Inclusive Education

Part 1- Universal Design for learning

The Australian government has supported the specially-able student learning processes through the introduction of significant legislative standards. The Disability Standards for Education Act 2005 enacts that the student with special abilities must be facilitated with equal learning opportunities and accessibility to attain for training and education in the institutional premises (Al-Azawei et al., 2016). In this context, it is a pertinent responsibility of the Australian educational institutions to establish an inclusive educational environment that supports students of different abilities to succeed in their respective fields exponentially. In this context, the following assessment encapsulates the distinctive needs, strengths and areas of weaknesses of a student. It further delves into the fundamentals of the Universal Design for learning framework (UDL) and emphasizes on the development of a lesson plan to encourage inclusive education.

Case study

Due to proper maintenance of confidentiality, the student in the case study is named as Colson. Colson is diagnosed with Dyslexia. In terms of key strengths, Colson is highly passionate towards science, and prefers experimental learning to explore the practical dimensions of science. Consequently, Colson responds significantly to instructions and possesses excellent researching skills. Colson’s parents are very supportive of his passion, and collaborate with the schooling authorities to encourage Colson’s love towards science. Colson further loves watching cricket, and his favorite cricketer is Aaron Finch. Colson further spends his spare time in gaming and YouTube. His favorite games to play are Super Mario brothers, and he loves watching educational shows such as The Big Bang Theory on YouTube. Regardless, the primary weaknesses of Colson are that he does not adapt well to dense textual instructions. Colson can perform significantly if he is instructed verbally. Colson is frequently observed to become fixated to the matters that intrigue while engaging in a conversation, and further misses out on quest directed by other members of the group. Consequently, Colson finds it difficult working in teams and groups. Group learning can be identified as a major obstacle that restricts his learning experience. Colson further requires for commands to be repeated in the classroom, regardless of excelling at following instructions.

Utilization of the Universal Design for Learning

As per the opinion of Lohmann et al. (2018), education must be facilitated equally to the students without discrimination. In this context, the modern educational frameworks are undergoing a significant transformation due to the inclusion of learners representing distinctive learning necessities and abilities. Consequently, inclusive education is transforming into a fundamental necessity in the Australian education system, which enables the teachers to strategically address the needs and weaknesses of the learners significantly. In this regard, Hall et al. (2015) had described the UDL as a significant curriculum design framework that portrays the measures to facilitate equal learning scope and opportunities through the extermination of educational obstacles for students with distinctive needs. The following assessment further portrays the utilization of the UDL structure to develop a rudimentary Science lesson plan, with justifiable evidence from the case of Colson.

As per the viewpoint of Hartmann (2015), curriculum can be best described as the structural outline of the fundamental education and learning concepts that are transferred to the students knowledge base by through the respective teachers. The UDL framework further encapsulates three rudimentary principles, i.e. representation, engagement and expression. These principles altogether contribute to the successful design of a curriculum to provide inclusive learning experience to the students. As the teachers are authorized to design the curriculum, the implementation of representation can be done through involvement of visual/imagery/auditory aids to enable the students. On the other hand, the involvement of engagement through only written content can also restrict specially-able students from expressing, which are why it can also include verbal, sign and artistic expression (Al-Azawei et al., 2017). Furthermore, active engagement can be done through ensuring the continuous participation of the learners in the lesson-related educational activities. In this context, the implication of UDL framework is beneficial in enabling the teachers to mitigate the educational obstacles and facilitate proper learning opportunities to all types of students in a significant manner.

In this context, the following lesson plan developed in this assessment is presented below as the Science lesson part (part 2 of the assessment) that is primary focused on the bodily systems of human beings. In brief, the modified guidelines in the existing lesson plan have been highlighted in blue. The lesson further incorporates numerous inclusive learning strategies as a collaborative discussion sessions, practical experimental education etc. The amendments of the existing lesson plan were done as per the fundamental principles of Universal Design of learning, with the primary purpose to enhance the learning experience of the students in a significant manner.

As science is a complex subject that composes of an intricate vocabulary, it is important for the teachers to ensure that the students understand the concepts properly. Otherwise, various learning obstacles can be established for the students, especially in the case of Colson who is suffering from dyslexia (Scott et al., 2017). In this context, the implementation of UDL has been portrayed through the inclusion of a brief summary of the preceding lesson in the introductory part of the concerned lesson that had assisted in integrated the learning activities in a significant manner. Therefore, the inclusion of the knowledge related to the previous lesson can be fundamentally helpful for students, especially Colson, in gaining an exponential learning experience.

