Educational integration for persons with handicaps: a conceptual discussion

ABSTRACT

Presented is a discussion of the trend toward educational integration of persons with handicaps and a review of some of the concepts and definitions relevant to this pursuit. Persons with handicaps have systematically been denied their human rights and privileges throughout history. Today the main issue in education for persons with handicaps is integration, which is a means by which to forward the goals of normalization. Education for persons with handicaps, if we consider the philosophy of normalization, and adhere to the notion of educational integration, should reflect and be based upon extensive interaction among pupils with handicaps, their teachers, support staff, peers and families.     

Educational development units: A cross-cultural perspective

This paper examines the institutionalisation of educational development in universities in Australia, Britain, USA, West Germany and Sweden. Centres for staff, instructional, educational or academic development were established in these countries in the sixties and seventies, following expansion of the higher education systems. But the triggers for the establishment in each country were different, as are the institutional integration of centres and provisions in general. The institutional reward systems in all of these countries favour research performance over excellence in teaching, regardless of whether the universities see themselves as research or teaching centred.In Australia, educational development has been institutionalised to the highest degree; most of the universities have centres with permanent staff, some of whom are tenured faculty with a research and development function. In Britain there has been strong national support for training of university teachers and individual universities are providing this in a larger variety of settings. In the USA institutionalisation has taken many forms. But educational development is also funded on a short term basis, and due to the ample availability of grants there is continuous experimentation and influx of new people. In Germany the original connection between university reforms and educational development centres and the strong research orientation of universities has put these centres into a vulnerable position and limits their effectiveness. In Sweden central legislation provides for compulsory teacher training in the universities, but much of the general educational development work is organised centrally. The importance of educational development is generally acknowledged in these countries, its effectiveness largely accepted in faith.     

The Handmaid’s Tale: Using Literature and Online Journaling to Facilitate a Self-Study of Feminist Identity in an International Research Collective

ABSTRACT

This article explores how five international colleagues from the USA, Canada, China, and Japan use self-study methodologies and online journaling to systematically examine the tensions surrounding the lived experiences of feminist academics in diverse global contexts. It draws from the theoretical foundations of critical qualitative inquiry, self-study, feminist epistemologies, and fiction as research. The main research questions guiding the study are: what is the role of self-study and journaling in an international research collective?, how can contemporary literature inform a self-study about the intersection of gender and career?, and in what ways does journaling with international partners support personal and professional development of multicultural teacher educators?. For 6 months, the authors explored these questions with one another in an interactive online journal. Collaborative analysis of the journal entries produced three major themes: fiction as self-study, scholarship as hope, and scholarship as freedom. The article concludes with the authors’ personal views on the importance of online journaling and self-study among educational researchers who are interested in finding tools and structures for navigating the contemporary women’s movement within academia.     

Ideological Dilemmas in Special Needs Education: practitioners’ views

Abstract

This study explored what sense groups of educators from Pennsylvania, USA and Northamptonshire, England made of policy issues in the special needs education field. The aim was to find out first, to what extent individual educators recognised the presence or not of dilemmas associated with the identification of pupils with special educational needs, a common curriculum for all, parent‐professional relationships and integration in mainstream classes; and second, whether they believed that these dilemmas could be resolved and how they would resolve them. It was found that educators in both countries saw dilemmas associated with the identification, common curriculum and integration, but not with parent—professional relationships. Resolutions of the dilemmas showed a similar set of contrasting perspectives in both countries. These findings are interpreted as illustrating the ideological nature of the dilemmas which underlie policy issues in special needs education.     

School Size Effects on Achievement in Secondary Education Evidence from the Netherlands,Sweden and the USA 1

ABSTRACT

In this article the results of an investigation into the relation between school size and achievement are reported. The findings relate to mathematics achievement in Dutch, Swedish and American secondary education and to science achievement in the Netherlands. The analyses sought to provide an answer to the following questions:

(1) Is school size related to achievement independently of student background characteristics such as sex, achievement motivation, socio‐economic status and cognitive aptitude? (2) Is the effect of school size related to any of the aforementioned background characteristics? (3) Does the effect of school size on achievement differ between the educational systems of the Netherlands, Sweden and the USA? (4) Is the effect of school size the same for different measures of student achievement (mathematics versus science)?

It was hypothesized that school size would be most strongly related to achievement in the USA. The analyses, however, revealed little empirical evidence for the existence of school size effects on achievement in any of the three countries, possibly because school size and curriculum comprehensiveness are not strongly related in these countries.

