What Is an Inclusive Learning Environment?
DAVID KOENIG
CLASS
Educators refer to a classroom or a place where teaching and learning takes place as a learning environment. They disagree about what type of learning environment delivers the most effective teaching to students of differing abilities.
1 Definition
An inclusive learning environment is a school or classroom where students of every ability level receive teaching in the same place. This means that particularly able students learn alongside those who have special educational needs, such as dyslexia, dyspraxia and attention deficit disorder.
2 Teaching Methods
Teachers differentiate between students of different abilities by giving them tasks of varying difficulty and complexity. A single activity may pose different levels of challenge and have different outcomes depending on the student, or a teacher may give a different task to each student, according to his ability.
3 Alternatives
Not all educators agree with inclusive education. Some suggest special education as an alternative, where students with learning difficulties and disabilities receive teaching separately. They argue that inclusive learning hinders more able students and deprives less able students of individual attention.
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