University Case Study: Supporting Inclusion in Primary 1 Education

This report presents a case study examining inclusion practices in a primary school setting, focusing on students with diverse learning needs, including those with high visual learning skills, high-functioning autism, giftedness, and ADHD. The report analyzes the specific challenges faced by four students: Jason, Sienna, Jolie, and Dirk, highlighting their individual learning styles and difficulties. It then provides tailored recommendations for teachers and special educators, such as using visual aids and interactive applications for Jason, implementing structured routines and assistive technology for Sienna, offering flexible grouping and differentiated assignments for Jolie, and providing short assignments and preferential seating for Dirk. The discussion section emphasizes the importance of curriculum-based monitoring, regular teacher-student and parent interactions, and creating an inclusive learning environment. The report concludes by reiterating the significance of individualized support and appropriate resources to help students reach their full potential, aligning with the principles of the Australian Curriculum and relevant legislation like the Australian Education Act and the Australian Discrimination Act.

Running head: SUPPORTING INCLUSION FOR PRIMARY
CASE STUDY REPORT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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SUPPORTING INCLUSION FOR PRIMARY
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Findings......................................................................................................................................2
Recommendation........................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
Reference....................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The aim of this report is to discuss about the inclusion practices for primary school by
contrasting and comparing the type of support learners who have additional learning needs
and are from culturally diverse background. Moreover, recommendations will be provided for
school and support teachers so that the learner’s needs are met. This report will have the
findings where the four students will be chosen and their learning needs will be interpreted.
Followed by the recommendation part where pedagogical approaches will be discussed.
Lastly, there will be a discussion part where there will be a critical analysis of the inclusion
strategies.
Education is an important human right as well as a tool, which permits people to make
themselves free from poverty as well as inequality. In Australia, the inclusive, quality
education will assist the children to achieve the sustainable developmental goals by 2030
(Mitchell, 2014). However, the attendance rates of the schools have increased as well as the
enrolment rates as the countries are developing rapidly.
Findings
In this case, study the students attend a mainstream primary school, which is, located
130km from the capital. This school is mainly situated in a regional city comprising of 15000
people. This primary school has 370 students, which includes prep to year 6 with one teacher
for each class. Moreover, there is a learning resource centre, which is situated within the
campus which has special educators and only one part time psychologist who are found
offering 10hours per week of support to the students of grades 4,5 and 6.
The four students chosen who requires special individual needs are as follows-

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 Jason- He is the student from grade 1 and the main problem he has been encountered
with is that he has high visual learning skills but cannot read well in his grade level.
 Sienna- This child is studying with prep and has been currently diagnosed with high
functioning Autism. She mainly prefers a structured and a routine day and easily gets
disturbed if encountered with any change in the schedule of the class. Thus, she ends
up crying for hours, which results into calling her parents to take her home.
 Jolie- She is in grade 2 and has recently shifted to this place from China. She is
mainly gifted and has high talent because she belongs to a family of high achievers.
 Dirk- He is in grade 3 and is very energetic but his only difficulty is that he cannot sit
for too long in the classroom. He can best concentrate when he is listening to music
and are good at those activities, which are hands-on.
Dirk is having symptoms of ADHD, where children have trouble paying attention in their
daily activities, gets easily distracted as well as bored before finishing with their tasks
(Barkley, 2013). On the other hand, Jolie is a bright student whose learning needs are very
much different from others (Pfeiffer, 2012). Sienna comes under high functioning autism and
so she will need special educational needs because of her difficulties in social interaction,
communication and rigid thinking (Ostmeyer & Scarpa, 2012). Lastly, Jason who is
possessing high visual learning skills but lacks the ability to read well his own grade level
needs special attention where he can be taught using sights or whole word method than using
phonetics. Usually children like Jason can grasp reading easily if they are provided with
adequate learning needs (Shum & Crick, 2012).
Recommendation
Jason

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 Children like Jason who has high visual learning skills must have special teaching
strategies, as they should provide time after teaching so that they can visualize closing
their eyes what they read or learned (Heacox, 2012).
 Teachers must use computers or applications, which have high visual as well as
interactive ideas for making these students, learn about their academic subjects.
 They can also be provided with videos of what they are learned so that they can learn
by watching rather than hearing.
 While teaching mathematics they must be taught using math manipulative where the
students can make sketches to display their mathematical thinking (Haydon et al.,
2012).
Sienna
 The special educators when working with Autistic children should help them by
reminding about changes or transitions whenever a change appears (Lee & Carter,
2012).
 Children with high functioning autism have motor skill difficulties for which it
becomes difficult for them to write with their hands thus, they can be provided with
tablets or laptops.
 Classrooms should be more interesting, quite and should have adequate assistance for
the students with autism so that they can adjust well in the school environment
(Ostmeyer & Scarpa, 2012).
 These students can also be provided with autism structured opportunities that can help
them develop the interactive and social skills with their peers.
Jolie

