Today we were treated to four presentations of papers. For this posting, you have the option of commenting on any or all the topics and bringing in any of your related ideas and experiences. The first paper dealt with the highly ethical conflict of inclusion of students with learning/physical disabilities in the regular classroom and the concept of utilitarianism. The second paper looked at First Nations education and what can be done about the huge gap in high school graduation rates both on reserves and overall in Canada. The third paper explored how to promote multicultural education and gave some fine examples of student responses to Western teaching practices. Lastly, we learned about another ethical approach to education from antiquity, that of Epictetus, a
Greco-Roman Stoic, who sees teaching as putting the students' best interests first, emphasizing a practical approach to education, less performance-based than developmental.
Just a few reminders: first, in two weeks, your blog entries will be due. Hopefully you are saving them in one Word document, dated chronologically. Feel free to edit or add to postings before you submit. I am only grading what you send me. Secondly, the following week, July 29, three lesson plans and their rationales will be due. The group lesson plan we worked on in class can be one of those. You can submit a plan identical to your group members' plan or take the ideas you discussed in your group and develop it in your own way. The other two plans should be original, developed by you. Please submit these as one document by e-mail on July 29. If you still feel you would like to discuss the structure of a lesson plan, I'll be happy to stay later next week after class.
Last but not least, presenters for next week, July 15, should e-mail me their papers and discussion questions by 6 pm Wed. before class. Stay cool!
I want to comment on the first presentation. I think it is near impossible for one teacher to successfully accomodate a classroom of mixed learning/physical disabilities. I have mixed feelings on having a mixed classroom, but what I think stands out the most for me is when students are divided based on learning/physical disabilities, the "other" (categorizing) is created and can have a very negative effect on the student(s) for years to come. I don't know what is the right or wrong solution. But I guess that's the question: what's the most ethical method of organizing our students? Are we just setting up some of our students for failure, possibly creating a stigma they will have to live with the rest of their lives? In all the schools I have been in all the students with learning/physical disabilities were segregated in some way or another. As stated in class I don't know who it affects the most.
ReplyDeleteI found the presentations in the first week to be quite informative and well done. I was particularly drawn to the very first presentation that discussed the merit of having special needs students included in mainstream classrooms. This is a controversial topic and there are certainly valid points on both sides of this hotly contested issue. As a teacher I am certainly biased, and I find myself of the opinion that when such cases distract from the learning of other children in the class, then perhaps it is not desirable to adopt a policy of inclusion. I liked the point that was made about having an area or room designated for special needs students in which they may spend a portion of their school day. Then, when appropriate circumstances arise, these kids can join the rest of the class and be (hopefully) welcomed by their peers as classmates. This would address the concerns of those who worry for the ‘typical’ kids in the class whose learning may be negatively affected by certain behaviours, while also allowing for these special needs students to be valued members of the classroom community. Of course this idea costs money, and budgetary constraints in this day and age would likely render this idea unfeasible.
ReplyDeleteJuly 10 2010 Vegas Ethical Pondering
ReplyDeleteThe culture of Las Vegas is very interesting; their main concentration of production is entertainment. Within the city there is an overwhelming feeling of the grandiose and extravagant where every desire is met and boundaries are pushed.
Very few times did I come across a situation where I was asked to adhere to a rule but when I did it was in very strange circumstances seemingly just above trivial. In a world of entertainment lines become very important, waiting your turn, a few times I was sternly asked to step back behind the line and wait my turn to come to the window or counter. In a land where you can smoke and drink next to a baby while blowing your savings, adherence to lines seems rather trivial.
There is something to be said about the subculture of fit and beautiful (both male and female) performers in Vegas. One show sticks out in my mind where the stage performers all wore ridiculously forced smiles and a man balanced another man atop his head on just his palm. This show epitomizes the ethical issues in a land where the main concentration of production is entertainment, by product human misery; everyone is Vegas serves or entertains guests often risking life and limb performing some ridiculous stunt or swallowing ones pride and repeatedly night after night dancing around bare breasted with a ridiculous forced smile on their face. I could feel these performers misery; it was in their eyes I felt pity for them. Did I get up and walk out? Hell no, it was way too entertaining and I was way too drunk to let my moral compass land anywhere but south.
I was very intrigued by all of the presentations this week. I think that they were all very well done ladies.
ReplyDeleteI want to comment specifically on the two presentations that touched on teaching students of different backgrounds. I feel that as teachers it is impossible for us to be fully aware and helpful to students who come from different backgrounds or ethnicities. I feel that it is important to be sensitive to their different needs, but I do not think that we can be fully aware of these needs as people who do not come from that background and have those experiences.
I truly appreciated seeing things from the point of view of Amy who shared with us her experiences in a class where the teacher did not fully understand her cultural background. This is something that I hope to learn more about as I progress in my career so that I can work to better understand the needs of my students.
At my school, there have been instances where students have told me that they were unable to complete their homework because they were forced to work the night before to help pay the bills at home or take care of their younger siblings because their parents did not come home. These are situations where I obviously feel for the students. but as someone who never experienced those types of situations in my childhood I cannot fully emphasize with them.
I want to thank the presenters this week for opening my eyes to topics that I had otherwise not considered fully.
I agree with Kim’s statement that it is “near impossible for one teacher to successfully accommodate a classroom of mixed learning…”
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the importance of equality and equal consideration, but what of non-maleficence, beneficence and fidelity? (MacLachlan 2010, p. 142-143). As much as we have a need to promote equality and equal consideration, we have an obligation (fidelity) to the ‘normal’ learners and ‘gifted’ learners that is not being honored. I believe that in this politically correct climate we are ignoring the impact of highly disruptive behaviors in the classroom and favoring equality over non-maleficence. An autistic child that screams and acts out in a classroom has a negative effect on the well being of the other children. We have a responsibility to provide a safe and nurturing environment (beneficence) for everyone.
