Research and Pedagogy: Provide education to disabled in an inclusive school

This study explores the interrelationship between research and pedagogy in providing education to disabled students in inclusive schools. Addressing the key educational issues of students with ADHD, the article provides recommendations for improving pedagogical practices. The article also includes a critical analysis of the literature review, methods, results, conclusion, and recommendations given in the article. The lesson plan for disabled students developed by BOSTES resources is also discussed in the study.

Running head: TEACHING
Research and Pedagogy: Provide education to disabled in an inclusive school

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Introduction
Educational research can be used to improve pedagogical practices. Education is such a
huge domain which requires thorough understanding and improvement at every step. Each
student has his or her own interests, capabilities and drawbacks which needs to be addressed
through teaching methods. New teaching methods are required to be researched and then
implemented to improve individual performance. The aim of this study is to address the key
educational issues of students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). ADHD is
a mental health disorder in which children become inattentive. There are numerous challenges
faced by these studentsthatact a disadvantage to them. In the following paragraphs, the
interrelationship between research and pedagogy will be explored in the context of “Measuring
the Written Language Disorder among Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder”
by Mitchnick et al., (2017). This will be followed with a critical analysis of the literature review,
methods, results, conclusion and recommendations given in the article. The recommendations for
the lesson plan for disabled students developed by BOSTES resourceswill be provided in the
study(Appendix). This will help in improving the pedagogical practices, hence facilitating the
appropriate method for students with a disability.
Issues and challenges faced by ADHD students
More often than not, ADHD in children goes unnoticed. The moment parents and
teachers realise that a child may be suffering from ADHD, it becomes difficult for them to first
accept and then to cope with it. The attitude of teachers is based on the delivering
ofcomprehensive education to all students irrespective of an understanding of the special
requirements of anADHD-affected student..These children require special attention, since they

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cannot sit for too long.It is not easy for the teachers to make them understand tough and crucial
chapters. Students affected by ADHD have the tendency to get bored and start roaming in the
class. For them, remembering important points is also a tough task. Their lack of attention is not
only within the school but at home as well (AITSL, 2013). Parents will see their children being
inattentive and hyperactive. Parents try to overlook this habit as a trait of childhood but after a
certain age when other children of the same age behave properly, concern arises. A crucial aspect
of ADHD is that it is often recognised quite late in a child’s development.
Conceptualising ADHD Student’s Engagement
The concept of an inclusive school is ideal,provided that teachers should understand the
disorder of the student. All students are entitled to equality in the context of educational options
and opportunities. The Commonwealth and State educational governments advocate the concept
of inclusive schools where disabled students will be able to access education in a conventional
way (Fredericks, Blumenfeld& Paris, 2004,p.97). However, teachers face problems related to the
extra time required for these students, and the demotivated attitudes of the students because of
low performance as compared to able-students.
Teachers have identified that these students have difficulty with writing, getting confused
by words and spelling. Common mistakes include grammar, punctuation and sentence formation
errors. ADHD students are hyperactive and tend to indulge in mostly inappropriate
activities.Another disorder which can be related to ADHD students is Written Language
Disorder (WLD). Children are more likely to miss the flow of writing and deviate from the main
topic,causing troubles in completing their written assignments. As stated by Mitchnick& Fraser
(2016), WLD has been diagnosed through psychological educational assessments, involving

