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Inclusion


Course Outline


Course Description

This course is designed to focus on inclusion as it relates to children with disabilities and how to include them into public education. Current issues and trends, parent/professional relationships, legislation and legal rights, and other related topics will be covered.

Objectives

  • Discuss the historical perspective of Inclusion.
  • Analyze a classroom system.
  • Assess barriers to Inclusion.
  • Discuss important research related to instruction.
  • Construct a prototype of an ideal classroom.
  • Explain legislation dealing with inclusion (PL 94-142 and the 1990 Amendments and IDEA 97) and why this legislation was enacted
  • Justify the concept of a continuum of educational placements (LRE)
  • Summarize the effects of litigation in promoting inclusion
  • Assess how prejudice impacts teaching
  • Distinguish characteristics of disabilities that qualify children and youth for special education services under IDEA
  • Research and report on learning needs of students with disabilities
  • Determine specific curriculum accommodations by reflecting on classroom situations
  • Incorporate new specific curriculum accommodations into your classroom setting based on what is learned in this module
  • Report on the impact of the accommodation in the Forum
  • Identify central tendencies of behavioral attributes and the manifested needs associated with disabilities
  • Utilize the Web for research to locate current information about the learning theory and software that supports learning for students with disabilities
  • Refine your individual continuums.
  • Reflect on your own classrooms and identify barriers to effective accommodations.
  • Prepare a barrier analysis sheet.
  • Compare and contrast inclusion and mainstreaming.
  • Develop a philosophy for how to interact with parents who have children with disabilities.
  • Incorporate Web resources that support parents with children with disabilities.
  • Evaluate the impact of changes in education due to the inclusion movement.
  • Analyze the major concerns regular education teachers have with full or partial inclusion.
  • Evaluate pros and cons to inclusion as supported by current research.
  • Determine how classrooms have changed and what that means for teaching children with diverse needs.
  • Evalute how to manage disruptive behavior in inclusive classrooms.
  • Identify how a student with severe medical needs be taught in a typical classroom.
  • Examine Internet and other resources to increase awareness of disabilities for K-12 students.
  • Create activities to teach disability awareness to K-12 students.
  • Identify the steps in the IEP process.
  • Define what students with disabilities will need in the 21st century.
  • Define a SOP (a summary of the child’s academic achievement and functional performance)
  • Describe how schools need to better prepare students with disabilities for post school life
  • Define assistive devices and list five classifications.
  • Define accommodation and provide examples.
  • Describe what types of accommodations need to be made for students with disabilities.
  • Begin creating an Action Plan.
  • Develop a personal position on inclusion and support the position with the information from the course (discussions, readings, research material, and personal experiences).
  • Complete an action plan for the final project for this course and include Internet resources in the plan.

Curriculum Design & Time Requirements

Inclusion is a is a 3 credit graduate level or forty-five hour professional development course taught on weekends or over five full days. The following methodologies will be used during the course: lectures, video tapes, readings of professional journals, group and individual discussions.

A variety of other books and readings will be referenced throughout the course. Other supplemental readings will be provided.

Course Materials

The required text for this course is Including Students with Severe and Multiple Disabilities in Typical Classrooms, June E. Downing. In addition to the course text, students may receive supplemental material.

Session Outline

Session 1:
Contents:
  1. Introduction
  2. Overview of Inclusion
  3. Purpose Statement
  4. "An attitude that celebrates diversity..."
  5. Achieving Inclusion through collaboration
  6. Personal Learning Objectives and Learning Contracts
  7. Recall Experience
  8. Identify Common Feelings Regarding the Disabled
  9. "A Disability is a Diversity..."

