Nabil Costa

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Special Education Experience Recommendations
Association of Evangelical Schools in Lebanon

• Nabil Costa
• General Secretary

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Presentation Outline

• Introduction from ground zero
• Definition of Terms
• Inclusion
• Implication on Schools
• Reports on Qualitative studies
• Argument against Full Inclusion
• Evangelical Schools in Lebanon
• Conclusion and why?
• Where are we today? Recommendations for MOE

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to the Best Interest of Children with Special
Needs
I. From Ground ZERO

• How can we mobilize Transform
• the Lebanese community

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II. Definition of Terms
Mainstreaming The selective placement of special education students in one or more "regular" education classes. Closely linked to traditional forms of special education service delivery.
Integration A legal term - conveys the idea that students with special needs ought to be desegregated from "pull-out" programs, self-contained classrooms, special schools, or institutions, and integrated into the realm of regular classrooms.
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Definition of Terms (contd)
Inclusion is a more values-oriented term. A commitment to move needed services and resources to the child with special need rather than to place the child in a more removed or segregated setting where services and resources are located.
Full Inclusion all students, regardless of special condition or severity, will be in a regular classroom/program full time. All services must be taken to the child in that setting.
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Definition of Learning Disability

• a generic term that refers to a heterogeneous
  group of disorders manifested by significant
  difficulties in the acquisition and use of
  listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning
  or mathematical abilities, or of social skills.
  
• Learning disabilities can be categorized either
  by the type of information processing that is
  affected OR by the specific difficulties caused
  by a processing deficit.

Interagency Committee on Learning Disabilities
(ICLD) - Canada
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Disabilities Eligible for Special Education

• Autism
• Deafness
• Deaf-blindness
• Hard of hearing
• Mental retardation
• Multiple Disabilities
• Orthopedic

• Other health impairment
• Emotional disturbance
• Specific learning disability
• Speech impairment
• Traumatic brain injury
• Visual impairment

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III. Inclusion

• Against

• With

• Inclusion is the right of every child. Full
  citizenship in school and in community.
• Segregation leads to labeling.
• Segregated special education services are too
  expensive, disjoint, and inefficient.
• Non-disabled children are wrongly identified as
  disabled.

• Civil right, yes. What about childs ability to
  function in a general education classroom?
• Students with disabilities are distinctly
  different need different, specialized services.
• Parents and special educators object that general
  education classroom teachers are not prepared or
  capable of dealing with the needs of children

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Inclusion (contd)

• Against

• With

• Teachers are required to accept students and
  adjust the classroom, curriculum, and
  instructional activities to meet the academic,
  behavioral and social needs of the student.
• Collaborative Teaching ? Primary responsibility
  with the regular classroom teacher rather than
  the special education teacher as was the case in
  mainstreaming.

• Age- and grade-appropriate placement is based on
  ideals, values, and goals that do not match the
  realities of today's classrooms
• Regular teachers do not want special needs
  students in their classrooms.

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Inclusion (Contd)

• Against

• With

• Child-centered Educational practices Teachers
  must discover where each of their students are
  (academically, socially, and culturally) to
  determine how best to facilitate learning.
• Teachers are facilitators not transmitters of
  knowledge.

• Special education curricula are appropriate for
  their intended students
• Individualization is more likely to occur in
  smaller classes with specialized teachers than in
  the regular classroom.

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Inclusion (contd)

• Against

• With

• Special education teachers have higher
  expectations for their students
• Inclusion slows educational progress both for
  students with disabilities and for their
  non-disabled peers
• Methods of assessment based on hypothetical
  average student does not necessarily match the
  needs abilities of children with disabilities.

• Higher academic standards and greater
  expectations may also cause children to have
  higher achievement motivation.
• Nondisabled students benefit by establishing
  social relationships.
• Students with disabilities learn social skills
  and benefit from friendships from peers.
• All children can learn human differences.

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Inclusion (Contd)

• With

• Against

• Difficulty for teachers to adapt traditional
  methods of educational assessment to meet the
  needs and concerns of individual students with
  disabilities.
• Teachers often perceive only the difference of
  disability of the student rather than the
  students ability to learn and actively
  participate in classroom activities.

