The development of special education has made leaps globally, with many education sectors in the various countries embracing equity and equality in the delivery of education service. The increase in campaigns for treating everyone equally and making provisions for the people living with disabilities has led education stakeholders to come with several ways of integrating and assisting learners in their education and learning journey. In special education, trends include the classroom environment changes that revolve around early intervention and prevention plans, usage of technology to enhance learning, and transition plans for special learners and learners living with disabilities from their customized settings to mainstream education settings. The key issues such as experiential learning, gamification, social-emotional learning (SEL), bit-sized learning, genius hour, STEAM curriculum, self-care, personalized and blended learning have become prevalent themes even as many educators and teachers consider integrated classroom settings (Wilson, 2017). There are issues of special learners’ education such as integrated classrooms, inclusive learning environments, and necessary provisions. The behavioral, environmental, cultural, and social factors can help decide on the best teaching-learning models for learners with special skills or those living with disabilities.
Management and Coordination strategies
Management of learners with special needs within inclusive classrooms can be challenging and depends on several strategies for success. Some of the management and coordination strategies include creating classroom centers, blending foundational teachings with specialized instruction, lesson rotation, provision of different level book and material resources, thematic instructions, and formation of small groups. The difference in proficiency levels between special needs students and regular students calls for different levels of textbooks and other subject teaching materials. Having a range of book resources for each subject will help each student learn at their appropriate levels, minimize frustrations, and optimize confidence that is good for the learners' forward progression and momentum (Moriña, 2017).
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The classes can be structured to cater to individual function regardless of the severity of disabilities among special learners. Quality is upheld through proper harmony and integration in grouping, class themes, lesson rotation, and learning centers with a flexible array of materials and texts for ideal instruction and support in the special education classes. Having thematic instructions for multiple subject areas helps hone specific skills in learners such as comprehension, history, and writing. Lesson rotation through the introduction of new material helps determine learners' progress in undertaking activities independently (Bal, 2018). The blending of special instructions with basics helps learners grasp additional advanced content that would be otherwise difficult for them to learn without blending. Classroom and small groups help learners engage in positive peer interactions that enhance their understanding and help them specialize in particular areas.
Factors Affecting the Classroom Learning Environment
Factors that affect the special needs education learners and learners living with disabilities in inclusive classroom environments include motivation, parental involvement levels, teaching models, and collaboration between educators. The motivation levels of the learners are an essential factor when it comes to learning. The classroom learning environment becomes more positive whenever most learners are motivated and ready to learn rather than when they not. Learning cannot take place until learners want to learn. Motivation is changeable and is not intrinsic; thus, the teacher needs to continually speak words and do actions that motivate learners to desire to learn more. The teacher can achieve it by engaging learners by sharing the work that spurs their social encouragement to make them want to do more learning work. For instance, these learners will put more effort into learning if they are required to share their work, such as stories, with their peers. They will work hard in their writing because of the awareness of sharing the stories with their peers. Strategies to help increase learner motivation include inclusivity by engaging learners in setting learning goals. The teacher should make the learning atmosphere attractive, provide some autonomy and a sense of control to the students and provide the learner with feedback on their progress and ensure the learning environment is safe for students (Agran et al., 2020).
The level at which parents get involved in the follow-up cooperation and off school support from the learners affects these learners' development. Parents who offer more moral and emotional support to these children help better the experience of these children in the classroom while those who neglect lead to a downward trend for these learners who often feel useless thus negatively impacting the learning. The teaching models such as co-teaching, parallel teaching, consultation, teaming and working with dually licensed teachers can significantly affect the learning of learners with disabilities and special students in the inclusive classrooms. While the listed method have generally shown positive outcomes, teachers have to customize their approach and monitor results to determine how best they can combine them for optimum success. Educator collaboration plays a significant role as they determine how these educators share their findings on the learners’ progress with recommendations for improvement. If the educators collaborate, they will help decide views and expertise, and observations, thus improving the learning environment or otherwise leading to inclusive classrooms (French et al., 2020). The areas of need that can be supported through the strategies include instruction, peer-to-peer relationships between special needs and regular learners, time management in inclusive classrooms, and transitions of special learners and learners with disabilities to regular classrooms.
