Cons/Disadvantages
The Education Act (IDEA) states that children with disabilities are entitled to receive the same education as their typically developing peers (Katsiyannis, Yell & Bradley (2001). Many of us would like to think that including and integrating students into general classroom benefits everyone, but that is not always the case. Although having students with disabilities in our general classrooms can have some benefits it also leads to many more difficulties.
First off, some teachers are not very eager to have students with special needs in their classroom since it provides more work and planning, distractions and takes away from the other students in the class. In order for successful inclusion for a child with disabilities, a teacher must use many strategies such as differentiated instruction and universal design in order to make lessons and activities accessible to all students. Moni et al (2007) found that teachers struggle to successfully implement differentiated instruction and most teachers say that they use these strategies and modify their lessons to accommodate all types of learners but in reality when using these strategies teachers lack confidence and, as a result, feel unprepared to use new instructional strategies or plan for risk-taking (Meo, G. (2008).
For the reason that inclusion is being implemented quite often in many schools since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2004 (Rinyka, A, 2011), across Ontario and Canada it leaves teachers without the time to be properly trained and find resources to properly educate these students and the knowledge on how to handle a large integrated class. (Specht, 1999). Therefore, inclusion does not help students with disabilities because they are put into a classroom without any resources or support making it easy for them to get lost in the system. Teachers are unable to give special needs students the attention they need to successfully learn, and spend a great deal of time keeping the class under control instead of teaching. Tornillo (1994) supports this argument by mentioning that “disabled children are not getting appropriate, specialized attention and care, and the regular students' education is disrupted constantly." Since some students with special needs have difficulty functioning independently and inclusion increases the range of ability levels within a classroom, the teacher ends up directing their attention to the students with special needs therefore decreases the attention to the rest of the class. A teacher can feel very overwhelmed by the added responsibility of teaching students with such varied needs. The issue of concern that the academic performance of the students in the classroom that do not have special needs will be weakened due to the fact that the teacher will be spending more time attending to the inclusion of a special needs student taking away important instructional time in the classroom (Klingner, 1998). For these reasons, inclusion is not only detrimental for the student with special needs but to their fellow classmates and to their teacher.
When we include children with disabilities in our classroom we have to be aware that it is not only harmful in the area of academics where Zigmond et al. (1995) found that students who were placed in an inclusive setting were not achieving at an acceptable rate, despite the push for students to be part of the inclusion processl but that it can do more harm then good in their social lives. These students are often victims of bullying where Hoover & Stenhjem (2003), state that bullying and harassment of youth with disabilities in particular has been steadily increasing. Even though some of us think that we are including students into general classrooms and school for the better, we have to remember that just because the students with special needs are physically present in the school doesn’t mean that they are being positively included into the system. When including students with special needs into a regular education setting other students may not be ready to accept their peers with disabilities making them easy targets for name calling and teasing, which are both forms of bullying. Bullying and negative attitudes towards students with disabilities creates an unhealthy and hostile environment within the school environment. Following you will find a video of a girl with special needs being bullied by her teachers.
Teachers caught on tape video:
http://tash.org/teachers-caught-on-tape-bullying-student-with-disability-video/
Overall all of these premises indicate why inclusion is not suitable for the individual student with special needs, their fellow students and their teachers.
References
Hoover, J. & Stenhjem, P. (2003). Bullying and teasing of youth with disabilities: Creating positive school environments for effective inclusion.
Katsiyannis, A., Yell, M. & Bradley, R. (2001). Reflections on the 25th Anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Ac t
Remedial and Special Education. 22 (6), pg. 324-334.
Klingner, J., Vaughn, S., Schumm, S., Cohen, P., & Forgan, J.W. (1998). Inclusion or pull-out: Which do students prefer? Journal of Learning
Disabilities, 31 (2), 148-158.
Meo, G. (2008). Curriculum planning for all learners: Applying universal design for learning (UDL) to a high school reading comprehension
program. Preventing School Failure, 52(2), 21-30.
Moni, K., Jobling, A., Van Kraavenoord, C., Elkins, J., Miller, R., & Koppenhaver, D. (2007). Teachers’ knowledge, attidues and the implementation
of practices around teaching of writing in inclusive middle years’s classroom: No quick fix. Educational and Child Psychology, 24(3), 18-
36.
Rinyka, A. (2011). The lived experiences of general and special education teachers in inclusion classrooms: A phenomenological study. The
Canyon Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies.
Tornillo, P. (1994). A lightweight fad bad for our schools? Orlando, Sentinel.
