Addressing Diversity Through The Years Special and Inclusive Education
Addressing Diversity Through The Years Special and Inclusive Education
Addressing Diversity Through The Years Special and Inclusive Education
The seminar/class discussion which was entitled “Addressing Diversity Through the
Years; Special and Inclusive Education” was situated at Room 205, College of Education
Building, Caraga State University – Main Campus, Ampayon, Butuan City. Our speakers were
Alliah Manimog, Babie Jane Toῇacao, Cristian Serbo, Jemuel Lamoste, Love Mae Charity
Anzano and Shevreign Codera, they were good speakers anyway.
During the seminar, I felt like I was given a chance to know those involved people who
were pioneers in Special Education. I knew Jean-Marc Hard, the earliest teacher argued the
special teaching method. Eduard Seguin which developed several influential things for educating
children with special need. Maria Montessori which proposed prepared environment. Ovide
Declory who founded the school children with mild disabilities and invented his pedagogy and
Dr. Anne Moore who realized that the fable minded are menace to our present-day civilization.
Also, I learned many things about thirteen (13) legal categories for exceptionalities, namely:
Autism, Deaf-blindness, Deafness, Emotional Disturbance, Hearing Impairment, Intellectual
Disability, Multiple Disabilities, Orthopedic Impairment, Other Health Impairment, Specific
Learning Disability (Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia), Speech or Language Impairment,
Traumatic Brain Injury and Visual Impairment. I understand the historical foundation which was
established from 1902 until now and of course I was able to cope up with socio-cultural
foundation. I highly appreciated the importance of Special and Inclusive Education because with
that, every disabled individuals, vulnerable children and young people have equal rights and
opportunities to education with no regards of their race, religious belief, color, gender identity,
gender expression, physical disability, mental disability and family status or sexual.
Th speakers gave meaning to the Special Education and Inclusive Education.
Accordingly, Inclusive Education is the process of ensuring disabled children and other
vulnerable children and young people equal rights and opportunities to education. It is a process
towards access, participation and achievement for all in education while Special Education is an
educational program/service designed to meet the needs of children with special needs who
cannot profit from the general or regular education because of disabilities or exceptional abilities.
On the other hand, the visuals (PowerPoint Presentation) were not good for me. Yes, I
was able to cope up with what the speakers were discussing but how about those who have eye
problem when they can’t cope up easily because the visuals were not readable or shall we say, it
was blurry. Most especially, those listeners who were just relying on what they could read
because of having problem in their sense of hearing would probably not able to catch up the
discussion.
Talking about coordination, cooperation, collaboration, preparation and facilitation, well,
I could say that it was not good because there were so many instances that while the speakers
were discussing, there were members who talked and asked what to do next which in fact, it
showed that they were not ready. They were not prepared for they caused destruction to the focus
of the listeners.
To sum up, the seminar was still good because the speakers were able to define the
different foundations of Special and Inclusive Education. And of course, one thing I liked the
most is that they were able to apply the 4As method of presenting or reporting.
“Making School Inclusive”
During the class in Special and Inclusive Education last month of 2018, we had more
than five (5) reporters who reported on the “Making School Inclusive”. One of the reporters was
Mr. Lee, he was very engaging and it was interesting to note that his presentations was all fit to
his skills especially in his topic because he was able to demonstrate to us some of the sign
language used by the deaf and mute students and it amazed me for, I don’t even know few of
those signs. One thing I learned about how education was done and the fact that it was already
practiced even in prehistoric era, though it usually involved primitive methods like imitation. I
also realized that I was amazed of how many lessons I learned in high school were already
forgotten. The presentation made me realize the importance of Special and Inclusive Education
because according to the reporter, Inclusive Education acknowledges that all children can learn
and respects differences in children: age, gender, ethnicity, language, TB status, and etc.
Their objectives upon realizing the said seminar were to be able to understand what is
Inclusive Education and to be able to know how may it helps to everyone. And it was awesome
for they were able to really give the meaning of Inclusive Education.
The topic has been categorized into three sub-topics: (A) Creating Inclusive Cultures, (B)
Producing Inclusive Policies and (C) Evolving Inclusive Practices. According to them, to create
Inclusive Cultures was to include all students in learning together, to have multi-level, authentic
instruction for learners of diverse abilities, to build the community and meet the needs of
children with behavioral challenges, to provide support for the teachers and to have partners with
parents.
In producing Inclusive Policies, Alberta’s Education System has been proposed to build a
value-based approach on accepting responsibility to all children and students. Its mission was to
continue providing inclusive learning opportunities that has been evidenced in the Inclusive
Education Policy of today’s era. One way of evolving Inclusive Practices was through building
an inclusive classroom in any community which means implementing practices because with that
activity, all students, regardless of cognitive or academic level have opportunities to be included
in the general education classroom, participating in standard-based curriculum.
Speaking of their activity, I didn’t see any relevance to their topic and I felt like I was in
the midst of coping up of what was the connection of the conducted activity or the ice breaker to
the topic that they were discussing about. Also, their application was a kind of mind-blowing
worksheet because we were just given five (5) minutes to answer the four (4) essay questions.
They didn’t even think that formulating an answer for only one (1) question will already
consume so much time. But I was still amazed with their presentation because they were using
the 4As and I saw in their group that the cooperation and collaboration to each other, facilitation
and preparation were all there.
Upon witnessing the impressive introduction and superb performance of the reporters, I
am now expecting a good presentation from the next set. And of course, I am inspired to do my
best during my turn to make it at least close to their level or even better.
“Components of Special and Inclusive Education”