21st Century Education for Special Needs Students

Education is a human right—including students who have conditions requiring special education services. The purpose of this chapter is to promote inclusive education for students with learning disabilities due to diagnoses such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, and more. A literature review includes a discussion pertaining to the elements of appropriate teaching methods compatible with developing 21st-century competencies for general education and special education students within the same classroom setting. Relative to employing strategies of differentiation and scaffolding while increasing cognition through experience-based lessons, this chapter provides examples from the author's classroom instructional plans. The content through action (CTA) method is presented as an ideal approach conducive to integrating 21st-century competencies through experiential lessons to teach the required content to students of various abilities. The chapter ends with recommendations on creating systemic change through building a support system at an organizational level.

Accelerated Learning Is Possible for Special Education Students

Accelerated learning has been historically absent in conversations driving the instruction of students being served in special education. A prevailing deficit mindset commonly exists within the special education community leaving expectations of increased student learning to chance. This chapter aims to share data from a large-scale, national sample of special education students receiving the powerful literacy intervention, Literacy Lessons. These data detail the possibility of accelerated student learning by measuring the text reading level of students at entry and exit of the intervention, and even more, compared to their rate of progress before entering the intervention.

Access and Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in Virtual Learning Environments: Implications for Post-Pandemic Teaching

This article reviews the extant literature showing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to inclusive education for students with disabilities. It also explores the disproportionate impacts of distance learning and school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic on the legal rights, social-emotional supports, and quality of instruction for special education students and their families. Early data show that educational impacts of COVID-19 have exacerbated long-standing issues of inequity; these impacts may have long-term repercussions for this underserved group of students. The authors introduce frameworks that may inform future instructional practices to successfully teach students with disabilities in virtual learning environments.

La formación del profesor de Educación Física en las Necesidades Educativas Especiales, hacia la reflexión y la acción, desde acuerdos internacionales y Leyes en Chile (The training of the Physical Education teacher in Special Educational Needs, towards

El Informe Warnock y la Declaración de Salamanca, establecieron criterios estandarizados sobre conceptos y requerimientos mínimos para una enseñanza homogénea de los centros educativos para las personas con Necesidades Educativas Especiales (NEE). Las NEE dentro de la normativa en Chile, se clasifican en Necesidades Educativas Especiales Permanentes y Transitorias. Las cuales, mediante Decretos, Leyes y acuerdos internacionales, los niños, niñas y adolescentes tienen el derecho de una educación de calidad, tendiendo en consideración las características particulares que pueden presentar los estudiantes, este acompañamiento puede ser transitorio y/o permanente. De esta manera, se busca que, a través de la Educación Especial, el alumnado obtenga herramientas necesarias para su utilización en contextos sociales y laborales. Sin embargo, desde la Educación Física en contextos escolares, se evidencia poca preparación o conocimiento de las características de las NEE que presente un estudiante por parte del profesor de Educación Física, si bien, en distintas universidades se encuentra la asignatura que dote a los estudiantes de pedagogía de herramientas y competencias para el trabajo con escolares con NEE, se evidencia que existe una falta de componentes teóricos y prácticos para trabajar con NEE. Finalmente, se invita a la reflexión para la utilización de actividades físico – deportivas o motrices adaptadas, las cuales podrían permitir ser una herramienta complementaria e inclusiva en la clase de Educación Física escolar. Abstract. The Warnock Report and the Salamanca Declaration established standardized criteria on concepts and minimum requirements for a homogeneous teaching of educational centers for people with Special Educational Needs (SEN). SEN within the regulations in Chile are classified as Permanent and Transitory Special Educational Needs. Which, through Decrees, Laws and international agreements, children and adolescents have the right to a quality education, taking into consideration the characteristics that students may present, this accompaniment may be transitory and / or permanent. In this way, it is sought that, through Special Education, students obtain the necessary tools for their use in social and work contexts. However, from Physical Education in school contexts, little preparation, or knowledge of the characteristics of SEN presented by a student is evidenced by the Physical Education teacher, although, in different universities there is the subject that provides students pedagogy of tools and competencies for working with schoolchildren with SEN, it is evident that there is a lack of theoretical and practical components to work with SEN. Finally, reflection is invited for the use of adapted physical - sports or motor activities, which could allow them to be a complementary and inclusive tool in the school Physical Education class.

“We Kind of do not Dare to Tell Everybody that we are in a Program for Disabled Students, Because Some are Afraid that they will be Made Fun of.”

Implementing inclusive education has proven problematic all over the world. The reasons are multiple, but one of them can presumably be related to the way students with disabilities are “created”, viewed, and responded to as “special education students” within schools. To challenge this, we need to understand students’ position within the school. In this article, the focus is on identifying the position of students who receive special education in schools in Iceland by mapping their power relations and resistance within the discursive norm of special education. We use the method of thinking with theory and read data in accordance with Foucault’s theories of power relations and resistance and Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts of line of flight and becoming. Findings show that power relations affect students variously and although students’ resistance is manifested differently between individuals, a common thread is visible when resisting their static position as special education students.

Washington view: How have special education students fared during the pandemic?

Maria Ferguson talks with Lindsay E. Jones, president and CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on students with disabilities. So far, there has been little research into the effects of the pandemic, but previous research shows that being away from school has more of an effect on students with learning disabilities. They also discuss how states are planning to use the funds made available under the American Recovery Plan and the challenge of balancing the need for flexibility to distribute funds quickly with the need to ensure that students’ needs are being met.

The Views of Special Education Department Students on the Use of Assistive Technologies in Special Education

Assistive technologies are an important factor for individuals with special needs to benefit from educational services. The aim of this research is to determine the opinions and thoughts of special education students on the use of technologies. The study group of the research consisted of 41 teacher candidates studying in Cyprus and Russian universities in the special education department in their classes in the fall semester of the 2020–2021 academic year. With regard to the collection of research data, it aims to determine students’ views with the ‘Personal Information Form’ developed by the researchers to determine the demographic characteristics of the research group and the ‘Semi-Structured Interview Form’ prepared by the researchers. The descriptive analysis method was used in the analysis of the data obtained from the interview questions. As a result of the research, special education teacher candidates’ use of the assistive technologies is given in detail in the results section.