Question 1-3: My focus student is Ali. Ali is a Year-10 student, who likes playing trombone. She attends Symphonic Winds and Jazz rehearsals on a regular base. Ali needs to catch bus every morning to come to study. Ali lives with her mother, who has a chronic debilitating anxiety and Ali is her sole carer. However, I have notice that she was sometimes late for school, failure to submit her homework and lost a lot of confidence. I have communicated with she and found out that Ali is feeling struggled to manage her hobby, taking care of her mum and study in the same time. She feels anxious from time to time. In order to help Ali, I have summarized her strength and barriers. Strength: 1. Good time-management skill. Although Ali is feeling struggled to manage everything at the moment, she was managed her time well in the past. This means that she has the ability, but may need some assistance in the current situation. 2. Persistent. Ali is also a very persistent student. She did not give up her interests and still keeps going to her band rehearsal five times a week. 3. Planner Ali has her life goal as becoming a musician, and she was working hard for her goal. She practise hard and intend to audition for the Conservatorium of Music. Barriers: 1. Financial hardship Ali’s family may experience some financial hardship as her mother is sick and she also needs to take care of her mother. 2. Fear of public speaking Ali is terrified about presenting her work orally to her peers. 3. Limited energy and time Although Ali has good time-management skills and persistence, she is limited in her energy and time in order to do everything well. Ali only sleeps for 2-3 hours per night, and it can affect her life and study in the second day. 4. Mental health condition Ali may experience some mental health issues as she was showing symptoms of stress and anxiety. She also experienced loss of confidence. Demographic: Basic information 1. Age: 17 2. Gender: Female 3. Family composition: Live with mother who has a chronic debilitating disease 4. Geographical location: Greater Melbourne region 5. Socioeconomics status：Low SES Academic: 1. Attitudes, Engagement and motivation Ali was shown negative attitudes towards school study and low engagement and motivation. As per https://doi.org/10.11575/ajer.v61i1.56049 , family condition and socioeconomics status can affect students’ engagement, In Ali’s case, she has spent most of the time in practicing trombone and taking care of families, which makes her has energy deficit at school. 2. Work habits Ali attends band rehearsals five mornings or afternoon a week, which indicates she is able to keep a positive routine when dong things she enjoys. However, she is struggled to build up good study routines and have trouble to catch bus in the morning and finish her homework. According to https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03054985.2014.995160?casa_token=sU WNoh5ceB4AAAAA%3AokE1pyjVKQZWCm6uypAAg5qBHvvF77_mzalWEHRIffK1epoxs04HGE6wPED4YaweIHlaOSAW9bro A , parent involvement can affect students’ academic succuss. Lack of family support in Ali’s student can cause her negative behaviours. 3. Study details a. Literacy Ali has excellent reading and speaking skills in English. However, her grammar knowledge is below the average and this leads to problems in her writing. In addition, she has low word vocabulary knowledge, especially for specialised words in mathematics and science. b. Numeracy Ali is good at interpreting statistical information and problem-solving questions. However, she needs to improve accuracy of her calculation. Question 4 https://www.adcet.edu.au/inclusive-teaching/understanding-disability/legislation-standards The Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) imposes legal obligations not to discarnate against people with disability or may have disability in the future. Students with disabilities have their rights to access to appropriate education and education provider should make reasonable adjustment in curriculum, teaching materials and assessments and certification requirements. As Ali' teacher, I should assist Ali in her study and may reduce the study materials for her to reduce her stress level. According to Victoria government's policy https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/financialhelp-families/policy, schools have the responsibilities to facilitate students in receiving full school program. When students' family is experiencing financial hardship, school should provide support where they can. However, schools should also keep promoting students' dignity, exercising sensitivity and confidentiality of the family situations. In addition, ICESCR Article 13 also states that secondary education should be 'available and accessible to every child, and take appropriate measures such as the introduction of free education and offering financial assistance in case of need'. Therefore, I should look for available support for Ali in order to help her overcome the family difficulties, and keep her rights of studying at school, developing her interests like her other peers. Question 5: SMART learning outcomes: 1. To address the difficulty of catching bus in the morning: Ali can arrive at school on time at least 4 days a week in the next month 2. To build Ali’s confidence and ability to speak in the public: Ali can answer at least 2 questions in one class for the next month. 