As per the opinion of Scott & Temple (2017), the individuals diagnosed with Dyslexia find it difficult to catch the context of intricate metaphors and concepts associated to science that restricts their learning experience critically. Therefore, the integration of numerous alternative representation strategies to elaborate the intricate context reflects significant involvement of UDL. In this context, inclusion of personal computer facilities, imagery representation, worksheets can be helpful to enhance the students that are undergoing this particular issue. For instance, Colson is very tech-savvy that further implies he is open to utilize computer facilities as a fundamental part of his learning to counter his Dyslexia.

The modification of the student’s learning and classroom experience has been established with efficacy through the involvement and integration of the Google Classroom. This enhancement and modification of the student’s idea of a classroom probability is of vast relevance as it provides additional advantages and merits to the student for incorporating higher range of skill and efficacy in their study materials (Burke & Bushby, 2017). The usage of Google Classroom in this context is extremely useful for the student to provide and facilitate proper materials through the formulations of e-documents. The use of this classroom interaction using Google can be deal for the student due to added benefits that comes with it. It enables the student to access the required and specific answers and inclusion of additional feedback. These advantages are readily available for the student whenever they log into their online portal using the digital classroom modification (García, Canabal & Alba, 2018). This initiative of the experience of a virtual classroom has been provided to the students to help them to access the information they require pre and post classroom timings and schedules. Thus the introduction of this classroom modification has been beneficial for the student as they did not have any such exposure to representation of their study materials and relevant revision resources. The student can get access to the 4 significant video clips on specific body systems. Worksheet of body system, teacher feedback and idea’s board will all be available through this facility and cab be viewed by the student anytime (Singleton et al., 2019).

Hence the utility of the Google Classroom is to identify the requirement of the student and enhancing and emphasizing their experience of the classroom modulation through the formation of virtual classroom. This is also effective in enhancing the experience of the students through an interactive classroom session and engaging the students to access relevant information through Google Classroom experience. The students are thus provide with higher range of knowledge and are given access to classroom materials and has been informed by UDL. Thus through the Google Classroom interaction the student Colson can gain higher knowledge through the interactive classroom facility and technological development.  Hence Colson can enrich his knowledge through the inclusion of interactive services and can practice higher engagement through virtual classroom.

The syllabus for the stage 4 science, formulated under the result of SC4-5WS is relevant for the students to put individual efforts and collaborate with other students to formulate a plan and look into the questions and issues related to the study design. The students are required to put in collaborative team effort with dyslexia and support to proceed with part 2 that includes 50% of the whole lesson. According to Kormos & Nijakowska (2017), the whole lesson has been developed by keeping in mind the importance of engagement of the students for ensuring that they delineate clear goals out of the whole lesson. In addition to this, the teachers will be helpful to provide proper guidelines to the students. The instructions have been modified through the elevation of turn taking tasks where the teacher can call out “stops” or “time” to help the student regulate accordingly (Sharma, Forlin & Furlonger, 2015).

This way the student Colson can gain advantage of a clear guideline to help him through the strategic implementation of student interaction that can be helpful for students having dyslexia as well. The students with dyslexia have shown strong resilience towards the phenomenon of social interaction and of turn taking engagement. Since Colson has certain problems with the initiative of establishing a social interaction and has been found to be uncomfortable in group discussion, it is recommended that students with dyslexia needs to work and interact with normal students in order to develop a valuable bond (Porter & Gee, 2018). This bind is relevant for the students to establish a proper connection and be comfortable in their own zone. Thus through the implementation of the UDL, Colson can resolve the issue of social interaction and can get a greater choice through opting for the number of students with whom Colson is comfortable to interact with. The students are also given the individual choice of working in pairs and they can even choose video clips base on educational information for body system and functioning of their choice. In this matter, the teacher plays a crucial role in assisting the students during their tenure of undergoing of the specific lessons and they are also able to answer the questions from the students.

