We’ve learned that an education community is better, richer, and more effective when students with disabilities are fully involved. By growing up and learning together in school, students with varied abilities, interests, and backgrounds experience diversity as a community norm. Inclusive schools provide the opportunity for all students to develop the attitudes, values, and skills needed to live and work alongside others in a diverse society.
In this section:
What does an inclusive classroom look like?
The three Rs of effective inclusion
The role of technology in inclusive education
Here’s some more reasons why we think inclusive education is so important:
All young people grow from encountering a variety of experiences.
Inclusive settings offer students many opportunities to learn useful skills, such as following daily routines, figuring out different ways to solve problems, using humor and sharing stories, and communicating effectively. Our students with and without disabilities model and teach each other socially valuable behaviour.
It’s important to design instruction that meets the needs of all of our learners.
By working together, we can design grade-level instruction to better meet the needs of all of our students. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that can be used to help guide practices so that instruction and assessments are presented in ways that allow the widest range of students to access information. UDL helps us to appropriately vary the ways students can learn. It also allows students to demonstrate different ways of understanding the main concepts of a subject.
Using UDL, we can incorporate multiple and flexible means of engagement, representation, and expression in the planning stages of activities and lessons for all of our students. We have a dedicated UDL area where we can take a deep dive into the subject.
Ask anyone what they remember about their school days, and the majority will tell you it’s the friends they made.
Inclusive learning environments provide students with and without disabilities many opportunities to establish relationships with their peers. These relationships form the beginnings of friendships that are a source of fun and enjoyment, and an essential source of emotional support during challenging times. When we consider what contributes most to quality of life, “friends” often appears toward the top of the list. Therefore, the opportunity to connect with a diverse group of peers is an important outcome of inclusion for all students.
In inclusive schools, resources and educators can be leveraged to create more effective and efficient learning opportunities for all students.
When students with disabilities are educated in general education classes, special educators and specialised instructional support provide support in those settings. This results in general education teachers and students having additional expertise more readily available. General educators have noticed that their instructional range has expanded as a result of team-teaching with special educators. Whether we're general educators or specialist educators, supporting each other in meeting the educational needs of all students is the most important thing at play.
Simply put, inclusion is all about students having a sense of belonging. In an inclusive classroom climate, instructional decisions are made on the basis of each student’s individual needs and not on labels or numbers and test scores.
To be able to offer an inclusive education to your students here are a few things to consider:
While checklists are helpful guides in identifying inclusive classrooms, it’s easy to remember the three Rs of inclusion in education.
Theory, checklists, and guides are great. But the best way to get to grips with inclusive education is to get a look at what other schools and educators are doing. In this podcast, we speak to our friends at Highlands Council to get a taste of how they’re forging inclusive learning experiences for all of their students.
In this episode of our podcast: Texthelp Talks, our host Patrick McGrath is joined by Robert Quigley and Tania Mackie from Highland Council in Scotland. They discuss their journey of rolling out and implementing over 30,000 Chromebook devices to students in their local authority. Which was driven by their commitment to digital learning and inclusion.
Technology has a big role to play in inclusive school communities.
Digital reading tools can be a revelation for students who have reading challenges. Tools that offer text-to-speech software allow students to listen to passages of text or instructions rather than reading what’s on a page or screen. This is helpful for all of our students at any given time in the classroom, but it’s particularly useful for students with dyslexia and students who speak English as their second language. If students are fans of hearing text read aloud then audiobooks are a great way to immerse them in content. Having the written book to accompany an audiobook is also a great way to encourage word recognition as the book is read aloud. Reading on a digital screen lets our students take control of how they see words appear. They can adjust font, font size, and the colour of the overlay or text background to suit their own needs.
Different types of technology can be a great help for our students who have writing challenges. Students who might have trouble with spelling and grammar, or students who may have handwriting challenges can benefit from technology which helps them get their thoughts down on paper. Simple additions to our classrooms such as keyboards and touch screens eradicate the need for pen and paper for students and help them get their thoughts down easily. Tools that offer dictation and word prediction are also great levelers in the inclusive classroom. Visual tools like graphic organisers help all of our students to work together to brainstorm writing tasks. Colourful organisation and drawing tools help them to form solid ideas and plans that they otherwise struggle to get down on paper.
Maths can be a tricky concept for many students. Introducing digital tools can help lots of our students start to understand and get to grips with new maths concepts. Being able to see visual representation of maths expressions can really help students to grasp what is happening. Equally, giving students the tools to express what they’ve learned is a huge help. Not all students are comfortable writing their maths work out, so tools like dictation and touch screens can really help here.
If this has sparked your interest in learning more about inclusive education, who’s doing it, and how, check out our Inclusive Ed bootcamp: How to meet the needs of a diverse range of students. In this bootcamp we’ll cover more than three hours of on-demand learning materials to immerse us in inclusive education principles and practices. Topics include: Common barriers to learning, accessible maths, supporting dyslexic learners, neurodiversity and SEN provision.