Some may argue that we must be guided by principles of inclusion, and that learning patience and understanding for those who are different is an important goal of social learning, but then we use timeouts to separate the ‘problem child’ from the group, or ask the other students to leave the classroom if the behavior progresses to acts of violence. How does this benefit anyone? We don’t include Kindergarteners in our Grade 6 classrooms because we understand the social-developmental differences between age groups. We have no problem separating children based on age, (this is partly based on our expectations of where they are expected to be developmentally and socially at a certain age) and these different groups of children co-exist within the same school.
What about a student’s ability to perform academically? We all know that academic performance is a marker for future success, like it or not. Are we not limiting future academic opportunities for so-called ‘normal’ and ‘gifted’ learners because we cannot give them the time and attention they deserve? They have needs too.
I thought that the presentations in class were done well also. I wanted to talk about the first nations graduation issue. I grew up living in an area that is close to the Musquem reserve and had many first nations people in my elementary school and a few on my soccer team growing up. They definitely did not care about school the same way that we do. There was always a band function that was keeping them from school. I was also able to be part of some of those functions and had an earned respect of their culture and lifestyle choices. This band is located close to the fraser river so they have always had a big fishing influence in their culture for sustaining their living. I remember that some of my friends from school who were already working with their families on the fishing boat at a young age. For them to finish highschool meant that they were away from the boat during fishing season and they needed to help their families. This also meant that they were the envy of some of us because they had the money to buy nice cars and motorcycles. This of course can come at a price. I also knew of a few of these friends who had been killed on the job due to the dangerous nature of working a fishing boat on the Fraser river. I also would like to say that another of my friends from that reserve was one of the only ones to graduate from high school. I don't know if he was praised for doing this by all of his people. It was more something that he wanted to prove to himself that he could do it.
ReplyDeleteIn the paper on Epictetus I thought it was great to see how eductational values from antiquity are still relevant today. One of the big ideas I got from this was the idea of putting yourselves in other peoples shoes before you make judgements about them. It is truly the immature person who does not consider all of the relevant information contributing to who we are and what we base our attitudes beliefs and opinions on. It would be easy for a "Noble" to cast judgement on a "Peasant" who stole a loaf of bread for survival. In a democratic society where all people are said to have a voice and there is a sense of caring and empathy for all then equal rights should be a fundamental right for each member of society regardless of class system. Understanding that this peasant may not have the tools to be able to get bread then society needs to be able to recognize this problem and take steps to help people in this predicament.
I would like to discuss article one "Diversity in classroom". In my practicum for Special Education Assistant Certificate at Dogwood elementary school in Surrey school district. I found out that most of the classes have many special needs students with a variety of disability and ESL students along with other regular students. My point here each of us will face this combination in elementary or in secondary school. So for the teacher ethics is suppose to be with him/her always disregard the students situation in the classroom. It is a challenge to teach different students with different learning styles and needs. There are many facilities and specialized staff at each school to help different learners to understand what is going on in the education process in the student's daily activities. So here, the required ethics from teacher to be professional with colleagues, parents, and different students and also to meet the code of teacher ethics of BC. In this frame of ethics, that teacher can manage to reach all of her students and work with them to teach them. Also through classroom setting and utilization of Audio-Visio resources and other educational resources available in the school, she can create a quite environment for all of her students and enhance their social interactions. At different ages of students in the school, there is a variety of changes in their needs from the teacher regarding their emotional, social, physical, and cognitive skills. For elementary school students, these little guys are in emotional and social needs from their teacher which is completely different from high school students as they are cynical in many things, so I believe that elementary school teacher can reach her students and their achieve education in the frame of her ethics forward her own mission (as a teacher) and school mission.
ReplyDeleteHi Everyone,
ReplyDeleteI would like to respond to the first paper topic presentation. First, I would like to say good job on your presentation! Yours and all of the other presentations were interesting and informative. Previously I have never given much thought to the highly ethical conflict that exists in the inclusion of students who have learning and/or physical disabilities. This presentation was an eye-opener to the topic of learning and/or physical disabilities in a regular classroom and the concept of utilitarianism. It is in my opinion that it would be almost impossible for an educator to be able to focus on the individual needs of each student. As discussed in my group for the questions provided for discussion, we agreed that from a utilitarianism standpoint, it would be nearly impossible for Mrs. X to ethically fulfill her school’s mission statement. The statement states that it strives to meet the needs of every individual in an environment where all can learn. This mission statement would be nearly impossible to meet because every student in the classroom has such vast and different needs making it very difficult for an educator to meet the individual needs of each student. In my point of view, it would be best to hire more educators per classroom that could accommodate the needs of every student; however, this would also be nearly impossible with all the education budget cuts. It is difficult to say what would be the best solution to meet the needs of students with learning and/or physical disabilities. My group and I also discussed the possibility of separating and putting together students with similar learning and/or physical disabilities. However, this can also cause future problems when one is being “divided up” from others. Separating students can result in negative emotions to arise from the students who are split up and result in unhappy students. Although my group and I had a good discussion we did not reach a conclusion on how to solve this difficult problem.
2010-07-14
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone so far. The papers were great and thanks to the people who went first. All of the papers gave me food for thought and new perspectives. The ideas around inclusion of students with special needs and the ethical implications were really interesting to me. To be honest I’d never even thought that including students with special needs in education could be negative. After hearing the voices of experience in our class, I have a totally new perspective. I think I tend towards the model that integrates a bit of both. That is part of the student’s time is spent in the classroom with the other students and part of their time is separate working one on one or in a small group with their SEA in the same room or in a different room. In a perfect world everyone’s needs can and should be met, especially in the realm of education. Sadly, this isn’t a perfect world. Our provincial government has opted for a policy of inclusion which could be Utopian if they were willing to put the money where their mouth is. It’s too bad that each year the government cuts funding to special needs students and teachers become more and more overwhelmed with the responsibility of trying to fulfill an impossible mandate. I think in an ideal world the mandate of inclusion would fall under the notion of non-harming and the greater good. This policy in reality overburdens already exhausted teachers, frustrates parents of all children and leaves many children bereft of an education at the end of the day. It also pushes parents towards private education undermining the current public system. (Sounds like a conspiracy?) If inclusion is to be successful, it must be funded. Otherwise teachers end up with classes so diverse and problematic that it is near impossible for anyone’s needs to be met.
