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Engagement with the text in this chapter will enable readers to do the following:
utilise the ATRiUM capabilities to focus on the strengths and needs of individual students when planning and implementing responsive teaching for effective learning
explain the limitations of using labels to categorise the learning needs of students with disabilities or learning difficulties and understand that responsive teachers focus on learning, not labels, in order to best provide learning for all
describe key aspects of some major disability categories and identify capabilities on which to focus when planning learning support for students with disabilities or learning difficulties
reflect on how collaboration with families and systematic frameworks for intervention inform and support responsive teaching
distinguish how key strategies and instructional approaches support teaching for learning for all
Big ideas
In learning for all, responsive teachers strive to provide teaching and learning that meet the needs of all learners. This requires insight into the needs of all students in the class and knowledge about evidence-based strategies and approaches to teaching.
All learners have similar fundamental learning needs, yet every learner is different. These differences matter, especially in terms of planned, responsive teaching and effective learning.
By viewing students with disabilities or learning difficulties through the lens of ATRiUM capabilities, teachers can gain valuable insights that provide important information for teaching and learning.
Although knowing about disability categories may provide teachers with useful information about student learning, an overt focus on disabilities or learning difficulties can lead teachers to view students in terms of what they can’t do rather than what they can do.
Collaboration with the families of students with disabilities or learning difficulties facilitates information-sharing that is beneficial to all.
Early intervention is predicated upon the assumption that providing timely, appropriate support for learning can reduce the impact of disability, with long-term benefits for individuals, their families and their communities.
Research has validated some key instructional approaches that lead to improved learning outcomes for students with disabilities or learning difficulties. Combining direct instruction and strategy instruction is a fundamentally effective approach for supporting learning for all.
Engagement with the text in this chapter will enable readers to do the following:
understand the framework of this book and its overall focus on sustainable learning as a way of bringing together inclusive teaching and learning practices in contemporary classrooms
delineate important concepts associated with special and inclusive education and effective teaching and understand how these are related through sustainable learning
be familiar with key terms used in this text and understand their derivation
understand how relevant legislative frameworks apply to educators’ responsibilities and education provision to students with disabilities or learning difficulties
Big ideas
Sustainable learning is learning for all, teaching that matters and learning that lasts. Its foundation is effective classroom practice, and its goal is to provide for the learning needs of all students throughout their school years and into lifelong learning.
Effective teaching occurs within a series of nested frameworks. Legislative frameworks define teacher responsibilities.
Teaching for sustainable learning pays attention to students’ cultures and their relationships with places, families and communities. Such teaching is responsible, relevant and intentional and focuses on the key capabilities of human performance.
The key capabilities of human performance can be summarised using the acronym ATRiUM, which stands for Active learning; Thinking; Relating to others; Using language, symbols and information and communication technology (ICT); and Managing self.
The adjective ‘sustainable’ is perhaps one of the most important words we can apply in the field of contemporary education. For more than fifty years I have argued strongly for the use of sustainable teaching practices that will bring about optimum and enduring learning in all our students. Underpinning my argument is a firm belief that sustainable learning can only be achieved through effective and sustainable teaching. In addition, sustainable learning can only be achieved if the school curriculum and the methods of instruction are compatible with, and relevant for, the culture and society in which the students grow as members. This book has addressed both these aspects in a very constructive and practical way.
Sustainable learning is evident when students feel good and confident about the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that they have acquired, and can apply them effectively and build upon them as they continue to learn across the life span. A particularly strong perspective that Lorraine, Jeanette and Anne have all presented here is that sustainable learning is essential for an individual’s future life in an everchanging world. They eloquently argue this point when they remind us in chapter 3 that students in our classrooms today will still be active and infl uential in the 2070s. For these students, and all others who come after them, sustainable learning is an essential attribute for adaptive living in the years ahead.
Engagement with the text in this chapter will enable readers to do the following:
describe the kind of teaching that is effective for students in inclusive classrooms
understand the organisation and actions involved in differentiating instruction and making educational adjustments
define and discuss the 10 essential skills that guide differentiated instruction for teaching that matters
Big ideas
Teaching that matters recognises that although all learners have similar types of learning needs, every learner is different. These differences matter in terms of effective teaching.
Whole-school and classroom approaches should be coordinated to support the most effective teaching that matters.
Differentiated instruction can be implemented in a simple but systematic way.
Using pre-testing and post-testing to inform inclusive planning and differentiating instruction gives teachers more information to use in tailoring instruction.
Planning instruction is important because differentiation should be considered in terms of intended learning outcomes.
The simplicity principle means that differentiated instruction should occur only when necessary. It is important to maintain realistically high expectations for all students’ performance.
Evidence-based practices that underpin teaching provide ways in which to address problems in literacy, numeracy and other areas experienced by students with disabilities or learning difficulties.
Introduction
Sustainable learning depends on teaching that matters. This chapter builds on the content of chapter 6 to focus on the differentiation of instruction in inclusive classrooms. With a growing evidence base of effective teaching practices available from websites like the What Works Clearinghouse (n.d.), the BES (Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis) Programme (Education Counts, n.d.) and Scootle (2014), teachers have an ever-expanding choice of effective strategies to utilise when learners need a different way to master a lesson’s learning intentions.
Engagement with the text in this chapter will enable readers to do the following:
articulate an understanding of what learning is in the context of school
describe how the ATRiUM capabilities relate to the cultural, interpersonal, intrapersonal, physical and cognitive dimensions of learning
explain some key learning theories and principles and identify how they are evident in effective teaching practice
develop an understanding of learning as a developmental process that results in individual differences
describe cognitive processes of learning from an information processing perspective
Big ideas
Learning is a thinking process. It is developmental and cumulative. Understandings of what learning is are often culturally determined.
Despite diverse perceptions of what constitutes knowledge and learning and the myriad factors that impact on how individuals and societies value and transmit knowledge, there are common cognitive processes that constitute the mechanisms of learning. Inclusive, effective pedagogy addresses these cognitive processes of learning.
Teaching and learning are enhanced when teachers have evolving understandings of the cognitive processes of learning and when they develop knowledge about their students’ strengths and needs in terms of these.
Introduction
Learning processes vary with each student, teacher and learning environment. Factors such as values and attitudes, prior experiences and skills and the context and content of the intended learning task determine how individual students engage in learning activities and what they learn. Also, social, emotional and cultural factors impact on student learning and the learning environment. The cultural, interpersonal, intrapersonal, physical and cognitive dimensions of human functioning work together to underpin development and learning. Consequently, learning is complex and diverse, and unique to each individual student.