Ken Pudlas [pudlas@twu.ca ]

1. NO SIZE FITS ALLVocational satisfaction: Beyond survivingto thriving(in an inclusive educational environment) Ken Pudlas [pudlas@twu.ca]

2. Discussion Points • Why are you here? • Not in the metaphysical sense… • What is your role in education? • How did you come to be in this field? • What are the best and worst parts of what you do? • What hinders your vocational satisfaction? Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

3. Overview- Stories/Metaphors: • New Shoes • Sources of discomfort • Moose hunters • Found an easier method but at what cost • Cathy & Jordon • Physically present – but not invited

4. Foundations Thriving: • Grow vigorously and healthily • To be successful (and profitable) • Joy versus Happiness • Satisfaction • Beyond a paycheque Self-efficacy • Power • Significance • Competence • Worth Sources and Hindrances Teachingis: • Art… • Science… • Learning… • Juggling act… • Vocation • i.e. calling • Connotes passion • Reflection: • Why did you enter the education profession? • What inhibits your satisfaction? Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

5. Satisfaction – Self-efficacy • This is consistent with the importance of head, heart and hands in leading to effective inclusive praxis. • Knowledge, competence, and various forms of self-knowledge and self-belief act in concert to provide adequate judgments and interpretations of efficacy-building information (Usher & Pajares, 2008, p. 790). Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

6. Big picture threats to satisfaction: • Models of service delivery • Full inclusion • Purpose • Community • Efficacy of Full inclusion • Possible reasons for outcomes • Diversity • Cultural / Worldviews • Abilities • Importance? • Social Cohesion • Normalization • Social Role Valorization Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

7. Story: Moose Hunters • What was the goal? • What was the problem? • What is the lesson? Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

8. Goal? • School: • A machine to be maintained? • Place where information is transmitted and reproduced? • Educational movement (worldview shift): • From modernity • Hope of a unified science of teaching • To postmodern turn • Celebrates both diversity and community • Clinical singularity versus Communities of Collaboration Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

9. Goal:Educational Mission Statement [British Columbia] • “The purpose of the British Columbia School System is to enable all learners to develop their individual potential and to acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to contribute to a healthy, democratic and pluralistic society and a prosperous and sustainable economy.” Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

10. Goal: FULL INCLUSION[British Columbia] • An ideology resulting in a pedagogy • all students (regardless of any conditions that present barriers to their learning) are educated to the fullest extent possible in their normal ecology • the classroom teacher bears the responsibility for all students • Goal: community • Efficacy? • Requisites? Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

11. Head: Roots of FI • Normalization • Wolf Wolfensberger • Social Role Valorization • Inclusion • A school is inclusive if every student (person) is able to identify and connect with the school's social environment, culture and organizational life. • Community Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

12. Social Role Valorization “The application of empirical knowledge to the shaping of the current or potential social roles of a party (i.e., person, group, or class) -- primarily by means of enhancement of the party’s competencies & image -- so that these are, as much as possible, positively valued in the eyes of the perceivers” (Wolfensberger & Thomas, 2005). Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

13. Head: Inclusion • The practiceof inclusion transcends the idea of physical location, and incorporates basic values that promote participation, friendship and interaction. • [Italics added] • The principle of inclusion …supports equitable access to learning by all students and the opportunity for all students to pursue their goals in all aspects of their education. Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

14. Windfall & blow-downhindered the moose hunters Barriers to vocational satisfaction? Barriers to Inclusive Educational Communities? Student population Students’ perceptions Teachers Administrators Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

15. Windfall?Diverse population A multicultural country, and officially so designated, has basically indicated it is a country without a core culture, or the core culture that once gave it cohesion, identity, framework, anchor, has been jettisoned to embrace a multiplicity of identities — and thereby the unintended consequence is that there is a void in the centre. Population by reported Mother Tongue, 2011 Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

16. Devolving family unit 43 percent of Canadian school children do not live with both biological parents Does it matter? Educator: in loco parentis Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

17. Diverse Learning Needs • Euphemistically referred to as classroom composition • Recall Langley Report on Inclusion • See p. 23 for Langley policy Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

18. Newest: ASD • Why Should I Care About Autism?? • In short: rapidly growing prevalence • Info re ASDhttp://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr065.pdf • and a news article with different responses to the study: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/03/autism_survey_finds_1_in_50_am.html • Note incidence and prevalence Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

19. Windfall? Impediments to full inclusion: Students’ perceptions Peer Self-Concept Subscale Scores *p < .01 (note that > score  higher self-concept) Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

20. Windfall?Teacher Efficacy Perceptions • May be considered as SE = Success • _______________________________ Aspirations • Aspirations: • Power • Significance • Competence • Worth • Support concept of inclusion but… • May be/feel ill-prepared Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

21. Full Inclusion:A Healthy Salad? • Doing the right thing • Having the best intentions • Having the right ingredients • How to make it more palatable? • Making it palatable • Ingredients? • What happens when left to stand? • What are we doing to shake up the ingredients? Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

