MODULE 1

Understanding Essential Concepts, Diversity,

and Foundation of Special and Inclusive
Education
 Module 1- Understanding Essential Concepts, Diversity, and Foundation of
Special and Inclusive Education

This module contain the following:

• What are the essential concepts of special and inclusive education?

• What do teachers need to know about diversity?
• How does gender-neutral/gender-sensitive words promote inclusion?
• What are the historical and sociocultural foundations of special education?
• Why do we need to consider those theories and philosophies in inclusive education?
• How can we apply the Legal Foundation in inclusive or special education?

In order for us to understand the basic of special and inclusive education, it is important that
we know the basic terminologies in this area. Understanding its basic concepts will give us the
overall picture or the scope of special and inclusive education. When it comes to student diversity,
this module provides you with information on how to acknowledge individual differences so it is
easy for you to address the different educational needs of children with exceptionalities.
Furthermore, this module provides the philosophical, historical, and legal bases of special and
inclusive education which are very essential in your teaching journey.
Once you complete this module, you are expected to:
• Understand the essential concepts of special and inclusive education;
• Acquire deep knowledge on the student’s diversity using Loden’s Diversity Wheel
• Advocate and use gender-neutral and gender- sensitive language.
• Discuss the philosophical and theoretical foundation of special education.
• Able to know the historical timeline and sociocultural of special education; and
• Describe federal laws related to providing education and related services to students with
disabilities.

I know that you are very excited to take your journey in this module. So, you may now start with
Lesson 1.

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 Understanding Essential Concepts of
Special and Inclusive Education

Objectives:
• Acquire understanding on the essential concepts of special and inclusive education
• Differentiate the distinction between special and inclusive education

Introduction
I am sure that you will be enjoy reading this lesson for it will serve as you first taste of the
basics of special and inclusive education.

KWL CHART. The keywords in the KWL chart are very essential in special and inclusive
education. Write what do you know about each term on the second column; what do you
want to know in the third column; and reserve the last column once you are done with this
lesson.
Keywords What you What you WANT to What did you
KNOW? know? LEARN?
(K) (W) (L)

1. Special
Education
2. Inclusive
Education
3. IDEA
4. LRE
5. FAPE
6. IEP
7. LRE
8. handicap
9. Salamanca
statement
10. UNESCO

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 Analysis
• How many terms were you able to unlock?
• How did you know these terms?
• Were you exposed to these terms before?
• Based on this activity, what is then special and inclusive education?

Abstraction

A. What is Special Education?

Special Education is a special instruction that answers the unique needs of students with diverse
needs. This a set of services provided to those students with exceptional learning needs and is
provided also in a variety of educational settings who have Individualized Education Program
(IEP). This must be provided to the unique needs of students with no cost to parents. Also, this is
governed by the federal law- Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA (Blaalard and
Dymond, 2018).

Students can avail of this special education services only when their disability are professionally
identified which impacts their ability to learn thus requiring them to have additional services and
resources for them to effectively participate in school. Children who are qualified to receive special
education services have the following disabilities:

• Intellectual disability

• Hearing impairments (including deafness)

• Speech or language impairments

• Visual impairments (including blindness)

• Serious emotional disturbance

• Orthopedic impairments

• Autism spectrum disorder

• Traumatic brain injury

• Other health impairments

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 • Specific learning disabilities

• Developmental delay

IDEA mandates that the regardless of the level of severity of the student’s disability, schools
must provide must provide an appropriate education to ALL children with a disability (ages 3-
21). It also requires that the following six principles be provided for students who receive special
education services:

1. Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). This means that a public education is
given to diagnosed children, parents, families, guardian, at no cost designed to meet the
individual needs of each student. It provides access to the general education curriculum. It
also provides services in accordance to a student’s IEP which eventually provide
educational benefits to the child and make him/her effectively participate in the classroom.

