What to Watch for:
Potential Pitfalls
Successfully implementing a learning-for-all mission means understanding and preparing for potential problems that may arise. Some recommendations from the literature include:
- Realize that opposition will arise to almost any proposed change in a school; the less programs look like what people remember, the more likely they are to feel uncomfortable; if the community largely misunderstands or disagrees with what a school is doing, any improvement efforts will be difficult and may not succeed at all (Mathews, 1994; Markavitch, 1994)
- Work to fully engage all children in instruction; including them physically is not enough to make them truly feel part
of the group (Heron & Jorgensen, 1995)
- Make changes to the school or classroom with students’ interests as the priority, not the adults who work in the building (Lezotte, 1994)
- Ensure that classroom organization does not foster a depen- dency on teacher control; rather it should encourage self-control (Lucas & Thomas, 1990)
- Don’t assume that beliefs and values about student differences can be changed with minimal or no training, and do not underestimate the influence teachers have on their students’ self-esteem, or their social and moral values (Barry, 1992)
- Realize that generalized information and activities about student differences is of limited value and can actually foster stereotypes about groups of learners (Williamson, 1994)
- Use caution in implementing separate or different learning objectives for individual students. Though it may be helpful in certain situations, if used too much students may begin
to feel isolated or segregated from the rest of the class; be cautious not to "overadapt" (Stainback, et al., 1996)
- Accept that there will be times when a student’s needs may exceed available resources or technology; schools cannot do
it all for every student (McDonnell, et al., 1997)
- Understand that sometimes effective practices for particular students will be at odds with curriculum and instruction available (McDonnell, et al., 1997)
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Date of Last Update: 09/19/2001
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