The DNA of Inclusive Education:

          Genetic of Instructional Strategies 

​

​

   As Educational and Instructional Scientists, we are striving to discover what is in the core of the so called Inclusive Education today.

    Having start, at an infant and very primary phase, as Special Education in segregated settings like clinics and hospitals where children "with abnormalities" were placed and where the "difference" was treated like a curse, an unwanted state, an unquestionable failure, the teaching of students with differences has passed, painfully slow, to a better and more mature phase, where human rights started to become the criterion by which legislative decisions or policy calls were made and formed.

     From Special Education ( which is a de profundis exclusive term) for some few and "unfortunate" cases to a new era with humanistic values at core, the era of Integration of all learners in the mainstream education, in mainstream schools. This started as the placement of students with learning needs in special classes and later in the mainstream class with learning support assistants and/or teachers. This was not an easy journey and as change is always meets with difficulties, there were many conflicts in all parts of the worlds, between stakeholders, parents, teachers and educational leaders.

   To a later and more progressed stage of social maturity, to the era of Inclusion. Integration and inclusion are often

seen as synonyms, as terms with the exact same meaning but in fact, the trained mind of an educational philosopher (we are all educational philosophers, as we reflect) would distinguish the difference, well visualised in the following image:

​

Source of image: https://www.thinkinclusive.us/inclusion-exclusion-segregation-integration-different/

​

From Inclusion to today's Inclusive Education

which places the importance on strategies

and not on weaknesses, on characteristics

and learning styles and not on needs, 

effectively removing the label.

​

Inclusive Education is the current state in which

we find ourselves, with a lot of conflict 

surrounding cases in many schools globally.

​

Difficulties having to do with various types of barriers to inclusiveness that have an eco-systemic dynamic, meaning that they influence all parts of the school as a living and breathing organism and which of course calls for eco-systemic solutions to problems (here BRIEF solution techniques help if viewed in a system).

​

At the core of solution is honest communication between all stakeholders, collaborative attitude, analytical discussions and conflict resolution techniques. Most of all, at the core of solution is the practice of the Teacher provided it is inclusive and fosters inclusion in school. Some examples of inclusive effective teaching strategies are the following:

• Coaching Students, Teacher as a Learning Mentor

• Using Rewards effectively

• Monitoring Student Progress ( measuring what we value vs valuing what we measure! )

• Cover, Copy and Compare for self-management

• Phonemic awareness and Graphosyllabic Analysis

• Story Mapping

• Summarisation Strategies

• Peer Tutoring

• Conceptual teaching methods in Mathematics

• Writing: Letter formation

• Peer editing for effective Writing

• Team up for homework completion and many more strategies that are research based and proven. 

​

 

Sources:

1. https://www.guilford.com/books/Effective-School-Interventions/Burns-Riley-Tillman-Rathvon/9781462526147 

2. https://teachingcenter.wustl.edu/resources/inclusive-teaching-learning/strategies-for-inclusive-teaching/ 

3. http://inclusive.tki.org.nz/assets/inclusive-education/MOE-publications/teaching-strategies1.pdf 

4. https://teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/building-inclusive-classrooms/inclusive-teaching-strategies 

5. https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/classroom-resources/inclusive-education/ 

6. http://www.crlt.umich.edu/multicultural-teaching/inclusive-teaching-strategies 

7. https://www.thinkinclusive.us/5-strategies-for-structuring-an-inclusive-classroom-environment/

8. https://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/strategy/strategy026.shtml 

9. https://education.alberta.ca/inclusive-education/inclusive-education/?searchMode=3 

10. https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.18989!/file/The-inclusive-learning-and-teaching-handbook.pdf

11. https://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsld/resources/inclusive_teaching.pdf 

12. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263565343_Pedagogy_of_Inclusion_A_Quest_for_Inclusive_Teaching_and_Learning 

13. https://www.ehc.edu/inclusion-dialogue-center/academic-diversity/inclusive-teaching/

14. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002482/248254e.pdf 

15. https://inclusion-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Best-Practice-Education_EN-FINALWEB.pdf

​

​

​

​