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INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN A WOULD-BE TEACHER TRAINING: METHODOLOGICAL ASPECT
© 2019
Demchenko Iryna Ivanovna, doctor of pedagogical sciences,
professor of the department of special education Uman State Pedagogical University named after Pavlo Tychyna (20301, Ukraine, Uman, Sadova street, 28, e-mail: [email protected])
Abstract. Ukraine as a prominent European state has introduced inclusive educational model anticipating a special training of teachers to work with children with special educational needs. Thus, one of the most urgent problems of today is to update the content, forms, methods, tools and technology of student education in higher educational institutions, taking into account trends in educational inclusion. The main objective of educational inclusion is a response to a wide range of children's needs in the school environment and beyond. The formation of inclusive education system is based on the principles of providing equal access to all categories of children to study in schools. It is also based on providing the appropriate conditions for their studies; ensuring their right to grow in a family environment and have access to all the resources of the local community; attracting parents to learning process for curriculum development based on personal and individual oriented approaches; adding additional resources for special educational needs of the child. Here we decline the effective training of would-be teachers and combining academic training of students with the learning the basics of professionalism, due to the need of using educational quasi-professional technology. Thus, we suggest quasi-professional algorithm to train students on the example of the course «Inclusive Education in School» (on the example of the curriculum at Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University).
Keywords: a would-be teacher training, inclusive education, students with disabilities, professional training, educational course, curriculum.
1НКЛЮЗИВНА ОСВ1ТА У ЩДГОТОВЦ1 МАЙБУТН1Х УЧИТЕЛ1В: МЕТОДОЛОГ1ЧНИЙ АСПЕКТ
© 2019
Демченко 1рина 1вашвна, доктор педагопчних наук, професор кафедри спещально! освети Уманський державний педагог1чний утверситет 1мет Павла Тичини (20301, Украна, Умань, вулиця Садова, 28, e-mail: [email protected])
Анотащя. Укра!на як визначна европейська кра!на, ввiвши в дш моделi шклюзивно! освети, надшила сво! зу-силля на виняткову тдготовку вчителiв до роботи з детьми з особливими осветшми потребами. Таким чином, одна з нагальних проблем сьогодш - де оновлення форм, методiв, засобiв та технологи тдготовки студенпв у закладах вищо! освети, беручи до уваги тренди та вимоги шклюзивно! освети, головна цшь яко! полягае у ввдповщносп широким потребам учшв в осветньому середовищi та поза його межами. Формування системи шклюзивно! освети ба-зуеться на принципах впровадження рiвного доступу вах детей до навчання в школ^ а також на облаштуванш умов для !х навчання; на забезпеченш !х прав зростати у ам'! та мати доступ до вах ресурав мюцево! громади; до залу-чення батьшв до навчального процесу для впровадження та розвитку навчального плану, який мае на меп залучен-ня особливого та особистюно зорiентованого тдходу; збшьшення додаткових можливостей для дней з особливими освiтнiми потребами. У статп пiдкреслена ефективнiстъ пiдготовки майбутшх учителiв та поеднання !х академiчно! пiдготовки з вивченням основ спецiальностi згiдно з потребою у використанш освiтнъо! квазi-професiйноi технологи. Це зорiентувало нас до опису та впровадження квазьпрофесшного алгоритму пiдготовки студенпв на прикладi дисдиплiни «1нклюзивна освгга» (на прикладi навчального плану, Уманський державний педагопчний унiверситет iменi Павла Тичини).
Ключовi слова: навчання майбутшх учителiв, iнклюзивна освiта, студенти з особливими осветшми потребами, професiйна тдготовка, навчальна дисдиплiна, навчальний план.
Problem solving in general and its connection with important scientific or practical tasks. The entrance of Ukraine into the world economic community led to the emergence, operation and development of the system of inclusive education, which should be accessible to every citizen whose social status, physical or intellectual infringement is of no importance. The increase of students with disabilities in the number of secondary schools led to the urgent need to intensify the development of methodology, theory and technology of inclusive education.
Analysis of recent researches and publications. We can find the main features of training school teachers in the research works of V. Bondar [1], N. Nychkalo [2], O. Savchenko [3], L. Khomich [4], M. Fitsula [5] and others. However, the training of teachers to work in terms of inclusive education needs further improvement.
