self-esteem in the learner.
• Some parents may tend to be overprotective towards the child with
SNE, thus preventing him/ her from taking part in daily life activities.
This may hamper the child’s possibilities to develop his/ her potentials.
• Some parents of learners without special needs may oppose having
those with SNE in the same class fearing that the education of their
children will be adversely affected.
Educators
• Some teachers may object having learners with SEN or disability in
their class or school fearing that the child will lower the mean score for
their class or school.
• Many teachers think that working with a child with disability or other
special needs calls for technical training.
• Special Needs Education has been mystified by the belief that it is very
special and only for special teachers trained in a special institution.
This has led to even the school inspectors and other education officers
avoiding to carry out inspection in special education programmes as
they may not understand the special world. Thus the regular teacher
may refer the learner with SEN or disability to the special school or
special unit, hence denying the learner the chance to learn in the
natural setting in the neighbourhood.
• The teacher may have low expectations from the learner with SEN or
disability and may not give him/ her challenging work. This may make
the learner give up trying, as his or her efforts are not appreciated.
• Some school administrators and policy makers in education feel that it
is improper to waste scarce resources on learners with special needs
while the “normal” ones do not have enough, hence unsupportive to
any inclusion initiative.
• The charity model to disability and special needs provision has
also led the community and other stakeholders to leave education
of learners with SEN or disability as a responsibility of church and
voluntary organizations. This makes the learners develop a sense of
dependence and does not equip them with a lifelong education to exist
independently in the world after school.
∎ Overcoming barriers related to negative attitudes
This can be done by:
• Creating awareness about the nature, causes, prevention and
intervention of conditions that create special needs.
• Encouraging other learners to accept the learners with special needs
as part of their lives as they are their relatives and neighbours.
• Promoting cultural activities such as drama, poems and songs to teach
the community about the issues of special needs education
• Teaching parents to nurture their families before, during and after
pregnancy by maintaining balanced diet and emotional well-being of
their family members.
• Using the mass media to educate the public about special needs issues
with an emphasis on the right of every child to education and where to get it.
∎ Teachers expectations from learners with Special Needs
Teacher expectations are presumptions that teachers make about the
academic achievement of the students. Thus, teacher expectation involves
a teacher’s prediction about how much academic progress a student will
make over a specified period of time. Such prediction can positively or
negatively influence the student’s academic performance. Low expectations
of teachers negatively affect self-esteem of learners with SEN or disability
and can lead to dropout and poor academic achievements.
Low expectations of teachers from learners with Special Needs can be
manifested in the following ways:• Teachers not giving enough time, exercises or home works to learners
with Special Needs
• Teachers spending less effort and time teaching learners with Special
Needs or disability
• Teachers showing negative expectations thought verbal comments
such us” useless” etc.
• This happens when teachers are tempted to provide learning
experiences which are too simple and do not require the pupils to
struggle to gain a deeper level of understanding. This causes failure in
stimulating cognitive growth
∎ Overcoming barriers related to low expectations of teachers
The above barriers can be overcome by:• Teachers raising the bar (expecting high performance) for every learner
with Special Needs through effective classroom interaction (use of
positive reinforcement)
• Training of teachers on the many potentials of learners with Special Needs
• The work given to pupils should be demanding while still being within their capacity.
∎ Curriculum barriers
Appropriate curriculum is vital for inclusive education to be meaningful for
learners with SNE in an inclusive setting. Curriculum is inappropriate in that
there is:• Inadequate educational facilities, equipment and services for children
with disabilities and other Special Educational Needs
• Inadequate trained personnel who use rigid teaching approaches which
may only benefit the average learner.
• Irrelevance and overloaded content and expensive curriculum
• Rigid assessment procedures based on mean score competition, which
does not consider learners with SNE
• Teachers’ inability to communicate in a media of instruction which the
learner understands (e.g.: Sign Language).
∎ Overcoming curriculum barriers to Inclusive Education
The above curriculum barriers may be overcome by:• Diversifying the curriculum to suit individual learner’s needs
• Adapting examination questions to suit the individual learner’s needs.
• Using alternative ways of measuring the learner’s competence.
∎ Rigid educational approaches
These can be seen in:• Poor quality teacher training in which there is lack of long term
professional development. In service training for teachers is rarely
required or planned for teachers in regular schools.
• The teacher uses methods that aim at the middle range or average learners.
• The competition that is enhanced in the examinations and selection
of learners for promotion to higher levels by mean score does notconsider learners with SEN or disabilities. These practices result in
many dropouts and repeaters among learners with SNE and disabilities.
∎ Overcoming barriers resulting from rigid educational approaches.• Regular in-service teacher development at the school level through
seminars, workshops, conferences, lectures, symposia and leaflets.
• Differentiated and flexible curriculum implementation and evaluation
procedures. Each learner’s progress is recognized and celebrated.
• Identification of children with SNE in regular schools and provides early
intervention services.
∎ Insufficient human and materials resources
It is important to note that unless learners with special needs are provided
with the appropriate resources, it will not be possible for them to benefit
in inclusive education. Inclusive Education does not mean fewer resources
for SNE, but efficiency and equity in the use of available resources among
those with special needs in the school.
It has been noted that currently, most regular schools lack:• Adequate trained teachers and other support staff with knowledge in
SNE.
• Required assistive devices and equipment to support learning for those
with special needs
• Staff with guidance and counselling skills to support learners in difficult
circumstances and their teachers.
∎ Overcoming barriers to inclusive education caused by insufficient
human and materials resources
Support from the educational administration to finance the adaptation and
modification of the learning environment for learners with special needs to be
accommodated in the class or school. The need for adapting class teachers’
teaching skills cannot be over emphasised.• Another way to do this is by distance learning teachers training
programmes and short courses.
• The government providing more finances to supply and maintain the
devices.
∎ Lack of community involvement
In the past PWDs all over the world were considered socially and physically
less capable, hence they were not easily accepted as useful members of the
community. Some communities still hold the belief that disabilities occur as a
result of curses, witchcraft, and even regard some disabilities as contagious.
Consequently, PWDs are isolated, neglected, rejected and their needs are
not adequately catered for by their families and communities. This greatly
affects their educational provision. The community was less involved in the
affairs of PWD for they counted them as being of no benefit to them. There
is however a gradual level of acceptance of the PWDs which represents amuch more enlightened view of the society than it was before.
∎ Overcoming barriers related to the lack of community involvement• Encourages the schools to sensitize the communities to help in
eliminating the negative attitudes. When the community’s attitude is
positive, they are involved in school’s inclusive activities.
• Giving information to community conceding causes, prevention and
intervention measures of special needs as well as available services
and support groups
• Sensitizing the members of the community to remove barriers from the
walking route such as ditches, holes, logs or other obstructions
• Encourage the learners’ classmates and siblings to walk with the
learner to and from school
• Asking the local artisan to make a crutch or walking stick for the learner.
Self assesment 4.4
1. In groups, discuss at least three barriers to inclusive education
and propose ways to overcome those barriers
2. How can you as a member of the community assist a learner withmobility difficulties to access the local school?
END UNIT ASSESSMENT
1. Explain briefly the principles guiding Inclusive Education?
2. Elaborate on the following characteristics of Inclusive classroom• Teacher/ learner relationship3. Discuss how insufficient teaching and learning materials affect
• Teaching methodology
inclusive Education of learners with Special Needs?
4. With your colleagues, discuss how you can change negative
attitude of teachers and parents towards Inclusive Education of learners with Special Needs?
5. Some parents believe that teaching learners with Special Needs together with learners without
disabilities affect education of the latter. How would you explain this?