2. Non-discriminatory Identification and Evaluation. It refers to the process, instruments,

and qualifying tools used to identify individuals with a disability. It is a requirement that
that schools use nonbiased methods and multiple approaches in the evaluation process to
ensure that there is no discrimination on the basis of race, culture, religion, or native
language. All evaluation instruments must use the child’s first language or have an
equivalent translation of it. The decision on identification and placement remains invalid
when only single evaluation instrument is used.

3. Individualized education program (IEP). This special document is the very essential and
serves as the foundation of special education for it contains the services to be provided
to the student with exceptional disability. It contains a description of a student’s current
level of educational performance, information on how his or her disability influences
academic performance, and details needed adaptations and accommodations. This
document also includes the educational setting wherein the student receives instructions
through modification or accommodation in a lit restrictive environment. The target long
and short term learning goals and objectives which includes behavior management and
other child’s deficits, needs and other services are stipulated in the child’s IEP.

4. Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). This refers to the educational settings in which a
student with disability receives education services. It is assumed that all students
regardless of the severity of the disability will be educated alongside with their peers
without disability. When a student cannot perform satisfactorily in a regular classroom,
he/she will be placed in a least restrictive environment in which he /she will received
supplemental aids and services. This may include part-time or full-tome special education
services in a resource room, self-contained, or community based- settings..

5. Parent Participation. This is an essential action in establishing home-school-community

collaboration. Parents, families, and guardian or any significant adults of a child with a
disability must be a member of any group that makes decisions regarding the placement
and LRE of their child. They must have a right to notification of all meetings regarding
their child’s placement, access to planning and evaluation materials, and notification of

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 any planned evaluations. Both parents, students, and other stakeholders must be invited
to attend IEP meetings.

6. Due Process Safeguards. This refers to all protections afforded to children, their parents,
and families under IDEA and articles under the disability law. When we say safeguards,
these include obtaining parental consent for all evaluations and educational placement
decisions; confidentiality of all records relating to a child with a disability; independent
student evaluation at public expense; and due process hearings when the school and
parent may disagree.
(Adapted from Purdue University online https://online.purdue.edu/blog/education/what-is-
special-ed)

B. What is Inclusive Education?

Inclusive Education in the broader sense is the right of education of children with disabilities
in a regular classroom. It is the main modality to address the educational needs of children who
suffers from different deficiencies. UNESCO (1983:167) defines inclusive education “as a
form of education provided for those students who are not achieving, or are not likely to
achieve through ordinary educational provisions , the level of educational, social and other
attainments appropriate to their age, and which has the aim for furthering their progress
towards these levels.”

The process of inclusive education is supported by various international legal sources

especially the Declaration of Salamanca (1994). In this declaration, the fundamental principle
of an inclusive school which states that “all children should learn together, wherever possible,
regardless of any difficulties or differences they may have.” Inclusive schools must recognize
and respond too the diverse needs of their students, accommodating booth different styles and
rates of learning and ensuring quality education.” (Salamanca Statement, 1994: 12). This
principle mirrors the idea that the schools are responsible in addressing the needs of children
with various educational needs and still ensuring quality education. With this, it is the direct
opposite of the old definition of disability expressed various legislative sources which includes
Romanian legislation (Mihai, 2017). The first definition of handicap is given within law no.
53/1992 which is “persons with handicap are persons who because of some sensorial, physical
or mental deficiencies cannot totally or partially integrate, temporarily or permanently, by their
own possibilities, in social and professional life, being necessary special protection measures.”
Sensorial, physical, or mental deficiencies “are those which limit participation to “social and
professional life” of disabled persons. Society is not responsible of the misfit of these persons
as considers the social model of disability (Mihai, 2017).

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 The real inclusive education of children with diverse needs can be achieved provided that there
are no physical, psychological, or other barriers in an educational establishment and there are
appropriate resources and pieces of technical equipment available. Highly trained and qualified
teachers and supportive stakeholders are part of the success of inclusion (Dokhoyan, et al
2017). With that the term inclusion is understood in its anthropological sense in that it refers
to the human presence of being, doing, thinking, and valuing for which human beings assign
meaning and purpose. Human beings do not just exist to live privately in the world. Humans
live, move, and breathed in the public arena and build up particular, diverse, and varying ways
of acting and interacting, telling stories, and so on and so forth. (Etherington and E.J. Boyce,
2017).

