The Importance of Individualized Education

            The idea of education as inclusive is regarded as a positive ideology, but I would question whether or not it is being properly implemented in the classroom. The idea that all students learn the same, and therefore all should be taught the same way is one that has been disputed for as long as I can remember. However, students with learning disabilities want nothing more than to be integrated and included in their classrooms. “Although their intellectual capacity is average or above average, their learning achievements in some learning domains are modest, and they are poorly integrated into their social environment, which often results in their discrimination” (Kavkler 2015). The approach to counter this is known as inclusive education. However, not all students learn the same way, and it is therefore up to the teacher to decide upon the best way to teach the student. This is known as individualized education, and individualized learning. I believe that we can find a happy medium between the two types of education, in order to include all students, but ensure that each student is taught according to their strengths.

Inclusive education is known as the teacher being inclusive towards their students with learning disabilities, ensuring that they get the same treatment as a child in the class who does not have a learning disability. However, as seen through this video, even children with learning disabilities are not being exposed to the proper inclusive education: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtRY_1mZWWg

Jan Wilson, through her TedX talks, discusses the problem that many disabled students have today in trying to get inclusive educations. She discusses the many difficult processes that she has had to go through with her own daughter in order to have her daughter be included in the school’s activities, and even acknowledged by her teacher. As a future teacher, I can absolutely appreciate the benefits of inclusive education towards students with learning disabilities, but I wonder if we can push it one step further; include all students in learning, but have an individualized approach to each student’s learning ideals. This individualized program should be implemented for each individual student, and not just those with learning disabilities (known as IEP’s). I believe that we as teachers can find a happy middle between including every student, and not teaching all students the same.

            One of the first things that I was taught in my many education classes was that all students learn differently, and it is the teacher’s responsibility to realize each individual student’s way of learning, and adjust your teaching tactics to fit their needs, so that they are able to facilitate their own learning based on their terms. This is very similar to the Montessori approach to education, as it “encourages independent decision making and goal setting, two values a Montessori curriculum supports directly and indirectly. It is a structure with a consistent framework. That is, the parts of a reading workshop are consistent from day to day, and materials are stored in such a way that children can access them as needed. This consistency enables children to make choices about their own learning because they are not always waiting for direction from a teacher” (Cockerille 2004).

Retrieved from http://www.vwmin.org/individualized-education-program-iep-cde.html

In one of my Education classes last year, my professor said something that has stuck in my brain ever since: that we as University students are the top 5%, the supposed best of the best. We beat the system because we quickly realized how the system wanted us to learn, and adapted ourselves to fit into that model in order to succeed. This made me wonder about the way in which teachers teach, and what students, the rest of the 95% would have been as successful as the rest of us if they had been given the opportunity of an individualized plan. In the past IEP’s have been given solely to students with learning disabilities, but if we look at the percentage of students, who do not make it to university, yet do not have learning disabilities, something needs to change. I don’t expect that this number will ever be 100%, I realize that many students simply don’t want more than a high school education, but I wonder how many would have loved the opportunity to be able to if they had the marks. The following video explains IEP’s, but in the context of a student with a learning disability: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcanvrWnUjM

 Instead, I believe that every student should have their own individualized plan in order to meet their needs and goals. 

References

Gratz Cockerille, A. (2014). Reading Workshop in the Montessori Classroom. Montessori Life. 26(3), 36-43.

Kavkler, M., Babuder, M., K., & Magajna, L. (2015). Inclusive Education for Children with Specific Learning Difficulties: Analysis of Opportunities and Barriers in Inclusive Education in Slovenia. CEPS Journal. 5(1), 31-52.