Here it is urgent to underline that standard of higher education including qualifying characteristics of teachers indicates that a teacher must possess knowledge, skills, methods of teaching all subjects in the initial cycle and skillfully use them while dealing with pedagogical, educational, scientific and methodological problems; identify and develop abilities of children; form the culture of oral and written language; develop the necessary learning abilities and skills, all forms
of thinking; cultivate the love of learning; involve pupils to various types of personal and social activities.
We can see that the standard lacks requirements for inclusive competence of a school teacher. That's why the problem of training teachers to work in inclusive education deserves much attention. It's also important to mention that the functions of any teacher have significantly enlarged. That is, apart from the basic functions (didactic, educational and evolving), there are some others: the function of enlightening (informing the public and parents about positive inclusion); diagnostic function (diagnostics of capabilities and needs of the child); the function of correction (selection and conducting psychological and educational measures to correct or mitigate deficiencies of mental and physical development of children , their adaptation and socialization); and reflective function (development of the criteria and indicators for evaluating educational achievements of students, analysis of the effectiveness of the educational process and finding ways to adjustments). To perform these functions a teacher must have thorough knowledge of the subjects and methods of teaching at school.
Thus, under the conditions of implementation of inclusive education the process of training a would-be teacher gets a wider context. Professional a would-be primaryl teacher
training covers the system of knowledge in methodology of inclusive education and special pedagogical skills while methodical training is based on the teacher's possession of general and special developing technologies; the third psychological training function integrates the personal qualities of the teacher (empathy, tolerance, emotional support of another person, reflection, etc.).
To prepare a would-be teacher for such types of professional activity, our task is to give necessary knowledge, abilities and skills of inclusive education.
Despite the fact that the thesaurus of general, social and special education gives no concept of «inclusive education», there is an urgent need to define and justify it.
Formulation purposes of article (problem). Since education is interpreted as the science of specially organized purposeful and systematic activities to develop humans; the content, forms and methods of training, the concepts discussed above are the basis of inclusive education. The validity of our position is that according to the branches of constructive human activities (arts, sports, medicine, etc.) and the age and personal characteristics of its development, the structure of education consists of artistic, sporting, military, medical, social, correctional, rehabilitation and other variations. They appeared because of the need to differentiate didactic and education peculiarity in various categories of educational process. Inclusion is peculiar to these categories as well.
The main material with full justification of the received scientific results. Taking into account the importance of implementation of inclusive education in the studies we are to analyze exactly what subjects can help students form an inclusive competence to implement the expanded range of functions of professional activities.
We should note that by 2010 the peculiarities of inclusive education were studied fragmentally in the content of various disciplines. For example, some aspects of abnormal development of children, their diagnostics and specific training courses were parts of the contents of general psychological and pedagogical training «Fundamentals of Medical Knowledge and Health», «Anatomy and Physiology of Children with the Basics of Genetics», «General Psychology», «Developmental Psychology», «Fundamentals of Psychodiagnostics», «Education», and «Fundamentals of Educational Skills». Some questions of integral and inclusive education of children with special needs were revealed while studying such subjects as «Fundamentals of Defectology» and «Fundamentals of Special Education». Such partiality of problems coverage in the educational process at a comprehensive school with inclusive learning does not provide a holistic professional and personal training of would-be teachers to work with this category of children.
According to the decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (December 3, 2009, № 1482-r) «On approval of the actions for implementation of inclusive and integrated education in secondary schools till 2012», Ministry of Education and the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences were charged with including courses of «Teacher Education» and «Didactics of Inclusive Education» in the curriculum of higher educational institutions. In September 2010 the decree of Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine put the responsibility on the Department of Higher Education and Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine to implement this decree up to September 2011. However, there was no separate Letter of Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of Ukraine with specific data on this course (including the names of modules, the amount of hours, and the number of credits for a year of preparation). Therefore, having adjusted the name of the course, because of tautology seen (didactics is the science of teaching) we proposed to introduce a special course «Inclusive Education».
For effective training of would-be teachers to perform in terms of educational inclusion the educational process is to combine academic training of students with the learning the basics of professionalism, due to the need of using education-22
al quasi-professional technology [6]. O. Iefremova presented seven basic elements of simulation modeling of educational activities in teaching subjects of psychological cycle: 1) the problem; 2) the knowledge; 3) the student; 4) the teacher; 5) the analysis of the problem; 6) the outcome; 7) the interpretation [7, p. 265-266]. Extrapolating them on the area of professional activity of a teacher in terms of inclusive education, we believe that it is appropriate to add another component that would reflect effective collaboration (teamwork) of teachers, appropriate professionals, the administration of the institution, parents and students who share a common purpose - assistance in the implementation of child capabilities and preparing for independent living in the community. Adapting this contextual model to the features of professional activity of a teacher in terms of inclusive education, we suggest quasi-professional algorithm to train students on the example of the course «Inclusive Education in School».
