Challenges for inclusive education

vii, 76 leaves ; 29 cm. --This study attempted to discover teachers' perceptions of the success of inclusive education - inclusion of learning disabled students - in the junior high schools of Westwind School Division #74. Several areas were explored. They included the extent to which inclusion is implemented across the Division, the teachers' perceptions of the academic and social success of the learning disabled students, the teachers' perceptions of the effects on the regular students, the teachers' evaluation of the extent to which factors stated in literature as being essential to the success of inclusion were present in their schools, and the changes needed for more successful inclusion. The sample for this study comprised all of the junior high teachers in the division who taught one or more of the core subject areas (science, social studies, mathematics, language arts) in Grades 7-9. All completed a written survey, then a sub-group were interviewed. The results demonstrated that although 82.93% of the teachers believed the regular classroom was the rightful place for the learning disabled students to learn, 80.48% felt that they were unable to meet the needs of these students. To improve the quality of the inclusive programming the respondents felt they required more planning and collaboration time, an increase in knowledge regarding programming adjustments for learning disabled students, reduced class sizes and other professional development activities to meet their individual needs