Living and Loving to Learn

Inclusive Education

To me inclusive education means that all students receive the same quality of education no matter the level they are at or their learning abilities. It means that there is active learning for all, communication and respect for diverse ways of learning. 

During my final practicum making sure that all students have equal access to the learning content and any activities was equal to all. This meat that some students while still participating in a lesson, such as math, were able to follow along and learn about the concept but apply it at levels that they are capable of completing and showing their learning at. One of my students, though they are in grade 5, work at a grade 3 level in math. To make sure that they were still included in the learning, this student would follow along without lesson introduction but when it came time to completing the lesson questions, they were adapted to a grade 3 level for her to complete. This allowed them to still participate in the class lesson, but complete work at their independent level and would reflect their learning. Another non-academic inclusion that occurred in my final practicum was the field trip that all grade 5/6 students went on to the swimming pool. There was a small fee to pay to be able to join at the swimming pool and it was made abundantly clear that anyone who was not able to afford the fee to go swimming, the school and class funds would cover the costs. This is important to me that there are equal opportunities for students to attend and participate in class community and education lessons and does not have any relation to their economic status, religion, ethnicity or learning abilities. 

A few links to start with or refer to:

What is Inclusive Education? – from Inclusive Education Canada
https://inclusiveeducation.ca/about/what-is-ie/

What is Inclusive Education? – From Inclusion BC
https://inclusionbc.org/our-resources/what-is-inclusive-education/

Inclusive Education Resources – BC Ministry of Education
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/teach/teaching-tools/inclusive-education

Special Education Policy Manual PDF – BC Ministry of Education
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/teach/teaching-tools/inclusive-education

Teachers of Inclusive Education (TIE) – British Columbia
http://www.tiebc.com/

SOGI 123 – British Columbia
https://bc.sogieducation.org/