1. Starting with the problem. The Professor offers the examples from real educational practice, notes the problem of the phased differentiation of children on the basis of inclusion:
The first phase is propaedeutic diagnostic. We identify the reasons that necessitate diagnostics, the objects and subjects of diagnostics and its goals, plans, objectives, criteria, indicators and methods.
The second phase is actual diagnostic. We implemented the diagnostic tasks performed by using a set of empirical methods for finding information.
The third phase is analytical. There is interpretation and analysis of information received (PMPC protocols, medical cards, personal affairs, the results of conversations with the doctor, parents or persons replacing them). At this level of the development of objects of diagnostics, we value and compare the facilities (baseline figures, real and necessary) and set a diagnosis and dependence between the factors that led to these levels. Educational diagnosis includes the following elements: a) assessment of the identified content of individual diagnosis of the object properties (information about the structure of the defect); b) assessment of the level of the object and its particular properties (characteristics of common disorders of child development and the existence of various complications); c) determination of the overall psychological and educational characteristics of the object of diagnosis.
The fourth phase is forecasting. Based on the diagnosis we determine a pedagogical outlook on the development of diagnostic program; developing individual educational trajectory; justified complex of measures of psychological and pedagogical, social, therapeutic, rehabilitative, corrective, and other types of work and the findings used to further design of the educational process.
The fifth phase is final. It provides feedback of the educational diagnosis inside and makes a storage and accumulation of psychological and educational information with recommendations for its use.
Students are encouraged to explore and learn the literature on development and individual characteristics of all students concerning a specific activity and characteristics of children with mental and physical characteristics involved in the educational process in school. They also need to identify common age, typological features and excellent personal development of children, to assess their knowledge, skills and degree of autonomy in education. According to this, the students are to perform the following tasks: to make entries in the individual card of a child development (pedagogical supervision) and make the conclusion on the results of this monitoring; make up a questionnaire for parents and using the scheme present the characterization of a student at the beginning of the school year. Performing of these tasks is discussed on a practical level in a classroom. Prepared materials are put into the folder - student portfolio.
2. From the team collaboration of specialists. The Professor focuses students' attention on the fact that for ev-
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ery child who has special educational needs, there is an individual program of development and the provision of educational services. A multidisciplinary team of specialists (psychiatrist, pediatrician, teacher, psychologist, speech therapist, social worker, etc.) with obligatory involvement of parents or persons substituting them to determine specific strategies presents the individual program of student development and educational approaches to training and development. It contains general information about the student, the system of supporting services, the types of necessary adaptation and modification of teaching materials and curriculum customized for the needs of the individual curriculum. Therefore, when we study «Main directions of differentiation and individualization of educational process in schools with inclusive education» students are invited for the algorithms of the program to make the individual development of children with special educational needs. Through simulation and role playing, they reflect the real and imaginary situations of correctional, educational, rehabilitation and therapeutic, social and developmental activities of specialists in their joint work and their work with the family of the student.
The results of students' teamwork are analyzed during specially organized discussions, which help to formulate concrete proposals as to the improvement of an individual program of child development, outlining solutions to the goal. Then on the results of collective cooperation we issue a final individual child development program, which hereinafter is approbated by students during school practice.
According to the designed individual program of the development of children with special educational needs, the Professor encourages students to develop an individual educational route of each student (differentiated educational program the design of which is specifically defined by educational needs, individual abilities, capabilities of students, as well as existing standards of educational content. It is realized with the help of self determination and pedagogical support of teachers. The development of such individual education program takes place during psychological and pedagogical consultation of school, where the tutor of the student and subject teachers (music, physical education, foreign language, etc.) psychologist, social worker and the child's parents take place. Students are encouraged to join in groups (7-8 people), choose the role, read the contents of the curriculum and supplementary materials. According to the algorithms, the students make individual curriculum for the student with special educational needs, which is based on the educational programs for students of grades 1-4 in schools with Ukrainian as the language of instruction, approved by Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
In conclusion, the representative of each team presents a worked out individual training program, explaining the choice of strategies for teaching. After discussion, and perhaps a certain adjustment the program is approved and the thematic plan of the teacher's work is determined.
