Understanding Current Situations: Facilitating Inclusive Education Implementation 1
Maizam Alias*, 2Ingrid Harrington, 3Aini Nazura Paimin, 4Lai Chee Sern, 5Lee Ming Foong, 6 Maziana Mohamed and 7Wan Azlinda Wan Mohamed 1,3,4,5,6,7
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia University of New England, Australia *Correspondence: Maizam Alias, E-mail:
[email protected] 2
This paper aims to highlight the current gaps in practices among Secondary schools teachers who are involved in the Malaysian Special Education Integration Program (SEIP). A one to one interview was conducted on 13 teachers who teach the inclusive classes at one secondary school to identify their individual needs with respect to successfully integrating special needs students into mainstream classrooms. Findings were discussed in relation to several aspects of teaching and learning, including inclusive students’ characteristics, appropriate and inappropriate school based practices, and challenges faced by inclusive teachers. Based on the findings, recommendations are made for school-based improvement and teacherprofessional developments that inform policymakers on future development plans. Keywords: Inclusive Education,Teacher Development,Special Needs Students.
1. INTRODUCTION Facilitating learning for special needs students has been of interest worldwide where many programs are introduced at the national level with similar goals i.e., to prepare special needs students academically and socially that can lead to independence. The need to involve as many communities as possible is seen as important in meeting these goals. The United States, Canada and United Kingdom for example, have implemented the Individualized Education Program/ Individual Education Plan to encourage active participation of parent, teachers and school administrators in monitoring the students’ progress1. Similar intiatives are being taken in Malaysia by government and non-governmental organisations 2. After more than twenty years of implementation, the variations in the strategies used in many countries to facilitate learning for students with dissabilities is a blessing as it allows greater opportunity to consider several alternatives for innovative education for the special needs. However, as the success of a specific special needs program is often context dependent, greater efforts are needed to adopt and adapt successful special needs program from another country. A small scale study may be required to gauge the suitability of a foreign program. This article reports on the initial finding from one such study where a selected program on inclusive education from Australia was tested in a secodanry school in Malaysia. Special education in Malaysia In 2002 Malaysia introduced the mandatory education for all children and children with special needs through the Disabled Persons Act legislation. The 1
three categories of inclusive programs reflect the difference in severity and ability for these children with special needs to engage positively and participate freely in the mainstream classroom. From the easiest to integrate, the categories include the i) General Education Classroom Placement program; the ii) Special Education Placement program with part-time inclusion; and the iii) Self Contained Special Education program. The Special Education Integration Program (SEIP) and Special School (SS) models were implemented to cater for students presenting with learning, hearing and vision disabilities, and vision and hearing disabilities 3. The SS Program is carried out in normal primary and secondary schools, as well as in technical/vocational secondary schools that use the withdrawal and partially inclusive approach to teach and learn. All Special Primary Schools are academic-based and students undertaking the SEIP at the secondary level can take either the national curriculum or an alternative curriculum. Despite this progression by the Malaysian government to address differences in student learning styles, levels of health, physical and social needs. There is still a lack of awareness among teachers and students on schools diversity, particularly in the aspect of accepting students with special needs, hence caused these special students to be further isolated and unmotivated to learn.4 Professional development has been identified in the past as playing key role in ensuring teachers’ readiness for teaching special learners. In determining the nature of the professional development content, school executives make decisions based on the needs of their staffing group and current departmental policy and practice guidelines. To a large degree, deciding the
topics for the professional development day has tended to adopt a ‘one size fits all’ approach that is conceptualised as being broad in nature and accepted to be of benefit to all. In adopting such a broad approach, the question arises just how valuable and meaningful this rationale actually is in meeting the individual learning needs of each participating teacher. Thus a more participant-centered professional development program is urgently needed. Apart from the professional development content that needs careful thoughts, the amount of training is also an issue facing special education teachers. There has been increasing research that reports regarding the Ministry of Education (MOE) Malaysia, particularly on how dissatisfied the teachers are with the amount of professional development they receive and the poor levels of job satisfaction they experience4-6. The purpose of Professional Development (PD) days held regularly in government schools are designed to promote and up-skill teaching and administrative staff on relevant areas of policy and practice, that will ultimately improve the overall quality of learning experience for both teachers and students alike. The research literature on teacher professional development in Malaysia specifically targeting the promotion of inclusive practices in the mainstream classroom recommends that more post teacher training opportunities be made available5. Teachers in mainstream classrooms need to keep ‘training’ to constantly up-skill their existing skills, promote effective teaching, and become the future ambassadors of true inclusive practices in Malaysian mainstream schools. More effort needs to focus on the collaborative teaching relationship between mainstream and special education teachers as this effort could help to reinforce a cooperative spirit in implementing inclusive