Study Confirms Inclusive Schools Work Best for All

by 06/18/2010

study of Grade 1 and 2 children in rural AlbertaA study of Grade 1 and 2 children in rural Alberta confirms that putting kids of all abilities together in regular classes is possible, practical – and positive for everyone involved. The only caveat, says the man who conducted the study, is that educators may need to pay a bit more attention to the school experience of children who are not fully abled.

Tim Loreman is a professor of education at Concordia University College of Alberta in Edmonton. In a paper presented at the 2010 Congress for the Humanities and Social Sciences taking place at Montreal’s Concordia University, he says there’s a big debate in Canada on practices of inclusion, which vary considerably across the country. The viability of inclusion is widely debated, though research suggests that inclusion benefits all students.

Loreman says his study supports the view that inclusion is the best policy. He says he defines an inclusive school as one in which children of all abilities learn together in regular classrooms, and in which there is adequate support for staff and pupils as well as good collaboration between school and home. In other words, he says, children with ‘exceptionalities,’ as he prefers to call them, are not merely dumped at school and left to sink or swim.

Loreman says his study looked at the experience in a school district in rural Alberta that had decided to embrace inclusion – in part because geography made bussing ‘exceptional’ students to a single school prohibitive.

His group devised a simple Yes-Sometimes-No questionnaire suitable for very young pupils and, with the help of university student facilitators, interviewed children in Grades 1 and 2. They also did a case study focussing on a single ‘exceptional’ student in which they interviewed all the people in the child’s educational life, right down to the driver of the school bus.

What they found was that everyone was having a positive experience in school. All children felt, for example, that the teachers cared about them and had high expectations of them. Loreman says that while the ‘exceptional’ pupils reported being less positive, it was really a question of degree.

One main difference noted, he says, relates to the degree of connectedness: The pupil in the case study reported having a lot of friends, but there was some doubt as to how deep those friendships were, and whether the pupil was as connected to the peer group as fully abled ones. “Our findings show the focus on improving the situation for children with exceptionalities is valid,” says Loreman.

Get more from the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences

Organised by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences brings together about 9,000 researchers, scholars, graduate students, practitioners, and policy makers to share groundbreaking research and examine the most important social and cultural issues of the day. Montreal’s Concordia University is the host of Congress 2010, May 28 to June 4.

The Congress program includes original research from across disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences, providing a great collection of expert sources and innovative story leads. Contact the Congress Media room for assistance connecting with researchers at Congress.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

No Comments so far

Jump into a conversation

No Comments Yet!

You can be the one to start a conversation.

Only registered users can comment.