Realizing Inclusive Education

By Cricel Elises, ASP Administrative Staff

Article 24 Section 2A of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (UNCRP) provides that State Parties must ensure that “Persons with disabilities are not excluded from the general education system on the basis of disability, and that children with disabilities are not excluded from free and compulsory private education, or from secondary education on the basis of disability”.

To facilitate the application of this provision of the UNCRPD, ASP National Office conducted a back-to-back seminar on “Inclusion of Children with Autism in the Regular Classroom” and “Differentiated Instruction” on May 28 at Quality Life Discoveries with Dr. Mercedes Adorio, author of the book “Special Education in the Philippines: Trends and Issues”. Prof. Adorio was a former professor of Special Education of UP, Diliman. She is currently teaching SPED at the Philippine Women’s University and is Director of Fairfield, a Sped school she founded.

Dr. Mercedes Adorio

Inclusion of Children with Autism in the Regular Classroom

Inclusion is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end, and that end is improved learning for ALL students according to the author, Khalsa. Inclusion is the way forward, the way towards providing opportunities for all students to reach their potential through education.

Dr. Adorio provided the participants with basic knowledge on inclusion through discussing its definition and its qualities, the illusions about inclusions and how inclusion works. She also gave a presentation on trans-environmental programming and strategies for accommodating students with special needs. Furthermore, she told the history of inclusion and discussed the laws that became its basis.

Dr. Adorio emphasized that inclusion will only work if teachers have positive attitudes, strong commitment and the willingness to prepare the lessons ahead of time.

Below is some feedback from attendees:

“Dr. Adorio is a very effective resource speaker who shared her knowledge and expertise with passion and dedication.”

“It enlightened me on what I need to know so I can decide whether I should enroll my child in a Sped school or include him with regular kids.”

Differentiated Instruction

“Differentiated Instruction (DI) is the heart of Inclusive Education” said Dr. Adorio. She emphasized that in differentiated instruction, teachers need to balance structured curriculum and liberalism with regard to teaching. By adopting this strategy, Differentiated Instruction (DI) will ensure students success, she added.

Differentiated Instruction is based on the concept of how teachers see the problems. Teachers need to start with easy tasks then progress to more complex tasks. Student errors are indicators for differentiation. Knowing and identifying the mistakes of students are the basic steps to differentiate instructions.

To provide an opportunity to apply the theories, principles and methodology of DI, Dr. Adorio grouped the participants and asked them to come up with a sample DI lesson plan. A representative from each group was asked to report their output to the assembly. The workshop and reporting session were very lively and productive due to the active participation of the 53 attendees, mostly SpEd and regular teachers.

Participants are divided into group to do some workshop

Participants of the said seminar-workshop

One participant commented: “I liked the seminar, especially the way it was delivered by the speaker. She really knows what she’s talking about. It was very relevant to my needs as an OT”