education 6 . They add that whilst teachers agree that inclusive education is important, many teachers find it difficult to apply in the classroom. The role of culture and education in a multiethnic and diverse country such as Malaysia has been recently examined7. This research provides a comprehensive report into the impact three major ethnic groups namely the Malay, Chinese and Indian ethnic groups, have to the efficacy of professional development in Primary schools 7. The research examines the significant role these cultures have on school administration and leadership processes and on teachers’ behaviours, attitudes and perceptions to their engagement with Professional Development sessions. The comprehensive study reinforces the dominance, centrality and diversity of culture in Malaysian Primary schools: research claims that “this study shows not only the multilevel nature of culture but also that the effects of culture operate both at the individual (teacher) level, as well as at the school-level and at the society or ethnic group level”7. Such a research is important to this project as it parallels four School transformational leadership dimensions: a) Building good relationships; b) Providing good example; c) Goal achievement
orientation; and d) Reflective and find new ways of doing things as measures of positive organizational and personal change7. The current research builds on the successful implementation of the SLIDE project8 to a NSW mainstream primary school staff community. The ‘School-based Learning for Individual Diversity in Education’ (SLIDE) project proceeded by identifying through confidential 1:1 interviews the individual needs of each staff member in the school community. The data gathered was foundational to the design of the upcoming Professional Development (PD) training day. The interviews provided staff with a professional and safe ‘space’ in which to voice their concerns and professional needs, and identified key gaps in teacher education and personal professional learning. In the Australian project, once these individual training needs were met, there was evidence of a positive impact on the overall levels of staff cohesion and morale 8. The school’s student demography reflected enormous diversity: of a population of approximately 100 students, 40% identified as Indigenous Australians; 35% came from other ethnic identities; and 20% of the student cohort had special learning needs through either a diagnosed or undiagnosed learning difficulty and/or learning disability. Each classroom had students with learning and/or behavioural disabilities that manifest from extremely violent behaviors towards themselves and/or others, to students that were mute and unresponsive to age-appropriate activities. The staffing community was fractured and not functioning at a teamlevel based on the high turn-over of staff and lack of clear communication with and amongst each other. The researchers recognised that there exist differences in the school contexts of Malaysia and Australia on a number of levels. What is consistent however, are the same teacher-centered whole-school issues of communication and collaboration with others to provide effective and supportive inclusive practices to aid the special learning needs of individual students. This research proposes to build upon the success of the smaller scale research in NSW as a broader, more informative 3-year longitudinal study. The research will show how taking into consideration the individual training needs of the participants translates as a greater and more effective transfer of information i.e. theory, that converts as action i.e. inclusive practices in the classroom. The more effective the transfer of information, the greater the improvement in teacher self-confidence and practice. This improvement in teacher self-confidence alone has a whole-school effect on promoting harmony and boosting school morale. Most importantly the main aim of this research is to improve the overall school experience for those students with special needs in the mainstream classroom that will benefit from successful inclusive strategies and skills from confident and effective teachers.
2. OBJECTIVE OF THE RESEARCH This study is an ongoing study that aimed to investigate the current training needs/gaps of practicing Secondary schools teachers of the SEIP to successfully integrate students with special needs into mainstream classrooms. This paper will only report on the findings from the training needs analysis stage of the study. 3. METHODOLOGY The research project is based on a two-year longitudinal action research model. The research methodology is designed to explore, identify, map, empower and develop teacher, teacher support staff, and parent professional development and understanding of educational inclusion that will promote more inclusive strategies in the mainstream classroom for students with special learning needs. For the training needs analysis stage, one secondary school that offer integrated special education program was selected for the study and 1:1 interviews was conducted (30-40 minutes) on teachers to identify their training needs. The model of Generative Themes was used to analyse the data 9. The interviews was analysed for their thesaurus-based concepts that were located as patterns of concept occurrences. The patterns provide an illustration and frequency of the concepts common to the interviews, thereby creating ‘Generative Themes’. The data presented in this manner forms the basis for interpreting the interview’s emergent generative themes that are related to the research aims and objectives. The results of this analysis will be used to design trainings for professional development and questionnaires for assessing training effectiveness. The professional development training is underpinned by each participant’s self-assessment of their professional training needs, thus ensuring that the training is of relevance to them by addressing identified learning gaps. Ultimately, the training aims to improve the overall quality of the school experience for all students, including students with special needs in the mainstream classroom. The SLIDE program that was first implemented in Australia was used to guide the implementation of this research. A brief report on the methodology and outcomes of the SLIDE program as it was implemented in Australia is here given. 4. THE SLIDE CONCEPT OF TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT The design and implementation of the SLIDE program in 2010 was in response to the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education and Communities (DEC) need to instill a sense of stability, confidence and assurance to the staff of a government primary school that had experienced a high turnover of staff at the executive and teaching levels over the previous 18 months. Research has shown that successful inclusion programs have been based on a whole-school 3