• With appropriate staff development and support,
  more students with mild disabilities could be
  served in regular classrooms.
• All students are equal in an inclusive classroom.
  
• Valuable contribution to classroom diversity.

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IV. Inclusion ? Implications on Schools

• Schools responsible for the special education of
  students with disabilities are also responsible
  to provide
• related services including transportation,
  facilities, and such developmental, corrective
  and
• other supportive services as are required to
  assist the children to benefit from special
  education speech pathology and audiology,
  psychological services, physical and occupational
  therapy, recreation, early identification and
  assessment counseling services, and medical
  services for diagnostic and evaluation purposes.
• In addition to school health services, social
  work services in schools, and parent counseling
  and training.
• Extra space (group space)

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Stainback Stainback (1991) V. Qualitative
studies on Inclusion reports

1. Change evokes fear among some classroom teachers
   and classmates, which generally subside with
   experience.
2. Most difficulties are related to behavior
   problems.
3. Included students showed gains in learning.
4. Included students had positive influences on
   their classmates.
5. The mainstream curriculum requires adaptation.
6. Collaboration and support are integral to
   inclusion.

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VI. Arguments AGAINST Full-Inclusion

• traditional classroom size and resources are
  often inadequate for the management and
  accommodation of many students with disabilities
  without producing adverse effects on the
  classroom as a whole.

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• VII.
• Evangelical Schools in Lebanon
• Special Education in Pre-school and Elementary
  classes

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Least Restrictive Environment

• To the maximum extent possible, children with
  disabilities, are educated with children who are
  not disabled.
• Special classes, separate schooling, or other
  removal of children with disabilities from the
  general education environment occurs only when
  the nature of the severity of the disability of
  the child is such that education in the general
  class with the use of supplementary aids and
  services cannot be achieved satisfactorily

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Current Evangelical Schools Programs
provide(Pre-school Elementary classes)

• Well qualified special educators who provide
  extra support in English, Arabic, Math, and
  Science.
• Students remain in the regular classrooms 70-85
  of the day depending on the case of each one.
• Teachers work with students in one to one
  correspondence or in a small homogeneous group
  (in case of pull-out)

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Pre-school Elementary classes (contd)

• Special corrective programs are used to promote
  the best learning outcome
• Reading Mastery and Reading Reflex for English
• Recipe for Math
• Huroufi al oula for Arabic
• Educational software
• Other support materials
• Assistive technology is a critical area
  considered

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Pre-school Elementary classes (contd)

1. Research-Based strategies are implemented
   (Fernald method, Horn method, PALS, and other
   multisensory techniques)
2. Teaching is very direct, systematic, sequential,
   and multisensory
3. Parents and students involved in decision-making
4. Cooperation with regular teachers and
   coordinators

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Modifications and Accommodations applied at our
schools (Pre-school Elementary) include

• Individualized Education Program (IEP) for each
  student reflecting accommodations modifications
  that meet childs needs.

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Modifications and Accommodations at our schools
(Pre-school elementary classes) in general

• Provide adapted grip for pencils
• Provide an environment free of distractions
• Use visual symbols to signal to student the
  expected behaviour
• Use mnemonics as memory strategies
• Extended time and breaks on tests
• Changing the layout of the test (font,
  organisation, fewer items on each page, shorter
  questions, use colour coding,)
• Use synonyms for difficult words

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Pre-school elementary classes (Contd)

• Use multisensory techniques
• Use assistive technology
• Subdivide the task
• Allow students to respond orally instead of
  writing
• Accept pictures if they really indicate the
  answer
• Provide peer assistance sometimes in the
  classrooms or during the breaks
• Allow a peer or the teacher to read the
  instructions

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Pre-school elementary classes (Contd)

• Task analysis
• Teach research-based strategies for reading
  comprehension, solving math problems
• Use strategies for reading fluency such as
  repeated, pair, or choral reading
• Provide alternative assessment (performance
  assess., oral,)
• Use tape-recorded texts when needed.
• Students are not allowed to hear misrules
• Model the skill to be performed
• More modifications and accommodations are also
  applied and some are really individualized to
  meet the learners needs and interests.

