At some point, all elementary school teachers encounter students with learning o

Question

At some point, all elementary school teachers encounter students with learning or behavioral disorders. What are the advantages and disadvantages of mainstreaming and full inclusion for children with learning or behavioral disorders, their peers, and their teachers?

Briefly research bilingualism in childhood. What are some potential benefits and challenges of being a bilingual child? How do these benefits and challenges change as the child grows into an adolescent and an adult?

Describe the influence of Gardner’s theory of eight intelligences on the traditional education model that emphasizes the three Rs: reading, writing, and arithmetic. If you were a teacher, how would you incorporate Gardner’s theory into your classroom activities? Provide specific examples of the eight types of intelligence.

Explanation / Answer

Answer 1) According to a research carried out by the university of London, learning disorders occur in upto 10 percent of students in the form of dyslexia, dyscalculia and autism, dyslexia being the most common of all. About 2-3 pupils in a classroom face some form of learning disability which makes it challenging for the teachers to deal with the students at the mainstream level. On the other hand, some of the psychologists are of the favour of including these students in the mainstream education system. We will discuss about both the pros and cons to this in detail.

Pros :

1) Social Exposure: As compared to the environment in a special ability school, the students get more exposure to their non-disabled counterparts and this gives them an opportunity to 'fit in' and learn more functional ways of problem solving. This can boost their self confidence and help them overcome their fears of 'social rejection' at an early age, hence helping them to become more functional adults.

2) Acceptance and Tolerance: Seemingly a part of social exposure but being accepting and tolerant to one another in a social set-up is one of the key learnings that we get as a student. Here the advantage is both way, the mainstream students are exposed to the special needs students and vice versa allowing both the group of students to accept, understand and be tolerant to one another.

3) Educational: Needless to state that the level of difficulty that a mainstream course curriculum has is out of the grasping power of the students with special needs but they can be accommodated by bringing down the difficulty level of their exam's question paper and allowing them after school classes so that they can catch up with their non-disabled peers. This way, their object of reference will be the same as the rest of the population now and in the future.

Cons :

Social Embarassment: The funtion/ dysfunction of a student with special needs is very different from his/her non-dysfunctional counterparts and may include certain episodes of behavioural dysfunction. This can cause social embarassment and the student might lose the courage of facing his/her non dysfunctional counterparts. Also, in children and adolescents 'bullying' ,'grouping', 'name calling' and 'categorization' is very common and this could demotivate the special needs student to face social situations for a long run.

Educational disadvantage: Since the course curriculum would be the same as their non-disabled counterparts, it will be difficult for the special needs student to grasp and be answerable in the class. This could leave the student feel 'out of place' and demotivated. Also, there are special teachers who are trained to deal with these special students and the teachers in the mainstream schools might not be appropriately trained/ qualified to deal with this kind of an audience.

Acceptance and Tolerance: The concept of tolerance and acceptance can become a bane when the non-disabled students will feel that the special needs student is being paid personal attention by the teachers and is being shown leniency in terms of scoring their answer papers.

The same above points hold true in the case of students with behavioural disorders. The main difference between Learning and Behavioural disorders is that the latter is much vast and descriptive than a learning disorder. In a student with behaviour disorder, the dysfunction is not only at learning and grasping the course curriculm but the challenge is with the overall behaviour of an individual. Behavioural disorders like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Anxiety and Oppositional Defiant Disorder are dysfunctional in a whole lot other ways. The parents, peers and teachers have to be very patient and understanding while dealing with these children and not compare them to the mainstream children in any way.

Thanks!

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