model of development and learning4-6. The levels of effective staff communication between teachers and Support staff at the school appeared to be random, lack coherence and structure, which in turn promoted confusion and guesswork, actions underpinned by a discourse of uncertainty, and divisions amongst and between all staff at the school. Students at the K-6 year levels failed to benefit from clear and accurate communication by teachers, and classes operated as separate factions of the same schooling community based on the lack of a whole-school understanding of policies and procedures that underpinned the daily operations. In turn, the classroom teacher spent more time addressing inappropriate and ‘off task’ student behaviours at the expense of learning the required curricula. All staff involved in the school’s community participated in the research: the Principal, Deputy Principal, Teachers, Administrative staff and the SLSOs. The SLIDE project recognised each participants’ needs at an individual level through 1:1 interviews aiming to provide staff with a ‘space’ where they could privately voice professional issues of concern, and make suggestions on how the school could promote its overall efficiency and effectiveness to all students. The SLIDE facilitator was invited to present at one of the school meetings, outlining the exact nature and purpose of the PD session, and to clarify staff and the facilitator’s role in the PD design. The PD training was scheduled over two sessions: the first session (post-school) for two hours, and the second session held six weeks later for one hour. Over a period of two weeks, each staff member was interviewed individually for approximately 30-40 minutes and asked identical questions from a semistructured interview schedule. It was important that the interviewer was also the facilitator of the research, as the interview process provided a valuable ‘space’ where teachers could begin to build a trust-based relationship and rapport with them. The nature of the questions were deliberately open-ended allowing staff to fully elaborate and speak freely about their experiences, and minimizing research control over their definitions and expression of their experiences 10. Gathering the personal interviews provided the opportunity to then pool each response to gauge a) the nature of school-based issues raised as a concern, b) practices that were deemed to be effective, c) the training needs identified by Teachers and the support staff, and d) any similarities and differences of those training needs between the Teachers and other staff. The questions asked staff to identify current efficiencies and deficiencies existing in their workplace, to assess their own knowledge-base of the Department’s policies and procedures, and to discuss their current levels of professional self-esteem and confidence in the workplace. The facilitator was mindful to avoid inadvertently perpetuating any school-based negativity so when inviting staff to share concerns they had about the school’s operation, they needed to also put forward a
suggestion on how they would address the identified inefficiency. To ensure the project remained objective, it was important to reinforce to all staff that the 1:1 interviews with the facilitator would remain private and the details of the conversations confidential from other participants including the Principal. Analysis of the interview data using the model of generative themes9 revealed that three themes surrounding i) Communication, ii) Policies, and iii) Practice emerged. A survey was designed around these three themes and distributed to all staff at the first day of the PD session. The purpose of this survey was again to provide staff with an opportunity to self-assess their levels of professional and personal confidence in the workplace, their current understandings of a range of Departmental policies, and reflect on the effectiveness of their own work practices in areas relevant to their role prior to the PD training. This written response survey was then deemed as ‘base-line’ data to be used and compared to the second survey administered posttraining. The information was then collated and the data presented as a collective PowerPoint presentation to the staffing group as the needs identified by all staff members at the school. At the first session, all participants were given a folder with copies of the Departmental policies they admitted at interview they either did not know, or would appreciate more information on. 5. IMPLEMENTATION OF SLIDE IN MALAYSIA: NEEDS ANALYSIS STAGE One secondary school was selected as the location of the study and the choice of school was influenced by the fact that the school practices from an inclusive education ethic, and the willingness of teachers and principal to commit to the study. Interviews were conducted on 13 secondary school teachers who currently teach inclusive classes. Four male and nine women teachers were interviewed. The teachers ranged in teaching experience from one year to more than 14years in schools. However, teaching experience on inclusive education for all teachers are less than five years to which some of them are as new as two weeks. Such a range of year experiences provides an advantage to this study to also identified challenges faced by the novice teachers in the inclusive class. 6. RESULTS The purpose of the interviews was to identify individual teacher needs in regards to improving their current teaching in inclusive practices. From the interview data, effective and ineffective teaching practices were identified, and recommendations were made by the teachers themselves, based on their perceived professional and personal development needs in the future. Characteristics of Students with Special Needs
