Philosophy of Exceptional Learning and Inclusion
Introduction
As a prospective preschool teacher, one of my visions is to have total inclusion become a reality in our schools. Inclusion is a concept of education that interests me immensely. It is possible to ensure exemplary performance among all learners, including those with special needs. The different capabilities that exist among human beings should not be a hindrance. My vision of an inclusive environment is to realize that children have different paces in learning and educational systems that recognize and embrace the different learning abilities of our children. Although it has a long way to go, inclusive education, with appropriate and specific interventions, proves to effectively integrate classrooms and allow children with different learning disabilities to participate and learn with other children.
Intended Career Path
After graduation, my intended career path is to teach children between 3 and 5 years in a preschool setting. I believe I have what it takes to inspire these young children to become great men and women in the future. I would love to work in a preschool environment because I am passionate about helping young children to lay good foundations for their future dreams. This setting presents different exceptional learners that require me to develop equally unique skills to propagate inclusive learning for students of all kinds. The occurrence of learning disabilities in this stage of education is not uncommon, and preschool children are at their formative stage, and this would require me to be very careful with how I teach them.
Professional Dispositions
My professional dispositions include being “truly caring” for others and “sharing about myself.” By showing empathy and being outspoken, I believe I can maintain personal sensitivity when working with preschool children. Building an emotional connection is one of the most effective ways to influence young children. Mostly, children who have a good emotional connection with those around them are more likely to adjust their behavior according to how the response of their caretakers (Powell et al., 2019). Moreover, I hope to improve on my self-reflection skills so that I can continually attain personal growth and development. I would sharpen my observation skills, as often in early childhood instruction, children may have trouble communicating, and a precise observation would tell a lot. Moreover, my experience in communicating with children in school and my family helps me understand the importance and encourage the collaboration of both environments for holistic benefits for the children. Powel et al. (2019) identify the importance of considering personal cultural and ethical values that may affect service delivery in a special education setting. Therefore, I would consider developing my cultural and moral basis and learning how to differentiate them from my teaching practice. By combining these skills, I believe that it will allow me to attain my dream of becoming a director of an early childhood program.
Definition of Inclusion
Different states define inclusion in various ways, and the concept of integration also varies across the different types of learning disabilities. Inclusion entails creating a learning environment where disability does not limit the ability of children living with disabilities to learn effectively and in the same setting with their able-bodied counterparts (Peters, 2003). Counter to the concept of inclusion is the idea of differentiation. Differentiation entails putting students with the same learning level or ability together, and aiming to create homogenous groups within the classroom, increasing the effectiveness of education. Differentiation practices primarily work against the efforts of inclusion as their abilities separate the children.
Current Situation of Inclusion in Our Country
As a nation, we still have a long way to go before attaining the ideal inclusion in our educational sector. The process of inclusive education in the United States borrows heavily from the 1975 federal mandate, Education for All Handicapped Children Act that was later in 2004 renamed as Individuals with Disabilities Act (Armstrong et al., 2016). However, the success of these policies is questionable. For instance, at present, children with disabilities continue to face difficult challenges in their attempts to access inclusive, high-quality education. The evolution of inclusive education in the United States has had ups and downs propagated by the national government, state laws, and differences in the specific schools (Armstrong et al., 2016). In its meager attempts to make schools inclusive, there are still separate residential schools and hospital avenues that are more restrictive and less inclusive, where children with disabilities get a full-time placement with other children with disabilities. Such discrimination makes it impossible for us to promote the practice of inclusion in our schools. However, I believe that integration is achievable if every stakeholder dedicates to making it a reality. Considering that equal opportunity for everyone is one of the United States’ most idealized philosophies, ensuring the meaningful inclusion of children with disabilities as members of the school society should be a priority mission for our government. In my opinion, the existing inclusive learning policies ensure to a certain degree that children living with disabilities get an equal plane field in education; however, the country is far from a significantly effective inclusive education system.
