Improving Mathematical Achievement with Inclusion Integration

The researcher implemented co-teaching in an inclusive environment with learning centers to promote independence and improve, specifically, mathematical achievement for a period of two and a half months for the purpose of determining the impact on student learning. Evidence supports that collaboration intervention and learning centers have a positive impact on students’ performance. These methods helped in improving student’s ability to communicate, share knowledge among peers, and improved academic success in general. Table of Contents Abstract 2 Context 4 Review of Related Literature 5 Research Question: 9 The Project 9 Methodology ……13 Methods of Assessment 13 The Surveys 15 Collaborative Teaching Survey 15 Multiple Intelligences Survey 16 Test Scores 16 Discussion of Findings Error! Bookmark not defined. Implications 21 References 20 List of Appendix 23 Appendix I: Annotated Bibliography 23 Appendix II: Pre/Post Test Work Samples 26 Appendix III: Surveys 26 Appendix IV: Pre/Post Testing Forms………………………………………………………33 Context Cankton Elementary is a small community school that services 590 students from Pre-K 4 to 4th grade from surrounding small towns in St.

There are two 4th grade boy participants. These two students are diagnosed with the exceptionality of Intellectual Disability-Moderate and ADHD. The last participant is a 3rd grade boy with the exceptionality of Intellectual Disability-Mild and ADHD. All of the participants take medication at home that is somewhat helpful in keeping their attention. These students are motivated to learn and are usually very willing to participate in academic endeavors in the small group classroom setting. Such students are hence anticipated to adapt to the consistent school management. Therefore, the goal of integrated systems of learning is to foresee the provision of the most suitable education to all children in a conducive environment free from discrimination of any sort(Reynolds et al. According to Vazet al.

there exists a need to offer equal education for all learners in an inclusive school. Consequently, a majority ofschools globally strive to implement inclusive classrooms based on the concept of social justice in which all learners are eligible to equally access all educational opportunities (Klein, 2014). The government of Malaysia for such developed the integrated “Special Education Program” through the Ministry of education in 1981 to cater tolearners with special needs. This inclusive education program has been constantly accommodating several special needs students in mainstream classes to enhance their grades and comprehension of particular subjects such as Mathematics through intensive tutoring (Guan, 2018). Similarly, Sabapathy, (2014) stresses that developed nations such as Singapore have been developing a momentous policy that has been seeking to integrate students with different needs into the mainstream classes since the 21st century.

Thus, apart from their special schools, the government has endorsed special needs students in mainstream schools at an earlier age to enhance their cognitive capacity at a tender age and enhance their understanding through their interaction with other children and tutors. Gupta, (2017) as well concurs that integrating learning centers for students with special needs facilitates the improvement of their intellectuality by acquainting them with new settings that acknowledges their struggle and aids them to ward off the obstacles that hinder them from maximizing their full potential through the mainstream schools’ fraternity. Only an average of 8%, of students, attain above the recommended level (Zhang et al. However, since technology is indispensable in education since being integrated, it has been utilized in developing computer assist math programs that are common in mainstream school and fewer in special needs schools (Gunter et al.

This points out the need to integrate learning centers to augment the performance of special needs students in mathematics who have been looked down upon for their extensive learning needs. Low achievers might as well exhibit less desire to learn, self-management suggestive of inadequate willingness for self-directed learning hence the need to integrate special needs students with mainstream students to improve their proficiency level and elevate their potential to overcome their challenges (Han et al. Fundamentally, integration in schools seems to be the best remedy to curb cases of academic underperformance in special needs schools for the providence of conducive learning settings that would foster their academic improvement, social adjustment, emotional security, and self-acceptance if the conditions are optimal and favorable.

When engaging these children in mathematical interest, their learning became easy and fun. For example, the special education teacher asked or encouraged children to count money and make arrangement based on the denominations. To address counting, the teacher prepared two papers tapped together using a file loop. Learners counted the pennies in the provided loop and dropping the hundreds into a separate cup. The researcher noted that this improved their learning abilities as well as improving their scores. The teacher put these children in the driver's seat, giving students control is important in ensuring that these children grasp the main math concepts being taught. When these children feel that they are out of control there are higher chances that they will withdraw from learning.

