Successful Implementation of Inclusive Education

Péter RadóBelgrade, 25.09.2013.

What are we talking about?

Organic disabiities(„Category A”)

Learning and behavioral difficulties(„Categoty B”)

Social disadvantages, ethnicity, etc.

(„Category C”)

Eligibility for additional services

(classification and diagnosis)

„Category A” children in special

schools

„Category A” children in

mainstream schools

„Category B/C” children in

mainstream schools

Seaparation / integration(placement / enrollment)

Special education conditions

(habilitation and rehabilitation)

Differentiated teaching and supportive

school

Individualized supplementary development

Supplementary social support,

minority programs, etc.

Inclusion(conditions and services)

The problem to be solved (a metaphor)

Big store: selling few items in large quantitiesOnline retail: selling a large number of items in small

quantities

Chris Anderson: The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More

The problem to be solved(how to serve the long tail of learning

needs?)The educational big store: serving great masses of „problem free” children, disregarding diverse individual learning needs

Growing expectations towards individual teachers

How much are these expectations realistic? Not at all:• because of the extreme diversity of learning needs• because of the inflations of too many expectations• because they require overwriting all the old routines

Is it hopeless then? Not at all:• Partial enrichment of teaching repertoires may lead to

revolutionary changes in the climate of the classroom• What an individual teacher can’t do the whole school will

be able to do if teachers cooperate• The longer recognized „learning long tail” generates

bigger demand for external professional services both for children and teachers

Successful implementation the six engines of inclusion

Equally strong focus on the classroom and on its institutional and systemic environment

DifferentiationA few key teacher competencies

• Awareness of learning profiles, effective learning• Multilateral classroom communication• Cooperative teaching• Development of teaching materials, constructing

content from learning objects• Diagnostic and formative pedagogical assessment,

test design• Recognizing learning and behavioral difficulties,

correction methods• Project method• Instruction methods for promoting high order thinking

Flexible curriculumAnd its implications: school autonomy

Diverse individual learning needs

Adjusting school program

Adjusting the organization of

learning

Adjusting instruction methodologies

Adjusting organizational

processes

Adusting internal allocation of resources

Adjusting human resource

management

Adjusting teaching materials

Adjusting technical facilities

Adjusting pedagogical assessment

Self-improving schools

Self-evaluation based school improvement cycles

1. Preparation C/D1

2. Self-evaluation3. Collecting

supplementary information C/D2

4. Processing, summarizing

5. Sorting the most important

problems C/D3

1. Determining developmental

obejctives C/D4

2. Collecting good practices

4. Implementaion and monitoring

3. School development

plan C/D5

5. Evaluation C/D6

Self-evaluation

School improvement

C/D = communication within the institution, decision-making

Quality evaluationWhole school inspection with special

inclusion focus

• A quality evaluation system that balances the two main aims: professional accountability and supporting organizational learning

• Whole school external evaluation (inspection) based on a limited number of quality criteria

• Supplementary instruments for external evaluation of the inclusion capacity of schools (thematic supplementary inspection) designed to inform self-evaluation and school improvement

Support servicesThe principle of „high expectations, high

support”

Inventory of missing or weak services:• Diagnostic (e.g. logopedic) screening reaching out to all

children in pre-school age and early development services• Specialist of habilitation/rehabilitation in different

categories of disabilities („travelling teachers” of special schools or territorial support service centers) supporting children and their teachers and parents at the same time

• Mainstream institutionalized educational support services• A missing profession: „developmental teacher” (bridging

over the competence gap between mainstream and special education teachers)

Vested financial interestIncentives built into the system of

financingIncentives for full enrollment• Per capita financing (money following the pupil)Incentives for integration• Supplementary financing for integration that are higher

than financing of education in any separated settingIncentives for improvement• Funding for the implementation of school improvement

plans (e.g. for generating demand for purchasing professional support)

Financing of flexible and complex support services• Financing of complex special and mainstrea professional

services (instead of financing service providers)

Successful implementationPolicy conditions

• Inclusion as sustained priority over a long period of time

• Mainstreaming the development of all pedagogical, institutional and systemic conditions

• Simultaneous investment at all levels of conditions

• A professional implementing agency and the necessary human resources

• The necessary financial resources incorporated to the financing of schools and professional services

• Perpetual feedback (monitoring and evaluation) and open communication

• Internationalization