Transforming Education: Changing lives

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Transforming EducationChanging lives

• Dr. Mrs.. Mintu Sinha

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• Children should be the first to benefit from
  the successes of mankind, and the last to suffer
  from its failures.

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• India is in the process of transforming itself
  into a developed nation by 2020, yet we have 350
  million people who need literacy and many more
  who have to acquire employable skills to meet the
  needs of emerging modern India and the globe
• A. P.J.
  Kalam

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LEARNING DISABILITY

• Learning disabilities, in education, any of
  various disorders involved in understanding or
  using spoken or written language, including
  difficulties in listening, thinking, talking,
  reading, writing, spelling, or arithmetic. They
  may affect people of average or above-average
  intelligence.

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Indicators of LD
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LD typically affect five general areas.

• Spoken language delays, disorders, and
• deviations in listening and speaking.
• Written language difficulties with reading,
• writing and spelling

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• Mentally challenged Indian children180000
• wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_population_of_children_
  in_India.
• EDUTRACKS-JULY,2006

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Total Schools in Town 928

• EDUTRACKS-JULY,2006

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Why Learning disabilities In the B. Ed. Syllabus

• Increase in the enrollment of students with
  disabilities
• To understand the IEP requirements.
• Common tests and assessment procedures to
  diagnose students with learning disabilities and
  other types of disabilities
• Educational opportunities Educational
  experiences of normal peers in the School should
  be extended along with them to the disabled
  children
• Sarva Shiksha Abhiyans Zero rejection policy
• Disabled children should participate and interact
  in the natural environment with society,
  neighbors, and the normal peers.
• The unfavorable attitude of the society towards
  the disabled should be eradicated.
• To sensitize the students to understand, respect
  and grow comfortable with individual differences
  and similarities among peers.
• To develop friendship and positive peer
  interaction
• Brains are wired a bit differently from other
  people

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• Every child has an inherent right to education on
  basis of equality of opportunity
• No child is excluded from, or discriminated
  within education on grounds of race, colour, sex,
  language, religion, political or other opinion,
  national, ethnic or social origin, disability,
  birth, poverty or other status
• All children can learn and benefit from education
  
• Schools adapt to the needs of children, rather
  than children adapting to the needs of the school
  
• Childrens views are listened to and taken
  seriously Individual differences between children
  are a source of richness and diversity, and not a
  problem
• The diversity of needs and pace of development of
  children are addressed through a wide and
  flexible range of responses

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• "What we need to do is focus on high quality
  teacher training, reading readiness, and more
  parental involvement. That's what we need, not
  more testing." Rep. William F. Goodling (R-Pa.)
• "If there is one time in reading, one time in a
  child's life when a test in reading is absolutely
  critical, it's in fourth grade, because children
  that don't do well in reading in fourth grade end
  up not doing well throughout high school, not
  going on to college. It's the best predictor of
  not graduating from high school." Deputy
  Education Secretary Marshall Smith

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A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF AWARENESS AMONG TEACHERS
OF LEARNING DISABILITIES IN STUDENTS OF DIFFERENT
BOARD LEVELS.
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The Research Tool

• The research tool used was a questionnaire.
• It contained 50 questions which focused on
• Concept of Learning disability
• Dyslexia
• Dysgraphia
• Dyscalculia

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The Sample

• This study has a sample size of 312 teachers from
  the different boards of education from Mumbai.
• SSC Board 111 teachers
• ICSE Board 130 teachers
• CBSE Board 70 teachers

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Research Findings
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AWARENESS OF LEARNING DISABILITIES AMONG TEACHERS
OF DIFFERENT BOARDS
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• Amongst the boards ICSE board teachers are more
  aware about learning disabilities as compared to
  the CBSE and SSC board.
• During data collection the researcher observed
  that more ICSE schools had special educators and
  also the school had organized workshops for their
  teachers, this could be one of the prime reasons
  for more awareness among teachers of ICSE board.

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• In the SSC schools it was observed that few
  teachers were aware about certain aspects of
  learning disabilities only.
• Few SSC schools were totally unaware about the
  term of learning disabilities.

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• The researcher observed that none of the CBSE
  schools from which the sample was collected have
  had a workshop on learning disabilities.
• For many teachers the whole concept of learning
  disabilities was new. Many teachers of this board
  were confused with the types of learning
  disabilities and also with the identification.

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AWARENESS OF DYSLEXIA IN PRIMARY SECTION OF
DIFFERENT BOARDS
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• The ICSE board seems to be more aware about
  dyslexia as compared to the SSC and CBSE board.
• In some ICSE schools they have identified
  students in the primary section with dyslexia.

