Roles of special education teachers in inclusive classrooms

Roles of Inclusion in Education
Introduction
In an inclusive educational setting, all types of students including those with special needs and those who are disabled are educated in the same classroom and not segregated. For an inclusion classroom to work properly, a special education instructor should work together with a regular education instructor to ensure that the needs of the special needs children are fully met (Wapling, 2016). The work of the special education teacher will be determined by the needs of the special needs children, and how much the teachers will need to complement each other’s work. This work looks at the roles of inclusion of special needs students and students with disabilities in education.
In the last decade, the idea of an inclusion classroom has gradually replaced the concept of special needs education. Inclusion is all about non-exclusion (Bines, 2012). It is all about ensuring that an education system embraces all children without consideration for their linguistic, social emotional, intellectual, or physical differences. It is all about accommodating everyone. An inclusive classroom should therefore include children from all backgrounds, children who are differently abled, and children who are intellectually challenged (Bines, 2012).
Lesson Planning and Specialized Instruction
The perfect inclusive classroom, is one where both thee general education teacher, and the special education instructor are involved together in lesson planning. They draft lesson plans to meet the needs of all the learners. While both teachers are engaged in planning, the special education instructor focuses on ensuring that the needs of the differently abled children are met. In other cases, the regular teacher writes the lesson plan, and their special education counterpart adapts the plan to meet the needs of the special needs children.
A classroom with two teachers would obviously require a different way of evaluating competency. Competency is an evaluation of job performance. Teaching is a competency-based profession. A teacher-trainee must gain the required skills, values, and knowledge to be able to successfully complete an education program. However, how much teaching a special education instructor does in an inclusion classroom depends on a variety of things. For instance, in some inclusion classes, the regular teacher and the special education teacher may take turns teaching (Singal, 2008). They may do this daily, or after every one day. When not instructing the entire class, the special education teacher may provide the special education children, or the other children with one-on-one help and assistance. It is not a must for the special education instructor to be present in the class every day.
Classroom management
Although a special education instructor is primarily in an inclusion class to focus on the learners with special needs, the instructor also has the responsibility of helping the other instructor to manage the classroom. The same kind of respect given to the regular teacher must also be accorded to the special education teacher. In an ideal inclusion classroom, the special instructor can also set classroom routines, and rules and create a climate that enables the special needs learners to learn effectively. The special education instructor must also be aware of the behavior of students and provide discipline when necessary.
According to Haddad (2009), regular teachers have an important role to pay in guaranteeing the success of inclusive education. Regardless of how good educational infrastructure may be or how well-written educational policies are, inclusive education will not succeed without the successful participation of general education teachers. Only when general education teachers participate and provide meaningful instruction to special needs learners will there be success in mainstreaming inclusive education.
Regular teachers have to provide good quality instruction, plus full support, and one-on-one assistance to children with special needs in inclusive classrooms. According to Choi (2010), the teachers must also be provided with the support they need from special education instructors, school principals, and parents to overcome challenges and provide quality education and improve the academic achievement of the students in their classrooms. It is the regular teacher who will spend the most time with the special needs children, it is up to him or her to find creative and innovative ways to meet the emotional, social, and educational needs of the children in his or her classroom. The teacher will also need to be committed to the success of the program and become as resourceful as possible to ensure the children are well catered for.
A supportive classroom environment has a considerable positive effect on the learning outcomes of learners with special needs. According to Choi (2010), general education teachers out to be competent enough to make the right psycho-social changes to their classroom environments to ensure that the environments are enablers and not barriers to the effective instruction of differently abled learners. In addition to creating supportive learning environments, the teachers must also be ready and willing to make changes to the physical classroom infrastructure so that the classroom settings are as inclusive and as welcoming as possible. Classroom infrastructure includes the desks, the temperature, the lighting, and the teaching aids (Haddad, 2009).