Our conversations this week as to the ways in which inclusion can have the greatest possible good for the students that it aims to serve was very interesting. I have often considered over the last few years of working with students with various barriers to learning in a support role, what is the best thing that I can do to aid this students learning. Often by aspiring to meet the goal of inclusion, I have felt that I was trying very hard to have the children I work with constantly failing to meet the goals of those around them. When I use the model of Utilitarianism I find some of the simple concepts at odds with the inclusion goals of the school board I work for. For when the current system of creating a classroom environment in which all students are supposed to be able to belong we are not recognizing the distinct abilities individuals have. There by we are not meeting the need of either those that are at the top or bottom in a hierarchy of ability. In an attempt to recognize this we proscribe different tactics for teachers to attempt to differentiate the teaching or the lesson preparations iall in a way that fails to recognize different abilities. Even a classroom setting where a teacher might have a support worker or two to provide additional aid does not recognize goals that are of the greatest utility to the greatest number of students. In some senses we are simply warehousing children with disabilities in a classroom where they are either ignored or simply patronized with various forms of busy work that fails to consider other options for leering that might more richly benefit the educational realities of the child. At the same time we are squandering precious resources from other students, as a teacher must provide support for that student splitting their attention from the other students in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that when you take a look at the greater good of all students it is possible that specialized classrooms might actually meet more of the common needs of all students.
I was also very drawn into the discussion on first nations and the question of moral responsibility or relativity as the case may be. One subject that we failed to look at was the institutional and governmental policy of assimilation and how that was seen at he time as serving “the greater good” of first nations people. That he needed to fall under the moral responsibility of the crown to care for them for they were judged to not be able to care for themselves. The crown assumed “fiduciary responsibility” for first nations people on moral grounds that they wanted to protect them. I’m simplifying but it was from a place of sound moral judgment given the ideas of the time that the crown was actually doing a good thing. If you compare the policy south of the border in which genocide was the policy of the day. I know my history and that I am simplifying it but I want to look at the idea of when we judge actions of the past by today’s ethical outlook, if we can be fair. And further to that end what responsibilities or even what power do we have to avail the wrongs of the past. We can’t simply apologize but neither can we spend generations seeking to make amends. Recognizing the need to help first nations find an economically sustainable position in our society requires education. The aboriginal enhancement agreement that was put into place this year seeks to recognize the specifics of some of those desires in our recognition of distinct needs of first nations student s but when we constantly keep returning the responsibility to the schools to make these children successful I feel we keep maintaining that patriarchal hypocrisy that started the problems.
Our conversations this week as to the ways in which inclusion can have the greatest possible good for the students that it aims to serve was very interesting. I have often considered over the last few years of working with students with various barriers to learning in a support role, what is the best thing that I can do to aid this students learning. Often by aspiring to meet the goal of inclusion, I have felt that I was trying very hard to have the children I work with constantly failing to meet the goals of those around them. When I use the model of Utilitarianism I find some of the simple concepts at odds with the inclusion goals of the school board I work for. For when the current system of creating a classroom environment in which all students are supposed to be able to belong we are not recognizing the distinct abilities individuals have. There by we are not meeting the need of either those that are at the top or bottom in a hierarchy of ability. In an attempt to recognize this we proscribe different tactics for teachers to attempt to differentiate the teaching or the lesson preparations iall in a way that fails to recognize different abilities. Even a classroom setting where a teacher might have a support worker or two to provide additional aid does not recognize goals that are of the greatest utility to the greatest number of students. In some senses we are simply warehousing children with disabilities in a classroom where they are either ignored or simply patronized with various forms of busy work that fails to consider other options for leering that might more richly benefit the educational realities of the child. At the same time we are squandering precious resources from other students, as a teacher must provide support for that student splitting their attention from the other students in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that when you take a look at the greater good of all students it is possible that specialized classrooms might actually meet more of the common needs of all students.
I was also very drawn into the discussion on first nations and the question of moral responsibility or relativity as the case may be. One subject that we failed to look at was the institutional and governmental policy of assimilation and how that was seen at he time as serving “the greater good” of first nations people. That he needed to fall under the moral responsibility of the crown to care for them for they were judged to not be able to care for themselves. The crown assumed “fiduciary responsibility” for first nations people on moral grounds that they wanted to protect them. I’m simplifying but it was from a place of sound moral judgment given the ideas of the time that the crown was actually doing a good thing. If you compare the policy south of the border in which genocide was the policy of the day. I know my history and that I am simplifying it but I want to look at the idea of when we judge actions of the past by today’s ethical outlook, if we can be fair. And further to that end what responsibilities or even what power do we have to avail the wrongs of the past. We can’t simply apologize but neither can we spend generations seeking to make amends. Recognizing the need to help first nations find an economically sustainable position in our society requires education. The aboriginal enhancement agreement that was put into place this year seeks to recognize the specifics of some of those desires in our recognition of distinct needs of first nations student s but when we constantly keep returning the responsibility to the schools to make these children successful I feel we keep maintaining that patriarchal hypocrisy that started the problems.