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AWARENESS OF DYSLEXIA IN SECONDARY SECTION OF
DIFFERENT BOARDS
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• Amongst the boards ICSE board teachers are more
  aware about dyslexia as compared to the CBSE and
  SSC board.
• This is because the secondary teachers of this
  are exposed to workshops of learning disabilities
  
• It is also seen that there is a minor difference
  of scores among the secondary teachers of SSC
  board and CBSE boards.

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Challenges

• Employment of special education teachers is
  expected to increase faster than the average for
  all occupations through 2012. (Teachers-Special
  Education, 2004) Because the work is intense,
  salaries are not sufficient, and attaining a
  special education license is rigorous, it will be
  difficult to achieve the desired number of these
  teachers.
• There is also a fear that general education
  standards will be lowered..
• A major concern for high school teachers is the
  fairness of the grading. By giving an LD student
  a higher grade, the teacher may be lowering the
  class rank of other students and potentially
  harming their chances of getting into college.
  (Children Have Opportunities in Inclusive
  Communities Environments and Schools, 2004)

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NEWSPAPER ARTCILES
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Title Train Teachers to Tackle Dyslexia

• Writer Shibu Thomas
• Newspaper The Times of India
• Issue June 2006
• A division bench of justices R M Lodha and A S
  Bagga expressed concern that the children had
  lost an academic year due to schools
  indifference.

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STUDYING LEARNING DISABILITY

• MUMBAI MIRROR - TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2007
• The stark reality is that despite government
  rules that require schools to ensure that
  children with learning disabilities get help in
  schools, barely 20 of educational institutions
  are aware of the problem, says Dr Samir Dalwai,
  pediatrician and child psychologist who conducted
  the survey along with child psychologist Dr
  Deepti Kanade.

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• Child psychologists put the total number of
  children in Mumbai with learning disabilities at
  anywhere between 75,000 and 90,000, out of which
  only 5,000 may be receiving remedial education,
  says Dr Madhuri Kulkarni, head of pediatrics at
  Sion Hospital and head of the Learning Disability
  Centre.

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• Even then, hiring special teachers can be
  expensive for most schools. This problem can be
  solved if the subject is made part of the
  Bachelor of Education (B. Ed) programme, Dr
  Kulkarni suggests.

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Why Inclusive Services?
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• As teacher educators we must recognize the value
  of including young children with disabilities in
  classrooms with their typical peers.
• The benefits for all children are considerable
  and that children from birth through age eight
  are at a formative period for getting to know
  each other.

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BENEFITS OF INTEGRATION AND INCLUSION
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Children with Disabilities

• They are spared the effects of separate,
  segregated education-including the negative
  effects of labeling and negative attitudes
  fostered by lack of contact with typically
  developing children.

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• They are provided with competent peers with whom
  to interact and thereby learn new social and/or
  communicative skills.
• They are provided with realistic life experiences
  that prepare them to live in the community.
• They are provided with opportunities to develop
  friendships with typically developing peers.

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Children Without Disabilities

• They are provided with opportunities to learn
  more realistic and accurate views about
  individuals with disabilities.
• They are provided with opportunities to develop
  positive attitudes toward others who are
  different from themselves.

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Communities

• They can conserve educational resources if
  children with disabilities who are mainstreamed
  at the preschool level continue in regular as
  compared to special education placements during
  the elementary school years.

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Families of Children with Disabilities

• They are able to learn about typical development.
  
• They may feel less isolated from the remainder of
  their communities.
• They may develop relationships with families of
  typically developing children who can provide
  them with meaningful support.

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Families of Children Without Disabilities

• They may develop relationships with families who
  have children with disabilities and thereby make
  a contribution to them and their communities.
• They will have opportunities to teach their
  children about individual differences and about
  accepting individuals who are different.

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Schools

• School must take greater responsibility of
  providing remedial help
• The attitude of School and teachers should be
  use what is best for the child
• Teachers and School must share the
  responsibilities
• The parents must, more then ever before, take
  full responsibility for their child learning.

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Inclusion is about learning to live with one
another. Inclusion means "being with." It means
affiliation, combination, comprisal, enclosure,
involvement, surrounding. Inclusion means being
with one another and caring for one another.
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Inclusion means change!

• We believe both inclusion and change is
  inevitable. Whether we choose to grow with and
  from these changes is a choice.
• We do not have the right to exclude anyone.

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• What we need is to "practice random kindness and
  senseless acts of beauty." A kind word, a
  thoughtful gesture. It is knowing someone will be
  there when you need them.

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The values will be clear

• cooperation not competition,
• participation not coercion,
• relationships not isolation,
• interdependence not independence,
• friendships not loneliness.

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• The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge
  to reach your full potential
• These are the keys that will unlock the door to
  personal excellence.