I heard this TED Radio Hour segment about introverts on NPR earlier this week, and it brought up interesting points about the differences between introverts and extroverts. Introverts are often seen as people who stay in their own head, don’t engage with others, etc. The research in this segment talked about how there are differences in the brain that make introverts more reactive to stimuli, such as lots of people or loud noises, and extroverts need more stimulation for engagement. There are a lot of other interesting facts that I learned, and I encourage you to listed to this because it is fascinating.
Susan Cain talked about how our society now praises extroverts and many societal shifts are being made to favor them. One example of this is collaborative learning in the classroom. Teachers are encouraged to facilitate as much collaborative learning/group projects as possible. While this type of learning is beneficial, too much of this is not allowing introverts to reach their potential by limiting their time to learn or work independently. Additionally, seminar style classes are often seen as superior to lectures, but this research shows that seminars are more beneficial to extroverts and lectures are better for introverts. My inclination is for teachers to include a mix practices that are beneficial to introverts with some that appeal to extroverts, so each group has a time to flourish as well as adapt to the other’s preferred practice.
One aspect of inclusive classrooms that I have noticed in my school placement is co-teaching. Co-teaching is when a special education teacher teaches alongside a content area teacher in a classroom with many students who need differentiated instructions. The teamwork component comes in the form of the instruction—the content area teacher provides the content and the special education teacher provides the strategies.
Co-teaching works best when both teachers are actively involved in the presentation of material. Co-teaching can become difficult when there is an imbalance of power. An imbalance of power can occur when co-teaching is not utilized effectively. This can take the form of the content area teacher doing all of the teaching while the special education teacher sits in the back or circulates around the room speaking to students as individuals or small groups.
It is also important not to create a chasm between the students in a collab. class. In some cases the co-teachers will take the exact same students out of the classroom to provide them with differentiated instruction. These students will sometimes be patronized and stigmatized as “stupid”. It is the right of every student to be education in their least restrictive environment. If the district has determined that they student is able to be in the classroom, teachers should do everything in their power to honor that decision.
When done correctly, co-teaching can boost the self-efficacy of the students in the class, increase student engagement, and increase academic success among students.
After reading this article “Together We Learn Better” I have a few thoughts on the idea of Inclusive Education. While the concept itself is a very wonderful idea that seeks to include all students, foster a culture of respect for diversity, develop individual strengths, etc., not all schools have the resources to put this idea into play within the classroom. On the other hand, the best teachers in the world already implement these practices on their own. These are the teachers who go above and beyond their call of duty to educate all students who walk into their classroom regardless of attitude, appearance, race, gender, ethnicity, disability, giftedness, age, or anything else. While I do support this concept of inclusiveness, I also see major flaws. While a small class of 10 students would allow a teacher to easily adapt lessons and tailor them to accomodate each student the difficulty to do so only increases as class sizes increase. One teacher trying to differentiate lessons for 20+ students can be a daunting and near impossible task depending on the needs of individual students. So many factors play a role in planning a good lesson: student personalities and behavior, content knowledge, background knowledge, language barriers, disabilities, learning styles, the list goes on. If that one teacher has no additional help, particularly for students with IEP’s, lower achieving students may be left behind or higher achieving students will stop paying attention as you are not challenging them. It is all a balancing act centered around the teacher’s abilities to plan lessons, facilitate those lessons, engage all learners, and manage the classroom… which can sometimes feel like you are juggling while riding a unicycle on a tightrope.
Inclusive education involves allowing all students to attend and be welcomed by their neighbourhood schools in age-appropriate, regular classes. Additionally, it involves supporting students in their learning and academic contributions, while also encouraging them to participate in all aspects of the life of the school. Furthermore, inclusive education is about developing and designing schools, classrooms, programs and activities so that all students learn and participate together. Finally, all children can benefit from inclusive education, not just students with learning disabilities or impairments. Inclusive education allows students to: develop individual strengths and gifts, with high and appropriate expectations for each child; work on individual goals while participating in the life of the classroom with other students their own age; involve students’ parents in their education and in the activities of their local schools; foster a school culture of respect and belonging; develop friendships with a wide variety of other children, each with their own individual needs and abilities; and positively affect both their school and community to appreciate diversity and inclusion on a broader level. This article is a great read in relation to inclusive education, its benefits, and how educators can implement inclusive teaching strategies and tools into the classroom. http://inclusiveschools.org/together-we-learn-better-inclusive-schools-benefit-all-children/
http://www.npr.org/2014/11/21/364148816/why-do-we-undervalue-introverts
I heard this TED Radio Hour segment about introverts on NPR earlier this week, and it brought up interesting points about the differences between introverts and extroverts. Introverts are often seen as people who stay in their own head, don’t engage with others, etc. The research in this segment talked about how there are differences in the brain that make introverts more reactive to stimuli, such as lots of people or loud noises, and extroverts need more stimulation for engagement. There are a lot of other interesting facts that I learned, and I encourage you to listed to this because it is fascinating.