22. Methods That Enhance Inclusion • Five critical dimensions of successful inclusive classrooms have been identified as: 1. A Sense of Community & Social Acceptance 2. An Appreciation of Student Diversity 3. Attention to Curricular Needs 4. Effective Management & Instruction 5. Personnel Support & Collaboration Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

23. The Big Picture • STUDENT OUTCOMES/ • EDUCATIONAL GOALS • as part of an • Inclusive • Educational • System • Academic & Social Competence • Educational Equality & Equity • Living and Learning in Community • Lifelong Learning • School-Home partnership • Independent Learning and Thinking • CLASSROOM • ETHOS • Teachers’ • Characteristics • Attitudes • Beliefs • Values • Abilities • Enabling • Conditions • Administrative Leadership and Support (School level) • Professional Training and Development • Pooling of Resources • Curricular Change Merging of Regular and Special Education into Full Inclusion Consultation Collaboration Adaptation SCHOOL ETHOS Administrators’ Characteristics Attitudes Beliefs Values Abilities Enabling Conditions Administrative Leadership and Support (District level) Professional Training and Development Pooling of Resources Curricular Change

24. Key aspects from the model • From outcomes side: • Note key role of community • Note also the reciprocal actions and reactions • The cause and effect relationships • From school ethos side: • Teachers’ Attitudes, Beliefs, Values, Abilities are foundational • Need to be personally inviting • Need to be professionally inviting • To that end administrators play crucial role Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

25. Professionally inviting Schools should encourage the development of all aspects of whole persons: their moral, social, aesthetic, emotional, physical, and spiritual capacities. Teachers should be willing to think critically about education theory and about what might be called “propaganda” and, If teachers want to teach students to think, they must think about what they themselves are doing (NelNoddings, 2008) Everything the teacher does as well as the manner in which he does it incites the child to respond in some way or another and each response tends to set the child’s attitude in some way or another (John Dewey, 1933) Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

26. Inviting schools: Five basic principles • People possess untapped potential in all areas of worthwhile human endeavour. • This potential can best be realized by places, policies, programmes, and processes specifically designed to invite development and by people who are intentionally inviting with themselves and others personally and professionally. • People are able, valuable, and responsible and should be treated accordingly. • Educating should be a collaborative, cooperative activity. • The process is the product in the making. Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

27. Concepts surrounding invitational education - four guiding principles • Intentionality: • Safe schools are best realized by creating and maintaining inviting places, policies, processes, and programs and by people who are intentionally inviting with themselves and others, personally and professionally. • Respect: • Everyone in the school is able, valuable, and responsible and is to be treated accordingly. • Trust: • Education is a cooperative, collaborative activity where process is as important as product. • Optimism: • People possess relatively untapped potential in all areas of worthwhile human endeavor. Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

28. Professionally inviting? Two assumptions: • … messages significantly affect student self-concept, attitude toward school, relationships, and school achievement • Teachers also must see themselves as able, valuable, and responsible • Suggestions toward enabling teachers • Particularly with students with exceptional needs • Pre-professional education regarding exceptionality • Professional development • Inviting/disinviting messages result from perceptions • Fortunately each persons’ conceptual field can be continually enriched, expanded, and modified (e.g. professional development) Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

29. Thriving in your vocation? • Equipping students: • importance of pro-social skills training • Equipping educators: • Positive results when given special education coursework prior to entering profession Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

30. Prosocial Skills TrainingMeans and Standard Deviations for Social Skills, Peer Nominations, and Friendships *p < .01 Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

31. Some substantiating literature • Special education is not a place or a program…special education is a set of services and supports that are provided to individual students to give them access to curriculum and to ensure that they continually learn and progress in that curriculum (McLaughlin & Nolet, 2004 as cited in Lasky & Karge, 2006) • If schools are to become more successful in educating students with disabilities, attitudinal, organizational, and instructional changes must fall into place (Block & Haring, 1992 as cited in Lasky & Karge, 2006) • Success or failure of beginning special education teachers may be linked with: • The critical role of the site principal (Lasky, Karge, Robb, & McCabe, 1995) • Pre-service education (Pudlas, 2005) Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

32. Important competencies of instructional leaders • Display knowledge and skills in effective instruction, assessment, and discipline to provide support and feedback… • Acquire skills in establishing and supporting instructional teams • Willingness to support collaborative group interactions • A clear vision that results in commitment from the school and community Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

33. Core Beliefs of instructional leaders • Congruent with invitational principles • Research suggests several core beliefs (e.g. all children can learn), reflective of the beliefs of a diverse society, if reflected in a principal’s attitude, will enhance willingness to include even the most challenging students (Goor, Schwenn, & Boyer 1997) Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