The Decision of Inclusion of Special Needs Students in Regular Education Classrooms
The decision to integrate special needs education in regular classrooms can be challenging. However, there is a time when this kind of decision has to be made by the key stakeholders, who include the learners’ teachers, parents to caregivers, and learners themselves. Integrating special education needs will involve teaching exceptional students and students with disabilities in a mainstream classroom with mainstream peers. Factors that affect the decision-making on integration include the availability of resources to cater to both the children, such as enough trained staff. The key stakeholders will also consider their primary objectives, like the institution's mission or vision is to promote equitable access of resources to all learners and inclusive learning environments (Dhir, 2020).
The inclusive class environment model can adapt fit in activities that allow the children to learn separately when their exceptional abilities or disabilities allow. The classrooms will have the essential tools, frameworks, and education curricula that support learning in inclusive spaces regardless of their needs or ability levels. The staff and students will undergo training to understand how they will accommodate the various needs (Martin et al., 2018). The choice of integration is expected to lead to enhanced social skills due to peer-to-peer interactions’, exposure of learners to the typical classroom structures and curriculum. Further benefits include easier transitions of the special needs students later into the mainstream class placement and the exposure for special learners to educational content that coincides with their right interest or skill level.
The inclusivity of special needs or learners with disabilities into the regular classrooms requires a strategic approach by addressing special needs such as levels of intelligence or disabilities such as hearing impairment, blindness, and deafness, among others. The strategic approaches to check involve developing goals, establishing a grade level, collaboration among teachers, the collaboration between learners, accommodations, and modifications that have to be made, and finally, a reflection of the progress. The development of goals will involve answering the question as to why the special students or learners with disabilities inclusion in the general classroom. The response could include integrating the grade-level curriculum, socialization, or exposure to structure reasons (Bal, 2018). If the stakeholders decide to incorporate, the classroom materials, group to work with, and social norms in the class settings come in handy. The level of support for these classroom structures is assessed before making the final decision.
The establishment of grade level will determine the cognitive awareness of the special learners' needs that makes the collaborating school team determine if it would be appropriate to integrate. They would also consider the regular peers' maturity level to relate it with the goals and determine the suitability. With level and goals in mind, the decision to integrate, whether wholly or partly, would consider the program and how it would consider the mainstream teachers in its implementation. The process would involve the sharing of IEP’s needs, accommodations, strengths, and necessary modifications for students' success (Wilson, 2017). If the special students or learners with disabilities feel welcome by their regular peers, it would be a positive sign of possible success in an integrated environment
The integration would help in building acceptance, tolerance, and teamwork amidst different ability levels. A buddy system relationship that airs different students will be tested before the final decision is made to determine accountability in learning will be successful in the system. The decision will also consider the program's accommodations, such as the requirement for increased time for tasks, deskwork checklists in task completions, and a laptop for writing services, among others. Modifications such as listing words for sentence construction, throwing a ball in the air instead of aiming the target, and using specific addition methods are preferred to conventional ways. If the accommodations and modifications necessary for the inclusive environment are feasible, then the decision would include special learners with regular peers (Dhir, 2020). Finally, before making the decisions, the reflection that provides for troubleshooting of any possible hiccups should be conducted to make observations of the success rates f short period inclusive environments. The reflection will help shed some light on the positive impacts of the inclusion before it is decided to commence.
The Relationship to the Case Manager in Special Needs Environment
The case manager is an IEP team member or teacher who ensures the necessary educational services and support are available for the special children and those living with disabilities. The case manager follows up to ensure that these services' provision goes according to the child’s plan. The case manager engages in assessing, screening, planning, risk stratification, care coordination implementation, follow-up, transitional care, post-transition communication, and evaluation. By ensuring implementation goes according to plan, the case manager ensures that available individual support personnel and strategies get optimally utilized for the benefit of the; learners. The manager undertakes routine quarterly reviews and does incident reports to monitor progress and treatment plans to address any learners' concerns. According to Diaz-Vega et al. (2020), the engagement of the case manager in the monitoring process helps maintain quality services as well as the safety and overall health of the clients (special learners)
Persons Responsible for Maintaining a Classroom Learning Environment
Teachers are the primary personnel responsible for the maintenance of a classroom learning environment. Teachers, however, rely on the help of the case managers, the subordinate staff, other educators, health practitioners, and counselors in maintaining the classroom learning environment. The teachers primarily engage in oral instruction, conducting progress checks, giving immediate feedback, and creating the necessary learning activities. The support staff help set up learning materials, interact positively with the learners, and run errands with the teacher's guidance (Bal, 2018). The rest provide professional support to ensure the learners get the best out of the classroom.