The students with special needs possess special behaviours and conditions that are different to the mainstream students. They tend to have a limited coping ability and are not be able to understand fully the topics taught. Teachers reported that the special need students tended to be academically weaker than their mainstream peers; tended to have lower levels of motivation, focus, self-confidence, and emotional stability. Additionally, the teachers also claimed that the special needs students are often victimized and bullied by other students. The challenge of teaching inclusive classes in a mainstream primary school increase when some special need students display behavioural problems that mainstream teachers find difficult to manage. One teacher described that, “They have an attitude problem…They don’t mix around with the mainstream students: they like to be alone…They can’t concentrate on the lesson, walking here and there…”[Inclusive teacher 1]. Appropriate school-based practices There were several positive school-based practices identified at the teacher interviews. In order to better prepare the special need students academically, the special education teachers taught them the basics of the examination subjects. The special need students thereby engaged with the mainstream curricula earlier than their mainstream peers. This earlier exposure and special focus provided them a comprehensive opportunity to prepare for the impending exam. The teachers in the inclusive class lacked experience in dealing with special need students, yet it was interesting to see that some teachers used their initiative to record student observations in their inclusive classes. Teachers also tried several different teaching strategies such as being more students centered and giving greater focus on the affective elements of learning to assist students to cope with the topics at hand, for example being more accommodating and going through a lesson at a slower pace. An example is given here from a teacher, “[for] these students; we have to teach slowly. …they do not like if we go straight to the point…[they] definitely do not like that, definitely no learning. So we tackle them slowly. Very gently and very slowly”. [Inclusive teacher 2] The special need students were encouraged to actively participate in all class activities such as sport and other physical activities e.g. physical education. They received equal attention to the other students, and shared the same facilities and equipment. Additionally, there were several activities designed specifically for the special needs students, like a car wash to help them develop their levels of independence and selfconfidence. Inappropriate school-based practices There were several areas of inappropriate
Facilities, and iii) Teacher Professional Development, their suggestions follow.
teaching practices identified from the teacher interviews. One issue related to the transition process from the special needs class to the mainstream class. Teachers were not always informed at the time of enrolment, of any special needs certain learners would present with in their classroom. Thus teachers were ill-prepared and unequipped to provide appropriate attention and management to these students. A second issue concerned the fact that some teachers did not accept the philosophy of inclusive classroom teaching. By way of example, two teachers stated: “They shouldn’t mix with the normal student.” [Inclusive teacher 1] “If it is possible, we should create a special class for these students.” [Inclusive teacher 2]
A third issue that dominated the interviews was the concern from teachers of their lack of specialist training in special pedagogy and psychology approaches. This lack of theoretical and practical skills left many teachers quite unprepared to identify and manage students with special needs in their inclusive classes. All of the teachers interviewed agreed that upskilling in the area of inclusive educational strategies was crucial to successfully teaching these students11. The inclusive classroom teachers voiced their need to learn more on how to communicate with special need students in order to increase student participation in classroom discussion, and to develop pedagogical skills and persuasive techniques that may assist in an increased level of interest, confidence and motivation amongst special need students. A shared sentiment about this was: “Teachers need special courses for teaching these special needs students. Novice teachers need training.” [Inclusive teacher 3]
Fourthly, the teachers mentioned that the school lacked facilities and resources to support the independent 1:1 learning needed for some students with special needs. For example, the school did not have enough building space to provide the privacy and learning environment required to successfully engage a student with special needs. These students therefore, were placed in either a mainstream class amongst large groups of students, or in an upper floor of a building that was not suitable for these students. As such, the teachers were unable to give them the special attention they needed to learn. Moreover, whilst the enrolment of students with special needs had increased over the years at the school, the infrastructure had not to meet the special needs of this student cohort. 7. SUGGESTIONS FOR SCHOOL-BASED IMPROVEMENTS AND TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT The teachers provided several suggestions and strategies they believed would improve the school/teacher/students: special needs/mainstream student scenario they faced at their school. Under the three headings of i) Teacher/student supports in class; ii) 5
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(i) Teacher/Student supports in Class • Special education teachers should be employed to support the teacher in the main stream classes, as the specially trained teachers’ expertise is not only critical and of benefit to the students with special needs, but is also supportive to teaching the students that present as academically weak in the mainstream classrooms; • A mentoring system between Special education teachers and the mainstream teachers could be established, in order to ensure both teachers and students can share and benefit from special need strategies and pedagogies; • The mainstream teacher should be given detailed information about the needs of special students’ to enable teachers to prepare and use suitable teaching approaches that meet their needs; • Teachers should share with each other successful learning activities where the student with special needs has demonstrated improved levels of selfconfidence and independence; • Teachers need to plan learning activities that