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physical and neurological evaluations to help teachers identify students with these problems.
Their participation rate in educational activities is low compared to other students, but they do
fairly well in extra-curricular activities such as sports and dance. These activities utilise and
channelthe energy of ADHD students and helpteachers to divert their attention from
inappropriate activities (Dana &Yendol-Hoppey, 2009). It has been found that ADHD students
are at greater risk of a lack of options and opportunities (Whipple et al., 2003,p.39). The
disadvantages that ADHD students experience in the education system and the lack of
pedagogical framework has put them in this challenging situation.
ADHD students are subject to educational disadvantages in the schooling system. They
typically achieve lower academic results, particularly in written assignments. They are more
likely to exhibit absenteeism and lower retention rates than normal students. They do not
perform well in subjects like Science, Maths and English (Corwin Press, 2009). However, their
results in oral exams are good, but they struggle in written assignments. In a study, conducted by
Blumenfeld & Paris (2004), in a school, ADHD students were asked to write answers to the same
questions which were previously orally asked.They scored lower in the written exams, as it was
hard for the teacher to comprehend their writing.
It has also been found that these students perform well in arts and craft. Their imaginative
power is strong and they develop outstanding models when left un-interrupted. These drawbacks
have triggered consequences for the ADHD students. They are more likely to get into bad
company, poor health and commit suicide (Carter, et al., 2007,p.55). The ratio of ADHD
students dropping out of school is high,contributing to their low socio-economic status. Their
education and access to knowledge is equally important, and the education system
mustaccommodate the needs of these students which are currently left unaddressed.

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Critical Summary
The article has identified the common methods used for screening ADHD students. The
article “Measuring the Written Language Disorder among Students with Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder” by Mitchnick et al. (2017) has thoroughly explored the issues faced by
ADHD students. Student’s apprehensions in explaining their and expressions through writing
have also been addressed in the article. The aim of the article is to find out the correlation
between WLD and ADHD students so that the pedagogical techniques in education can be
implemented. Mitchnick comprehensively discusses the challenges faced by students and has
utilised a systematic review for measuring the writing difficulties in ADHD students (Lampert,
Burnett& Morse, 2015,p.92).This includes writing variables such as spelling errors, grammatical
errors, time sequenceand uncorrected errors, repetition of the same error, comprehensiveness of
the written assignment and cohesive adequacy of paring in the systematic review.
The article explicit the complications of ADHD students when writing. The article
reveals that the University of Valencia has investigated the presence of written expression
difficulties in children with ADHD (Casas, Ferrer, &Fortea, 2013,p.112). The results of this
investigation were based on the neurological and physical assessments given to these students.
The measures used in assessing the participants werebroken down by the planning and
translation process of writing. These children were found to have difficulty in filling the
appropriate number of words, sentences, syntactic complex indexes, morphosyntactic errors and
type-token ratio, along with the revisions of a similar assignment (Miranda, Baixauli &
Colomer, 2013,p.1940,1941). The results of the study did not match the attributes of WLD, but it
has revealed that ADHD children have difficulties in writing.

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The article also reviewed Woodcock-Johnson (WJ) tests (WJ III Tests of Achievement,
2001) which was conducted to identify ADHD students with writing difficulties and behavioural
disorders (Schrank, 2005,p.76). The study covered cognitive efficiency, short and long-term
memory retrievals and speed of the participants. The article has used cluster analysis techniques
to evaluate the spelling, writing and editing capabilities of students in the ADHD group. The
results of the above study revealed that the ADHD group scored low on these learning concepts.
Based on the findings of the review it is clear that WLD can be associated with students
diagnosed with ADHD. There are other behavioural disorders which may affect the writing
performance of the students but teaching pedagogy needs to be improved to address these
difficulties.
The research methodology used in the article is the ‘novel computational model’ which
assimilates the results of all the screening methods used for WLD with ADHD so that a relation
between both disorders can be recognised. The author has fed the results into an artificial neural
network (ANN1) so that the prevalence of WLD and ADHD can be identified. The study
concluded that there is a strong correlation between WLD and ADHD (Kumar, et al., 2015,
p.38). However, there were limitations to the accuracy of the results sample size, the techniques
to analyse and causation. The study required a clinical trial to validate the data and to overcome a
few of the limitations. The article suggests that the use of a computational causal model will help
in illustrating causation between writing metrics and WLD. The results of the study have
suggested a need for efficient pedagogical techniques for ADHD and WLD students so that their
learning disorders can be addressed and they will be empowered for a better future.