It is also very important for special needs children to be positioned in the right places in the classroom. Depending on the needs of the child, the teacher should place the child in a place where they can easily monitor and control them. This is easier for children at the primary/ elementary school level. However, at the high school level, it should be handled more tactfully as most special needs children who make it to that level often do not want to be singled out (Choi, 2010). Nevertheless, as stated, it is the duty of the teacher to show authority and to make the classroom as supportive and as physically adapted to ensure the effective learning of all students (Choi, 2010).
Change in environment
For inclusive education to be successfully mainstreamed, there is a need for regular classroom environments to be adapted to meet the needs of all types of students. The change requires teachers to play the pivotal role as they will be ultimately responsible for making the necessary changes to accommodate students who are differently abled (Choi, 2010). It is only through the commitment of teachers that real changes can take place to guarantee the success of inclusive classrooms. Teachers may need to get new skills, discard some old beliefs, and adopt some new practices and values to guarantee the success. This means there will be barriers to overcome and challenges to face, however, with commitment, it can be done. According to Haddad (2009), teachers are expected to adapt to face the challenges head on and to find creative solutions to ensure the success of inclusive education (Haddad, 2009).
Educators are also expected to screen special needs students for risk, and to write special lesson plans for them and to adapt lessons and teaching aids appropriately. They are also expected to cooperate with other teachers, instructors, and parents to assist special needs learners to overcome their inadequacies.
Haddad (2009) argues that instruction will automatically need to be given differently in inclusive classrooms. To meet the shortfalls of special needs children, instruction will need to be flexible, interdisciplinary, and integrative. This is in contrast to teacher-centered teaching practices that are the norm in regular classrooms. Inclusive classrooms also require educators to focus less on teaching and more on enabling students to learn. Consequently, they should then create classroom environments where learning is maximized. According to Singal (2008), the ideal regular teacher for inclusive classroom environments will be that who quickly assesses and recognizes the need for finding solutions to emerging challenges brought about by the inclusion of students who are differently abled. The ideal regular teacher should also be one who is willing to accommodate the different settings, behaviors, and routines of special needs children. The duties and responsibilities of general education instructors need to be more comprehensive for inclusive education classrooms to work. More care also needs to be taken to ensure that differently abled students adapt seamlessly to their new environments. Lastly, the ideal regular teacher will need to balance their attention between the differently abled students and the abled students to ensure that the education of the regular students does not suffer. As is evident in the statements made above, teachers will need to retrain to get the new values, skills, knowledge, and attitude needed to successfully carry out their new duties and responsibilities.
Conclusion
Inclusive education can be a game changer in our educational system. It gives an opportunity to disabled learners and special needs learners to get the same kind of education their abled counterparts have been getting. It also enables them to get the same kind of experiences. Nevertheless, regular teachers may at first need the help of special educators to run their inclusive classrooms. After a while, the regular teachers may also need retraining to acquire the skills and attitude needed for them to successful change the physical and psycho-social environments to ensure that their classrooms become enablers rather than barriers to the attainment of quality education by special needs students. Regular teachers also have to prepare for the challenges posed by embracing differently abled students and to always be finding creative solutions to address the challenges. This is the only way inclusive classrooms can be mainstreamed.

References Bines, H. (2012). The Long Road to Inclusive Education for Disabled Children. Implementing Inclusive Education, 1(1), 309-322. Choi, E. (2010). A Case Study of an Early Childhood Inclusive Program: Teacher Professional Development and Collaboration. Haddad Caroline (2009), Teaching Children with Disabilities in Inclusive Settings. UNESCO, Bangkok, ISBN 978-92-9223-244-3, Published by the UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education. Singal, N. (2008). Working towards inclusion: Reflections from the classroom. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(6), 1516-1529. Wapling, L. (2016). Inclusive Education and Children with Disabilities: Quality Education for All in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. A systematic literature review of education systems in low-and middle-income countries commissioned by CBM.