Our conversations this week as to the ways in which inclusion can have the greatest possible good for the students that it aims to serve was very interesting. I have often considered over the last few years of working with students with various barriers to learning in a support role, what is the best thing that I can do to aid this students learning. Often by aspiring to meet the goal of inclusion, I have felt that I was trying very hard to have the children I work with constantly failing to meet the goals of those around them. When I use the model of Utilitarianism I find some of the simple concepts at odds with the inclusion goals of the school board I work for. For when the current system of creating a classroom environment in which all students are supposed to be able to belong we are not recognizing the distinct abilities individuals have. There by we are not meeting the need of either those that are at the top or bottom in a hierarchy of ability. In an attempt to recognize this we proscribe different tactics for teachers to attempt to differentiate the teaching or the lesson preparations iall in a way that fails to recognize different abilities. Even a classroom setting where a teacher might have a support worker or two to provide additional aid does not recognize goals that are of the greatest utility to the greatest number of students. In some senses we are simply warehousing children with disabilities in a classroom where they are either ignored or simply patronized with various forms of busy work that fails to consider other options for leering that might more richly benefit the educational realities of the child. At the same time we are squandering precious resources from other students, as a teacher must provide support for that student splitting their attention from the other students in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that when you take a look at the greater good of all students it is possible that specialized classrooms might actually meet more of the common needs of all students.
I was also very drawn into the discussion on first nations and the question of moral responsibility or relativity as the case may be. One subject that we failed to look at was the institutional and governmental policy of assimilation and how that was seen at he time as serving “the greater good” of first nations people. That he needed to fall under the moral responsibility of the crown to care for them for they were judged to not be able to care for themselves. The crown assumed “fiduciary responsibility” for first nations people on moral grounds that they wanted to protect them. I’m simplifying but it was from a place of sound moral judgment given the ideas of the time that the crown was actually doing a good thing. If you compare the policy south of the border in which genocide was the policy of the day. I know my history and that I am simplifying it but I want to look at the idea of when we judge actions of the past by today’s ethical outlook, if we can be fair. And further to that end what responsibilities or even what power do we have to avail the wrongs of the past. We can’t simply apologize but neither can we spend generations seeking to make amends. Recognizing the need to help first nations find an economically sustainable position in our society requires education. The aboriginal enhancement agreement that was put into place this year seeks to recognize the specifics of some of those desires in our recognition of distinct needs of first nations student s but when we constantly keep returning the responsibility to the schools to make these children successful I feel we keep maintaining that patriarchal hypocrisy that started the problems.
Great job to the first presenters! All were topics that brought up important educational issues and were well explored and explained, so thank you to you all.
ReplyDeleteI would like to comment on the second presentation about First Nations Education and how we can increase the graduation rate. This topic was of particular interest to me as I am hoping to head up north next year to teach and have been trying to find ways of being effective in a classroom that will likely be vastly different from anything I have experienced to date.
The idea of using instruction methods that are familiar to the students is one that I have been exploring so far; ideas of hands on learning, making the information relevant to their world, and using a story-based approach seem to me to be instructional methods with good chances of success.
What hadn’t occurred to me was the idea that education might not be an accomplishment sought after by all students. Family and social commitments as well as pressure from friends to not conform to the European model of success had never crossed my mind as contributing factors to the high dropout rate. The question is now, how do we convince these students that education is important, that it can help them to better their community, to preserve First Nations ways of life rather than threaten them? Is this even true?
I believe in the importance of education; that a society of critical thinkers and problem solvers is more powerful than sheep being led, but am I simply a product of a European family of teachers? Is a negative view of education a product of the way that European education was forced on the First Nations people? I think that these are important questions to explore in order to effectively teach in a diverse classroom and I thank you for bringing them to my attention.
~b
I, as many others have, have chosen to write about the first presentation. Before the presentation, discussion, and reading everyone’s responses I was really unaware that people disagreed with inclusion. It has been really interesting to me to read people’s points against inclusion, something I feel is more beneficial than not. I think the social skills learned in school are far more beneficial than the information, so inclusion of varying educational levels only seems right. While I do think consideration of a children’s academic success is a must, I strongly disagree with the statement, “We all know that academic performance is a marker for future success, like it or not”. I do believe our jobs as teachers are very important and we do impart valuable knowledge, but I do not think that students’ elementary and secondary grades are the most significant marker of future success. SO many students do struggle to do well in school, but have success in the post secondary lives and vice versa, many who succeed in school aren’t so successful in life. Maybe an explanation of how you measure future success would help me to understand this statement. If success is seen as post secondary education, I think it is important to note that only twenty percent of secondary students enter post secondary school; focusing all of our efforts there seems wasted. I think helping students to be well rounded, accepting, critical thinkers is an important role of the teacher. Including all types of learners does exactly this. I do credit part of my strong views towards inclusion of students with special needs to the strong opinions of my parents, who are both teachers in the public school system, but in discussing it this week, I am sure that this is still where I stand. My dad often tells of his experiences, both as a school aged person without the presence of high needs children versus being a teacher of these students. He speaks of how his initial reaction to such students was fear, something that now seems ridiculous. He really noticed the benefit of inclusion to his students when one day he saw an autistic boy sit down beside one of the toughest grade twelve’s he has taught, Reggie. Knowing this kid had a rough reputation; he sat and watched the scene in the cafeteria. The grade eight boy reached over and grabbed one of sandwiches off the stack of sandwiches Reggie had for lunch each day. Ready to step in, my dad was shocked by the preceding events; Reggie leaned over, asked if the sandwich was good and offered him another one. Reggie was able to understand that this child didn’t have the mental capacity or social skills to know that he was out of line and he responded with respect for that. I am confident that this scene would have been very different had this been the first special needs person Reggie had encountered.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to everyone who presented, all of you did a great job! I would like to comment on the first paper presentation; this topic is quite appealing to me as I have been volunteering at an elementary school and have witnessed such problems within the classroom. There are many students who have learning and/or physical disabilities but lack the support they need in the classroom. It is also difficult to expect teachers to devote time to one single student because of such learning/physical disabilities. In my opinion, it is too hard for educators to even get a chance to help these students on a one on one basis as there are several other students in need of help. Looking at the questions distributed in class and as discussed in my group, it would be nearly impossible to expect Mrs. X to fulfill her school’s mission statement since she is unable to meet the needs of every student in her class. Mrs. X has a class full of students with varying abilities; consequently, it would be difficult for her to ensure everyone’s needs be met. In order for this mission statement to be more realistic, Mrs. X needs to have support teachers come into her classroom and make certain these students with special needs be given the attention they deserve. Not only is it unfair for the students with these disabilities, but it is also constraining for students as they are then required to do more learning on their own. With the teacher having to give extra attention to students with learning/physical disabilities, the rest of the classroom is then put to harm as they are given lesser attention. Consequently, extra support in the classroom is beneficial to the students with disabilities, the surrounding students, and the teacher. Extra support teachers are crucial as they provide one on one assistance and enable student’s needs to be met. In my group, we also discussed budget cuts and the fact that there is a decreasing number of support teachers. I believe the education system is suffering immensely since students are lacking in the support they need. As a result, it is important to have as many support teachers as possible as many students do require assistance to themselves.