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Support Material forStudents with Special Education Needs
The recommendations given in the article can beuseful in the modification of the
BOSTES produced Imaginative Writing and learning activity. The activity comes under the
Stage 4 unit covering short stories. The activity will help teachers facing difficulties in meeting
the needs of children with special education needs. These learning materialshave verbal and non-
verbal communication methods which have been designed to cater to the needs of children
having difficulty in understanding classroom activities (BOSTES n.d, 2018). According to
theMiranda, Baixauli & Colomer (2013) students with WLD and ADHD need attention in
sentence framing and remembering spellings. For them, it is not easy to develop a meaningful
sentence. They tend to deviate from the topic flow and also repeat their errors. To address these
difficulties, the supporting material needs to incorporate practice sessions for the students where
they can reduce the occurrences of mistakes (Lienemann& Reid, 2006). Teachers find it difficult
to draw their attention towards the topic for too long.
According to Sajadi & Khan (2013), ‘constructivist approaches to learn’ is helpful for the
ADHD students to improve their WLD problems. In addition to the approach teachers are
required to adopt suitable interventions. These interventions will guide these learners handling
their impairments. A practice session everyday will also help the students to sharpen their
memory, which is the most important factor affecting their performance. The degree of intensity
of a student’s disorder varies from one student to another, thus teachers have to concentrate on
the capability of a student individually and spend the required duration to help them understand
the material (Re & Cornoldi, 2010,p. 323).
The learning plan contains examples of difficulties that students may face while writing
and speaking. This will not address the problem that these students lack the capability of

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remembering things. Another point which the activity has missed that ADHD students are
hyperactive and they are unable to sit for too long, thus the stories should be told to them in the
ways, verbally and through videos. The teachers are required to develop their strategies based on
the difficulty level experienced by the students. The ADHD students perform well in verbal
communication, so teachers can utilise their communication skills and tell them to narrate the
story next time.
The writing and narrating capabilities have been highlighted in the Imaginative Writing
and learning activity throughout (BOSTES n.d, 2018). This story telling and narrating activity
will help students to develop ‘critical thinking’ while narrating and writing the story in their own
words. Listening story from another students helps learners to remember the characters and
twists in the story. Peer-learning activities should be included in the Stage 4 Imaginative Writing
and learning activity (McQuade et al., 2011,p.39).
Their study material should include an audio recorder where the student can recorder his
or her voice and present it in the class. This will motivate other students for public speaking. The
lesson plan also has case studies, reference videos and illustrate effective procedures which will
help teachers to assist these students with particular learning needs. It is important to include
stories in these videos, in order to keep a student engaged and interested. Once their interest gets
developed in the activity, teacher should encourage them to find out the story of their choice and
present it in front of the class.
Conclusion
The given article has presented the difficulties faced by ADHD and WLD students. The
lesson plan by BOSTES been incorporated with recommendations suggested by Sajadi & Khan
(2013) are presented here. The article by Mitchnick et al., (2017) has highlighted that these

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students have difficulties is writing, hence the support material should include practice papers for
writing, memorizing and improvements in other learning areas. According to Mitchnick et al.
(2017), the educational research could be useful for pedagogical practices. The present lesson
plan involves changes in the inclusion of short stories so that they can sit for a longer period of
time, a voice recorder to promote their ability to speak in public and practice papers so that they
can reduce repeated errors. The educational research has avenues for more pedagogical practices
in shaping the curriculum and improving classroom activities. These activities not only make
learning effective but fun-filled for the students which increases their interest in the school. The
interactive sessions between teachers and students will catalyse a significant increase in their
school attendance which is another matter of concern for these students.