The utility of a formative assessment is a major requirement that has been extensively used inside the classroom Idea’s Board that acts as a mutual educational space for the classroom as a whole. In this context, the students are given the choice of presenting their respective answers either on a physical paper or they can present their answer through the use of Google Classroom. The students need to perform two updates based on the Google Classroom functioning and the Idea’s Board (Scott et al., 2017). This helps in the reflective development of the student and can be evaluated through the UDL guideline. Thus through the UDL guideline, which has been formulated based on three primary principles, that delineate ways of expressing, representing and engaging (Seok, DaCosta & Hodges, 2018). The application of these principles is highly required for dyslexic students like Colson to help them engage with better collaborative effort of classroom engagement.

 

 

 

Part 2- Lesson Plan

Body Systems (Modification of UDL)

Time

Educational Activity

Classroom Plan

5 minutes

Foreword to tutorial and team work

Attach study plan with previous study plan

With lucid prospect for team activity.

Arbitrary Seating Procedure

20 minutes

Classroom Interaction:

Students need to provide opportunity to others as well

Facilitate engagement

Student in Pairs:

1 minute for each student discussion

Idea’s Board:

Answers have to be explicit

Students can use books or Google Classroom

 

 

 

 

Students can be selected arbitrarily for everyone to get a chance

25 minutes

Group Practical:

Students are provided with work sheets that are available in Google Classrooms

 

Group size: Maximum 4

Teacher needs to keep track of their time of 2minutes and 4 minutes interval

10 minutes

Compare Board before and after activity

Acts as a formative assessment that helps in reflective student learning

Idea’s Board formulation:

Placed in a noticeable region and key terms need to be emphasized

 

 

Reference List

Al-Azawei, A., Parslow, P., & Lundqvist, K. (2017). The effect of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) application on e-learning acceptance: A structural equation model. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning18(6).

Al-Azawei, A., Serenelli, F., & Lundqvist, K. (2016). Universal Design for Learning (UDL): a content analysis of peer reviewed journals from 2012 to 2015. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning16(3), 39-56.

Burke, J., & Bushby, A. (2017). Dyslexia And Learning. In Inclusive Education (pp. 141-157). Brill Sense.

García-Campos, M. D., Canabal, C., & Alba-Pastor, C. (2018). Executive functions in universal design for learning: moving towards inclusive education. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 1-15.

Hall, T. E., Cohen, N., Vue, G., & Ganley, P. (2015). Addressing learning disabilities with UDL and technology: Strategic reader. Learning Disability Quarterly38(2), 72-83.

Hartmann, E. (2015). Universal design for learning (UDL) and learners with severe support needs. International Journal of Whole Schooling11(1), 54-67.

Kormos, J., & Nijakowska, J. (2017). Inclusive practices in teaching students with dyslexia: Second language teachers’ concerns, attitudes and self-efficacy beliefs on a massive open online learning course. Teaching and Teacher Education68, 30-41.

Lohmann, M. J., Boothe, K. A., Hathcote, A. R., & Turpin, A. (2018). Engaging Graduate Students in the Online Learning Environment: A Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Approach to Teacher Preparation. Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research20(2), n2.

Porter, J., & Gee, K. (2018). A Collaborative Process for Preparing Pre-Service General Education and Special Education Science Teachers. In Towards Inclusion of All Learners through Science Teacher Education (pp. 339-352). Brill Sense.

Scott, L. A., Thoma, C. A., Puglia, L., Temple, P., & D'Aguilar, A. (2017). Implementing a UDL framework: A study of current personnel preparation practices. Intellectual and developmental disabilities55(1), 25-36.

Scott, L., & Temple, P. (2017). A conceptual framework for building udl in a special education distance education course. Journal of Educators Online14(1), n1.

Seok, S., DaCosta, B., & Hodges, R. (2018). A systematic review of empirically based Universal Design for Learning: implementation and effectiveness of Universal Design in education for students with and without disabilities at the postsecondary level. Open Journal of Social Sciences6(05), 171-189.

Sharma, U., Forlin, C., & Furlonger, B. (2015). A REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY MODELS OF FUNDING INCLUSIVE EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS WITH DYSLEXIA.

Singleton, K., Evmenova, A., Jerome, M. K., & Clark, K. (2019). Integrating UDL Strategies into the Online Course Development Process: Instructional Designers' Perspectives. Online Learning23(1), 206-235.

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