In
her article entitled Questioning Secondary Inclusive Education: Are Inclusive
Classrooms Always Best for Students, Ruth Tkachyk (2013) expressed her belief
that children without special needs would positively gain from inclusion,
"since an inclusive environment models tolerance and acceptance" (p.16).
Mc Cathy (2006) indicated that, children in the general education classrooms
learn to understand and appreciate the students with special needs, since they
now form part of the community and the children in the general education
classrooms are able to contribute to these students’ developments, highlighting
their talents and gifting. This gives the students with special needs role
models to emulate.
Another argument that was put forward in support of inclusion
is that students with behavioral and social challenges would benefit from the
mixing of the groups (Tkachyk, 2013). These benefits of Inclusion are certainly valuable
and beneficial to the moral and social development of all children.
Due to the
nature of instruction and the array of teaching and learning strategies,
academic outcomes have shown to be beneficial to all students. Hines (2001)
postulates that the "academic benefits for general education students
include having additional special education staff in the classroom, providing
small-group, individualized instruction, and assisting in the development of
academic adaptations for all students who need them"(p.3) .
Differentiation here, is a key way of teaching and thinking that can assist the
teacher in providing each student with certain experiences and tasks that will ultimately
increase learning.
Carol Ann Tomlinson (1999) indicated that through
observation of the students, teachers will flexibly plan instruction to meet
the needs of ALL in the classroom. This strategy would ensure that the students
in the general education classrooms do not fall behind while the special needs
are being met. Additionally, Mc Cathy (2006) further commented that it is
observed that "special-needs students in regular classes perform better
academically and socially when compared with students in non-inclusive classes”
(p.6). All children have the human right of being educated and with the proper
planning, finance and implementation, these needs can be adequately met.