may not only encourage positive engagement in class, but also foster higher levels of student cooperation, communication, and positive interaction between both special need and mainstream students; • It is important for students with special needs to socialize and normalize with others during appropriate school breaks without the restriction from Principal/teachers; • In order to cater for student safety for certain activities e.g., Physical education and athletic activities, undergoing a health assessment would confirm if students with special needs were able to participate equally in the activity. (ii) Facilities • The class size for inclusive classrooms should be smaller when compared to student numbers in the mainstream class. Current class sizes are approximately 40 students. The teachers suggested this number be reduced to 20 students. The smaller classes may provide greater opportunity for one-to-one interactions which is much needed by those students with special needs. (iii) Teacher Professional Development • There needs to be additional teacher professional development courses for Special education teachers who are preparing special need students for public examinations; Teachers need to be made aware of the importance of inclusive education. Additional teacher training should be provided for all teachers, especially teachers new to teaching; • It is seen important to appoint a professional counselor and coach to mentor teachers on how to identify and manage the needs of students with special needs; • More male teachers are needed to teach the inclusive classrooms as they appear to be more able to manage
difficult student behaviours that may or may not eminate from students with special needs. 8. DISCUSSION The findings indicate that the teachers interviewed in a Secondary school in Malaysia lacked the personal and professional confidence required when teaching students with special needs in their mainstream classroom. Examining in closer detail the list of teacher suggestions above, it is evident that the Malaysian teachers agree on the same three generative themes found in the same study carried out in NSW Australia, specifically surrounding i) Communication, ii) Policies, and iii) Practice that is, the issue of communication, policy and practice seems to underlie the categories of findings. For example, regarding the category of Teacher/Student supports in Class, the issue appears to be one of not receiving vital information, and/or, the lack of collaboration between teachers sharing bestpractices and observations. A successful inclusive education classroom and school is one where all information pertaining to all students is shared and understood as the same. Teachers need to be given the opportunity to meet as a teaching team to discuss, share and learn from each other. This can be a powerful tool to unite and promote positive school-staff morale, considering the whole school will be familiar with the same students. This process would also be proactive in ensuring that all teachers are on the ‘same page’ – philosophically and practically - with the rest of the school community, as this is pivotal to a successful whole-school inclusive environment. Research warns however, the area of culture can be both complex and precarious in nature, and to undertake any change with view to normalizing perceptions and practice will be challenging and requires courage, determination and persistence7. The second area of Facilities is self-explanatory, where in order for schools to develop and expand towards an inclusive ethos, existing structures and philosophies must also be developed and expanded to cater for the increased demand of students with special needs. This requires a policy that is communicated clearly that can support practice. The third area of Teacher Professional Development is well documented in the literature, and remains to be the one consistent requirement teachers demand globally. In order to produce effective and viable change in school staff attitude, practice and understanding, Education departments need to understand that a singular professional development session will not address to change the in-grained understandings practicing teachers teach from. Professional and personal comfort zones and competencies need to be challenged and replaced with practices that are both user-friendly and effective. The professional development of teachers needs to be an ongoing one where teachers are subject to regular ‘waves’ of information in order to influence and change current
practice. Ideally, a relationship needs to develop between the trainer and the teachers to build trust and inspire change in daily practice. For this, a clear policy on teacher professional development that is targeted for inclusive teachers should be in place. 9. CONCLUSION The key issues as reported by the Malaysian Secondary school teachers have been examined in this paper. It appears that the global trend towards an inclusive school and classroom practice to promote an inclusive classroom requires attention, particularly in the readiness of teachers in the student transition process, teacher professional development training, and the provision and supports for the students with special needs. These students face a range of difficulty throughout the school day that requires a supportive learning environment, and teachers that can assist them without judgment or bias throughout their learning. Most teachers admitted they lacked the required knowledge and skills in relation to special education, which would enable them to best meet the needs of the students with special needs. If inclusive classrooms are to be effective for both students and teachers in the mainstream schools, then a great deal of adjustment and change needs to occur in and outside the school. Given time, access to effective professional development, and attention to the level of resources currently at schools, secondary schools in Malaysia can enjoy the numerous benefits reported by all that only an inclusive school can bring. Last but not least, the lessons learned from this study are not only useful to Malaysia, but equally useful to countries that are at similar stage of inclusive education implementation. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Ministry of Education Malaysia for supporting the research project under the Exploratory Research Grant Scheme (ERGS)-Vot E004. REFERENCES [1]
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