EDUC 5174 Inclusive Education M Assignment 1 Critical Article Review Man Jin 110158709

Critical Article Review on Issues of Inclusive Education and the Application of

Findings to Professional Experience

In recent decades, there has been a common consensus about the need for more inclusive
education. Responding to the legislative initiatives in many countries, there has been a
trend of integrating students with disabilities into regular schools globally (Grskovic &
Trzcinka 2011, p. 94). In Australia, due to the Disability Discrimination Act 1992
(Commonwealth Government of Australia, 1992), the numbers of students with disabilities
attended in regular classrooms in Australia secondary schools has been increased
dramatically (Pearce 2009, p. 2). Therefore, numerous research on inclusive education, in
terms of adjusting curricula, additional support services for students with disabilities and
providing teacher training for regular class teachers, has conducted all over the world. Take
O'Rourke and Houghon's paper as a starting point, this essay will firstly review the key
issues emphasised in the paper and discuss the strengths and limitations of the paper.
Secondly, this essay will explore the ways of applying the findings to future professional
experience, especially to programming, pedagogy, assessment practice in light of
professional responsibilities and policy.

Review and discussion of key issues within the paper

The focus of O'Rourke and Houghton's (2008) research is secondary school students with
mild disabilities (MD). In their paper, they define the term students with MD as 'students
with specific learning disabilities, speech and language impairments, intellectual disabilities
and serious emotional disturbance' (Ysseldyke, Algozzine & Thurlow 2000, cited in
O'Rourke & Houghton, 2008, p. 227). Based on their study and review of literatures on
inclusive education, O'Rourke and Houghton (2008, p. 228) found that in the recent two
decades, there had been plenty of research on the alternatives to intervene the learning
process of MD students in the regular classroom and the benefit of these advantageous
support for students with MD. However, rare research highlighting the perspective of these
individuals on the additional support in the regular classroom can be sought. Therefore,
according to their research, O'Rourke and Houghton (2008, p. 229) used the Student
Perceptions of Classroom Support Scale (SPCS), which is comprised of 28 items
developed from four key support mechanisms (instruction, curriculum, adult and peer
support) as the common characteristics of inclusive practice, to determine the perceptions
and viewpoints of secondary school students with MD to the academic and social

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EDUC 5174 Inclusive Education M Assignment 1 Critical Article Review Man Jin 110158709

achievement of the support provided in the regular classrooms.

There are several strengths of the paper comparing with some other research on this field.
Firstly, the voice of students with MD in the regular classroom is highlighted. It can be seen
that among the research and study on inclusion, especially targeted on students with mild
disabilities in regular classrooms, some of them focus on exploring the ways of improve
teaching practice and strategies to support students and facilitate their learning in regular
classrooms (Knesting, Hokanson & Waldron 2008; Sencibaugh & Sencibaugh 2016;
Lignugaris & Stenhoff 2007; Boyle et al. 2003), others may emphasize on provide additional
training or other alternatives for regular teachers to improve their inclusive competence
(Meadan & Monda-amaya 2008; Pearce 2009; Grskovic & Trzcinka 2011). This implies that
the learning environment and challenges that students with MD faced due to integration in
the regular class have been noticed and discussed as well as the research on supportive
initiatives and additional services for these students has been undertaken. However,
experts states that it is more critical to examine if the current initiatives and adjusted
pedagogy work from the perspective of the students with MD rather than scholars or
leaders' viewpoints (Stodden et al 2003, cited in O'Rourke & Houghton 2008, p. 228). This
may because these students with MD are the ones who are facing the difficulties and the
interventions provided for so that their feelings and needs should be given priority to make
sure positive outcomes and maximum benefit of implementing the support. Therefore, it is
significant that this paper take the needs of students with MD in regular classrooms as a
starting point, examining their perceptions of selected support mechanisms and valuable
discussions are stimulated based on analysis of research data.

