Intro

Inclusive education has become a big talking point in the last decade surrounding how to deal

with students with learning differences. Inclusive education is defined as focusing on access,

equality, equity, opportunity and rights for every student in school regardless of their; culture,

sexuality, age, gender or their disability (Coates & Vickerman, 2010). The aim of a school is to

prepare students for life after school, into adulthood and into a job. Children typically spend

around 15000 hours in a learning space we call schools which is why it is so important to

include everyone and ensure that Australian Classrooms are equitable to help give every

student the chance to find that job when they finish school (Mitchell, 2014). This paper will

discuss the evidence in changing views about inclusive education and how legislation and

policies are being created to help students who experience learning differences and

disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), physical impairment, speech

impairment, cognitive disability, mental health problems and many more. After discussing the

changes in legislation to a more inclusive education system the paper will discuss strategies

in order to meet the needs of all students to create an equitable classroom. Finally, the paper

will give examples of how inclusive education can be achieved in multiple scenarios in a

Physical development, health, physical education classroom in references to students with

Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Figures from the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on Disability stated that 12.5% of

school students have disabilities which require classroom adjustments with half of these

receiving individual support (2016). In a standard classroom of 30 students, teachers are likely
to encounter four students with learning differences. These students all have additional needs

which a classroom teacher or schools need to make adjustments for these individuals. These

students with additional needs can be easily overlooked and the term of disability in schools

needs to be clarified. Learning differences, students with disabilities or impairments are terms

which are used to identify students who require extra support in education (Coates &

Vickerman, 2010). In current Australia, every child is expected to attend school, but this is

only a new revolution especially for those with learning differences. In the first half of the 19th

century it was common practice to place disabled people in institutions or prisons and

sterilising women was an acceptable treatment (People With Disability, 2016) . As time

progressed towards the end of the 19th century society saw a shift from oppressing disabled

populations to embracing them and creating legislations for equality and in the current period

to equity.

As previously outlined the change in public opinion in dealing with students with learning

difficulties took a big turn at the end of the 19 th century. In 1992 we saw the first

discrimination laws introduced and this included the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA).

This was an act passed by the parliament of Australia in 1992 which prohibited discrimination

against people with disabilities in employment, education, publicly available premises,

provision of goods and services, clubs and associations and other contexts (Feberal Register

of Legislation, 2016) . This was the real beginning of promoting community acceptance of the

principle that people with disabilities have the same fundamental rights as all member of the

community. This was the first political step in changing the attitudes of the Australian

population. The act outlines the definitions of disability under the DDA which included
obvious s disability such as physical but also disorders that affect peoples processes,

perception of reality, emotions or judgement of that results in disruptive behaviour. This brief

mention has had a long-lasting affect in schools when dealing with students with behavioural

issues which may go undetected or undiagnosed. This began the including stage of students

in regular state funded schools. The number of students with disabilities in regular classes in

1997 was around only 5000. This grew to 26500 students in 2007. (Graham & Sweller 2011).

This highlights that this was the beginning of the inclusion stage but not without other

legislation to help promote equity.

The disability standards for education were introduced under the DDA act in August 2005.

The disability standards for Education 2005 clarify the obligations of education and training

providers and seek to ensure that students with disability can access and participate in

education on the same basis as other students (Australian Government - Department of

Educationa and Training, 2005). These standards were introduced to make the rights and

responsibilities in education and training easier to understand. The standards cover

enrolment, participation, curriculum development, accreditation and delivery, student

support services and elimination harassment and victimisation. These standards reflected the

publics changing perception of disabled students in education, from 1992 to 2005 this was

the biggest move forward for equality with students receiving equal services. This was first-

time equity was shown to be an engender by the Australian government with the standards

outlining that reasonable adjustments must be made to accommodate students who require

additional support. This reasonable adjustment can encompass a range of areas including the

physical environment, teacher delivery and format, utilisation of assistance equipments and

reductions of study load (Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training,

2014). Examples of adjustments outline in the disability standards include resources such as

braille text books, wearing a microphone to enable a student to hear the teacher, relocating

classes to accessible venue, and modifications to teachers pedagogy including changing

assessments tasks.

In 2012, the NSW government devised an initiative to help further support students who had

additional needs. During the year 2012 there was 90000 students who required additional

support beyond the normal capacity of the school they were enrolled in. This resulted in the

initiative titled Every student, Every school which is a learning and support framework for

schools to work towards inclusion for disabled students (NSW Government, 2012). This

initiative dedicated 48 million dollars in funding towards supplying additional needs for the

90000 students who had learning differences. This outlined the succession of previous

legislative frameworks with committing to ensure every student with a disability has the right

to higher education. the Biggest structural outcome to NSW schools from this initiative was

the introduction of a specialist teacher in every NSW public school. A study titled Inclusion of

students with disabilities in new time: responding to the challenge by Konza (Konza, 2008)

investigated whether having a support teacher in a school makes an impact on inclusive

education. The article found that the increased support in the school [Sometimes inside the

classroom] and the mentoring and support by the special education teacher had positive

outcomes both to the teacher and student.