If necessary, the individual curriculum for a separate child is worked out (it is the curriculum of the student, which defines: the list of subjects and consistency of their study; the number of hours allocated to study each subject per grade, the number of weekly hours and additional hours for individual and group classes, optional courses and activities, etc.) [2]. Such curriculum is based on the «General curriculum for secondary schools», which is adapted to the abilities of the child with special educational needs. The students are to design lesson plans and fragments of classes that include individual goals and objectives (educational achievements, the orientation of corrective and developing work) for a child with special educational needs in the general context of the lesson. The drafts of the lessons must be tested during the practical classes, which occur in the form of quasi professional activities: students present fragments of the offered classes, performing the role of either of teachers or students. During the reflexive phase of practical classes students discuss, analyze, evaluate the results of testing._
3. From the educational knowledge. The Professor directs the students to learn basic concepts of methodology of teaching in schools, which are based on the principles of individually oriented and competence-based approach. It leads to a clear definition of the effective component of learning the content of school education and peculiarities of inclusive education in school that requires the use of special techniques and technologies.
For example, while studying «Pedagogical technologies of teaching subjects in school» students find the relevant literature, make a map of the effectiveness of each technology. Then, each student receives an individual task - to describe the chosen technology with the example of one topic within a particular subject (according to the curriculum). In addition, students conduct drafts of the classes with the appropriate technological support. Like the previous scheme, such drafts of the classes are analyzed during the specially organized discussion. It helps to formulate concrete proposals for improvement of a technology according to the educational needs of all students. After analyzing all technics, the students choose the best technologies and draw them in the form of «posts» (set of posters or slides).
When studying the issue «The lesson as the main form of organization of inclusive education» the professor integrates students into groups and offers to make out the drafts of lessons in a general inclusive class. In the process of work, the students make up the draft of the lesson, in which they integrate learning material of general and special (correctional) programs so that children with different states of mental, physical and intellectual development studied similar themes on the same lesson. But the level of learning must be available for each student.
The algorithm of modeling the lesson in inclusive classroom responds to the structure of the lessons organization and their conducting in ungraded schools where the teacher organizes joint activities in turns with different groups of children in the class.
The teacher focuses students' attention on the fact that the training material of the lesson should meet the requirements of the recommended educational program for the students in the class. The explanation of new material for students with features in development should be differentiated by the degree of difficulty that should be based on the instruction cards with the description of systematic actions of the students. Consolidation of the received knowledge and skills of every student is performed by using didactic material: handout cards, exercises with training manuals and textbooks. Such modeling of lessons forms conditions for common training of any grade students.
Next practical class, the students demonstrate the drafts of the lessons with appropriate technological support. While doing it they perform the role of a teacher, students, or colleagues. Conducted lessons are analyzed stage-by-stage: 1) self-analysis of the lesson by the teacher; 2) teachers commenting on the conducted classes; 3) students expressing of their impressions and wishes; 4) cooperation of subjects of educational process for making decisions in order to improve the conducted lesson.
After that the corrected and properly designed plans and drafts of the lessons should be preserved in the so-called folder with documents «Portfolio of the teacher».
4. From the student. The Professor actualizes individual characteristics, such as creative development of students in different kinds of constructive activities. In particular, while learning the issue «teacher as the organizer of the educational process» each student has a task to make an individual map of the trajectory of creative development of a particular student, in which he diagnoses his creative abilities, interests, motivation for employment with a specific activity, the activity in the creative work. Then, he / she makes the corrective-developing program that can be fully realized during the break, after school, on holidays, weekends, i.e. outside the classroom (clubs, extracurricular activities, collective creative workshops, training, etc.). It is clear that the student
should know the peculiarities of all students in a class and be able to communicate with them regularly. Therefore, to fulfill this task better the students on practice choose the class in which they had their practice as the object of studying.
After the fulfillment of this task, the students present the materials and offer concrete ways to creative development of students in certain kinds of constructive activities while discussing everything during the practical class. The group discusses and corrects the worked out materials. Then, the corrected and tested materials are given to the tutor of the class.
