NerdyTomEducationSpecial Needs of Students With Disabilities

Special Needs of Students With Disabilities

Subject: Education
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Introduction

The institution of education is an indispensable source of improvement within society, as it helps young people shape their new ideas and bring them into reality. It serves to help learners discover and attain their full capacities to then obtain a position warranted by their innate talent. Educational ethics constitute a framework of standards for judging conduct and ensuring the protection of freedom to learn (Litwack, 2003). The two primary principles of educational ethics for teachers include commitment to the students and commitment to the profession. Each student has the potential of becoming a valuable, useful, and respected member of society. The purpose of the code of ethics is to help every student to achieve that goal (Litwack, 2003).

However, in some educational institutions, students with disabilities are being neglected. Some teachers fail to provide the appropriate accommodations and modifications to assist these students. While the reasons for such negligence differ, these actions compromise fairness and undermine the integrity of the profession.

The Assumptions at the Heart of the Dilemma

The major assumptions behind the issue of the failure to accommodate students with disabilities in the classroom can be classified into some major groups: the lack of training and knowledge; the lack of experience; the lack of support, time, and resources to meet the needs of students with disabilities; conscientious objections to the practice.

The lack of training and knowledge comes at the forefront of most researches that is dedicated to the subject of decreased academic performance in students with disabilities. According to Moriarty (2007), various barriers impede teachers’ creation of an encouraging learning environment for all students and make them hesitant to make accommodations and modifications. In particular, the lack of an inclusive mindset and lack of knowledge about pedagogy or limited knowledge of practical strategies that students need, which reflect low willingness reflectors to assist students with disabilities. Many teachers cannot comprehend that such students have special needs and require an individual approach that can be accomplished via modifications and accommodations (Moriarty, 2007). In the instances when they do apply certain techniques and programs to try to help students with disabilities, these tools are often used improperly. These research findings demonstrate that even though inclusive pedagogy is regarded as the key strategy across countries to involve students with disability in general disabilities environment, educators’ beliefs, knowledge, and accessibility of multimodal teaching tools identify inclusivity.

Moreover, the lack of time plays an important part in causing the object of the ethical dilemma. Westwood and Graham (2003) conducted a survey of teachers that found teachers are worried about time constraints, handling the demands of consistently providing modification and additional supervision for a single student, and balancing the time spent on one special needs child with the demands of the other students in the classroom. Therefore, lack of time leads teachers to ignore to meet the needs of students with disabilities.

Another assumption is a lack of inter-professional collaboration promotion between generalist and special education teachers. Fuchs (2010) discovered that general education teachers did not believe that they received sufficient support from other parties, particularly school administration and special education support staff. In general, there were inequalities in the assignment of duties between the two different educator types that led to tensions and power struggles. As a result, generalist teachers often reject the use of administrative resources if they see doing so as unproductive. So, the negative attitudes towards teaching students with disabilities are frequently due to a lack of support from the administration in the areas of collaboration and planning time and shared duties with the special education staff. (Fuchs, 2010).

The last assumption revolves around conscious opposition to inclusivity and the focus on disabled individuals during the classroom (Brandes & Crowson, 2014, Zhang et al., 2010). Historically, the teaching community was not positive about working with students with special needs. Some teachers believe that student with disabilities is not teachable or succeed as much as other students. Personal beliefs of teachers regarding the education of students with disabilities are the important factor that affects their willingness to provide accommodations for students with disabilities in the classroom (Zhang et al., 2010).

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