Strategies for Inclusive Education: Primary School Teacher's Views

1. International Conference on Cooperative Learning (June, 2008, Chukyo University, Nagoya, Japan.) Title of presentation: Primary school teacher’s views of the strategies required to include different children. Presentation group: Cooperative learning for inclusive education Presenter: Gwadabe Kurawa, Bayero University, Kano, Department of Education, Nigeria.

2. Introduction Conceptualisation of cooperation Cooperation- is a structure of interaction designed to facilitate the accomplishment of a specific end product or goal through people working together in groups.

3. Cooperative learning for inclusion Dyson et al (2002) suggest that Inclusion is best regarded as a progressive trend for taking increasing responsibility for education different groupsof children in mainstream school. Cooperative learning is an instructional use of small groups in which students work together to maximise their own and each other’s learning (Johnson & Johnson,1994).

4. Inwhat ways can cooperative learning promote inclusion of children who differ from one another in the learning activities? Inclusion of different students in the learning process might be promoted, for example through • Child-to-child cooperation • Small-group cooperation

5. What do we understand by these learning strategies (child-to-child & small-group)? Damon and Phelps (1989:11) described child-to-child as a strategy in which students are paired up, with one acting as tutor and one as tutee. Webb (1989:24) identified six conditions which are needed for effective transmission of knowledge through peer tutoring: (1) the tutor must provide relevant help which is (2) appropriately elaborated, (3) timely, and (4) understand to the target student; (5) the tutor must provide an opportunity for the tutee to use the new information; and (6) the tutee must take advantage of that opportunity.

6. Cooperative learning approaches • Jigsaw • Think-Pair- Share • Send- a problem • Round Robin • Mind mapping

7. What are the indicators that students are actively cooperating and, therefore, included in learning activities Johnson & Johnson (1994,1999) provide Five basic principles of students’ co-operations in learning activities: -Positive interdependence -Student-to- student interaction -Individual accountability -Social Skills -Group process

8. Methodology -The school -The teacher Method: An ethnographic study: Ethnography is concerned with what people believe, how they behave and how they interact with one another…..ethnography attempts to do all this from within the group, and from within the perspectives of the groups’ members (Woods, 1986:4) A number of methods like participant observation, interviews and study of historical records and document are employed in ethnographic studies.

9. Findings & Discussions • The teacher always had a clear lesson format, and articulated the activities that would be carried out in the lesson. For example, his geography lesson format includes the following activities: discussion with whole class, background reading, small-group presentation on a project and watching video. The formats involved different activities and arrangements that would respond to the varied learning needs of his diverse pupils. • There were small groups of size of five to six at a table, and most of time with a balanced composition, for example, there are children with stronger and weaker communication skills. This would help children ‘‘to get used to speaking with different people, just hope to raise their confidence so as to become more outgoing’’. • In most of the group activities observed, every child had a function to perform and leadership often rotated with functions. It should be noted that the children were encouraged to discuss ideas with their partners in the group activities. Through discussion, children would make learning decisions democratically, and improve their communication skills, as they speak and hear, listen and reason. -

10. Findings & Discussions -There was an evidence of class rules and a routine that pupils understood and that was consistently implemented by the teacher in the class ( taking register and absences are dealt with every morning and afternoon). ‘‘It helps a lot in knowing who is in and who is out of the building. The school has to know that percentage, it has a target of getting 99 percent of children in attendance’’ i.e. improving attendance and reducing the incidence of exclusion. -The data indicated that the teacher share with pupils the responsibility for classroom management. Indeed, their joint efforts in making rules will inculcate in pupils a sense of belonging and self discipline (Jones & Jones, 1998). I shall suggest, self-discipline will lead to improved pupils’ task engagement, less inappropriate behaviour, smoother transitions between activities, and, perhaps, changes in both their academic and behavioural performances.

11. Conclusion - In essence, inclusive classrooms include diverse children with varied learning needs and styles, and what was also discovered was a strategy in class teaching that was full of activities, planned to cater for the varied learning needs and styles of the diverse children. In effect, pupils in the teacher’s class would become motivated to participate in the lessons that take account of their diversity, thus the creation of a more inclusive classroom. • It is also clear that the teacher emphasised talking with a partner and discussing answers between children in their class, but he rarely emphasised sharing with the rest of the class during paired work. • It can be concluded that pupils in the particular class worked in, but not as fully cooperative groups because some aspects of effective cooperation as outlined by Webb (1989) and Johnson and Johnson (1999) were not found (e.g. the group goal was not always communicated to children in ways that would make them believe they had to ‘sink’ or ‘swim’ together as group.

12. Activity for conference participants - consider yourself as a teacher of key stage 2. the class is studying the Seven Good Hausa Tribes (unknown as Hausa Bakwai). • lesson formats with interdisciplinary thematic unit which incorporates study of culture, history, language, and traditional subsistence is planned for you to facilitate the cooperation of all the class members in the lesson. • the class consists of 30 children, mixed with respect to ability, gender, cultural and ethnic background, and interpersonal skill level. - objective of the lesoon: Researching the history, culture, language and traditional subsistence of Hausa Bakwai. - activities for the lesson: Discussing What Hausa Bakwai are? Background reading from a book Showing of various Hausa’s on internet Creating a colourful brochure for a Hausa that would persuade people to visit, including a small map showing attraction. Class presentation of the work done

13. Activity for conference participants Materials for the childrens’ activities: • Text book • Internet • Brochure software Leadership roles during the activities: Editor, Designer, Illustrator, Presentation leader

14. Discuss with your partner 1. How you would organise the class for the activities and describe to him its composition. 2. Considering the five basic principles of cooperation that promote children’s learning. Share with your partner how each of these can be used to include all the children in the activities. 3. What adaptation(s) you may suggest for the inclusion of the following students in the activities and explain how this would work? The students are those defined as having, a) Emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) b) English as an additional language (EAL) c) Mild learning difficulties (MLD) 4. Suggest the form of evaluation of the activities which would help the students to reflect on the experience.