International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences

search-icon

Mainstream Teachers’ Competency Requirement for Inclusive Education Program

Open access
The purpose of this study is to examines specifically on the competencies of mainstream teacher in inclusive program. The three objectives were to identify the competencies in evaluation and monitoring, teaching strategies and classroom management. This case study was conducted at three school involving 15 mainstream teachers. The data collection period was four months. Data collection methods used were observation, interviews and document analysis. The observation was conducted five times in the classroom. Two sets of interview questions were set up and used in four interview sessions. The finding showed that all participant agreed with the 25 characteristic of competencies need to be acquired by mainstream teacher in inclusive education. However, results indicated that participants were not fully competent in teaching inclusive classroom in the context of evaluation and monitoring, teaching strategies and classroom management. For competencies in evaluation and monitoring, only 40% of mainstream teacher had achieved, in teaching strategies 36.77% and in classroom management 23.23%. It is suggested that mainstream teachers should have go for in-service training to ensure they have better competencies in teaching the inclusive education program in the future. Competencies in teaching inclusive education is important in order to achieve successful inclusion for student with learning disabilities in school.
Allday, R.A., Neilsen-Gatti, S. & Hudson, T.M. (2013). Preparation for Inclusion in Teacher Education Pre-Service Curricula. Teacher Education and Special Education, 36(4) 298–311.
Armstrong, A.C., Armstrong, D. & Spandagou, I. (2010). Inclusive education: International policy and practice. London: Sage Publications.
Ball, K. & Green, R. L. (2014). An Investigation of the attitudes of school leaders toward the inclusion of students with disabilities in the general education. National Forum of Applied Educational Research Journal, 27(1&2), 57-76.
Boyle, C.,Topping, K., & Jindal-Snape, d. (2013). Teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion in high schools. Teachers and Teaching Theory and practice. 19(5), 527-542.
Bukvi?, Z. (2014). Teachers’ competency for inclusive education. European Journal of Social and Behavioural Sciences, 23(1), 1586-1590.
Chambers, D. J., & Lavery, S. D. (2012). Service-learning: A valuable component of pre service teacher education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 37(4).
Di Gennaro, D. C., Pace, E. M. & Iolanda, Z. & Aiello, Z. (2014). Teacher capacity building through critical reflective practice for the promotion of inclusive education. Problems of Education in the 21st Century, 60, 54-65.
Farrell, M. (2010). Debating Special Education. London: Routledge
Florian, L. & Linklater, H. (2010). Preparing teachers for inclusive education: using inclusive pedagogy to enhance teaching and learning for all. Cambridge Journal of Education. 40 (4), 369-386.
Florian, L. (2012). Teacher education for inclusion. In C. Forlin (Ed.), Future Directions for Inclusive Teacher Education. Oxon, UK.: Routledge.
Garrote, A., Sermier Dessemontet, R., Moser Opitz, E. (2017). Facilitating the social participation of pupils with special educational needs in mainstream schools: A review of school-based interventions. Educational Research Review, 20(1), 12-23.
Goss, P., Hunter, J., Romanes, D. & Parsonage, H. (2015). Targeted teaching: How better use of data can improve student learning. Gattan Institute, Victoria.
Hornby, G. (2015). Inclusive special education: development of a new theory for the education of children with special educational needs and disabilities. British Journal of Special Education, 42(3),251-256.
Killoran, I., Woronko, D. & Zaretsky, H. (2014). Exploring pre service teachers' attitudes towards inclusion. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 18(4), 427-442.
Lancaster, J. & Bain, A. (2010). The design of pre-service inclusive education courses and their effects on self-efficacy: A comparative study. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 38(2), 117-128.
Lewis, R.B. & Doorlag, D. H. (2011). Teaching students with special needs in general education classrooms. 8th Ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
Loreman, T., Sharma, U., & Forlin, C. (2013). Do pre-service teachers feel ready to teach in inclusive classrooms? A four-country study of teaching self-efficacy. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 38 (1), Article 3. Available at: http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol38/iss1/3 http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2013v38n1.10
McLoughlin, J.A. & Lewis, R. B. (2008). Assessing Students with Special Needs (7th Edition). Pearson.
Nichols, S. C. & Sheffield, A. N. (2014). Is there an elephant in the room? Considerations that administrators tend to forget when facilitating inclusive practices among general and special education teachers. National Forum of Applied Educational Research Journal, 27(1&2), 31-44.
Philpot, D. F., Furey, E. & Penney, S.C. (2010). Promoting leadership in the ongoing profesional development of teachers: Responding to globalization and inclusion. Exceptionality Education International 20(2), 38-54
Polirstok, S. (2015). Classroom Management Strategies for Inclusive Classrooms. Creative Education, 6, 927-933.
Sharma, U. (2011). Changing heart, head, and hands of teachers to teach in inclusive classrooms: Why and how? Bangladesh Education Journal, 10(2)
In-Text Citation: (Rabi & Zulkefli, 2018)
To Cite this Article: Rabi, N. M., & Zulkefli, M. Y. (2018). Mainstream Teachers’ Competency Requirement for Inclusive Education Program. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(11), 1779–1791.