Research Project Progress Report

Week 3 Assignment, Part 3

Draft Action Research Project Progress Report

Educating Special Needs Students in Inclusion versus Self-Contained/Resource Classrooms

Needs Assessment

In our district there are very few special needs students in inclusion classrooms. This leads me to believe that administrators and teachers are not comfortable with the notion that our special needs students can do the work of their general education peers. I often gave my special needs students the same assignments and exams that were given to general education students by their teachers of the same grade level. In many cases with the use of accommodations and/or modifications and encouragement these students performed much better than expected.

Teachers must learn to communicate with each other both in and out of the classroom to discover methods that would allow them the chance to discover the ways in which their students learn. By investing time and understanding in collaboration and differentiate instruction, studies have shown that all students benefit academically and socially in their development.

Objectives and Vision

            The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of educating special needs students and regular education students in inclusion classrooms through collaborative teaching and differentiated instruction.

Literature Review

            Public awareness coupled with government legislation of educational standards has generated movement toward developing ways to best educate all students. According to Van Garderen and Whittaker (2006), developments in education have brought forth the universally-standardized, differentiated, and multicultural education one that accommodates diverse urban and ethnical districts with different intellectual needs. These authors examine the need to develop an educational plan for inclusion students which focused on differentiated instruction as a systematic basic planned curriculum. They suggest a framework for guiding the development of curriculum that meets the needs of students.

            In today’s classroom the role of the teacher has moved beyond basic instruction and structured lesson plans. Rock, Greg, Ellis, and Gable (2008) state that teachers are responsible for meeting the diverse needs of all students and should seek nontraditional methods for designing instruction. They examine the teaching methods of a general education and a special education teacher and developed a framework called REACH, a blueprint for differentiating instruction.

            Additionally, Forgan and Vaughn (2000) discovered through a survey method that by working cooperatively with the special education teacher to design a culturally diverse curriculum the general education teacher is able to better differentiate instruction that reaches more diverse learners when servicing a population of learning disabled and nondisabled students.

            Because the inclusion model is not well implemented in my district I am prepared to face a few obstacles during the research process. My supervisor and I both agree that I will need support from my supervisor to get some principals on board that are not total supported of the inclusion of special needs students on their campuses. I will be in agreement to observe and collect data when permissible by the campus principals. I believe this is an important action research plan for my district; I plan to do what’s necessary to gain cooperation for a successful outcomes.

Articulate the Vision

            I presented my action research plan to principals and teachers at a required after school staff meeting. I also presented my research plan at a special education parent meeting. I will continue to attend staff meeting and parent meetings to provide updates and gather feedback throughout the action research process. I hope with constant collaboration and brainstorming with the teachers and principal of each campus they will become as passionate as I am about this topic. I also, hope it will make teachers more conscious of how they develop their instructions for the classroom and the methods used to implement the instructions collaboratively.

Manage the Operations

            Parental and administrative consent will be secured before study of the inclusion class is to begin. The students’ data will be collected by assigning the students numbers; their names will not be used so as to maintain confidentiality when writing or sharing this research data. Additionally, the teachers will be referred to as special education or general education teachers; their identities will also remain private. I plan to periodical attend mandatory school staff meetings through the course of my action research. I will always start by presenting the action research question/concern along with data collected up to that point. Data will consist of such items as weekly assignments and exams, questionnaires and interviews with teachers and students. At that time I hope to briefly brainstorm with stakeholders on such questions as what they think of the data presented so far, how will the data affect their view of the outcome of the research and how they view the action research thus far?

Manage Organization

Because teachers are the driving force behind the success of students, I can form a committee that consists of special and general education teachers. When meeting with this committee I will explain in detail my action research topic, to determine if special needs students are receiving a quality education and the purpose of my topic. I will engage the group in a discussion regarding the advantages that my action research could provide such as higher test scores, increase students self confidence and opportunities for special needs students to achieve more outside of the classroom. We will do the same with concerns regarding what teachers view as disadvantages to my action research such as lack of professional development and training, teacher notion that special needs students cannot learn and the feeling of more stress and work for the general education teacher. As a result of the discussion the goal is for the group to recognize that the achievement of special needs students is a great concern in the district. If the district is serious about making a change the first thing that needs to happen is ongoing collaboration between general education and special education teachers. Collaboration between teachers is vital to the success of this effort to change. Although some teachers are apprehensive to this change for what they consider valid reasons this research is needed to ensure that all students are receiving a quality education by highly qualified teachers. With support in both the general and special education classrooms the needs of the special education students will be meet. I will use survey monkey as a tool to store and gather data from teacher questionnaires. Using survey monkey I will create a questionnaire for teachers asking how they develop instructions for special needs students and their methods for implementing collaborative instructions. As the researcher I will provide feedback on the surveys and at the end of every nine weeks I will submit the same survey to teachers to complete. This will be an ongoing process during my action research process as a means to see changes and progression. I will ask a group of general and special education teachers to list about 3 concerns that may impact my action research. Each teacher will then be asked to choose one concern and share that concern with the group. I will use principal research design as an ongoing tool during and after my action research project. I will gather data from different sources such as student assignments and exams, surveys, questionnaires and classroom observations that will determine the overall effectiveness of collaborative teaching of special needs students. It is important that I continue to gather data to increase my knowledge as to understand the pros and cons of my action research process. Keeping an open mind throughout my action research process will allow me to recognize when and if any change is needs to data process such as  to alter strategies used to collect data which may affect how data is collected, how data is used and maybe extending timeline for collecting data.

Respond to Community Interest and Needs

            There are very few special needs students in inclusion classrooms. This leads me to believe that administrators and teachers are not confident that our special needs students can do the work of their general education peers. This creates the question of whether or not our special needs students are receiving a quality education. And that special needs students can benefit through collaborative teaching and differentiated instruction. With support in both the general and special education classrooms the needs of the special education students will be meet. It is a means for all students to achieve their educational goals. My ultimate goal is to develop a curriculum that will target the education of special needs students in the general education setting.