ReplyDeleteAfter the first presentation on mixed classrooms we were asked to discuss a few questions. One of them was asking who would benefit the most from having a diverse classroom, and a few people thought maybe the ESL students would. I was thinking just the opposite. I don’t have much experience with ESL, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. I think with the language barriers that already exist, that the ESL students could feel further confused or isolated by the dynamics of the classroom. I also wonder if the ESL students would purposely isolate themselves from the students with disabilities, in effort to ensure that they are not considered “one of them.”
ReplyDeleteThe ethics involved in this situation are even more complicated than what we discussed in class. We should not only consider the ethics and implications of diverse classrooms and who benefits or suffers. We need to clarify the goal of the educational system, and then analyze if we are meeting this goal and if not, why not. As others have noted, the pursuit of political correctness and inclusion may well be at odds with what we want to achieve in education. So in the case presented by Laurel, ideally I would like to specifically and quantitatively identify how the diverse classroom affects the education system, and then I could accurately comment on ethics in this context. Having said this, on a personal level I feel that an undersupported diverse classroom is unethical according to my internal measuring stick. When I was in my early 20’s I read about Plato’s Republic and there are aspects of it which I still agree with, or at least they resonate with me. I see some parallels between Plato’s ideal government and my ideal educational community, in that there can be hierarchy without discrimination.
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ReplyDeleteOn the subject of inclusion I agree that teachers need more in class assistance to provide the specialized support many students need. The Ministry of Education preaches inclusion but removes any student that is in need of specialized support for at least some portion of their academic career. The funding issue really speaks to the Ministry of Education’s view on special needs; it is not a priority. As a teacher speaking to other teachers I pose two questions.
ReplyDeleteFirst, when does a student stop being a student or what is the definition of a student held by the Ministry of Education? As a teacher our main goal is to educate our students I am not sure how their status as learners (special needs, ESL or otherwise) has any bearing on our duty to teach them. Yes this is a difficult prospect, but asks yourself do you think that certain students have more of a right to be in your classroom than others?
The second question I want to pose is when considering modeling in the classroom, what exactly does segregating students who have array of difficulties model for your students and how do you think this behavior will affect them in regular society? Think attitudes, beliefs, and opinions towards these students we routinely ostracize in our school systems.
Special Needs in Education
ReplyDeleteLast week, our group had a good discussion on the challenges of full integration of Special Needs students in a regular classroom environment. We talked about whether it is fair for typical students to have a very disruptive student in the classroom.
In my second year, I taught a morning Kindergarten class and an afternoon Kindergarten class in the same school. The afternoon class had a special needs student who became more and more disruptive as the year progressed and expectations increased. This class also had a student who had significant behaviour issues who could also be disruptive. There were times throughout the year when it was apparent to me that my morning class was having better learning opportunities than the afternoon class. I was very troubled by this, but there was very little I could do because the parents of special needs student were strong advocates for their child and the parents of typical students did not raise concerns.
Overall, my experience with this kind of situation has been that, fair or not, in the public system parents of special needs children tend to be better advocates than students of typical students. I am not sure if it is because parents of special needs children find or are sought out by groups of people in the same situation and learn to advocate from the group experience, whereas parents of typical children do not seem to organize the same way. Or because parents of typical students are not sure how to advocate while remaining politically correct. Or, perhaps as we discussed in class, parents of typical students are willing to put academic learning on the backburner in order to support empathy building.
This leads us to the question, “what is the ultimate purpose of public education in British Columbia.” According to the School Act [RSBC 1996] CHAPTER 412,
“it is the goal of a democratic society to ensure that all its members receive an education that enables them to become literate, personally fulfilled and publicly useful, thereby increasing the strength and contributions to the health and stability of that society;
AND …the purpose of the British Columbia school system is to enable all learners to become literate, to develop their individual potential and to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to contribute to a healthy, democratic and pluralistic society and a prosperous and sustainable economy”.
Supporting Special Needs Students
ReplyDeleteAs a class we also discussed the supports in place for students with special needs. I thought the class might be interested in the following funding information.
From Province of British Columbia web site on funding for special needs students:
http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/policy/policies/funding_special_needs.htm
LEGISLATION/ REGULATIONS
Level 1:
Dependent Handicapped (A)
Deaf blind (B)
Level 2:
Moderate to Profound Intellectual Disabled (C)
Physically Disabled, Chronic Health Impaired (D)
Visually Impaired (E)
Deaf/Hearing Impaired (F)
Autism Spectrum Disorder (G)
Level 3:
Intensive Behaviour Interventions
Serious Mental Illness (H)
Level 1 supplementary funding – $36,600 per full time equivalent (FTE),
Level 2 supplementary funding – $18,300 per FTE, and
Level 3 supplementary funding – $9,200 per FTE.
The web site is careful to state, "these funds are not targeted to specific students; however, are provided to school districts to support the needs of students within their district."