Because the investigations involved the analysis of five separate datasets, the research outcomes revealed some useful additional information with respect to the robustness of the detected relations between the five covariates and student achievement.

     

Integrating Physical Education and Geography in elementary education in the Czech Republic and the Republic of Slovenia

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the lack of international knowledge and research in interdisciplinary curriculum development and teaching in the subjects of Physical Education and Geography. The authors analysed and compared elementary school curricular documents from two ex-communist countries, the Czech Republic and the Republic of Slovenia (an ex-socialist Yugoslav republic) to reveal how integration of Physical Education and Geography can be embedded at the policy level. A questionnaire survey among teachers examined how the integration is implemented in practice. The authors present some practical examples to show how Physical Education and Geography integration can be achieved. The findings of the study indicate that while interdisciplinarity is an important policy goal of the educational systems of these two countries, integration is not being implemented in practice.     

Research on Language and Communication in Children who have Severe Handicaps: a review and some implications for intervention

Abstract This paper presents a critical discussion of some contemporary literature on the language development of, and problems in communication for, persons with severe handicaps. For meaning to be transmitted from one person to another requires a social interactive context. These transactional exchanges begin very early in a child's life and carry particular implications for caregivers and therapists. Some implications of this literature for intervention are suggested.     

Educator Perceptions and Use of Technology in South African Schools

ABSTRACT

South African schools experience diverse access to educational technology. Further, South African educators have limited opportunities to attend educator professional development workshops focused on technology integration. These differences can have a tremendous impact on students’ educational experiences and educators’ levels of self-efficacy toward implementing technology in their school settings. To provide further support and training opportunities to educators in South African township schools, administrators are able to partner with nongovernmental organizations and institutions of higher education. This article provides an overview of South African educational contexts and how partnerships can be formed to provide educator support to integrate educational technology in township schools.     

I know my instructional technologies: It's these learners that perplex me!

Abstract

The role of technical support personnel in higher education and corporate training has traditionally been confined to the areas of hardware and software. Now technologists are often asked to serve as corporate trainers and advisors to faculty in the choice and integration of educational technology into teaching and learning. Based on her own training and personal experience, the author suggests and discusses three areas of study within adult education that can assist persons with a technical background to make this role transition. The areas of study include 1) introduction to adult education, 2) adult learners and learning, and 3) program planning. The combination of technology training and knowledge in these three areas will provide a solid foundation for the expanding role of technologists.     

Making the move: a case study in participatory curriculum development in Danish forestry education

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to the experience based on ways of integrating the concept of sustainability into higher education in forestry. It starts by discussing some interpretations of the concept of sustainability and the implications of this for educational goals. The types of competencies needed and their interrelationship and importance are characterised. The specific educational innovation of holding a participatory curriculum development workshop to enable students to influence the design and planning of two of their forest management courses is then described. Finally, the implications of our findings for the integration of the concept of sustainability in the forestry curriculum are discussed.     

Design Issues in the Use of Robots as Cognitive Enhancement Aids

Abstract

Robotic manipulators are being used in an investigation of their potential as effective classroom learning aids when used by severely orthopaedically disabled children to manipulate educational materials and to play games. During the course of the design and development of a prototype robotic system for educational use, several issues have surfaced that constitute serious considerations in the process. Of particular importance are issues involving accessibility, software design, curriculum integration and specific research questions involving spatial visualisation. Performance data from previous investigations has shown that learning to use robots can be easily accomplished, and that the consequent learning is remarkably resistant to decay over time.     

A Reflection on Some Meanings of ‘Interdisciplinarity’ and ‘Integration Among the Sciences’

Summaries

English

‘Integrated science’ as an aspect of curriculum development is now well established world‐wide and has become the subject of international meetings. This article tries to put forward for discussion some ideas about the meaning of integration among the sciences.

Integration is first discussed in its relation to common culture and disciplinary knowledge. Disciplinarity, recognized as the way in which scientific knowledge has been organized, is seen as the only real possibility for the growth of knowledge. To understand the meanings and the importance of different disciplinary fields, is a didactical objective to be reached through an articulated educational process starting in the primary school. However, another objective of the same importance is the development of the capacity to recognize and utilize disciplinary knowledge for the solution of ‘real’ problems.