Susan Cain talked about how our society now praises extroverts and many societal shifts are being made to favor them. One example of this is collaborative learning in the classroom. Teachers are encouraged to facilitate as much collaborative learning/group projects as possible. While this type of learning is beneficial, too much of this is not allowing introverts to reach their potential by limiting their time to learn or work independently. Additionally, seminar style classes are often seen as superior to lectures, but this research shows that seminars are more beneficial to extroverts and lectures are better for introverts. My inclination is for teachers to include a mix practices that are beneficial to introverts with some that appeal to extroverts, so each group has a time to flourish as well as adapt to the other’s preferred practice.
One aspect of inclusive classrooms that I have noticed in my school placement is co-teaching. Co-teaching is when a special education teacher teaches alongside a content area teacher in a classroom with many students who need differentiated instructions. The teamwork component comes in the form of the instruction—the content area teacher provides the content and the special education teacher provides the strategies.
Co-teaching works best when both teachers are actively involved in the presentation of material. Co-teaching can become difficult when there is an imbalance of power. An imbalance of power can occur when co-teaching is not utilized effectively. This can take the form of the content area teacher doing all of the teaching while the special education teacher sits in the back or circulates around the room speaking to students as individuals or small groups.
It is also important not to create a chasm between the students in a collab. class. In some cases the co-teachers will take the exact same students out of the classroom to provide them with differentiated instruction. These students will sometimes be patronized and stigmatized as “stupid”. It is the right of every student to be education in their least restrictive environment. If the district has determined that they student is able to be in the classroom, teachers should do everything in their power to honor that decision.
When done correctly, co-teaching can boost the self-efficacy of the students in the class, increase student engagement, and increase academic success among students.
After reading this article “Together We Learn Better” I have a few thoughts on the idea of Inclusive Education. While the concept itself is a very wonderful idea that seeks to include all students, foster a culture of respect for diversity, develop individual strengths, etc., not all schools have the resources to put this idea into play within the classroom. On the other hand, the best teachers in the world already implement these practices on their own. These are the teachers who go above and beyond their call of duty to educate all students who walk into their classroom regardless of attitude, appearance, race, gender, ethnicity, disability, giftedness, age, or anything else. While I do support this concept of inclusiveness, I also see major flaws. While a small class of 10 students would allow a teacher to easily adapt lessons and tailor them to accomodate each student the difficulty to do so only increases as class sizes increase. One teacher trying to differentiate lessons for 20+ students can be a daunting and near impossible task depending on the needs of individual students. So many factors play a role in planning a good lesson: student personalities and behavior, content knowledge, background knowledge, language barriers, disabilities, learning styles, the list goes on. If that one teacher has no additional help, particularly for students with IEP’s, lower achieving students may be left behind or higher achieving students will stop paying attention as you are not challenging them. It is all a balancing act centered around the teacher’s abilities to plan lessons, facilitate those lessons, engage all learners, and manage the classroom… which can sometimes feel like you are juggling while riding a unicycle on a tightrope.
Inclusive education involves allowing all students to attend and be welcomed by their neighbourhood schools in age-appropriate, regular classes. Additionally, it involves supporting students in their learning and academic contributions, while also encouraging them to participate in all aspects of the life of the school. Furthermore, inclusive education is about developing and designing schools, classrooms, programs and activities so that all students learn and participate together. Finally, all children can benefit from inclusive education, not just students with learning disabilities or impairments. Inclusive education allows students to: develop individual strengths and gifts, with high and appropriate expectations for each child; work on individual goals while participating in the life of the classroom with other students their own age; involve students’ parents in their education and in the activities of their local schools; foster a school culture of respect and belonging; develop friendships with a wide variety of other children, each with their own individual needs and abilities; and positively affect both their school and community to appreciate diversity and inclusion on a broader level. This article is a great read in relation to inclusive education, its benefits, and how educators can implement inclusive teaching strategies and tools into the classroom.
http://inclusiveschools.org/together-we-learn-better-inclusive-schools-benefit-all-children/