Supporting Gifted Education
For those interested in seeing what the ministry expectations are in regards to Gifted Education, please visit http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/specialed/gifted/
When reading this lengthy resource guide, please remember that there is no additional funding for gifted programming.
According to the provincial education web site,
“The Basic Allocation provided for all students includes funds to support students with other special needs, including students with Mild Intellectual Disability, Learning Disability, Moderate Behaviour Support/Mental Illness, and students who are gifted. The Basic Allocation also includes funds to support Boards of Education in providing learning assistance, speech-language pathology services, hospital homebound services, and assessment services.”
The paper regarding the inclusion of students with disabilities in the classroom made me think of my practicum where I had many students with learning disabilities and a few students with special needs (these students did not have SEAs in the classroom with them). I spent a lot of time thinking of ways to accommodate these students in a way that would not make them feel that they were different from the rest of the class. At the beginning of the semester, I talked to students who had disabilities and made a plan with them regarding how they would write quizzes or do assignments. Thus, these students knew how they could write quizzes and do the assignments; I did not have to tell these students during class (in front of others) how their assignments were modified. These students did not feel embarrassed in front of the rest of the class and other students did not question the reasons as to why these students’ assignments looked different or why they could write the quizzes somewhere else. Having a minor in learning disabilities, I am a big supporter of inclusion of students with learning disabilities and special needs. However, I think that students who, through no fault of their own, may be distracting to the class should not be fully integrated into a regular classroom; this way they can also get the proper assistance that they need in an environment where they are surrounded by students who have similar needs. Being a big supporter of inclusion, it was hard for me to arrive at the latter conclusion. However, this scenario “produces the maximum amount of…good” (McLachlan, 2010, p. 75).
ReplyDeleteOne of my concerns is in regards to how to divide my time between helping students with learning disabilities/special needs and helping other students during class. Even though there is no question that students with learning disabilities/special needs could benefit from a lot of help, a teacher has to circulate around the classroom, helping the rest of the class as well: those students who may not have learning disabilities/special needs still struggle with the material. Furthermore, I have noticed that some students who are not labeled as having learning disabilities, definitely do have some sort of learning disabilities. On the other hand, though, it is usually the students with disabilities who will not come and ask for extra help after class; a lot of these students are usually self conscious about their disabilities. Thus, the only time that these students will be able to get help is during class.
I appreciate Laurel’s insight into inclusion of special needs students in a classroom. The amount of inclusion and support for students with different learning needs has really changed over the last few decades. One issue expressed by some of my older colleagues is that they don’t have the training to successfully help these students navigate through their courses. My school has done some professional development days on what is the difference between adapting and modifying students. These discussions revolved around ministry definitions and funding attachments. We have 1600 students from Grade 8 to 12, so there is no way that our professional development committee could give us a comprehensive workshop on how to best meet every student’s needs. How are the teachers trained in a different era supposed to access information on how they should change how they teach these students?
ReplyDeleteOne source of that information used to be our special education assistants and our learning resource teachers. This year, we lost half our SEA’s. We no longer have a dedicated life skills teacher. Two teachers try to run between learning assistance centres and the life skills program. In some blocks, the life skills students are sent out to other classes for no better reason than there isn’t a teacher available for their area. I fear that more students will not be served well by the public education system because teachers with 200 students and three different preps are not able to spend the time that is required for understanding complex learners and developing a comprehensive plan to meet their learning needs.
One of the foundational ideas of the Canadian public school system is that it gives equal opportunity to all students. In theory, this allows us to build a society in which social status at birth doesn’t determine one’s potential. Can we still have an equitable system if public schools continue to lose so much funding that they can no longer provide an adequate education for students with different learning needs? Because I work/live in North Vancouver, I have seen a trend in which parents with means are buying a better education for their children. My friend spends $15 000 per year to send her son to a special school for dyslexia. She tried the public system, but found that there weren’t enough resources to help him learn how to cope with his difference. On the other end of the spectrum, North Vancouver School District loses hundreds of students to the private system because the private schools are seen as better able to challenge their children without “distractions” like special needs students in the classroom.
So, the questions I put out to you is “Should we adopt a utilitarian philosophy of teaching to the ‘most’ and letting the fringes find their own way?” and “If so, what are the implications of adopting that philosophy?”
Diversity in Education.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I missed last class due to health complications, I would like to write a few words about diversity. Obviously, the British Columbia K-12 public school system is very diverse. Some schools (such as Burnaby South Secondary School) have a large mix of ethnic populations: 70 different languages and dialects are spoken at BSSS. B.C. is home to students who are immigrants, landed immigrants and Canadian citizens--there are students from China, the Philippines, South Korea, Mexico, El Salvador and from many other countries in B.C. classrooms. As such, I believe it is important for teachers to respect and understand the diversity of classrooms in B.C. From my experience teaching English Language Learners (ELL)an appreciation for the virtues of diversity is especially important.
To my mind, employing Kant’s categorical imperative—seeing people as “ends” rather than means--would encourage diversity and the needs of English as an additional language learners. Instead of merely seeing non-English speaking students as “on the way to learning” we should try and understand what they do know--and what they are learning. We should try and understand non-English speaking and foreign students as individuals, rather than simply labeling them as “ESL”. Providing for the needs of English Language Learners students, while viewing learners as individuals (in the Kantian sense) will require complex institutional and classroom strategies.
