Judy Buckingham gave an informative presentation for the Adult Learning Australia (ALA) webinar series, September 2012.

1. ACE DisAbility Network
The Inclusive
Classroom

2. Topics
• Introductions
• The inclusive classroom
• How people learn
• Impact of disability on learning
• Collaborative learning
• Learning tools
• Behaviour management

3. What is inclusive learning?
• Consider one or more of the case studies
provided and discuss:
– What these instances tell us about inclusion

4. • Susan is a retired woman who volunteers with the adult education literacy class
where most of the students have an intellectual disability of some kind. She feels
sorry for the students but often gets frustrated when they don’t seem to learn.
One day, one of the students is rude to her and she quits.
• Muriel goes to an aerobics class, mainly because it is on her plan which has
identified that she has a weight problem. She has difficulty keeping up with the
group and although she says she enjoys the activity she has made no friends. At
the end of the class she and her support worker hurry away to be in time for
Muriel’s next activity.
• Reg is a 50 year old man who has attended a literacy class at his local community
centre for the past ten years. He can write his first name which he learned in
primary school but still cannot read. He says he likes going to the class because it is
something to do.
• The adult learning centre has been told that Jessica has Asperger’s. However this
does not seem to affect her learning ability and she is doing well. One day,
however, there is a fire drill with a fire bell being sounded. Jessica has not been
back since

5. What is inclusion?
• Inclusion is….
– More than presence
– Finding time and spending effort
– Co-ownership of space
– Recognising the impact of disability
– Meeting participant not organisational needs
• Inclusion is not
– Tokenism
– Something only certain places do

6. Education Standards
Applies to all education providers including:
• Not for profit community providers
• Providers of adult and community education
• RTOs and non RTOs.
Requires comparable opportunities and choices to those
without disability in:
• Enrolment
• Participation
• Curriculum development, accreditation and delivery
• Student support
• Harassment.
Adjustments

7. Inclusive learning
"There is a world of difference between, on the
one hand, offering courses of education and
training and then giving some students who have
learning difficulties (intellectual disability) some
additional human or physical aids to gain access
to those courses, and, on the other hand,
redesigning the very processes of learning,
assessment and organisation so as to fit the
objectives and learning styles of the student. But
only the second philosophy can claim to be
inclusive."
Inclusive Learning, Report on
Learning Difficulties and/or
Disabilities Committee, UK 1996

8. How do people learn?
• Memory
• Relationships – trust – belief
• Dialogue – learning is a social act
• Reason to learn
• Time
• Positive reinforcement

9. Barriers to learning
• Lack of confidence that they can learn
• Lack of time- duration and frequency
• Lack of reason to learn
• Caring not learning

10. The adult learner
• Role of experience
• Immediate needs
• Relaxed environment
• Importance of success

11. Some impacts of disability on learning
• Short term memory loss
• Poor attention span
• Easily confused
• Difficulty with complex and multiple meaning
• Inability to generalise
• Slow to learn
• Low self esteem
• Need for structured environment
• Affected by lights or background noise
• Fatigue
• Unexplained expressions of emotion
• Lack social skills

12. Collaborative learning theory
“Learning is a social activity”
• Vygotsky
– Zone of actual and proximal development
– Scaffolding
• I DO, YOU WATCH I DO, YOU HELP YOU DO, I HELP YOU DO, I WATCH
• Collaborative learning
– Positive interdependence
– Promotional interdependence
– Individual accountability
– Social interaction
– Group processing

13. Ways of collaborating
• Discrete pairs
• Pairs within a group setting
• Intermittent pairs – think, pair, share

14. Academic results
• Positive
– Academic achievement
– Cooperation
– Enhanced perceptions of each other
– Breakdown of barriers
• Negative
– Teachers not understanding the basic rules
– Students’(parents’) fear of being “held back”

15. Classroom tools
• Chat (dialogue)
• Setting targets
• Task analysis
• Demonstration and talking through
• Consolidation
• Reflection and review
• Streamlining
• Question and answer
• Check for understanding
• Positive reinforcement
• One instruction at a time
• Routine
• Repetition
• Provide context
• Social scripting
• Prompting
• Concrete, everyday examples
• Joint construction

16. Assessments
• Why?
• How?

17. Classroom management
Sara has joined a craft class with her support worker, Jane. Some
of the other participants grumbled to each other that they
didn’t think it was appropriate that Sara attend as they had
paid their money to learn and didn’t want the teacher to give
all her attention to Sara.
Sara wanted to learn but because it took her longer to pick up
some things, she tended to call out to the teacher a lot. When
the teacher was with someone else, she got bored and
wandered around the classroom or asked Jane to take her to
the toilet loudly.
The teacher was confused and didn’t know what was expected
of her, so she ignored Sara and Jane. Sara became more bored
and noisier.
Some of the other class participants told the teacher at the end
of the class that they wouldn’t be coming back if Sara was still
in the class next time.

18. What could the teacher have done
• Negotiating support worker role before
starting
• Setting a Code of Conduct
• Having a range of activities to suit abilities
• Using group work or buddy systems

19. Working with a support worker
– What kind of support is provided:
• attendant care (toileting and feeding);
• educational support;
• social support;
• transport, or
• combination of any of these?
– What is the support worker prepared to do ?
– Support worker policy
– Withdrawal plan

20. Code of conduct
• Students – “What do I expect from others?”
• Tutor – “What do I expect from students?”
• Non negotiable conditions
• Consequences of breaking code
• Discuss
• Ratify
• Publish
• Monitor.

21. Behaviour management
• Preventative strategies
– State expectations
– Code of conduct
– Be aware of difficulties
– Recognising aggression
– Consistent approaches/management plan
• Incident response
• Consideration of dignity
• Who can help?

22. Look after yourself
At some point you will feel tired, frustrated,
irritable, overwhelmed
This is normal – but don’t react negatively
•Recognise when this is happening
•Find someone to talk to
•Have a break