subject: How Mainstreaming Works Among Special Ed Schools: Mainstreaming Pros and Cons [print this page] How Mainstreaming Works Among Special Ed Schools: Mainstreaming Pros and Cons
Introduction
Learning disability is one of the much common impairment that is observed among college students of today. It can be diagnosed on both men and women and has different types. With each specific type of learning disability comes its distinct academic deficit as well. This is simply why it is extremely essential for an individual to acquire formal diagnosis in order to properly determine the best and most suitable treatment and educational program. And in order to render only the best of quality special education, special ed schools need to be well equipped with all the necessary components such as well skilled and trained staff, specially developed programs, and lots more.
There are various types of special ed schools and they directly depend on the type of system they implement for special education. Furthermore, the school decides which type of special education approach to use basing on the specific types of learning disabilities their students have, student population, and the level of severity of each case. Most often, inclusion is a common system used for special education among lots of colleges and universities. However, mainstreaming also proves to be advantages and preferable at some certain points.
Definition of mainstreaming. . .
After inclusion, mainstreaming is also a very popular method or approach among special ed schools. Through mainstreaming, a learning impaired student attends most of his subjects in an exclusive class along with other students that are also diagnosed with learning disabilities. On the other hand, some other subjects are taken on other classes with students that don't have any learning impairments. While in a regular class, a special student constantly receives special attention and assistance from the teacher in order to cope with his classmates' progress.
Pros
Mainstreaming is somewhat opposite to exclusion and with some minor differences compared to inclusion. According to recent surveys and researches, students form special ed schools that undergo mainstreaming have been identified with very significant improvements both on their academic and social skills. On some courses, special students are given the opportunity to learn and study alongside regular students. On the other hand, most of the important and complex subjects such as Mathematics and Science are taken in an exclusive class session only for students with learning disabilities. They receive a more extensive and in-depth discussions from their educators.
When they are with other students that have no learning disabilities, special students are then able to cope with their social skill deficits and become more improved in handling social interactions among classmates and peers.
Cons
But mainstreaming is not all about advantages and disadvantages. There are also some drawbacks in the said approach that needs to be given with much attention. Because of their poor academic and learning skills, learning impaired students need more special and assistive attention from their teachers. However, there were some recorded cases that teachers in regular classes were not able to provide the necessary and appropriate attention the student requires.
Since learning impaired students are relatively slow learners, the rest of the students in a regular class may have to adjust with the pace of discussions in accordance with the special students' capability. There are some special ed schools that do little on such cases and needs to be further improved as it greatly affects on the expectations of the students and their parents.