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References
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership [AITSL]. (2013). Engagement in
Australian Schools. Retrieved 21th October 2018, Retrieved from:
http://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/learning-frontiers-resources/en-
gagement_in_australian_schools-background_paper-pdf.pdf
BOSTES (n.d.). Stage 4 – Activity 1: Imaginative writing. Retrieved 18th October 2018 from
https://syllabus.bostes.nsw. edu.au/english/english-k10/stage-4-activity-1/
Campos, E. & Greif, J. L. (2003). Toward an understanding of definitions and measures of
school engagement and related terms. California School Psychologist, 8(1), 7-27.
doi:10.1007/ BF03340893
Carter, M., McGee, R., Taylor, B. & Williams, S. (2007). Health outcomes in adolescence:
Associations with family, friends and school engagement. Journal of Adolescence, 30(1),
51-62. doi:10.1016/j. adolescence.2005.04.002
Dana, N. F. &Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2009). The reflective educator’s guide to classroom research:
Learning to teach and teaching to learn through practitioner enquiry. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Corwin Press. Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2009).
Effective schools are engaging schools: Student engagement policy guidelines. Retrieved
21th October 2018, Retrieved from:
http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/stuman/wellbeing/segpolicy.pdf
Fredericks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C. & Paris, A. H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the
concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59-109.
Furlong, M. J., Whipple, A. D., St. Jean, G., Simental, J., Soliz, A. &Punthuna, S. (2003). Pp.97

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Kumar, V.S., Kinshuk, Clemens, C., & Harris, S. (2015). Causal models and big data learning
analytics. In Kinshuk, & R. Huang (Eds.), Ubiquitous learning environments and
technologies (pp. 31–53). Berlin, Germany: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. doi:
10.1007/978-3-662-44659-1_3
Lienemann, T. O., & Reid, R. (2006). Self-regulated strategy development for written expression
with students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Exceptional Children, 73(1),
53-68. doi:10.1177/001440290607300103
Lampert, J., Burnett, B & Morse, K. (2015). Destabilising privilege: Disrupting deficit thinking
in white pre-service teachers on field experience in culturally diverse, high-poverty
schools. In T. Ferfolja, C. Jones Diaz & J. Ullman (Eds.), Understanding sociological
theory for educational practices (76-92). Port Melbourne, VIC: Cambridge University
Press.
McQuade, J. D., Tomb, M., Hoza, B., Waschbusch, D. A., Hurt, E. A., & Vaughn, A. J. (2011).
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of Abnormal Child Psychology, 39(2). doi:10.1007/s10802-010-9453-7
Miranda, A., Baixauli, I., &Colomer, C. (2013). Narrative writing competence and internal state
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Re, A. M., &Cornoldi, C. (2010). ADHD expressive writing difficulties of ADHD children:
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journals.org/index.php/i-jet/article/view/4733

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Appendix
Description of activity
Students will be engaged in the story-telling activity. The teacher will tell one short story each
day. Teacher will ask students to write the words from the story which they can recall. To help
students remember key words from the story teachers will make use actions and images. The
short story which teacher will narrate are as follows:
 To build a fire
 The invisible boy
 The boy who wouldn’t sit still
Context
The teachers have been narrating stories to the students but it never helped students in improving
their writing and spelling errors. ADHD students lack attention and make repeated mistakes in
the writing words and sentence framing. The activity will help students to read stories
themselves so that they try to understanding the story themselves after first read in the class. This
will help them to remember the words as well as short sentences. Post the exercise teacher will
ask them to write the short story in their own words.
Outcomes
EN$-1A Composes text to develop an understanding, interpretation and imaginative expression
of the students

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EN4-3B helps students with preparing structures of the text with clarity and coherence
Criteria for assessing learning
The teachers will assess the students on the basis of the following:
 Choices of words they have used in their stories
 The structure of the story
 The meaning of the story
 No or less spelling and sentence framing errors
 Identifying the number of characters in the story
 Narrating the role and name of each character
 Response of the students to the visuals and phonetics used in the classroom activity