By: Blanca Nunez
This Paper was presented at the 2nd Conference of Elementary Secondary Teaching & Learning (CESTL) in April, 2008, Brownsville, Texas. Correspondence concerning this article should be directly addressed to Blanca Nunez at vlanka29@aol.com.
Introduction
In recent years we have seen how student with special needs are allowed to move from isolated and segregated classrooms into regular classrooms. Special education changed with the passage of the 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its 1997 amendments. This legislation allowed the children with special needs to move from a restrictive learning environment to a less restrictive environment.
This action has caused much debate recently. Some people say that by placing the Special Ed. students in the General Ed. classroom, the GE students and the teacher become care-takers of the SPED students, and the GE students do not have a choice on whether to befriend the SPED students or not. Advocates for the inclusion policy state that when Special Ed. students are placed with General Ed. students, they have a tendency to become more motivated and learn better. Opponents argue that Special Ed. students slow down General Ed. students learning.
Since I will soon become a Special Ed. Teacher myself, I became very interested in this topic and I wanted to find out how the inclusion affect students’ (both Special Ed and General Ed students) learning. This led me to pose the following two specific research question:
1. How do students in Special Ed. get along with their General Ed. Peers?
2. How does this relationship between them affect their learning?
Literature Review
Peer relationships are very important for children’s both social and academic development. Many skills are learned thru peer relationships. Peer relationships contribute to social and cognitive development and to the effectiveness with which we function as adults”(Williard Hartup).Some of the skills developed are how to make and keep friends and how to work well with others. According to Piaget, “interactions with peers of the same level group stimulate cognitive development” (Snowman & Biehle, p. 66 ).
Furthermore ,”Vygotsky believed that children gain significantly from the knowledge and conceptual tools handed down to them from those who are more intellectually advanced”(Snowman & Biehle, p. 47). It is sometimes difficult for people with disabilities to socialize with their peers. When the children are placed in the same classroom, it increases their understanding that general education students often also experience difficulty in learning as well as making friends. Because they are included with their normally achieving peers, the stigma of a “disabled” label is reduced and their social skills are likely to improve (Zigmond & Baker, 1995).
Together these theories imply that peer relationships are very important in students’ social and academic development. As learners interact with each other, they not only learn from each other but also develop new knowledge an understandings for themselves. “As learners interact with each other, they not only learn from each other but also create new knowledge for themselves (Cobb & Bowers,1999).
Methodology
The purpose of the present study was to examine the impact of peer relationships between Special Ed students and General Ed students on their social and academic learning. Both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered in this research through individual interviews and classroom observations. As time allotted, observations of the students were recorded in both Special Ed environments and General Ed environments. The data was compiled and considered in relation to peer relationships amongst Special Ed students and General Ed students.
Research Site
This research was conducted at a school district in South Texas. The student population of this district was 48,391. The elementary school that I observed had a population of about 900. This elementary was chosen based on the fact that they had a well developed Special Ed. Program. I was able to observed both restrictive environments and less restrictive environments.
Data Collection
The data for the research was collected through observations of classrooms, interviews and informal conversations with classroom teachers, paraprofessionals, and students. A total of eighteen hours of observations were completed in classrooms ranging in grade levels from Pre-kinder to 2nd Grade. Classes observed were content area classes. The classrooms observed are as follows:
In addition to classroom observavtions, two personal interviews were conducted at the classrooms that were observed. The interviews included questions that were specific to the roles of the participant who was interviewed. In each interview, the researcher provided the interviewee a copy of the questionnaire to read while the researcher asked questions and took notes on a copy of the questionnaire. Both interviews provided very useful information for this research. Throughout the research period, I also asked informal questions of the classroom teachers, teacher aides and students. Questions asked were limited to Special Ed and General Ed peer relationships. Most of the information was included in the findings.
Findings
A Positive and Accepting Peer Relationship
Through classroom observations and interviews, I found that peer relationships amongst SPED students and GE students are not only important but also beneficial. Since I was able to observe both a SPED and a GE classroom, I was able to observe the full picture what the students encountered as they transited from the SPED setting to the GE setting.
When the SPED children came in to the regular class, there was minimal disruption. As the SPED students came in, the children in the GE classroom welcomed them into their class friendly. The seats were already prepared for SPED students. The SPED students found their seats, sat down quietly, and the teacher continued with her class.
Through my observation, I also found the GE students were helpful of the SPED students as well. For instance, I observed that as the children went to their centers, the teacher would have them divided in groups. I notice that the GE students did not seem to notice or be bothered by the student’s disabilities. In fact they were helping each other and asking each other questions. Two of the students in this group were fast and they would finish their work a little earlier than the other groups. As soon as they finished their own work, they would then turn to the SPED students and see how they were doing and if they need help.