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 Pre-assessment should be done and grouping in classrooms should be flexible before
meeting any learning need
 Students must be given space so that they can explore for more ideas and use their
brain in more sophisticated and abstract ways (Montgomery, 2013).
 Good curriculum as well as instructions should be provided
 The entire class must have the same content but students under teacher’s guidance
must given the choices where they can take up assignments which are of various
complexity level
 Each student must be supplied with meaningful works, which can increase and enrich
the class discussion (Winebrenner, 2012).
Dirk
 Students who have symptoms of ADHD must be sent for further assessment
 Special supervision is needed for these students than their peers
 These students must be seating in the class near the instructions or the teacher must
stand in front and deliver the instructions, as it will reduce the distractions.
 These students must be given short assignments, which will help them to attract their
short attention span (Anderson et al., 2012).
 While making them learn the teachers can use films, flash cards or small group works
which can involve the interest of the student.
Discussion
Teachers must have a curriculum based monitoring, which can help them to know
about the student’s progress and teaching methods. Moreover, to know whether these
recommendations are working or not the teachers or special educators must observe each

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student and interact with them because a teacher student interaction can help evaluate the
progress and retention (Thornblad & Christ, 2014).
Feedback can be gathered from regular parent teacher meetings as well as from
asking the students if they need any special guidance. Among the above recommendations,
the one, which is very much beneficial, is that every student’s attention should be grasped by
including flash cards, videos and films, which are related to their academics so that they can
memorize well through visualization.
The students in the schools will have various learning needs, which can be supported
if they are provided an inclusive school environment. Every student’s positive behaviors
should be rewarded; teachers should have a regular interaction with the parents so that they
also get aware of the children’s developments and learning programs. Moreover, every
student must get support for maintaining social skills.
However, if students get the adequate support that they require while learning then it
will guide the students to create inclusive learning experiences, which guarantee student’s
success. When students with different learning needs are given the opportunities and
appropriate learning resources then they can effectively reach their full potential while
learning.
As per the Australian Curriculum, it is found that it already set the assumptions for
what the teachers will teach their students considering every student equal. According to this,
Australian students are equally accessible to same content and their achieved will be judged
based on the national standards. Every schools as well as teachers are responsible for
planning the ways through which they can meet their student’s learning needs and interests.

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SUPPORTING INCLUSION FOR PRIMARY
The Australian Education Act has already given several rights as well as
responsibilities to the organizations so that they can receive the Governmental funding for
their school educations. This act helps the schools to meet the required needs of all students.
They further have Australian Discrimination Act, which actually promotes the rights of the
students who have any kind of disability in areas like education, housing, services or goods
(Rillottav et al., 2012). This law mainly aims at enhancing special learning needs as well as
promotes equal learning as well as access opportunity for individual with disabilities in
Australia.
Conclusion
Thus, to conclude this report it can be said that the special learning needs of the
students from the case study has been identified. The four chosen students for this case study
are Jason, Sienna, Jolie and Dirk. As from the findings part it is very much clear that the
mentioned primary school in the case study has a unit of total 370 students among which
there are many students who either has learning difficulties or are from different cultural
backgrounds. Thus, as recommended these students will need special supervision and
assistance from their teachers in a well-structured class environment. Thus, monitoring is
important to keep a check that whether the students are improving or not and for that
curriculum based monitoring can be effective along with appropriate students and teachers
interaction. This should followed by feedbacks from the parents regarding their child’s
improvements as well as from the children’s incase they feel they need any special care or
assistance.

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Reference
Anderson, D. L., Watt, S. E., Noble, W., & Shanley, D. C. (2012). Knowledge of attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and attitudes toward teaching children with
ADHD: The role of teaching experience. Psychology in the Schools, 49(6), 511-525.
Barkley, R. A. (2013). Taking charge of ADHD: The complete, authoritative guide for
parents. Guilford Press.
Haydon, T., Hawkins, R., Denune, H., Kimener, L., McCoy, D., & Basham, J. (2012). A
comparison of iPads and worksheets on math skills of high school students with
emotional disturbance. Behavioral Disorders, 37(4), 232-243.
Heacox, D. (2012). Differentiating instruction in the regular classroom: How to reach and
teach all learners (Updated anniversary edition). Free Spirit Publishing.
Lee, G. K., & Carter, E. W. (2012). Preparing transition‐age students with high‐functioning
autism spectrum disorders for meaningful work. Psychology in the Schools, 49(10),
988-1000.
Mitchell, D. (2014). What really works in special and inclusive education: Using evidence-
based teaching strategies. Routledge.
Montgomery, D. (2013). Gifted and talented children with special educational needs: Double
exceptionality. Routledge.
Ostmeyer, K., & Scarpa, A. (2012). Examining School‐Based Social Skills Program Needs
and Barriers for Students with High‐Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders Using
Participatory Action Research. Psychology in the Schools, 49(10), 932-941.

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Ostmeyer, K., & Scarpa, A. (2012). Examining School‐Based Social Skills Program Needs
and Barriers for Students with High‐Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders Using
Participatory Action Research. Psychology in the Schools, 49(10), 932-941.
Pfeiffer, S. I. (2012). Current perspectives on the identification and assessment of gifted
students. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 30(1), 3-9.
Rillotta, F., Kirby, N., Shearer, J., & Nettelbeck, T. (2012). Family quality of life of
Australian families with a member with an intellectual/developmental
disability. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 56(1), 71-86.
Shum, S. B., & Crick, R. D. (2012, April). Learning dispositions and transferable
competencies: pedagogy, modelling and learning analytics. In Proceedings of the 2nd
International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge (pp. 92-101). ACM.
Thornblad, S. C., & Christ, T. J. (2014). Curriculum-based measurement of reading: Is 6
weeks of daily progress monitoring enough?. School Psychology Review, 43(1), 19.
Winebrenner, S. (2012). Teaching Gifted Kids in Today's Classroom: Strategies and
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