It was important to guide these children as they did simple mathematics. This improved their learning experience hence improving their performance. In the entire period of this project, children were given an opportunity to have an input to their learning. Co-teaching was done by the special education teacher and the regular education teacher. October 29th The researcher will collect data from the following: The post-test given to each of the four special education students and scored. The participant observational data collected during observations of lessons and learning centers. The Collaborative Teaching Survey fromthe regular education teacher to report on the effectiveness of collaborative teaching strategy. The researcher will collect the data and conduct the analysis as well as comparing the results.

 The second learning center was four cups with different amounts of coins in them and graphing sheets so that students could work in pairs and graph the denomination of money in each cup. There was also a box with the answer key in it so that students could check their answers. To address the addition learning station, the researcher used a file folder addition game called Sailor Sums Addition Game for students to practice their addition concepts. Students will give the answer to a basic addition problem and then follow the directions to move around the game board. The students will play together in their group of four for ten minutes and then rotate to the next station. In this survey, the teacher was asked to giveher opinions or views about the collaborative teaching method.

The goal will be to find out if learners have benefitted from collaborative teaching, based on completing homework and test performance. The poll was distributed during on October 29, 2018to determine if there was any change in learner’s performance and attitude. The questionnaire mainly consisted of open-ended questions whereby the regular education teacher wasasked to comment on the strategies employed and how it helped in improving mathematics performance. The teacher kept track of student’s homework completion and computed the average homework completed after every week. I noted that Integration hence seeks to establish a supportive, collaborative, and nurturing learner’s communities that are founded on equally accommodating all learners’ needs to succeed as well as respecting and learning from each other.

In the first week, teachers and parents signed the consent forms that permitted the researcher to collect data. After signing of consent forms, the special needs teacher allowed pupils to participate in a multiple intelligences survey. The questionnaire collected information about learners and gave theteachersan idea of the different interests of each student and their perspective learning style. From the second week onwards, the special needs teacher co-taught with the general education teacher using the traditional collaborative techniques described. In this case, the teacher had to consider all learning skills, for example, learning using the dominant method and mixed learning techniques. There is no wrong or right learning technique they all have the same goal. Nevertheless, helping children to identify their preferred learning strategy is important, this significantly affected their learning ability and improving performance.

The researcher found out that the intervention process, this entailed introducing students to different learning styles. From this study I noted that another intervention that is important in improving children learning ability was introducing counting sticks and incorporating mathematical charts. The primary objective of this study is to assess the improving mathematical achievement with inclusion integration and learning centers for special education students. The study has revealed from the sample size used that there is a significant effect of collaboration on students’ performance, meaning that those students who used collaborative inclusive learning performed better than those who adopted traditional teaching methods. The student’s behaviors improved significantly, this was evident by the increase in engagement, communication, and collaboration among students during learning.

These pupils learned from one another, in this case, those who behaved well helped in influencing others to behave better as well. In this case, the administrators and teachers are self-assured that in the future when allocating students to inclusive classrooms, that no matter what the content of the material is, performance should consistently improve if the same measures are adopted. Moreover, after the analysis, the adopted method did not completely motivate students. As such, it is important todevelop different ways of ensuring that students are motivated to complete their homework on time. For instance, the most effective modification of this intervention wouldbe to offer other incentives that can be given which might range from stickers to small treats to encourage them to work hard and submit their homework.

Teachers also believe that working as a group and using multiple intelligence on tasks and homework assignments would enable students to comprehend or grasp more as well as help in retaining mathematical concepts. The researcher would recommend that inclusive multiple intelligence lessons should be added to mathematics classes. The researcher believes doing such studies will be helpful in filling the gap and ensuring that the resources or reference materials are available. Doing the study will also need a comprehensive research design that would lead to reliable results. The study has successfully determined the effects of inclusion on students’ performance. However, more studies need to be conducted to identify the root cause of this issue and balance the outcome from this group.