The Risk of Inclusive Education

As presented in the paper of Dokhoyan, Ismailova, Yegizarjants, and Sokolova (2017), there
are several risk factors in inclusive settings. They are the following:

1. The lack of sufficient knowledge on the real psychological condition of children

with disabilities of the regular and special education teachers which may aggravate
the condition of the child

2. The lack of skills of the schoolteachers in using programs, special methods, ad

assistive device which may aggravate the child’s condition

3. A high rate of work within the school education program which leads to bulk f
requirements for children with disabilities without considering their present
psychological and mental state.

4. Disagreements of parents of normally developing children who are educated

alongside with “abnormal students” which will lessen the quality of instruction and
education as a whole.

5. The absence of highly qualified therapists (speech, occupational, physical) who

could provide additional services to the children with special needs
On the other hand, a researcher Shinde Vinodrao V. (2016) outlined the benefits of
inclusive Education in three categories, namey benefits of inclusion for students with intellectual
disability, benefits of inclusion for students without disabilities, and benefits of inclusion for
teachers, parents and communities.
Benefits of Inclusion to Students with Intellectual Disabilities
• To develop friendships with peer groups and others
• Removes the barriers and build bridges to participation and learning with others

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 • Increase social relations
• Improve social skills
• Greater access to adaptive and to general curriculum
• Improved and increase achievement in IEP goals
• Peer role models for academic, social, and behavior skills
• Improve acquisition and generalization skills
• Increase inclusion in future environments and other settings
• Many opportunities for interaction
Benefits of Inclusion for Students without Disabilities
• Students will have a positive attitude towards students with disabilities
• Meaningful friendship with students with special needs
• Promotes empathy, acceptance, and appreciation of individual differences
• Increase understanding and acceptance of diversity
• Respect for all people
• Appreciate individual uniqueness and identity
• Prepares the students in adult life in an inclusive society
Benefits for Inclusion for Teachers, Parents, and Communities
• Parents are better equipped to handle their children
• Students with special needs are better prepared for independent living
• Behavioral problems of children with special needs are controlled in the community
• Students learn to respect diversity and use this experience to benefit the school and the
community and their workplace.
• Promotes collaboration among family, school, and community

But amidst these benefits, the main burden of these children is to receive additional support and services
of speech, physical, occupational therapists and other specialists which usually falls on the family which is
somehow costly.
Now that you have journeyed the essential concepts of special and inclusive education, you have
to get ready with the challenge to check on your understanding of the first lesson you have in this
module. Are you ready? If in case, you are not ready yet, you can always go back to this lesson
before doing the activity below.

Application

A. Now, you go back to your K-W-L Chart and fill in the last column of
your chart.

Keywords What you What you WANT to What did you

KNOW? know? LEARN?
(K) (W) (L)

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 1. Special
Education
2. Inclusive
Education
3. IDEA
4. LRE
5. FAPE
6. IEP
7. LRE
8. handicap
9. Salamanca
statement
10. UNESCO

Good job for accomplishing the task in your KWL chart. This time
another activity is waiting. What are you waiting for, go and answer it
now.

B. PLUS -MINUS -INTERESTING CHART. Fill in the chart by

following this direction. In the PLUS (+) column, write the positive
aspects of special and inclusive education ; on the minus (-) column,
write negative aspects of special and inclusive education; and on the
interesting column, write the interesting aspects of inclusive and
special education. Just answer in bullets. Answers could be words,
phrases, or sentences.

PLUS- MINUS- INTERESTING CHART

CATEGORY PLUS (+) MINUS (-) INTERESTING (*)
Special Education

Inclusive
education