Secondly, the authors take the effect of implementing support on students with MD on both
their academic and social outcomes. According to Meadan and Monda-amaya (2008,
p.159), emphasis of related research and study often places on adjusting the learning
environment and providing additional support to facilitate academic needs and outcomes of
students with MD. However, the results of studies show that students with MD are more
socially sensitive and more in need of social acceptance and emotional achievement
(O'Rourke & Houghton 2008, p. 235). Similarly, Pearce (2009, p. 6) states that to establish
the inclusive environment and promote inclusive education, academic, social and emotional
inclusion are of equal importance. Therefore, it is crucial to take the impact of the support
mechanisms on both academic and social outcomes of students with MD in regular

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EDUC 5174 Inclusive Education M Assignment 1 Critical Article Review Man Jin 110158709

classrooms as the demonstration of Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, which

includes the focus areas of knowing 'physical, social and intellectual development' and
using 'strategies to support full participation and learning of students with disability' (AITSL
2014).

There are also some limitations and implications of this paper for further research. Firstly,
the students with MD are essential but not the only ones involving in the teaching and
learning experience in the regular classroom. Other factors should be taken in
consideration such as the teacher and their peers without MD in order to promote inclusion
in regular class. For example, research has indicated some regular classroom teachers
perceive that it is difficult to implement effective approach to include students with MD in
regular class because of the lack of teaching expertise (Grkovic & Trzcinka 2011, p. 95;
Pearce 2009, p. 2). This may become the obstacle to inclusion. Another important aspect
for inclusion in regular classroom is the students without MD whom the students with MD
working and interacting with in the same classroom as scholars found that students with
MD more likely engaged in class activities and developed their academic and social
competence through cooperation with peers (Knesting et al. 2008, p. 274; Stenhoff &
Lignugaris 2007, p. 9; Sencibaugh & Sencibaugh 2016, p.357). Therefore, an accepting
classroom environment should be created to encourage opportunities for social interaction
in the regular classroom (Meadan & Monda-amaya 2008, p. 161) and this may need the
support from educational policies, legislation and school communities.

Application of key findings

Some critical findings can be seen through the analysis of O'Rourke and Houghton's (2008,
p. 234) research data. Firstly, the research results indicate that rather than some structural
and pedagogical factors, which are often given higher priority when planning for inclusive
teaching and learning experience for students with MD, good teaching practice in terms of
'delivering the subject in an interesting and enjoyable manner' is perceived most likely to
lead to positive outcomes of students with MD(O'Rourke & Houghton 2008, p. 234). For
instance, the research data shows the negative perception of students with MD to the items
of 'sitting near the front of the class or classroom teacher' while positive acceptance to
simple and clear explanation and instruction and 'teacher made the subject interesting and
enjoyable' (O'Rourke & Houghton 2008, p. 231). Therefore, in the professional teaching
experience, there are some possible ways to engage students with MD in the regular

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EDUC 5174 Inclusive Education M Assignment 1 Critical Article Review Man Jin 110158709

classroom. It can be seen that it is more effective to make explicit the purpose and
procedure of the task, give instruction and explanation clearly and directly to allow students
with MD participating in classroom activities and cooperate with various resource and
materials that students may build connection with easily find interesting. For example,
alongside the paper text or handout, more audio and video materials may be used to
present the information or support the tasks because research demonstrate that audio and
video texts can be effective devices for students with mild disabilities to increase knowledge
acquisition (Boyle et al. 2016, p. 212). The effective implementation of these strategies may
probably depend on the teacher's professional knowledge of students with MD (Pearce
2009, p. 6; Knesting et al. 2008, p. 273). This means that if the teacher knows students well,
in terms of good understanding of students' development and characteristics, they may
likely to develop strategies to differentiate teaching to meet students' learning needs and
support participation and learning of students with disabilities, which also can be seen as
achieving the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers in some ways (AITSL 2014).

