“For the majority of students with learning disabilities, the
least restrictive environment for all or most of the school day is the regular
education classroom attended by their same-age peers. The movement toward full
inclusion of all students with disabilities in regular classrooms, however, has
many professionals and advocates for students with learning disabilities
worried. They think that although the full-inclusion movement is based on
strong beliefs and has the best intentions at heart, little research supports
it.” (Heward, 2010, para. 1).
Students with disabilities are being mainstreamed into the regular
education classroom within today’s educational school systems. The inclusion of these students presents many
challenges for regular education teachers.
Educators strive to accommodate to the individual needs of all students
within their classroom; however, many teachers are not equipped with the
knowledge and experiences to handle students with disabilities within the
regular education classroom.
As a regular education teacher with a master’s degree in special
education, I feel it necessary to expand the knowledge base of the inclusion
impacts on students, as well as educators. An educator’s attitude toward inclusion is
critical in order for successful implementation of inclusion based
classrooms. Collaboration between
regular education teachers and special education teachers also proves to be a
large component to the success of an inclusion program. The purpose of this study is to identify the
attitudes and perspectives of regular education teachers and special education
teachers, as well as ways in which inclusion practice can be improved within the
early childhood environment.
“The collective message of research on outcomes for students with
learning disabilities in inclusive classrooms and other settings is consistent
with the findings for students with other disabilities: the location in which a
student is taught is not as important as the quality of instruction that
student receives.” (Heward, 2010,
para. 4). This emphasizes the
importance of further research on the impact of inclusion settings on disabled
students as well as teachers’ attitudes toward this type of classroom
setting.
References