5. From the teacher. The Professor sets the problem of preparation of would-be teachers to work with students with special needs in terms of inclusive education. Thus, while studying the issue «Preparation of school teachers to organize inclusive education» the students have the task to define the criteria of this preparation. On one of the practical classes, students justify their own set of criteria and in cooperation with the Professor determine the most optimal ones, for example:
- Diagnostic (the ability to determine the age and individual characteristics of students; the zone of their proximal development; the level of training, training opportunities, the peculiarities of socialization and adaptation of students in the group; the level of formation of personality traits, etc.);
- Forecasting (modeling of the system of training and educational work; the development of individual trajectory of students; the style of relations in the children's team; setting of long-term and short-term goals and objectives);
- Constructive (the ability to model different types of lessons, classes, educational activities and the use of visual aids, equipment and modern educational technology; to choose effective methods, techniques and means of work; to develop programs of interaction with students and their parents and peers);
- Correctional and developmental (based on the knowledge of the laws of development of persons with mental and physical defects. A prospective teacher should be able to: organize the educational process in combination with correctional and developmental work; work out correction and developing a program for the student or group of students with similar problems; model group lessons or private lessons; create conditions for social and labor rehabilitation, social integration of children with psych-physical disorders);
- Informational (the ability to use catalogues, files, tailor the information, prepare summaries, abstracts, outlines, adopt necessary educational content of textbooks, manuals, periodicals, electronic media in order to implement educational and developmental objectives, promote pedagogical knowledge, etc.);
- Communicative (the ability to establish contact with students, colleagues, parents, build relations on the principles of humanism, tolerance and respect, inspire confidence in students, parents, colleagues, build effective interaction, find the most urgent in the material for learning);
- Controlling and evaluating (the ability to monitor the work of students; to use of criteria and standards of evaluation of academic achievements; to observe the progress of each student on his own path of development; to keep records of individual growth of students and school documentation).
Then another task is set. It is self-diagnosis and diagnosis of readiness of a particular student to organize inclusive education on the example of a practical class conducted by him according to one of the defined criteria. In addition, each student makes a table that indicates the level of preparation for each criterion. The criteria can be low, satisfactory, or high. After this procedure, the results obtained by each student are compared. Then we can see an objective picture of the actual level of students' readiness for the organization of inclusive schooling.
6. From educational analysis of the problem. Unlike the first of the suggested schemes, in this case the problem is given not by the Professor, but the students who actualize educational knowledge when analyzing the practice of im-24
plementation of inclusive education in school. Thus, studying the methodology and management of implementation of inclusive education for grades 1-4, the students during their passive teaching practice attend classes in the school of inclusive education; keep a diary of observations, which record the methodological difficulties that appear in the work of teachers. In the same diary they analyze the possible causes of these problems and together with the teacher they suggest different ways to overcome them. After having school practice the students organize the conference, where they actualize common methodological mistakes or problems that occur in the work of practicing teacher. Then every student formulates methodological guidelines in writing as a kind of solutions to specific methodological problems. These materials are placed in the folder «portfolio of the group», which can be used for the preparation of lesson plans and drafts, term papers, diploma projects, etc.
7. From the result. When learning the issue «Psycho-pedagogical monitoring of quality of inclusive education of pupils» on the basis of the analysis of practices and implementation of educational inclusion and a developed structure of psycho-pedagogical monitoring, the students are encouraged to work out a system of monitoring psychological and pedagogical status of the child in the dynamics of mental development. The Professor notices that the monitoring system should include a specific set of test instruments and the system of registration of subjects progress in the educational system in order to collect and analyze the information on certain areas, such as: the dynamics of student development compared to previous inspections; the dynamics of student development compared with students of their group; guidelines for the improvement of the teacher's work; recommendations to improve family education; the proposals of modeling of adaptive educational environment and others. During the practical class, which is conducted in the form quasi-professional activity, students conduct psycho-pedagogical monitoring and then they record the data in the monitoring card of the child (class).
Conclusions of the research and perspectives of further exploration of this direction. The results of the monitoring enable would-be teachers to determine: the trajectory of individual development of each student in the previous years; long-term (for the entire period of study), medium-term (for the school year) and short-term (within a particular topic of the lesson) teaching perspectives; the effectiveness of the teacher's work. The gained material students discuss together with their professor, they identify deficiencies and after that they place the improved material in the folder «Electronic portfolio of the teacher». This material may be suitable for active teaching practice and further professional activities.
As a conclusion, we can say that for the formation of disposition of would-be teachers to perform their professional duties in inclusive education on the professional, methodical and psychological levels it is advisable to introduce a special course «Inclusive Education in School» in the higher education institution. There we can use such algorithm of contextual learning: from a problem; from a team collaboration of experts; from educational knowledge; from the student; from the teacher; from pedagogical analysis of the problem; from the outcome; from the interpretation.
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