Furthermore, it needs to be noticed that positive classroom environment plays considerable

role in inclusion. It can be seen from the research data that items 'teacher was friendly and
positive', 'being taught by a teacher I know and liked' and 'sitting with other students and
working on projects together - but was given jobs that I could do' are of relatively positive
perception (O'Rourke & Houghton 2008, p. 232). This implies that regular classroom
teachers' attitude and other students' understanding of inclusion have impact on learning
experience of students with MD. Meadan and Monda-amaya (2008, p. 161) claim that
creating and maintaining a save and positive learning environment requires regular class
teachers and students understand and respect the diversity in the classroom. The
Australian Professional Standards for Teachers also demonstrate the requirement for
teachers to 'identify strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in
classroom activities' (AITSL 2014). Therefore, as a regular classroom teacher, when
implementing professional experience, it is important to model appropriate attitudes to help
build respectful, positive and supportive relationships in the classroom (Pearce 2009, p. 5).
However, the expert further states that it is critical for teachers to understand that students
with MD are not special and in need of extra and isolate assistance as well as their needs
should not dominate the learning activities in the class (Pearce 2009, p. 5). This means that
an inclusive teacher need to accept responsibility to teach all the students, make
adjustment to support everyone to achieve their potential. This may be applied through the

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EDUC 5174 Inclusive Education M Assignment 1 Critical Article Review Man Jin 110158709

example that both students with and without MD work in groups conducting a project, the
content and materials may be the same but they may have different learning goals built into
the curriculum and various options wove throughout to complete the task (Pearce 2009, p.
10). In this way, students with MD may have more opportunities to collaborate and interact
with others, learn and do the jobs they could such as obtaining basic content knowledge,
practicing communication and social skills.

In conclusion, O'Rourke and Houghton's (2008) paper examines perception of students

with MD to the academic and social outcomes of mostly used support mechanisms. In their
research, the voice of students with MD stands out and they consider the impact of these
support mechanisms on both academic and social outcomes. Their paper could be a
valuable starting point for further research on inclusion from perspectives of regular
classroom teachers, other students in the classroom, school community and government
policy. Moreover, the findings of the research can be applied to the professional experience
through adjusting good teaching practice and building positive classroom relationships and
environment. Further study need to be conducted to identify learning needs and
characteristic of students with MD and develop inclusion in Australian regular secondary
school classrooms.

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EDUC 5174 Inclusive Education M Assignment 1 Critical Article Review Man Jin 110158709

References

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership 2014, Australian Professional
Standards for Teachers, Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, viewed 26
September 2016,
<http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers/standards/list>

Boyle, EA, Rosenberg, MS, Connelly, VJ, Washburn, SG, Brinckerhoff, LC & Banerjee, M
2003, 'Effects of audio texts on the acquisition of secondary-level content by students with
mild disabilities', Learning Disability Quarterly, vol. 26, pp. 203-214.

Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cwlth).

Grskovic, JA & Trzcinka, SM 2011, 'Essential standards for preparing secondary content
teachers to effectively teach students with mild disabilities in included settings', American
Secondary Education, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 94-106.

Knesting, K, Hokanson, C & Waldron, N 2008, 'Settling in: facilitating the transition to an
inclusive middle school for students with mild disabilities', International Journal of Disability,
Development and Education, vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 265-276.

Meadan, J & Monda-amaya, L 2008, 'Collaboration to promote social competence for

students with mild disbilities in the general classroom: a structure for providing social
support', Intervention in School and Clinic, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 158-167.

O'Rourke, J & Houghton, S 2008, 'Perceptions of secondary school students with mild
disabilities to the academic and social support mechanisms implemented in regular
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Pearce, M 2009, 'The inclusive secondary school teacher in Australia', International Journal
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Sencibaugh, JM & Sencibaugh, AM 2016, 'An analysis of cooperative learning approaches

for students with learning disabilities', Education, vol. 136, no. 3, pp. 356-364.

Stenhoff, DM & Lignugaris, B 2007, 'A review of the effects of peer tutoring on students with
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