3. To improve Ali’s accuracy in calculation Ali can receive more than 75% in the coming calculation quiz. Question 6: The first teaching strategy I will change is the form of homework. According to https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1004337 , homework is a helpful tool to reinforce learning when designed and implemented properly. In addition, it is also a tool of communication for teachers to find out students’ understanding of the learning contents. However, doing homework can be a challenging task for student with learning disabilities. It can be difficult for them to understand the requirements, remember the homework and find out time to finish homework, and students with learning disabilities also show negative attitude toward homework https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1004337. Therefore, it is important for teachers to design high effective homework for students in inclusive education. The result from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361476X1730111X?casa_token=FWLQTcaYGw gAAAAA:hMSbw5L2b5IrLvSBmO2eKre6SukI5_AJE5G_o7YxrP8ukwUnLVTdeGXabt6CmXLi54vka5jk2E#s0140 research shows a positive correlation between students’ perception of homework quality and the effectiveness of the homework. When students understand the reason of doing homework and how relevant the home is to their current study, they can gain more from it. Even though doing more homework means more practice for student, research did not find a positive relationship between time spend on homework and the impact on students’ academic result (Mahmood, 2018). Moreover, the competition rate of homework proves to be more important (Mahmood, 2018). to assist Ali reaching her learning outcome 1 and 3. I will make change in regards to the quality of Therefore, I will change the design of my mathematics homework in order homework, time and the possible completion rate. Firstly, I will assign homework from three goals based on Australian curriculum, which are calculation, problem solving and reasoning https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/numeracy/ . At the beginning of every section, there will be explanation of the purpose, relevant areas. This is to increase students’ perception of homework quality. Besides, there will be 3-5 similar questions under each section. Students can do one question in each section every day and hand it in on the second day for feedback. If student can do the question correctly, then they do not need to do more in the same section. This rule is to motivate student doing homework more carefully, increasing their accuracy and completing the homework. This strategy is an universal design for all learners, which is equitable, flexible, simple, and approachable. https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:hhoS0DLyNd0J:scholar.google.com/+inclus ive+education&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&as_ylo=2012 In order to ease Ali’s stress about public speaking and increase her confidence, I will change the way to ask and answer questions. Firstly, I will ask more closed questions to Ali at the beginning stage. Although a lot of researchers have proved that open questions can better promote students’ engagement https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.06.631, It also involves more critical thinking and depth. In contrast, by starting with closed questions with Ali, I can encourage her to participate starting from simple answers. However, after she get used to answer closed questions, I will extend the waiting time after she answers to encourage her speak out her explanations https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:0CJsxVI_tlwJ:scholar.google.com/+closed+ questions+in+class&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&as_ylo=2012 .Besides, instead of picking one student answering question each time, I will listen to answers from different students. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.13-06-0115 demonstrates that when teachers are express their intentions of hearing multiples answers, it can encourage students like Ali, who generally participate less frequently in class. Also, it can reduce students fear of speaking out wrong answer. (REF?) Lastly, I will encourage Ali to play trombone during school shows and activities. This can help Ali to gain confidence from things she liked and good at. Question 7 Based on the government’s policy, it is also my responsibility to support the mental health and wellbeing of students. https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/health/Pages/mentalhealth-advice-teachers.aspx. According to https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-7834-6#Sec19, students can experience "significant pressure, stress, and depression due to their caregiving situation" (p. 2). In the same time, there is a higher risk that they may drop out from school due to the mental health issues and family responsibilities. Therefore, I will refer Ali to school’s mental health practitioner and work collaboratively for Ali’s mental issues. Besides, I will work on building