Roles of Support personnel
The support staffs play a vital role in ensuring that learners are in a clean and safe learning environment with the necessary physical support whenever they need it. Support staff can help the teacher move a physically disabled child to move around easily, for instance, by helping them around in their wheelchair. The support staffs also help create a supportive learning environment, foster positive, trusting relationships, and enhance school climate by encouraging parent and family involvement in education. Students' reality connecting more with support staff during school day provides the opportunity for the support staff to model positive behavior and send positive messages to the learners (Moriña, 2017).
Strengths and Weaknesses of management and coordination strategies for special needs classroom environments
The establishment of positive relationships between teachers and learners is beneficial as it allows learners to focus their interests on learning, enjoy the company of teachers, and positively influence the learners' life choices. The weakness of this strategy is the difficulty in replicating the same behavior in parents or caregivers of the learners, which becomes counterproductive if not achieved. The creation of a positive learning climate helps the learners to increase their eagerness to learn since the teachers are aware of their emotional, physical, intellectual, and social needs. The strategy helps in addressing and meeting students’ expectations. This strategy's weakness is a possible attachment between learners and teachers, which would make things difficult for the learner when they are transition to general classroom environments later. For instance the special learners could find it difficult to adjust to a general instruction to substantial amounts of time have been spent on differentiated learning. The learners might have to get other extra services, such as with change counselors who will help them with the change with no guarantees of success in the process. In other cases, it could significantly delay their transition and derail their social and intellectual development. Modifications are necessary because of the varying nature of special needs and disabilities that affect specific learners' teaching and testing. The value is in optimizing special students' learning instead of taking generic approaches that are likely to be ineffective when used on all learners equally. Modifications are also crucial as they help plan for future provisions for the special needs learners and their peers living with disabilities (Wilson, 2017).
Conclusion
Inclusive classroom settings that combine special needs students with regular learners and others living with disabilities are an increasing trend worth considering. The method has challenges in offering the best support systems, increasing the number of staff and support staff, often leading to customized teaching methods and sometimes inconveniencing other learners. Strategies such as providing different level book and material resources, creating classroom centers, specialized instruction, lesson rotation, blending foundational teachings thematic instructions, and forming small groups can significantly minimize the negatives. Motivation, parental involvement, teaching models, and collaboration between educators should be addressed carefully because of their significant impact on learners with the inclusive classroom environment. The case managers, educators, teachers, parents, caregivers, and support staff all play essential roles in children's education and development and thus need to work together to succeed in inclusive classroom environments.
References
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Bal, A. (2018). Culturally responsive positive behavioral interventions and supports: A process-oriented framework for systemic transformation. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 40(2) , 144-174.https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2017.1417579.
Dhir, H. K. (2020). 21st Century Education for Special Needs Students: A Teacher's View and an Instructional Approach. Interdisciplinary Approaches to Altering Neurodevelopmental Disorders , 161-185.10.4018/978-1-7998-3069-6.ch010.
Diaz-Vega, M., Moreno-Rodriguez, R., & Lopez-Bastias, J. L. (2020). Educational Inclusion through the Universal Design for Learning: Alternatives to Teacher Training. Education Sciences, 10(11) , 303.https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10110303.
French, R., Imms, W., & Mahat, M. (2020). Case studies on the transition from traditional classrooms to innovative learning environments: Emerging strategies for success. Improving Schools 23.2 , 175-189.https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1365480219894408.
Martin, F., Wang, C., & Sadaf, A. (2018). Student perception of helpfulness of facilitation strategies enhances instructor presence, connectedness, engagement, and learning in online courses: the Internet and Higher Education, 37 , 52-65.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2018.01.003.
Moriña, A. (2017). Inclusive education in higher education: challenges and opportunities. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 32(1) , 3-17.https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2016.1254964.
Wilson, J. D. (2017). Reimagining disability and inclusive education through universal learning design. Disability Studies Quarterly, 37(2) , 7-10.http://dx.doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v37i2.5417.