The Role of Collaboration
Inclusive education requires all involved parties to share milestones of the children, particularly children with disabilities, to avoid setbacks when they change environments. Collaboration is an essential tool in the development of an inclusive educational system. All the involved parties need to practice healthy communication that facilitates progress monitoring, to enable the realization of partnership in teaching children (Powel et al., 2019). Collaboration between different professions and parents enables the flow of essential information that affects the learners. Inclusive education programs take into account all stakeholders that contribute to the success or failure of the learning exercise. Collaboration also gives parents a chance to learn how to use assistive strategies and devices to help children continue learning at home (Nordstrom et al., 2019). For example, a child with a learning disability in my class learns a new skill from the speech pathologist to help them in their homework. If their parents are not aware of this skill, and how to support their child, he or she may fall behind and the revert to previous learning ways. The partnership between teachers and clinical professionals helps involved parents learn how to support their children’s learning process even at home. The role and benefit of school-family collaboration are evident in the significant improvement of overall student performance and continuous learning at home.
Synthesis of Evidence-Based Strategies.
In my chosen career path, I expect to interact with children of different abilities, physical and learning. Assistive learning technology and routine-based strategies are examples of the strategies that may be efficient in helping children with disabilities have an equal experience in the classroom as their other classmates. Children with specific learning disabilities, for example, struggle with reading, writing, spelling, math, listening, speaking, and other non-academic difficulties (Powel et al.,2019). These difficulties are severe and interfere with the learning process for these children. Children aged three to five years may not have apparent indicators of SLD; however, other warning signs may indicate a developmental delay or possibility of a learning disability. I would use the routine-based strategies to create activities that have learning opportunities embedded in them that give the children room to process learning as well as possible. These activities help to integrate learning with things the children with activities already in the curriculum.
Another group of children I am likely to encounter are children with attention and hyperactivity disorder. These children often have trouble concentrating and staying focused on one task. The use of routine activities that are specific to the individual needs of the children is effective in maintaining the concentration of the children and makes teaching them easier (Rahn et al., 2019). A child with attention deficit and hyperactivity may have trouble sitting through a math lesson; for example, I would incorporate brief routine activities with learning opportunities that allow the children to function within their concentration spans.
The routine-based strategy would also include children with speech and language impairments, which often accompanies Autism spectrum disorders in mainstream classes. As they receive instructions from speech-language pathologists, I would help them use these learned strategies in the classroom and outside the confinement of the school. Adding timely and appropriate play routines to these children’s learning experiences help them practice their learned strategies and promote better learning opportunities (Rahn et al., 2019). For example, children can be allowed to use the strategies they learn during a learning game to help them learn and improve their communication abilities. The activity helps the child learn and offset the challenges associated with the disability. Routines would also be of great help for children with behavioral and emotional disturbances. While these may not be very evident in preschool children, warning signs such as aggressive behavior. Routine activities allow the children access to professional help and give them a chance to be expressive and promote efficient, inclusive learning. Particularly common with preschool children are behavioral difficulties that prevent them from effectively participating in mainstream classes. I would use routine activities, particularly games, to demonstrate to the children model behavior, which ultimately improves their learning experience.
Assistive learning technology revolutionizes the experience of children with a physical disability. For example, children with physical disabilities can use devices designed to help them with their grip so they can write. Technology such as text to speech and speech to text can help the children to make equal progress as the non-disabled students (Nordstrom et al., 2019). Students with a lifetime disability benefit from this technology and integrating them in learning as early as preschool normalizes and eases their learning progress as they grow.
As the UDL dictates, educators give learners opportunities to select their preferred methods of learning that accommodate their abilities. An inclusive classroom means a range of specificities arising from children with disabilities. I would identify specific learning strategies that house all the children, regardless of their capabilities. For example, if one of the children has a visual impairment, it would be unfair to use learning activities that depended solely on vision. I would teach using audio and hand-based learning experiences for the children to follow through the learning experience. Preschool educators need to implement different mediums in the classroom to expand the scope of teaching. I would use a variety of learning tools and mediums that account for all children in the learning process.
Supporting Children with specific Delays
Specific learning disabilities necessitate different adaptations from the learners as well as educators. In the case of Billy, his attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder make it difficult for him to concentrate in a 30-minute class. His concentration span only lasts minutes. According to Rahn et al., naturalistic instruction that allows children to practice critical learning skills and a range of opportunities to practice is efficient in helping children with specific learning disabilities (Rahn et al., 2019). Billy is allowed to learn in small and timed routine activity, embedded with the appropriate lesson content. These short activities help Billy to learn within his concentration span and together with his classmates.
