The following research paper presents the topic of inclusion. Inclusion is presented within the context of current practices found. The concerns of educators and others as they relate to the positive and negative aspects of inclusion are discussed. Following this discussion a summary and conclusions is presented.
Confusion regarding the definition of inclusion continues with the terms inclusion and mainstreaming being used interchangeably. Neary and Halvorsen (1995) presented inclusion as the practice of including children with disabilities as members of a school site with age-appropriate general education classrooms. This differs from mainstreaming which only includes disabled students in the general classroom for periodic instruction. These authors view this distinction as critical. The mainstreamed student does not belong in the class since they are only there periodically. Teachers view the mainstreamed student as belonging to another class with another teacher responsible for him/her. Students also view the mainstreamed student as belonging somewhere else. Inclusion allows for the student to belong in the regular education classroom, avoids inappropriate placement of special needs students, and allows for the natural proportion of disabled students in the community to be represented in the classroom. In the inclusive environment the student with or without disability moves along with their peers to each grade in the school. While inclusion may be optimal in many instances, it is also possible that those students with learning difficulties due to cognitive, motor, sensory, or communication problems may not be able to keep up with core curriculum demands. In these instances students would need many years to master grade level material and the best practice may not be inclusion in a chronologically age-appropriate environment.
Individual Educational Programs (IEP) must identify the optimal learning situation f...