Session 2:
Contents:
  1. Disability vs. Diversity
  2. Historical Perspective
  3. Societal Trends
  4. Defining the Classroom and Classroom Systems
  5. Research Related to Instruction
  6. Disabilities Which Qualify Students for Services under IDEA
  7. Major Characteristics of Each Defined Disability
  8. Opinion Essay

Session 3:
Contents:
  1. Understanding the Law
  2. Federal Legislation: PL 94-142; PL 99-457; PL 101-476 (1990 Amendments); PL 105-17
  3. Reauthorization of IDEA 97
  4. Specific Legislation and Classroom Practice
  5. Least Restrictive Environment
  6. Placement Options
  7. Court Cases: Important Concepts
  8. Implications for How Schools Provide Services
  9. How Districts Implement These Decisions

Session 4:
Contents:
  1. Learning: Time Needed vs. Time Allowed
  2. Mastery Learning: Generic and Specific Skills
  3. School as a Means to Achieve Aspirations
  4. Criteria for Selecting Accommodations
  5. Continuum Development
  6. Central Tendencies of Behavioral Attributes
  7. Criteria for Selecting Accommodations
  8. Continuum Development

Session 5:
Contents:
  1. Specific Accommodations for Specific Disabilities
  2. Research on Teaching
  3. Barriers to Effective Accommodations
  4. Current Classroom Status
  5. Desired Classroom Status
  6. Solutions
  7. Refining Individual Continuums
  8. Evaluate Continuums

Session 6:
Contents:
  1. Mainstreaming vs. Inclusion
  2. The Proud Parent
  3. Understanding Parents' Feelings
  4. Interacting with Parents: Active Listening; Demonstrate Understanding; Listening Codes
  5. Parents - Then and Now: Past Services; Current Services
  6. What do Parents Want?
  7. Strategies for Effective Communication
  8. Discrepancies Between Parents' Wants and Current Practice
  9. Article Reviews

Session 7:
Contents:
  1. Pros and Cons: What the Research Says
  2. Arguments for Inclusion
  3. Arguments Against Inclusion
  4. The Changing Classroom
  5. Common Concerns
  6. New Accommodations
  7. Revising the Continuum
  8. How Regular Education Teachers Feel
  9. Attitudes, Perceptions and Fears
  10. Strategies for Addressing Fears

Session 8:
Contents:
  1. Disability Awareness for Regular Education
  2. Classroom Activities
  3. Circle of Friends
  4. Isolation of Students with Disabilities
  5. IEP's
  6. Accessing Appropriate Education Services
  7. Modifying Goals and Objectives
  8. Inconsistencies or Gaps in Services
  9. Developing an IEP

Session 9:
Contents:
  1. Technology to Assist Students with Disabilities
  2. Types of Technology
  3. Impact of Technology on Teaching
  4. Accessing Assistive Technology Resources
  5. What is AAC?
  6. Communication Disorders
  7. Augmentative and Alternative Communication
  8. Communication Devices
  9. Technology to Resolve Barriers
  10. Technology as an Accommodation

Session 10:
Contents:
  1. Personal Position Paper Requirements (Final Exam)
   
  Introduction
  State Position on Inclusion
  Provide Supportive Information
  What You Will do When Teaching
  Summary and Conclusions
  2. Design Action Plan
   
  Goals-Objectives-Outcomes
  Barriers
  Solutions

Grading

  Assignment Points   Grading Scale  
  Group and Classroom Participation  20      100 – 93 A
  Article Reviews  40       92 – 85 B
  Final Exam  40       84 – 77 C
  Total Points  100    


Student Requirements

1. Attendance at all classes.
2. Completion of article reviews.
3. Students should be prepared to lead the discussion about a predetermined issue during specified class.
4. Pass a final exam.
5. Three article reviews.

Student Academic Integrity

Participants guarantee that all academic class work is original. Any academic dishonesty or plagiarism (to take ideas, writings, etc. from another and offer them as one's own), is a violation of student academic behavior standards as outlined by our partnering colleges and universities and is subject to academic disciplinary action.

Register

To register to take TEI's Inclusion course, go to the Course Registration page.