I really enjoyed the presentations. I felt particularly drawn to the second and third presentations, which dealt with First Nations and multicultural education in our province as well as across Canada. I was struck by the fact that 60% of First Nations residents on reserves do not have a high school diploma, which is comparative to the 32% of First Nations within Canada who have not graduated high school. Why does our government consistently fail to improve these staggering numbers? The root causes reach all the way back to the early days of colonization and the culturally detrimental set up of residential schools. It is more tragic than ironic that these schools enslaved, rather than freed, the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. Sadly, the trauma is passed down from generation to generation, with little government support to alter these historically-created and presently-perpetuated mental and physical conditions. A few years ago, I have read an inspiring autobiography entitled “Song of Rita Joe: Autobiography of a Mi’kmaq Poet,” by Rita Joe. A Native Nova Scotia poet and educator who has received the Order of Canada, Joe describes the poverty and prejudice she has encountered in her life, and proposes strength and self-reliance for her people to go on proudly as well as reconciliation with greater Canadian society. She argues that both sides – Native and mainstream – need to truly see each other and to appreciate the other side. Joe also argues that Canada’s multiculturalism policy ought to refocus towards an intercultural approach – that is, towards socio-political relations where immigrant as well as First Nations cultures will be equally valued, nurtured and heard by the Canadian powers that be. I think what Joe proposes in her memoir speaks indirectly to both our First Nations- and multiculturalism-focused presentations.
ReplyDeleteBoth presentations made clear to me how similar the situations of new immigrants and refugees are to the situation of Native peoples in Canada. Amy told us that immigrants need to juggle the host country’s environment and to negotiate an identity in relation to their ethnic community as well as the greater society at large. I feel the same holds true for Aboriginal groups in Canada. Both immigrants and Aboriginal peoples negotiate a balance between “fitting into” Canadian mainstream society and on the other hand, maintaining their cultural and linguistic identities intact. Each of these groups, of course, faces unique challenges, given their different histories and perhaps differences in economic status. Within education, I feel that our schooling should move towards an equal representation of both Native and multicultural materials and perspectives in our curriculum. No one group should be overly emphasized over the other. That way, our students could be taught to understand and appreciate the true and rich diversity in Canada, and morally, they should grow to respect and value each culture – migrant and Native – in equal ways. This echoes back to Rita Joe’s conception of a truly intercultural society in Canada, where all cultures would co-exist in a full understanding and appreciation of each other.
Today was an unforgettable class as I did my essay presentation in promoting multicultural education. I was very nervous because the two presenters before me all did so well and touch on similar topics as me. One of the presenters incorporated a scenario in class where a teacher has to make a moral/ethical decision base on the dilemma. Reflecting back on these discussion questions, I found many actions where she can take on a daily basis to produce the most good for the majority of students. For example, the content of the teaching should be at an appropriate level, offer choices for the students to reach the desirable learning outcome, have open-ended lessons, and have different ways to demonstrate the learning process. We had heated discussions in our group regarding the current public educational system and why it is so hard for teachers to accommodate every student.
ReplyDeleteThe ideas and discussions presented in many presentations today prompted me to think and reflect on a deeper level regarding the current educational system. Recently I went to listen to the lecture at summer institute in SFU. The presenter showed us a graph in one of his slide showing the students from age eight to eleven affected by high performance teachers and low performance teachers. The students at age eight all started from the same place but as they grow older, the students who have high performance teachers went up in academic percentile from 50% to 90%, whereas the students who have low performance teachers went down the stream from 50% to 20% on age eleven. This graph is evidence showing to teachers that they do make a difference in the life of a student. The increase in enrollments in independent and distributed distance learning schools mean a lot for the public education. This show us that the public education has problems and is not valued as it is use to be. The people with the social capitals choose to let their children go into private schools instead of public schools. I think this trend really raised our awareness in the public education section on how and why we should improve our current system and continue to strive for the best for our students.
Hi all! Sorry I wasn't in class; it seems like I missed some really interesting papers and discussions. The reason I wasn't there, though, was because I had a job interview! After all the horror stories we've been hearing about there being no teaching jobs, it was great to hear back from someone and it really revitalized me to push through the last month. When I emailed Sue to tell her I wouldn't be in class, she was nice enough to email me a few questions she thought they might ask me, and one of them was about my personal teaching philosophy. Though they didn't ask me this directly, it's kind of hard for your philosophy NOT to come out in the way you talk about education. Reading the other blog posts, I kind of see some people thinking that role of education is to prepare students for the job market and some who see education as the chance to prepare their students to be well-rounded citizens. So what is the point of schools? Academics? Socialization? A bit of both?
ReplyDeleteOne thing I said in my interview that one of the interviewees seemed to respond to what that I found it odd we could have a Social Justice class. I found it odd that 1) Social Justice would have its own, separate course and not be something for all people of all grades and that 2) Social Justice was something for which we could assign a mark. Social Justice, to me, is something we should be constantly examining, and reexamining and working on in our everyday lives. Furthermore, for educators to teach social justice, I think they would have to take a praxis or post-modern approach to the course, where the teacher is not necessarily the authority on the subject and the students and the teacher work together to determine their own ideas about the topic. A more transactional view of education could run the risk of seeming like indoctrination in regard to social justice.
Another interesting thing (which isn't at all related to social justice!), was that I had to take an online test, sort of like a personality test, I guess. It asked very odd and open questions I had the feeling there was no good way to answer. For example, "Do you ever break the rules?", "Do you seek private moments with students?", "Would you stick by a school and its policies even if it wasn't in the best interest of the student?" The questionnaire would also ask the same questions several times but in different words. It felt like I was being asked trick questions, in a way. So, what do you think--is it morally acceptable to ask people these type of questions without giving them the chance to explain themselves? I don't know, but I definitely wasn't a huge fan of the questionnaire overall.
I thought the first presentation on special needs children was fantastic. I was actually going to do my project on it but it would not be as well done as the presentation. I work as a behavior interventionist and spend the majority of the time with the family. Before class I was strongly on the side of inclusion. I work primarily with kids who are under 6 years old so we can have them develop skills so they won’t need to be in separate class. I see the need for developing social skills in the same environment all other kids do. Many of the social problems are a result of isolating the children from normal social environments.
ReplyDeleteWhat moved me from one extreme to more of the middle was understanding the perspective of the teacher. I work one on one with the child. That take a lot of my energy to keep their attention. I could not imagine what it would be like to work with 29 other kids. Or working with an older child. Someone also mentioned burn out which I can relate to.
