What Instructional Leaders Need to Know About the Effects of Inclusion

Abstract

Effective school administrators and teachers are those who provide the least restrictive learning environments for all students. The main goal of this study was to analyze the effects of inclusive science education on the general education population of middle school students' scientific conceptual understandings. The study was designed as a quasi-experimental model and conducted in a middle school in a large urban school district in Midwestern US. Approximately 4% of students in the school were receiving special education services. The participants in the study were selected through non-random selection. The participants of this study included 20 students without disabilities in each classroom with a total number of 120 students from a total of six different middle school classrooms. The study included two classrooms (one inclusive and one non-inclusive) for each grade level (6, 7, and 8). The conceptual change of students without disabilities was measured using the Density Assessment, which included 20 multiple choice questions. SPSS program was used for data analyses. Paired samples t-test and a multivariate group analysis test were conducted to investigate significant differences on students' conceptual understandings. The findings showed that the effect of inclusive education was significant and positive on the conceptual understanding of students without disabilities in inclusive science classrooms.

Primary and Secondary Pre-Service Teachers’ Attitudes towards Inclusive Education

“…A study examining the consequences of separate schooling for children with special educational needs (SEN), demonstrated that children with SEN experience little to no positive effects [8]. Additionally, children with SEN educated in mainstream schools do better academically and socially than comparable students in special non-inclusive settings [9,7]. Blackorby and colleagues [5] established that SEN students who spent more time in inclusive classrooms had fewer absences, performed closer to grade level than peers in special needs schools, and obtained higher test achievement scores.…”

The Primary School Moral Education Plan in Slovenia Ten Years after Its Introduction

“…It should also be noted that, with the legal introduction of the concept of inclusion (PCSNA, 2000), the number of students with the status of student with special needs has increased significantly over the last two decades (Smid, 2016), and that some regulation of the processes and behaviours in this area could also be included in the school moral education plan. Inclusive classrooms also have a positive effect on the conceptual understanding of inclusion of students without disabilities (Demirdag, 2017). In line with the aim of the legislative changes of 2008, it would be reasonable to expect schools to integrate and systematically include ways of solving current moral education problems in their moral education plans, thus expanding their content beyond the prescribed content areas.…”