34. Requisite Competencies • Understand and facilitate the use of effective research-based practices • A clear understanding of professional support needs such as manageable case loads and opportunities for professional development • Nurturing the professional development of others who are committed to innovations in effective instructional models and effective teaching and management skills. (Lasky & Karge, 2006, pp. 30-33) • Knowledge of disabilities and the unique learning and behavioral challenges various conditions present. • Thorough understanding of the laws that protect the educational rights of students with disabilities • The ability to communicate with families and teachers about special education services, disability awareness, monitoring and evaluating special education decisions and services, and ensuring legal compliance Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

35. Personally & Professionally Inviting? • Teachers must also see themselves as able, valuable, and responsible • Suggestions toward enabling teachers • Particularly with students with exceptional needs • Two assumptions: • Inviting/disinviting messages result from perceptions • Messages significantly affect student self-concept, attitude toward school, relationships, and school achievement Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

36. Professional competencies: • Characteristics: • Commitment of teacher time in planning • Require administrator support? • Teachers available for full class time • All teachers have full conceptual understanding (of content & students) • Successful collaboration between teacher and student (and parents) • Use of conceptual anchors • (create a shared experience to build on) • Research-based strategies such as: • Differentiating instruction • Anchoring instruction • Cooperative learning • Peer tutoring • Strategiclearning • Pudlas’: EAT s Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

37. Differentiating instruction: • Beginning where students are • (rather than where curriculum says they should be) • Use time flexibly • Use a range of teaching strategies • Create a community of learners where teachers and students are partners • Use, for example, preferred intelligences • (MI theory) • Cooperative activities – based on authentic problems Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

38. Anchoring instruction • Promotes higher-order thinking • Uses conceptual anchor (e.g. visuals) so learners build mental model • Allows for a common frame of reference • Students then construct their own knowledge through disciplined inquiry • Combined with problem-based or project-based learning • Guidelines: • Choose appropriate anchor • Set guidelines for group structure • Practice general problem-solving skills • E.g. defining the problem • Choose authentic problem • Have individual (as well as group) accountability Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

39. Cooperative learning Teachers: • Group purposely • (heterogeneously according to strengths/needs) • Model appropriate behaviour in groups • Monitor learning • (consistently interview students) • Encourage group to include diverse learners • Clearly structure tasks with clear guidelines • May mean task analysis and precision teaching application for those with diverse needs • Not all group work is cooperative learning • Human brain is a social brain • C. L. allows students to engage in instructional conversations • That clarify, probe, solidify learning Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

40. Peer tutoring • Three important principles of instruction: • Individualization of the targeted skill • Frequent opportunities to respond & rapid pace of instruction • Immediate corrective feedback • Having teachers and special education assistants fully available to students permits close monitoring of specific skill deficits • Proven successful for students with diverse learning needs • Can be cross-age or same age • Guidelines for class-wide peer tutoring: • Each member of pair share roles • Train each in giving feedback and error correction procedures • Have each member practice – with teacher monitoring • Begin with less complex drill and practice • Choose materials appropriate to skill level Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

41. Strategic learning • Incorporates responsibility for mutual learning within cooperative learning format • Uses think aloud techniques, modeling, and practice in using the strategies • i.e. verbal mediation is modeled • Some students simply have not learned how to learn • (no learning strategy) • Direct instruction of a specific strategy may pay dividends • Example collaborative strategic reading process : • Previewing(reading title and headings) and predicting (what the passage is about) • Get the gist • (restating most important idea) • Wrap up • (summarize what has been learned and ask questions that teacher might ask on a test) Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

42. Am I inviting? Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

43. Head + Heart: Empathy • What do exceptional persons/families want? Need? • Practical helps? • Empathy • Understanding • Practical help (Micah 6:8 requires action!) • Respite • A listening ear • A cup of tea • NOT platitudes • All created for intimacy and relationship • Self – • Esteem • Worth • Efficacy • SE model Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

44. Suggestion: EATs • Educators individually and collectively possess considerable knowledge and talent and learn best by actively working to solve problems. • Students’ problems with learning, behaviour and performance can be a source of professional frustration and a threat to professional efficacy. Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

45. Suggestion: EATs • Educator Assistance Teams (EATs) can be a basis for: • empowerment & control, • educator initiative, • teacher initiated actions, • professionalism, and accountability. • Educators can solve many more problems when working cooperatively rather than by working alone. • These assumptions point to the importance of an educator support system within which the responsibility for decision-making and communication rests with the teachers themselves. Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

46. Summary • The EAT model • one illustration of simple steps toward increasing teachers’ sense of efficacy (able, valuable, responsible) • Together building inviting inclusive communities for learning Proverb: • beware of putting new wine in old wineskins (doing new things in old ways) • Remember the moose hunters • Prosocial skills training • the missing link? • Pre-professional development • Removing the fear • Professional development • re-visioning and building effective new paradigms Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca

47. Thriving in your vocation • Vocation =calling • Pursue professional efficacy with passion • Be personally & professionally inviting • One person can make a difference: be that person! Contact: Ken Pudlas (pudlas@twu.ca