References Ali, R. Fedewa, A. Ahn, S. Student Academic Performance Outcomes of a Classroom Physical Activity Intervention: A Pilot Study. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 4(3), 473-487. Gunter, A, G. Major Issues & Challenges in Special Education in India. Transverse City, MI: Horizon Books. Hamir, H. B. Gozik, N. McEwan, P. J. Improving Learning in Primary Schools of Developing Countries: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Experiments. Review of Educational Research, 85(3), 353-394. Meynert, J, M. Bosker, R. J. Doolaard, S. Visscher, C. Improving Academic Performance of School‐Age Children by Physical Activity in The Classroom: 1‐Year Program Evaluation. Schubert, B. Strategies and Methods of Scaffolding Text-based sources for Weak(er) ESL-Learners of English: In an exemplary Bilingual Module of History in German Sekundarstufe I.

Munchen: GRIN Publishing House. Sciarra, J, D. Lynch, E. S. The effects of inclusion on the academic achievement of students with disabilities. Vaz, S. Wilson, N. Falkmer, M. Goh, T. L. Erwin, H. Integrating Movement in Academic Classrooms: Understanding, Applying and Advancing the Knowledge Base. Obesity Reviews, 16(8), 691-701. Asian Social Science 6 (2), 67-72. The primary objective of this study was to assess the influence of adopting problem-solving strategies on grade seven student in both public and private school in Pakistan. The study found out that there is a significant relationship between teaching ideas using problem-solving techniques such as collaboration vs traditional methods. The authors provided some literature to support the claim. The results were based on students’ performance on mathematics tests. The adoption of model and presentation for a very low abstraction level offered students with opportunity or chance to share the ideas and techniques as well as reflecting on different mathematical approaches.

I used this document in the study because it has provided vital information about my topic, the information was also important in meeting my objectives. Silver, E. Improving mathematics teaching and learning: How can Principles and Standards help? Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 6(1), 20–23. URL: <http://my. The effects of inclusion on the academic achievement of students with disabilities. The article aimed at assessing the performance of the regular student in the inclusive environment along with special education student. The researcher carried out a comparison with the academic performance of regular education leaners that are not placed in the inclusive environment. This study was important to my study because it used the criterion-referenced competency test outcomes in mathematics for students were used defining the academic performance.

The study also included demographic identifiers such as race and gender. In this case, it was important to come up with a plan for learners as well as keeping communication open with an aim of making learners succeed. The collaboration teaching strategies provide various ideas and techniques that were implemented to help students succeed. The inclusion teacher involves calling students to collaborate in doing mathematics. This is the perfect time to work as a team and encourage each student to collaborate. The learner's performance increased significantly because leaners could learn from one another hence increased their mathematics performance. Planning is the most beneficial part of this intervention it helped the instructors to select students who will take part in the collaborative process.

This plays an imperative role in improving students’ performance and ability to interact with one another. This is one of the reasons as of why students performed better in class and the trend is expected to continue if this intervention is adopted. Did you see an increase in student’s test scores, participation, attitude, and/or self-confidence in this process? Yes Student’s participation and test score improved significantly. The intervention used helped in encouraging students to cooperate, communicating with each other. In this case, the student’s attitude changed and became focused on studies hence ended up performing well. How would you improve this action research process? One of the ways of improving this action research process is to come up with the best plan that will accommodate students from different age groups.

This will be important in assessing students’ performance based on age and the ability to perform better in class. To get valid and reliable results in it is important to use a bigger sample size. Involving population as our sample size is vital in getting reliable findings or results. The data fully answers the research questions hence the objective was met. Multiple Intelligence Student Surveys Appendix IV: Pre/Post Testing Form Name (number or letter) Pre-Test Post-Test Reason for not improving K. C. Shows improvement D. L.