DEVELOPING INCLUSIVE SCHOOLS

AND CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENTS

Strategies for creating inclusive and effective
schools:
-Appropriate planning.
-Inclusion is more than the placement of children
with special needs in regular classrooms.
-Teachers need to understand special educational
needs.
-Make special provision for the needs of all
learners.
 1. Developing a common philosophy
and strategic plan.
 Namibia developed a philosophy to provide
education for all citizens, based on the four major
goals for education:
 Access
 Equity
 Quality
 Democracy
 Article 20 of the Namibian Constitution, all
persons shall have the right to education.
 2. Providing strong leadership
 An effective leader can create an effective
school.
 Administrator/principal must know their
responsibility.
 Set the tone of the school.
 Ensure that decisions are made.
 Characteristics of a good leader in
relation to inclusion
 Dynamic, creative, flexible, proactive and
democratic
 Believe that education system should include
all leaners.
 Firm and unwavering in their belief.
 Create a culture of inclusiveness in all school-
based stakeholders.
The role of the administrator/principal
 Provide support for teachers.
 Find meaningful way to connect with all
students.
 Develop a discipline approach consistent with
inclusion principles.
 Help the school to maintain a supportive,
caring community.
 3. Promoting school and classroom
cultures that welcome, appreciate
and accommodate diversity.
 Percentage of learners with special needs is
increasing in schools.
 Schools must value , respect, educate and
socialize all learners.
 Develop caring culture.
 Attend to learners needs for acceptance,
belonging and friendship.
 Teacher-learner and learner-learner social
interaction is critically important.
 4. Developing support networks
 Support network ensures that the philosophy
and mission of the school is operationalized.
 A support team is a group of people who brain
storm, exchange ideas, methods, techniques
and activities to help learners.
 May consists of teachers, administrators,
parents, paraprofessionals, psychologists,
special educationists, therapists, learning and
beahaviour experts
5.Using a deliberate process to ensure
accountability.
 Proactive monitoring of leaners ensure
successful inclusion.
 Key elements needed in order to deliver
successful support for leaners:
• Have a deliberate, ongoing planning process.
• Support teams must meet on a regular basis,
to monitor learner’s support in a proactive
way to avert challenges.
6. Developing organized and ongoing
technical assistance
 Need for regular comprehensive and
innovative staff development opportunities.
 Need of task force to provide technical
assistance to those involved in teaching
learners with special educational needs.
 Do regular needs assessment.
 Resource people can serve as consultants and
facilitators of staff development efforts.
 7. Maintaining flexibility
 School must educate all learners-with diverse
educational needs.
 Must respond to challenges post by diverse
needs.
 Must be spontaneous and flexible and have
courage to take risks.
 Avoid stagnation.
 Typical indicators of stagnation
 We have done it this way
 We are not ready for that
 We are doing all right without it
 We tried it once but it did not work
 It costs too much
 Is is time consuming
 That’s not our responsibility
 It won’t wok
 Flexibility……
 Requires attitude change.
 Change in thinking style.
 Be creative thinkers, not reactive thinkers.
 Reactive thinkers:
• Resistant to change.
• “Can’t do” oriented.
• Blinded by problems, do not see beyond the
problem.
• Limited to what worked in the past.
 Flexibility……
 Creative thinkers:
• Open to change.
• “Can do” oriented.
• Seek for opportunities in problematic
situations.
• Build on successes and strength.
 8. Examining and adopting effective
teaching approaches
 Mixed ability in classrooms
 “One-size-fits-all” approach to teaching does
not work anymore.
 Learners have varying strengths, weaknesses,
needs and learning styles.
 Know your learners well to be able to identify
these varying abilities.
 Teachers can meet the unique needs
of learners by:
 Help learners bypass their weaknesses as they
access their area of strength.
 Modifying assignment and curricula for
learners with special educational needs.
 Creating an environment that nurtures
personal creativity and intellectual
characteristics.
 9. Celebrating success and learning
from challenges
 Staff must be creative and innovative.
 Recognize the importance of knowledge,
celebrating and building on success.
 Learn and grow with challenges.
 Develop a culture of self-reflection and
continuous improvement.
 10. Being knowledgeable about the
change process, but not allowing it to
paralyze you.
 People react to change differently.
 Change can be slow and time consuming.
 Schools can use the changing process to
slowly phase in new practices.