The SPED teacher said that the two students had taken some time to adapt to the new environment at first, but now it was the highlight of their day to attend the regular classroom. During the observations in the PPCD classroom, I noticed that these two students seemed to always stand out from the rest of the class. They seemed to be very engaged in class and they had little problems interacting with the other students. They also seemed to enjoy being in the class with the regular students very much.
The interaction between the students was refreshing to see. I conducted a small survey amongst the children on who their friends were in the classroom. Most of them included the two SPED students. I was surprised to see that none of them had anything to do with the disability of the children. One student said that he liked to be friends with the SPED student because he was very nice. Another student said that he thought” it was cool that the SPED students would be here during reading”.
Reasons behind the Positive Peer Relationship
Why was the peer relationship between the SPED and GE students so positive in this class? This study revealed two reasons: One was because the teachers were fully supportive of the inclusion policy and were very sensitive to the SPED students’ needs. I noticed that the teacher was sensitive to the two SPED students while teaching. For example, she would thoroughly repeat the instructions and directions a little bit more with SPED students. Hence giving the students a better understanding of what was expected. I feel that this benefited both the SPED students and the GE students because they were able to grasp the lesson better.
During an informal conversation with a teacher aide, he told me that he really supported the program of mainstreaming because he could see how it helped the children. He said that both of the children that are mainstreamed were more socially involved than the other children that are not. I agreed with him because from what I observed the SPED students benefited in many ways by the interaction they had with their GE peers.
In order to make inclusion successful, both teachers were very devoted and flexible with any changes. They both tried to correlate their curriculums to make the transition easier for the students. Through my observation of both teachers, I could see their passion and belief in this program. One of them told me that without a doubt she believed that peer relationships amongst SPED and GE peers made a difference in the learning of SPED students. During my observation, I did observed that the teacher would try to engage all of the students in the lesson by asking questions and designing activities. All the SPED students participated in the class, regardless they gave the correct answer or not.
The second reason behind this positive peer relationship was because the GE students were fully prepared and well educated about the importance of accepting and helping SPED students. Based on the interviews with both teachers, the most crucial and challenging thing was to have these students interact with each other. The GE teacher told me during the interview that when the school year started, she told the students that they were going to have two other students join them in their reading activities. She explained the two students’ situation to them and how they deserved respect just like any other students. This preparation was very effective and she said that children were so cooperative that within a month they did not seem to notice any difference from the SPED students at all.
As told by the teacher later in the interview, this group of students was also trained about how to help each other whenever possible. For example, the faster children used to finish earlier and had nothing else to do while waiting for others to finish. So they were told to become tutors and help the SPED students. These faster students did enjoyed being the experts and the SPED students enjoyed the help. Thus having SPED students in the regular classroom actually benefited both groups of students’ learning.
Conclusions
In conclusion, this research found that if given the time and effort, SPED and GE students can develop a very positive peer relationship and get along very well. This positive peer relationship does affect their learning because SPED students feel more challenged when they are in a GE classroom and work harder and the GE students will be able to help the SPED students. From the findings I concluded that inclusion improves learning for both SPED and GE students. The students learn to accept individual differences while helping them develop new friendships.
Applications
Based on my observations, some advices I would give the teachers are that teachers should encourage the students to interact with each other, accept each other, and help each other. Teachers can also design social events or activities for students to interact with each other. By doing this research, I was also able to see how important peer relationships will be for my future SPED students.
References
Snowman, J., Biehler, R. (2006). Psychology Applied to Teaching.11th Edition. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Brownsville Independent School District. Retrieved April 4, 2008, from http://www.bisd.us/
Educational Contexts. ERIC Digest. ERIC Document number ED345854
Zigmond N. & Baker (1995). “The Meaning and Practice of Inclusion for Students with Learning Disabilities: Themes and Implications from the Five Cases,” Journal of Special Education 29(2): 163-180.
Murawski W. & Swanson, L. (2001). “A meta-analysis of co-teaching: Where are the data?” Remedial and Special Education 22(3): 258-267
Cobb,P., & Bowers (1999). Cognitive and situated leaning: perspectives in theory and practices. Educational researcher, 28(2), 4-15
Glaeser B. (2005). Effective Strategies for Reaching Students with Disabilities in General Education Classrooms. Retrieved from https://www.t2tweb.us/Mgmt/TTC/SessionFiles/S0288-F03923.pdf
To read other articles of this week:
Learning Strategies by Mayra Garcia
Adolescents motivation by Analicia K. Springer
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