community in the classroom by promoting collaborative learning and support between student. The caring community is the foundation positive peer relationships in inclusive classrooms https://www.jstor.org/stable/26788987 . For example, I will pair a student who live close to Ali to become her study buddy, and they can study and come to school together in the morning. Lastly, I will also report to school principle or wellbeing team about the condition of Ali’s family, and organize a meeting with Ali’s mother where possible. This is to ensure that Ali’s mother is aware of her condition and provide support to Ali when she is home. However, we will also contact the community worker if possible, to seek for possible support for this family. Question 8 Research has proved that one of the key factor to success in inclusive education is teachers’ professional competence when working with students with special needs https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.08.892. Even though we have learnt basics about inclusive education from universities as pre-service teacher, the students we will face in the future can be all different from each other. Therefore, it is important to continue professional development and prepare before teaching every student with disabilities. In this case, professional trainings that are relevant to Ali include: 1. SAFEMinds training It is a free one-day training provided for all teachers in Victoria. This training is organized by Victorian Government in order to ensure schools are capable to support students’ mental health issues. This training focuses on early intervention of students’ mental health issues, strategies of engaging parents and carers, and importance of referral to community youth and mental health services. https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/health/mentalhealth/Pages/mental-healthtraining.aspx 2. Suicide Risk Continuum training This is also implemented by Victorian Department of Education. Compared with SAFEMinds, this training specialized on Secondary school students. The training contents include how to understand students’ mental health issues, how to response to students’ mental health issues, self-harm and suicidal ideations. This is more relevant to Ali’s situation as it focuses on issues that appears at her age. 3. Youth and Teen Mental Health First Aid Courses This is a training focus on strategies of how to ease adolescence’s mental health issues, like depression, anxiety. This course is held by Mental Health First Aid, and they have found that high school students are having high rate of mental health issues. This is because they are incapable to deal with problems in academic, friendship, family in the same time. However, this course is not available to individual enrolment, and only provided to schools. https://mhfa.com.au/schools 4. Inclusive Classrooms professional learning program This problem is offered by Victorian government in order to facilitate inclusive teaching practice. It is free for all teachers in Victorian government schools, and teachers have choice to study in a particular field. The course include support for students with Autism, hearing loss, vision impairment and other learning difficulties. Each of the course contains 20 hours study. However, teachers can also choose to participate in online learning anytime. The online course will explain Human Rights Approach to Diversity, and how to support students with learning difficulties. https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/classrooms/Pages/Inclusive-Classroomsprofessional-learning-program.aspx \ Question 9: Inclusive education is beneficial for both children with learning disabilities and other children. It is a gateway for children who has disabilities to enter the real world, participate in various range of activities and socialize with their peers. However, it also provides the opportunity for other children to see the individual differences, learn respect and empath and how to help other. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13603116.2018.1464068?casa_token=eCVUYGF HBf4AAAAA%3A6fTFEUTzvbHj9KMdICXjowOr8UzUONHFX9H0yzyI2BFCvjwMOfQuBi_vSK_38hLSx a_dHQSkwABlBw However, even though there are trainings provided for both pre-serviced teachers and on-going teachers, the biggest challenge for inclusive classroom is still the insufficient knowledge and care from teachers. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13603116.2018.1464068?casa_token=eCVUYGF HBf4AAAAA%3A6fTFEUTzvbHj9KMdICXjowOr8UzUONHFX9H0yzyI2BFCvjwMOfQuBi_vSK_38hLSx a_dHQSkwABlBw http://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:5upgzxqfwkEJ:scholar.google.com/+tea cher+responsibility+inclusive+education&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5 states the roles and responsibilities of teacher in the inclusive education. I summarized the first category to be ‘Identify and adapt’, which teachers should be able to identify the students with additional help but also include them in the day-to-day teaching. The second category is building community. The community can ensure all students, teachers, parents and carers work collaboratively for benefits of everyone. Besides, adjustment for students with disabilities is also important.