In this perspective, an important problem for educational research is the definition of a ‘scientific knowledge for all’ which should enable people to confront real problems with a knowledge of the meanings of science, and of where to find and how to use scientific information.     

Towards a model of rehabilitation

This article describes, and argues for an integration of behavioural methods to deal with a wide range of persons suffering from disabilities regardless of age.Practitioners require simple straightforward practical and effective strategies, which can help them to select appropriate social, behavioural, and educational strategies along with effective programme components. These are relevant to those who suffer from a wide range of disabilities, including those relating to aging, emotional disorders, physical and mental handicaps. Such an integrated model has relevance to work with families. They, too, are affected by the stresses of disability, and are susceptible to behavioural dysfunction. A number of examples are provided which addresses aspects of behavioural intervention and counselling. The behavioural strategies and attitudes of staff are examined, along with the degrees of structure required in effective rehabilitation counselling, including the processes of empowerment and consumer control.This paper arises from a presentation by the authors at IRTAC Vienna, 1987, and is based in part on Behavioural and Social Rehabilitation and Training by Brown, R.I. and Hughson, E.A., published by Wiley, Chichester, 1987. We are grateful to Wiley for their permission to use Figure 1 from this book.     

Reforming Technical and Technological Education

ABSTRACT

This paper examines selected reform efforts in technical and technological education from a comparative perspective. The similarities and differences between reforms in selected countries – Brazil, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Sweden – are analysed to determine major world‐wide trends. Lessons are drawn which should be useful for nations contemplating reform of their education and training systems. Particular attention is focussed on the time taken to complete reforms effectively and the need for long‐term approaches, relationships between educational reforms and industrial development, the interdependence of reforms affecting general, technical and vocational education, regional co‐operation and the decentralisation of national decision‐making.     

Project for integration of pupils with special needs in Spain

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the integration project approved by the Spanish Government in 1985. First, it outlines the main characteristics of the Spanish educational system, then after discussing the concept of integration, the nine points which constitute the integration project are presented. One of the main ideas presented by these points is to change the educational system. Finally, an evaluation programme of this eight year long project is outlined.     

Program reflections on the role of longitudinal digital portfolios in the development of technology competence

Abstract

Digital portfolios in teacher education provide opportunities to conceptualize learning and growth over time. The digital portfolio experiences of two secondary teacher education students in the context of an entire preservice teaching experience are presented. These vignettes, along with programmatic observations from the past four years, indicate that high‐level uses of educational technology are difficult to facilitate in large teacher education programs using a technology infusion model that emphasizes general skills. Whereas many teacher education programs have abandoned required technology courses to jump start National Educational Technology Standards‐based competence, the authors argue that advanced courses in educational technology for teacher education majors are still necessary for curricular integration with technology. This article concludes with a discussion of the nature and level of technology competence in relation to portfolio development and makes recommendations for how programs might pursue similar models.     

Education for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR): a mapping of SRHR-related content in higher education in health care,police, law and social work in Sweden

ABSTRACT

Knowledge of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) by health care, police, legal and social work professionals has been shown to be insufficient. This lack of competence is likely to affect the quality of services. The aim of this study was to describe SRHR indicators in educational programmes in health care, police, legal and social work higher education in Sweden. A text-based analysis was conducted of written material from all educational programmes in law, midwifery, nursing, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, police work, psychology, social work and undergraduate medicine (93 educational programmes at 27 universities and university colleges). Representation of different SRHR indicators varied, but most were poorly covered in the educational programmes. Existing educational programmes lack comprehensiveness in their coverage of SRHR and are unequal both within and between the professions and universities. This situation creates the risk of inequalities in SRHR competence and suggests that needs within this field may be unmet. There is an urgent need therefore to enhance the presence of SRHR in health care, social work and law enforcement education in Sweden.     

Extended sociometric status of adolescents with mild handicaps: A cross‐categorical perspective

Abstract

We compared adolescents identified as having mild mental retardation, learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, and no known handicaps on regular classroom sociometric status extended to include measures of social impact and social preference. Students attended regular classroom physical education classes in six high schools from two adjacent school districts. We administered a rating scale sociometric in physical education classes where students with mild handicaps were enrolled. Results indicated that not all students with mild handicaps were similar in social acceptance, rejection, and preference. Students with mild handicaps also differed in composition of subgroups labeled popular, rejected, neglected, controversial, and average. We discuss implications concerning social standing differences across types of mild handicaps and the value of examining sociometric status in the manner employed here.