Essay Example: Role of Teachers and Other Adults in the Inclusive Classroom

It takes the collaboration of all stakeholders in a learning environment including teachers, children, parents, and other adults to achieve inclusion, especially for learners with special educational needs (Hamilton-Jones and Vail, 2014, p.78). Inclusion is defined as an act of meeting the needs of every learner and providing equal educational opportunity irrespective of disability or any form of disadvantage (Booth, 2005, p.152). This paper seeks to evaluate the needs for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities as well as gifted and talented learners and discuss the roles of teachers and other adults in achieving inclusion in primary schools in the UK.

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Pupils with SEND require at a large scale motivation and engagement to enable them to move at level with the rest of the class. A teacher can implement several creative techniques to meet this particular need for special education pupils. The teacher can motivate and improve student engagement through question formulation techniques where they give the pupils a chance to ask questions. The teacher can turn a set of instructions and lessons into a song to make the course interesting to increase engagement in the classroom where the pupils with SEND will equally benefit (Saint Joseph's University, n.d.). Having students create something and finding the learning possibilities in the things they like most, for instance, if they love songs the teacher can use them to teach numbers and vocabulary (Saint Joseph's University, n.d.).

Pupils with SEND need to develop resilience and adaptability and the teacher has to explore different ways of achieving this. The physical class arrangement influences the speed at which the students will adapt to the environment. The teacher should have the books and files in the class arranged systematically and enlighten all the students on how to retrieve them. Other important activities to build resilience include training the pupils on the advantages of seeking support, incorporating breaks in the learning sessions, and giving challenging tasks. These activities promote inclusion for all pupils in the class.

The children with SEND at the primary school level require assistance in goal setting. When students with special needs in education are helped set goals for learning, personal growth, and the future, they develop a sense of being included and treatment just like the rest of the students. The teacher, in this case, should be keen about asking them what they desire and dream of becoming. This will encourage the pupils to set goals that directly relate to their desires. The teachers have to help the pupils develop perseverance and help them understand that there exist setbacks and failures.

The pupils living with SEND find it challenging to create interpersonal relationships and therefore require emotional support. These teachers should establish a favorable classroom environment that encourages these students to mix effectively. In most cases, the learners with SEND tend to be isolated in schools either because others view them as a minority or their self-esteem is low, which affects their interactions with peers.

On the other hand, gifted and talented learners have special needs which will be discussed at this point. The learners need a challenging education that matches their intellectual level. Most mainstream classrooms in the UK, lacks provisions for talented and gifted learners. It is important to note that these learners already have an insight of up to 30 to 50 percent of the curriculum even before the teacher commences teaching the basic subjects (Julia, n.d. p.4). Most teachers fail to incorporate the teaching techniques that aim to deliver critical and creative thinking and independent research which is most appropriate in a class with gifted and talented students. In most schools, this need is not met because of the government failed to provide funding to support these learners' needs as wealth as the societal myth and notion that the gifted and talented students lack educational needs.

The learners need true peers considering their high intelligence levels compared to their peers at their educational levels; they are likely to have few opportunities of finding other children who are like them or with similar interests. Research findings show that children with extraordinarily high IQ are less mobile and have developed social problems which may worsen to acute levels, unlike adult genius who is more mobile and easily find people who are like them (Julia, n.d. p.5). These learners openly speak out the need of seeing other people who share similar interests and abilities. Most of the pupils are rejected because of their gifts and talents to protect the positions and feelings of other learners in a learning environment.

Gifted and talented learners need responsive parenting which includes in-home and school settings. The learners fail to get this need fulfilled because of the existing notion most of parents with children with high IQ are pushy, resulting in negative implications. These myths tend to make teachers doubt the parent’s participation in the student’s learning. However, researchers have disputed this notion arguing that parents play vital roles in identifying exceptional developments in children. It is important to note that gifted children make more demands and requests, are persuasive and thus require active parental involvement.

Gifted and talented learners need adult empathy. These children are in a high degree different from their age mates considering their ability to elaborate complex issues, remember with clarity and be able constructive reason in arguments at a tender age. The children are identified by struggling with more complex issues like the meaning of life and death. The children should be handled with care since they are highly emotional, which requires an adult's attention and understanding. These children can quickly analyse events, and their interpretation can usually be incorrect or sophisticated; therefore, teachers and adults should be ready to handle the unexpected.