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Challenges Faced by special students
in Middle High Classes

1. the number of subjects they have to study for
2. the content and the inability to modify anything
   without assurance that similar modifications
   would be granted in the official exams.
3. Official Exams do not take into consideration
   students with special needs. Tests should be
   modified for special needs students and special
   accommodations should be available (ex.
   Tape-recorded texts for students with reading
   problems...)

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Challenges Faced by Schools -
Middle High
classes

1. Human resources. Difficulty in finding Special
   Educators for Intermediate and Secondary classes
   well knowledgeable in different disciplines
   (Math, English, Arabic, Biology)
2. Change is not easy for Intermediate Secondary
   regular teachers particularly those who have
   been teaching for a long period of time.
3. The risk of reducing or modifying the content
   when it is difficult to find a corrective or
   support program that covers all the required
   skills in these higher classes.

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VIII. Conclusion based on short but fruitful
experience of Evangelical Schools

• We Endorse
• Inclusion!

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Rationale

• promotes a better learning in its diverse
  aspects socially, emotionally, behaviourally,
  and academically.
• implies a sense of belonging and acceptance. In
  many schools, the physical placement of students
  with disabilities in regular classes is
  overemphasized, while other aspects of developing
  inclusive environment are neglected.
• setting an example for nondiscrimination and
  acceptance of peoples differences.

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Moving towards Full-inclusion is no easy task

• Different learning strengths and needs
• No one unique guide for modifications that is
  suitable for all children.
• All teachers should be empowered with skills,
  methods, and tools for adapting their class into
  an inclusive one.
• Awareness and training programs should be
  provided not only to special educators but rather
  to all school members administrators,
  coordinators, regular teachers, and even parents.

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• Professional skill development in the areas of
  cooperative learning, peer tutoring, adaptive
  curriculum, varied learning styles
• Children with special needs are more likely to be
  harmed than helped when they are placed in
  regular classrooms where teachers do not have the
  highly specialized training to deal with their
  needs.
• Reduced class size to be able to cope with all
  cases.
• More time for teachers to plan, meet, create,
  evaluate (so less teaching hours)

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IX. Special Education in LebanonWhere are we
today?

• Presidential Decree no. 16417
• (issued on February 24th, 2006)

What happened since then?
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Major Challenge

• How the
• Ministry of Education
• views Children with
• learning disabilities

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Recommendations for MOE

• The Ministry of Education to take the lead on
  creating awareness on the national level re the
  best interests of children with special needs
  (engaging the media, NGOs, other ministries )
• Provide training for regular teachers for early
  identification of children with special needs
• Develop a specialized team that can evaluate the
  services offered by schools to students with
  special needs.

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Recommendations for MOE (contd)

• Identify Disabilities that can be included in
  general education classrooms.
• Assess the capacity (specialized teachers,
  facilities, appropriate additional space, other
  related services) of schools to provide
  special educations before the initiation of any
  such efforts
• Only schools accredited / licensed by MOE can
  offer special education.
• Provide financial support to schools that are
  engaged in special education.

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Recommendations (contd)

• Issue decrees and policies that facilitate and
  promote Special Education Inclusion.
• Official Exams
• Allow for exemptions and modifications.
• Limit content of the official exams and identify
  special standards for children with special
  needs.
• Different grading system should be adapted for
  children with special needs.
• A committee  should study each students case
  (Grades 8th 11th) alone to recommend either
  exemption or modification help school would know
  how to handle the student during the 9th 12th
  year.

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Recommendations (contd)

• The policy of the government allows for
  students that are challenged to move forward in
  life
• However, will be more efficient if students
  who are exempted from the Baccalaureate will be
  allowed to enter the universities too. Some of
  the best Universities cater for special needs!!

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Together we can positively impact our community
culture

• Education either functions as an instrument
  which is used to facilitate integration of the
  younger generation into the logic of the present
  system and bring about conformity or it becomes
  the practice of freedom, the means by which men
  and women deal critically and creatively with
  reality and discover how to participate in the
  transformation of their world.

PAULO FREIRE
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The ultimate test of a moral society is the
kind of world that it leaves to its children.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

• What the best and wisest parent
• wants for his child,
• that must the community
• want for all its children.
• Any other ideal for our schools
• is narrowed and unlovely
• Acted upon, it destroys our democracy
• Dewey (1902)