Hands-On Activities to Keep Students With Disabilities Engaged in K-12 Classrooms

The central aim of this chapter is to identify the best practices in hands-on activities to keep students with disabilities engaged in K-12 classrooms. With diversity being a key component in today's classroom, teachers struggle in devising strategies to keep students with disabilities stay engaged. Improving student's learning by keeping them engaged is vital for our nation's competitiveness. Studies have shown the role of hands-on activities in improving engagement of students with disabilities. This chapter will define student engagement and will highlight some of the causes of student disengagement in classroom, relationship between hands-on activities and student engagement, need of hands-on activities/project-based learning in 21st century classrooms, creative ways to implement hands-on activities, connecting hands-on activities with the real-world situations, creating hands-on activities for students with disabilities in self-contained and inclusion classrooms, and matching students' interest and learning styles when developing hands-on activities.

Effects of the Color Wheel System on Students With Disabilities in Inclusion Classrooms

The Color Wheel System (CWS) is a class-wide, rule-based, behavior management strategy that incorporates multiple sets of classroom rules to provide specific behavioral expectations for different classroom activities. This study used the CWS within three inclusion classrooms to evaluate improvements of classroom behavior for students with disabilities. A multiple-baseline design across classrooms evaluated the effects of the CWS on on-task behavior for three students with identified disabilities in each classroom. Momentary time-sampling was used to record on-task behavior, which was operationally defined as eyes on teacher or work or following teacher instructions. Visual analysis of time-series graphs and nonoverlap of all pairs (NAP) measures suggested the CWS caused immediate, large, and sustained increases in on-task behavior for students with disabilities when data are aggregated by classroom. However, individual changes in on-task behavior were variable across students. Implications for using the CWS as part of a class-wide behavioral prevention program and directions for future research are discussed.

Challenges to Inclusion

The expansion of inclusion practices has led to an increase in the integration of special education learners into general education classrooms. In order to meet the needs of all learners within inclusion classrooms, general and special education teachers must combine their respective teaching expertise. However, there are significant challenges to inclusion opportunities arising from a variety of sources. These major barriers to integration are described as environmental, knowledge-based, and relationship-based challenges. Examples of these challenges are discussed with respect to issues related to inclusion faced by both general and special education teachers.

Social Approach in Autism: Modeling Objective Measurements of Child Movement in a Naturalistic Environment

Background. Atypicalities in social approach are thought to be characteristic of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but few studies have quantified the social movement of children with ASD using objective measures. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new method—computational modeling of radio frequency identification (RFID) child tracking—for studying children with ASD in a naturalistic setting. We present the use of RFID measurements to investigate the velocity and social approach of children with ASD and typically developing (TD) children interacting together in preschool inclusion classrooms during repeated multi-hour observations. Methods. Observations of 14 preschoolers with ASD and 16 TD preschoolers in two inclusion classrooms on a total of 10 days yielded approximately 10 hours of data per child. Objective measurements of position and orientation were collected using four corner-mounted Ubisense ultra-wide sensors, which tracked a right and left tag worn by each child (in a vest) and teacher in the classroom. We calculate angular velocity, velocity, and social approach, and compare ASD and TD children on these parameters using multilevel statistical models. Results. In this initial exploration of the ASD phenotype in situ, children with ASD did not differ from TD children in angular velocity or velocity of movement in the classroom. Rather, pairs of TD children moved toward and away from each other at higher velocities than both pairs of children with ASD and pairs in which one child had ASD and the other child was TD. Children with ASD, however, moved toward and away from teachers at higher velocities than TD children. Limitations. Illustrative data from repeated observations of 30 children in two classrooms are reported. Results are preliminary. Conclusions. Multi-hour, objective measurements in a preschool inclusion classroom indicated that children with ASD did not move through space or turn at higher velocities than other children. Instead, ASD differences were evident in social approach. Children with ASD were slower in approaching peers but quicker in approaching teachers than were TD children. The results suggest the potential of modeling RFID measurements to produce a quantitative understanding of the ASD phenotype in naturalistic social contexts.

Implementation of Differentiated Instruction in Middle School Classrooms: A Qualitative Study

Despite research on the benefits of implementing Differentiated Instruction (DI) practices within an inclusive classroom, many teachers do not utilize the practice regularly. An instrumental case study that included teachers from 1 middle school in a rural school district in a southeastern state was used as the qualitative research design in this study. The purpose was to explore rural middle school teachers’ experiences and challenges with incorporating the components of DI to support special education students in inclusion classrooms. Tomlinson’s model of DI as it relates to teachers providing responsive instruction to meet the needs of each of their students regardless of their ability was used as the conceptual framework. A purposeful sample of 10 middle school teachers Grades 6–8 from various content areas in the school participated in interviews, observations, and submitted documents for review. Data were coded and thematic relationships and patterns related to the DI framework emerged. Themes included concerns regarding teachers’ lack of knowledge and professional development for fidelity of implementation of DI with special needs students, insufficient resources to support implementation of DI, and concerns with class size and accommodation of DI needs of all students within an inclusion-based classroom. Based on the results, the research may contribute to positive social change by helping middle school teachers use the components of DI in their inclusion-based classes and by providing instructional support to enhance learning and increase academic success for special education students.

Innovations in Classroom Technology for Students with Disabilities

Students with high-incidence disabilities (e.g., learning disabilities, emotional behavior disorders, and autism spectrum disorders) often receive most of their education in general education classrooms. Once in these classrooms, students with disabilities are expected to learn from the general education curriculum. For students with disabilities participating in general education and inclusion classrooms, technology offers an opportunity for them to be active participants in classroom activities and to make meaningful progress in the general education curriculum. The articles presented in this special issue illustrate how technology can help students with disabilities to become active participants in general education classrooms. The technologies described in the articles were developed as research-to-practice pieces so that practitioners can integrate the technology into their classrooms. This issue focuses on two themes: (a) technology to support student learning in inclusive or general education classrooms and (b) technology to promote student engagement and enhance performance feedback of teachers.

Functioning of inclusion classrooms in the opinion of parents – organization, teacher training, individualized instruction and social relations

Dominika Przybyszewska, Functioning of inclusion classrooms in the opinion of parents – organization, teacher training, individualized instruction and social relations. Interdisciplinary Contexts of Special Pedagogy, no. 24, Poznań 2019. Pp. 83-108. Adam Mickiewicz University Press. ISSN 2300-391X. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14746/ikps.2019.24.05 Inclusive education is one of the available forms of education for students with disabilities in Poland. Inclusion classrooms have fewer student and an additional teacher assistant. The schools in which this type of education takes place should meet a number of requirements. They start with the infrastructure and available teaching aids, and end with the teacher training and the availability of specialists. However, these are only prerequisites. In addition to them, the attitude of teachers and their training, the atmosphere prevailing in the school and the relations between students are important. All these elements are components on which success depends. The article presents the opinions of parents whose children attend such classes. Their voice is consistent with the results obtained by other researchers and the reports of the Supreme Audit Office (NIK)- there are no teaching aids, it isnot always possible to talk to specialists (staff shortages), the individualization used in working with students is insufficient, and the relations in classes are only seemingly good.