The students’ diverse needs in typical classrooms have pushed teachers to acquire relevant skills aimed at meeting the needs of every learner and providing equal educational opportunity irrespective of disability or any form of disadvantage. This is what is referred to as inclusion in a classroom setting. In the UK, there exists legislation linked to inclusion in the education sector that aims to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of disability and special educational needs. The law includes Equality Act 2006, the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, the Special Education Needs and Disability Act 2001, the Education Act 1996, and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Centre of Studies on Inclusive Education, 2018). Generally, it becomes offensive when a child begins to develop a feeling of exclusion and unwelcome, both socially and educationally, which may curtail their progress.

There exist many perceptions and arguments on the view of inclusion among children, parents, and teachers do not mention scholars. For instance, according to Lauchlan and Greig (2015), inclusion does not primarily mean constituting all learners under the same roof, but instead, they argued that it involves engaging the children in similar educational experiences and helping them develop to their maximum ability. In some schools, pupils with SEND tend to be withdrawn from the mainstream classroom and put in a separate setting which is also perceived as inclusion. This move does not work for all pupils with special needs, for instance, research performed by the International Journal of Special Education indicates that pupils with autism disorder tend to perform better in mainstream classrooms compared to special classes where it is argued that children with autism disorder should engage in more challenging curriculums to spur academic learning rather than solely developing functional skills.

It is essential to consider the perspectives of the children, parents, and teachers on inclusion since they are the main stakeholders in education. Children perceive inclusion as a human right, and according to BCODP, pupils with SEND should be supported in mainstream classrooms, failure to do so is considered as discrimination which is regarded as an infringement of the UK legislation as well as a fundamental human right (Lauchlan and Greig, 2015, p.75). However, some scholars tend to disagree with this perception arguing that learners should be provided with the highest quality of education regardless of their position or physical location. Arguably, it draws more problems to compare mainstream classroom education and a special classroom since there are many differences between the two settings.

Parents perceive consider both mainstream and special settings as essential and therefore, should be availed. In a broader sense, parents are only concerned with their children acquiring education and perceive it as a fundamental human right. Parents are mainly guided by their beliefs; for instance, parents decide to take their children in special schools because they believe they do not perfectly fit in a mainstream classroom setting. In this case, parents are worried about their children being the minority in the mainstream school and therefore end up being subjected to bullying or social isolation. According to BCODP, parents require a lot of awareness on this concept to change their standpoints and break this notion to get more pupils with SEND admitted in mainstream schools (Lauchlan and Greig, 2015, p.76).

Teachers, at a large degree, have a positive attitude towards inclusion and assisting pupils, especially those with SEND. However, teachers encounter a myriad of challenges while executing their tasks which include overpopulated classes, students with diverse backgrounds, and different challenging behaviors and problems (Vaz et al., 2015). The teachers find it complicated, making children who were used to learning in segregated settings adapt to mainstream classrooms. Having discussed different perceptions of stakeholders, it is essential to explore the roles of teachers and parents in meeting the needs of diverse pupils.

There are several approaches teachers at the primary school level in the UK will have to incorporate in their work to ensure the inclusion of all students' needs. The teachers should consider the diverse needs of the students from the time they are planning for the activities for a particular term or learning session. Firstly, the teachers should include diverse content, materials and ideas. This should be viewed when preparing for lessons, in questions to be discussed in class, assignments and examinations. For instance, in a lesson, the teacher should use examples, demonstrations, and multiple languages to reflect diversity. While delivering, it is vital to create openness where learners can raise questions and bring in new ideas which will assist all students in broadening and deepening their comprehension of concepts. This approach will help students learn that knowledge is acquired through conversation and collaboration among themselves (Morgan, 2016, p.45). The selection of content will, at a high degree, be guided by professional training and background.

Secondly, teachers should create a favourable environment that encourages inclusion. Creating an inclusive environment begins with how teachers communicate during lessons (Morgan, 2016, p.44). The teacher at the beginning of the semester should inform the class on how the learning will be executed, including their expectations and respectful interactions.