In 2012 the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership introduced seven

overarching standards which were designed to be an illustrations of teaching knowledge,

practice and professional engagement (AITSL, 2012). These standards require all teachers at

all levels to demonstrate their practice is appropriate and inclusive for any students with

additional needs. Tertiary education uses these seven standards to ensure pre-service

teachers are proficient when they enter the education system. In an article by Campbell et al,

they stressed the importance of pre-service teacher education to help change attitudes

towards disability and inclusion (Campbell, Gilmore, & Cuskelly, 2004). They found that

preservice training such as meeting the seven standards from AITSL is a fundamental way to

change attitudes and perceptions of disabled students. This was supported by another article

from Sharma from Monarch University, who investigated the correlation between pre-service

inclusive education and the change of attitude towards students with learning differences

(Sharma, 2012). The article found that running classes for pre-service teachers about this

topic gives them a huge confidence boost when teaching students with additional needs. This

article gives further evidence that the seven standards help promote positive attitudes

towards students with additional needs. This is seen throughout most of the seven standards,

however it directly correlates with Standard 1.6: Strategies to support full participation of

students with disability (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, 2014). This

standard is an example how Australia is making students with learning difference a high

priority and all teachers must fulfil every standard and supply evidence of this completion to

maintain their job.

While legislation is important it doesnt highlight the skill teachers need to acquire to be a

successful teach when dealing with students with diverse learning needs. Some skills have

already been outline but they include personal skills and skills that can be learned. Personal

skills include communication, flexibility, willingness, and being an organised person. Learned

skills include; classroom management, identification skills, knowledge [about students and
potential learning disabilities] and the barriers they pose, problem solving, being sensitive,

parental communication and developing rapport. While some of these are overlapping in

each category they are essential when creating a positive learning experience for students

with learning differences.

The legislation that is paper has examined is an illustration of how Australian government,

state governments and schools are trying to promote inclusive education. This paper will now

illustrate how this legislation is being used in classrooms to promote evidence-based inclusive

education. As previously discussed teachers must meet standards to maintain their status as

a teacher which involves them modifying their practice inside the classroom. This sections of

the paper will examine teachers pedagogy, using differentiation in the classroom, strength

based practice, universal design for learning, appropriate outcomes and collaboration with

stakeholders (e.g. support teachers, parents/caregivers) in regards to a student who has been

diagnosed with Autism Spectrum disorder. It will apply these classroom practice to a PDHPE

classroom.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are lifelong developmental disabilities characterised by

marked difficulties in social interaction, impaired communication, restricted interests and

sensory sensitivities (Teaching for Inclusion, 2014). ASD can have an impact on students

cognitive ability, speech, language, social problems, aggression, obsession and many more.

Students with characteristics such as these can still be fostered and get a lot out of education

in standard classroom environments with the correct adjustments.

Teacher pedagogy is essentially how to best teach. Teachers need to change their pedagogy

to ensure they are best teaching all students in their classroom. It is important for teachers

to make accommodations to help all students to get the best out of their interaction with the

classroom teacher. Students with ASD can often find physical education lessons very

challenging for several reasons. They typically have gross and fine motor difficulties as well as

poor muscle tone conditioning (Menear, K., & Smith, S. 2008). Physical education is naturally a

social classroom which ASD students can he great difficulty with and the abnormal structuring

of these classes can be very confronting for students with an ASD (Menear, K., & Smith, S. 2008).

Considering these typical symptoms of ASD the following accommodations can be made to a

teachers pedagogy when planning physical education lessons for students with as ASD.

Using a similar routine in each class can help students with an ASD (Betts, Betts & Gerber-Eckard,

2007). Getting students to line up outside the classroom before we move on, then moving onto a

similar warm up activity and cooling down relaxing activities before the end of the lesson. A study

from Pushkarenko (2016) indicated that activity schedules, when used in structed teaching

can help to improve behaviour in children with an ASD. It is always important as a teacher to

be smart with time and this is an example of keeping students busy whilst trying to eliminate

waiting times which lowers the chance of interruptive behaviour.

As students with an ASD can learn a multitude of ways generally they respond better to visual

prompts in class. Using visual supports for students with ASD are an evidence-based practice

for supporting these students in achieving a variety of skills (Wong et al., 2014). In a physical

education setting it could involve the teacher or a peer performing the activity they are about
to complete. If it is a sport that involves positions, it could be as simple as supplying the

student with an ASD a floor plan showing where each student/position stands. The use of

arrows to move from one activity to the next could also help these students move along a

routine activity which involves moving stations.

Differentiation is an important aspect of any classroom but in regards to ASD students, it can

be a powerful tool when doing theory lessons. When using differentiation, teachers need to

consider the content of the lesson, the process, the product and the learning environment.

All these should look to include every student in the classroom to meet the learning outcomes

of the lesson (TEXTBOOK). The content of the lesson can be changed to suit the interests of

the student with ASD. It can be common that ASD students can have obsessions, if acceptable

use this obsession as a tool for learning in class or assessments (Smith Myles, 2001). This

questions will seem interesting and engaging for the ASD students and the rest of the class

will assume its a normal question. An example could include a question about a sport for an

assessment that an ASD student has a special connection too. Depending on the severity of

the student with ASD it is important that the outcomes of classroom activities and

assessments are appropriate. This will depend largely on the individual but we can get a better

understanding of the level that they are currently in academically by collaborating with

stakeholders such as the students parents and even any previous schools. The advantages of

collaborating with parents is they will have a higher level of appreciation and motivation to

help their child get the best out of their education and it will give background information of

subjects the student may enjoy (Hays, 2005). This collaboration can also help determine

appropriate outcomes for the student. If the outcomes of a unit of work or an assessment is
beyond the student with ASD then the curriculum or assessment needs to be modified for

this specific student.

In conclusion, it is important that legislation and teachers keep working towards a inclusive

classroom which involves all students with learning differences. The examples in the second

section of this paper in regards to students with ASD is a small portion of potential

accommodations which can be made to improve the education of students with additional

needs. More work needs to be done to help include all students and create classrooms and

curriculum which gives them an equal chance of succeeding in life. The move should be now

from equality to equity.

References
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