It seems like more funding is the easy solution but I’ve also seen a lot of money wasted in these programs. I came away with a greater appreciation of the complexity of the issues.
Thanks to the person who presented on multicultural diversity and understanding. I think it’s our ethical responsibility to truly understand our student’s cultural differences in learning and interacting in an educational environment. If we don’t understand and respect the differences, we will internally or externally rate our students’ participation incorrectly. One example given in the presentation was the use of eye contact of a Caucasian student with a teacher as a sign of respect and attentive listening as opposed to a First Nations student’s lack of eye contact being used as a sign of respect. If we didn’t understand the student’s cultural differences we might internally judge the student as disinterested or disrespectful and externally judge them poorly on class participation and attentiveness.
ReplyDeleteI have also been giving some thought about the presentation examining the philosophy of stoicism in relation to education. I agree with Epictetus when he states that things external to us such as material possessions, our reputation, and status are “frail and inferior” and should thus be “none of our business”. Too much emphasis is put on material possessions and status these days. Teaching students the philosophy of stoicism would be to teach them the value or quality of resilience. We should convey to students that external issues such as material possessions, status, and personal health can and will change over our lifetime, and teach students to be resilient through learning and adapting to adversity.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the positive comments Shane, and it was interesting to read about your shift in perspective. I too was quite polarized in my position about inclusion. As a community living advocate I felt that everyone should be included at all times and in all situations, so there! Inclusion comes with both rights and responsibilities though. We have the right to be included, but not at the expense of others. We have the right to be valued as equal, but to extend that same value of equality to everyone else. I too have shifted my thinking to a more middle ground after doing my paper from an educator's perspective, as well as reflecting the impact inclusion has on the other students.
ReplyDeleteCaroline wrote:
ReplyDeleteI was interested to read a submission to the Vancouver Sun this morning. It was centred on the two issues of non-streamed classrooms and the inclusion of disabled students. The article covered many of the points we discussed after Laurel’s presentation and suggested we re-visit the idea of grouping students on the basis of ability.
The article was written by Michael Zwaagstra, for The Frontier Centre for Public Policy in Winnipeg. On looking this up on the Internet, this institution seems to be one which has a philosophy based on market-driven policies, possibly somewhat akin to The Fraser Institute here.
As a practicing teacher I would like to point out that students are often strong in one area more than in others – particularly when they are designated gifted. It is possible to keep a gifted student in his or her grade group while offering the opportunity to work ahead or sideways on more challenging work in the area of giftedness particularly if there is co-operation within the school staff. The school I worked at also separated the four intermediate classes into different math pods so that they could address different levels of learning.
The matter of inclusion is a tricky one and I know how challenging and wearing it can be on a teacher, not just dealing with the disruption but also attending endless meetings and conferences. That said, I have witnessed extraordinary levels of gain (over a number of years) for all concerned when staff is co-operating in the best interests of everyone and there is an experienced and dedicated aide who can plan the inclusion and timeouts of a disruptive student in a very structured manner.
Unfortunately, in a time of budget cuts, there are complicated games played with numbers when it comes to allocating resources and too often a child who needs fulltime assistance is given less than that in the hope that the teacher can ‘cope’ for an hour or two at the beginning or end of a day. This does indeed lead to stress all around as these tend to be the more stressful transition times when help is most needed. Then indeed the teacher’s time can be diverted which subtracts from the maximum benefit for all.
I really enjoyed the first presentation that looked at inclusive education. As a teacher at the very beginning of my journey I found my lack of experience put my view of this topic at an idealized and simplified level. Hearing from all the teachers with many more years of experience than me made me revisit my position on this topic. This presentation made me more aware of the challenges faced by inclusive education. I still believe it is possible but there definitely needs to be rules boundaries and limitations in order to maintain stability in the class. I believe if these factors are in place it can create an optimal learning environment for all students.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe it is right to exclude special needs children from the mainstream education system but it must be done in a way where it does not put anyone in harm’s way. Violent children that pose a physical threat to other students should not be included. There are also the less obvious effects to the mental welfare of the other students.
There seems to be a sense that these special needs children will be better able to function as productive members of society by following the behaviour of the other students. I volunteered in a grade 1 & 2 split class with a special needs child. Rather than learning proper social skills from the other students, some of the other students were learning how to act like him. They started copying his destructive behaviour. I could have used this to support an idea that all inclusive is too risky but the day we had the TOC proved it was not so simple. The TOC was a retired teacher with a no nonsense attitude. His respect for her was immediate and strong. His regular teacher would try to strike a deal with him but the TOC would not make any deals. If he misbehaved he would have to sit out during fun activities. Perhaps this was a result of this TOC’s years of experience (she was my kindergarten teacher way back when.). I also believe that the students responded to her commanding presents when she walked into the class. I still support inclusion but I don’t think it is fair to say that every teacher has the special characteristics and experience needed for some special needs students. Experience cannot be taught.
One thing I liked about the subject was how the collaborative nature of teaching was emphasized as well as the importance of support for teachers.
I am impressed by the presentation regarding to multiculturalism and western teaching. I believe that the Canadian education system is built upon the integration of different cultures and ethnicity. The foundation of this system is that it values people from different backgrounds and demonstrate among people. The challenge of implementing this system is how to engage people to adopt the Canadian approaches of learning while not violating the culture and ethical standards of people coming from different places. Presentations, group studies, team work, abundant interactions between teachers and students, peer-to-peer, are all the forcing underlying the virtue of the Canadian education system. Ignorance is the evil to create conflicts people, a functional system allows people to share their experience therefore the educators can amend the curriculum timely to make everybody better off. If we don't thoroughly understand the fundamental ethics and stories behind the people from different cultures, we will fail to teach them effectively regardless the efforts we put into.
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