Zigmond, N., Jenkins, J., Fuchs, L., Deno, S., Fuchs, D., Baker, J.N., Jenkins, L, & Couthino, M. (1995). Special education in restructured schools:
Findings from three multi-year studies. Phi Delta Kappan, 531-540.
First off, some teachers are not very eager to have students with special needs in their classroom since it provides more work and planning, distractions and takes away from the other students in the class. In order for successful inclusion for a child with disabilities, a teacher must use many strategies such as differentiated instruction and universal design in order to make lessons and activities accessible to all students. Moni et al (2007) found that teachers struggle to successfully implement differentiated instruction and most teachers say that they use these strategies and modify their lessons to accommodate all types of learners but in reality when using these strategies teachers lack confidence and, as a result, feel unprepared to use new instructional strategies or plan for risk-taking (Meo, G. (2008).
For the reason that inclusion is being implemented quite often in many schools since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2004 (Rinyka, A, 2011), across Ontario and Canada it leaves teachers without the time to be properly trained and find resources to properly educate these students and the knowledge on how to handle a large integrated class. (Specht, 1999). Therefore, inclusion does not help students with disabilities because they are put into a classroom without any resources or support making it easy for them to get lost in the system. Teachers are unable to give special needs students the attention they need to successfully learn, and spend a great deal of time keeping the class under control instead of teaching. Tornillo (1994) supports this argument by mentioning that “disabled children are not getting appropriate, specialized attention and care, and the regular students' education is disrupted constantly." Since some students with special needs have difficulty functioning independently and inclusion increases the range of ability levels within a classroom, the teacher ends up directing their attention to the students with special needs therefore decreases the attention to the rest of the class. A teacher can feel very overwhelmed by the added responsibility of teaching students with such varied needs. The issue of concern that the academic performance of the students in the classroom that do not have special needs will be weakened due to the fact that the teacher will be spending more time attending to the inclusion of a special needs student taking away important instructional time in the classroom (Klingner, 1998). For these reasons, inclusion is not only detrimental for the student with special needs but to their fellow classmates and to their teacher.
When we include children with disabilities in our classroom we have to be aware that it is not only harmful in the area of academics where Zigmond et al. (1995) found that students who were placed in an inclusive setting were not achieving at an acceptable rate, despite the push for students to be part of the inclusion processl but that it can do more harm then good in their social lives. These students are often victims of bullying where Hoover & Stenhjem (2003), state that bullying and harassment of youth with disabilities in particular has been steadily increasing. Even though some of us think that we are including students into general classrooms and school for the better, we have to remember that just because the students with special needs are physically present in the school doesn’t mean that they are being positively included into the system. When including students with special needs into a regular education setting other students may not be ready to accept their peers with disabilities making them easy targets for name calling and teasing, which are both forms of bullying. Bullying and negative attitudes towards students with disabilities creates an unhealthy and hostile environment within the school environment. Following you will find a video of a girl with special needs being bullied by her teachers.
Teachers caught on tape video:
http://tash.org/teachers-caught-on-tape-bullying-student-with-disability-video/
Overall all of these premises indicate why inclusion is not suitable for the individual student with special needs, their fellow students and their teachers.
References
Hoover, J. & Stenhjem, P. (2003). Bullying and teasing of youth with disabilities: Creating positive school environments for effective inclusion.
Katsiyannis, A., Yell, M. & Bradley, R. (2001). Reflections on the 25th Anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Ac t
Remedial and Special Education. 22 (6), pg. 324-334.
Klingner, J., Vaughn, S., Schumm, S., Cohen, P., & Forgan, J.W. (1998). Inclusion or pull-out: Which do students prefer? Journal of Learning
Disabilities, 31 (2), 148-158.
Meo, G. (2008). Curriculum planning for all learners: Applying universal design for learning (UDL) to a high school reading comprehension
program. Preventing School Failure, 52(2), 21-30.
Moni, K., Jobling, A., Van Kraavenoord, C., Elkins, J., Miller, R., & Koppenhaver, D. (2007). Teachers’ knowledge, attidues and the implementation
of practices around teaching of writing in inclusive middle years’s classroom: No quick fix. Educational and Child Psychology, 24(3), 18-
36.
Rinyka, A. (2011). The lived experiences of general and special education teachers in inclusion classrooms: A phenomenological study. The
Canyon Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies.
Tornillo, P. (1994). A lightweight fad bad for our schools? Orlando, Sentinel.
Zigmond, N., Jenkins, J., Fuchs, L., Deno, S., Fuchs, D., Baker, J.N., Jenkins, L, & Couthino, M. (1995). Special education in restructured schools:
Findings from three multi-year studies. Phi Delta Kappan, 531-540.