Ruth suffers from a speech impairment, which affects the way she produces words and sounds. Speech impairments affect how a person produces sound to say specific sounds but not their understanding of these words. For Ruth, assistive technology helps her translate text to speech and speech to text and improves her address and learning experience. Studies show that assistive technology allows students with reading and writing difficulties and eases their struggle with the learning requirements (Nordstrom et al., 2019). Using tablets that articulate language back to the students helps them notice their voice and expression using the speech to text function that allows them to learn the vocabulary they have a hard time learning. I would also create additional adjustments in the learning environment, such as classroom adjustments and educating the other students to accommodate the children who require special aid.
My Role in Exceptional Learning and Inclusion
As a preschool teacher, I have a critical role in inclusive education. Many learning disabilities become apparent or have evidence of early development and education. My part is to identify these learning disabilities early. Once I identify such disorders, I would then engage with parents of the specific children to discuss their children’s knowledge and options. Collaborative discussions with other parents would also be essential to inform and review procedures for moving forward. I would then identify specific interventions suitable for preschool children and help them learn how to use them in their learning experience and as they proceed to other levels.
Professional and Ethical standards
Educating children with special needs and exceptional ability requires upholding high professional and ethical standards. I would borrow from the code of ethics to identify ethical and professional standards that relate to my chosen area of practice. As the code dictates, educators should collaborate with other individuals providing services to individuals with exceptionalities (Council for exceptional children, 2015). In my class, I would ensure that I liaise with speech-language therapists and psychotherapists to understand the progress of the children and accommodate their classroom developments. Another principle that I would practice is to develop relationships with families that involve them in decision-making processes that affect their children (Council for exceptional children, 2015). I would ensure that I have professional relationships with parents of children with disabilities to facilitate communication and help parents learn how to support their children at home. My responsibility as an instructor also entails protecting and promoting the physical and psychological safety of children with a different learning disability (Council for exceptional children, 2015). I would educate parents and children on the differences between them and teach them interaction strategies that do not affect children with disabilities as well as non-disabled children.
Program of Study
My program of study is Bachelor of Arts in Early Childhood Education. My experiences in this field influence my philosophy of exceptional learning and inclusion by enabling me to learn how to work together in teams. For example, I instruct children to draw or doddle and color their drawings as expressive as they can in an inclusive lesson of art and crafts. Allowing all the children to work according to their abilities or with the help of available interventions facilitates their smooth learning process. I would employ the tailored learning strategies that help all students, and that consider their capabilities, to learn at an almost similar, if not equal, pace. The incorporation of learning strategies in a class with both able children and children with learning disabilities facilitates the children’s ability to equally grasp the lessons embedded in an activity of art and crafts. Learning disabilities are evident as early as preschool and early intervention through collaborative teacher-parent relationships and partnership with other professions ensure that children learn how to overcome or learn regardless of their disabilities.
Conclusion
I believe in the ability of the country to make most schools inclusive to accommodate students with disabilities that affect how they learn. Different levels of education can adopt strategies proven by research to ease teaching experience for children with these disabilities. Specific strategies work for different learning disabilities, and educators must have precise knowledge of the various disabilities to make a choice. Teachers also need to wary of the ethical and professional standards that accompany teaching children with exceptional abilities. My role in teaching preschool children is to identify and employ interventions such as assistive learning in teaching an inclusive class to make sure all students have an equal learning experience.
References
Armstrong, F., Armstrong, D., & Barton, L. (2016). Inclusive education: Policy, contexts, and comparative perspectives. Routledge.
Ethical Principles & Practice Standards. (n.d.). Retrieved May 29, 2020, from https://www.cec.sped.org/Standards/Ethical-Principles-and-Practice-Standards
Nordström, T., Nilsson, S., Gustafson, S., & Svensson, I. (2019). Assistive technology applications for students with reading difficulties: special education teachers’ experiences and perceptions. Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, 14(8), 798-808.
Peters, S.J. (2003). Inclusive education: Achieving education for all by including those with
disabilities and special education needs. The World Bank. Retrieved from
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/614161468325299263/pdf/266900WP0English
Powell, S. R., Driver, M. K., Forsyth, S. R., Bos, S. A., & Benz, S. A. (2019). Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. In Working with Exceptional Students: An Introduction to Special Education (2nd ed., pp. 273-304). Zovio Inc.
Rahn, N. L., Coogle, C. G., & Ottley, J. R. (2019). Early childhood special education teachers’ use of embedded learning opportunities within classroom routines and activities. Infants & Young Children, 32(1), 3-19.