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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

  • To learn the definition, concept, purpose, and methods of Inclusion
  • To begin to get to know each other better
  • Understand how society views individuals with disabilities and handicaps
  • To be clear about course requirements
  • To express your thoughts and feelings about educating children with disabilities in public school settings and/or regular education classes
  • To set personal goals for the course
  • Understand the historical and educational evolution of school programs for children with disabilities
  • Demonstrate knowledge of terms and categories of disabilities
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the various classifications of mental retardation
  • Identify the major medical etiologies and primary and secondary conditions causing mental retardation and cerebral palsy
  • Understand how prejudice has influenced societies development of laws and policies
  • Demonstrate knowledge of legal and legislative issues dealing with inclusion
  • Knowledge of terms related to special education law
  • Understand the difference between inclusion and mainstreaming
  • Identify and defend a position pro/con inclusion
  • Select articles for review and interpretation
  • Identify what parents want for their children with disabilities
  • Develop and defend a position for or against inclusion
  • Understand the impact of changes in education due to the inclusion movement
  • Identify the major concerns regular education teachers have with full or partial inclusion
  • Identify resources for regular education teachers to help their students understand disabilities
  • Evaluate your own personal objectives
  • Passing grade on final exam
  • Evaluate the course

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

Text - Including Students with Severe and Multiple Disabilities in Typical Classrooms, June E. Downing, Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 2002, and the Inclusion Participant Workbook.

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.