Editor’s
Notes
Almost
without publicity, a new funding mode for mainstream schools admitting children
with special educational needs (SEN) was introduced in September 2003. This
voucher-like provision, granting the school HK$10,000 to HK$20,000 for every
bona-fide SEN child, ensures that schools get the resources to attend to the
child’s special educational needs. It also opens the doors of ALL schools for
ALL students, irrespective of their abilities and disabilities and irrespective
of their special educational needs. Hong Kong IS moving further towards
inclusive education.
Also
without publicity, the Hong Kong Institute of Education admitted their last
cohort of special school and special class teachers to the one-year full-time
Government-sponsored TCSEN (Teaching of Children with Special Educational Needs)
course, thereby ending what used to be the only recognized specialist training
course in special education and with it, its history which dates back to the
early days of special education in the sixties. It also signifies the end of
Government’s commitment to sponsoring training courses for special school/class
teachers.
As
if by accident, the award of Special Education Allowance for special
school/class teachers was proposed to be rescinded with effect from September
2003. Despite the ultimate success by the collective contingent of special
education teachers to force the Government to postpone the full implementation
by two years, there is a widespread sentiment among special school/class
teachers that their values are being slighted.
The
pace of mainstreaming special education (or ‘de-specialization’, for want of a
better word) has accelerated. How are mainstream schools and their teachers
prepared to face the challenges posed by an increasing wide range of special
needs in the classroom? What problems are mainstream schools facing? What is the
impact of such a change on our teacher training programs, initial and
in-service? What are the roles and functions of special schools? What change
would this make to the quality of education for our students, able and disabled?
These issues were raised at
the Sixth Annual Conference of the Special Education Society of Hong Kong. The
theme chosen this year was, (what else?) 「特殊教育主流化
–
特殊學校的危機? 契機?」
(Mainstreaming of special education: Crisis or opportunity for
special schools?). More than two hundred people packed the hall of Caritas Lok
Kan School to hear the keynote speech from Prof. Leslie Lo of the Chinese
University and for the sharing sessions of two mainstream school principals and
one special school principal. In his speech, Prof. Lo, who chaired the only
special education review committee in the nineties, noted the world trend in
inclusive education but stressed the importance of resource support (in both
equipment and manpower), professional training and the positive and accepting
attitudes of stakeholders for inclusive education to be successful. On the
future development of integrated education in Hong Kong, Prof. Lo alerted us of
the presence of a series of forces in the current ecology in education that were
either conflicting or contradicting to the effective implementation of inclusive
education. For those interested in sharing the insightful and perceptive
analysis of the issues associated with integrated education from someone who
truly cares about the quality of education for students with special needs, I
would recommend them to read the full text of Prof. Lo’s speech,
published in this issue as a paper entitled,
«融合教育的持續發展» (The continued
development of integrated education). We have also prepared abridged versions of
the other speeches and of the forum discussion of the Sixth Annual
Conference.
With the classrooms becoming increasingly inclusive, continuous professional development is vital if teachers are to effectively deal with the challenges of the diverse special needs in our schools. Special needs in our students can have their origins in a complexity of conditions and teachers should have an open and inquisitive mind when being confronted with the multitudes of behavioral, psychological and learning problems. Symptoms of learning and behavioral problems should not be taken for granted nor should they be treated generically. Two papers in this issue, both incidentally from the United States, illustrate the importance of comprehensive understanding of the underlying conditions. Cathleen G. Spinelli’s paper,“Facilitating successful outcomes for students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder from primary through secondary school years” deals with a very common but easily misunderstood condition of ADHD. Spinelli goes to some lengths to describe the diagnostic criteria, characteristics and treatment considerations for ADHD. In particular, she alerts us of the developmental nature of the condition. We are fortunate to have Dr. Spinelli’s consent to reprint her research paper for our readers. Another common but often overlooked condition is TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury). TBI in not a condition that is classified as warranting special needs education, but as shown in Kaili Chen’s paper, “The relationship between behavior and Traumatic Brain Injury: Implications for educational programming and rehabilitation”, students with TBI require as much educational planning and assessment as students with ‘classified’ special educational needs. Chen’s paper reminds us that even within mainstream schools, special needs of students are already varied and complex. The demand for professional knowledge and skills for our teachers is ever increasing.
Such
a demand is actually reflected in the two survey report papers in this issue.
Interestingly, despite being conducted in two different countries (one in the
United States, one in Hong Kong), teachers in both study place high priority in
getting more training in managing students with behavioral problems. It is worth
noting that the Hong Kong study as reported in Wong & Westwood’s “On-going
professional development needs of Hong Kong’s special school teachers: A pilot
survey” was based on data from experienced special school teachers. These
teachers are supposed to be the backbone behind the
Special-Schools-cum-Resource-Centre scheme, which was formally launched in
September 2003. Yet they feel the acute training need in teaching strategies,
autism, co-teaching skill and collaboration with allied professionals, practical
skills that teachers from mainstream schools expect to learn from them. Together
with the American survey, reported in Esther K. Leung and Tong Liu’s “Teacher
training needs, job satisfaction and retention”, both clearly demonstrate the
inadequacy and the limitations of the existing teacher education curriculum to
meet the challenges of the inclusive classrooms. Leung and Liu’s paper
incidentally is part of a two-year study to investigate not only training needs
of teachers but teacher attribution and retention. It is worrying to read about
how inclusive education and vigorous education reforms have brought about low
morale and high attribution in both general and special education teachers in
the United States. The present of the United States may be the future of Hong
Kong. However, Hong Kong could be spared the lesson of the United States, if we
take heed of Leung and Liu’s proposed teacher training model. The way forward is
to build on existing strength and extend the scope of special education training
to teachers of mainstream schools. But as Prof. Lo pointed out, even for
understanding of the theories and practice of special education needs, the much
talked-about 30-hour ‘instant noodle’ type of basic training course is
definitely not an acceptable option. To truly empower our teachers to face the
challenges of the special needs in the classroom and to prepare our teachers for
the new paradigm brought about by inclusive education, our teacher education
institutes, to quote Leung and Liu,
“…must reexamine (their) mission; renew commitment and structure innovative and cost-effective pre-service and in-service programs to meet the needs of the swiftly changing young learners in our classrooms”
Apart from teacher professionalism, collaboration with allied
professionals and peer support are also crucial for the successful
implementation of inclusion. While we may be critical of the Government’s
planning and strategies in its integration policy, it is gratifying to note that
this issue draws a lot of attention from our colleagues in the rehabilitation
field. An example of their collaboration comes in a paper, “Peer ambassador
programs of the inclusive schools” by Cindy K. Pong, Daisy M. Chan, Coeie L. Lau & Eria
P. Li. The results of their study on the impact on able students when they are
paired up with their disabled peers, are heartwarming. Most students enjoyed the
involvement in the program and admitted that they learnt more about disabilities
and became more accepting of disabled persons. Similar positive observation was
made by the two principals of mainstream schools who spoke at the Annual
Conference.
Finally, the challenges of meeting practical training needs of our students in special schools continue to engage the mind of our colleagues. Two case studies in this issue underline such challenges teachers are facing and how professionally they are being approached by our teachers. Both Traci K. Tang’s paper, “Effects of a reinforcement-based toilet training procedure for a student with severe intellectual disabilities” and the paper by 鍾淑嫻、連明剛 (Chung Suk-han and Lian Ming-gon ), «個案研究 - 協助嚴重弱智學生控制危害性行為» (Helping a child with severe intellectual disabilities to control his injurious behavior: A case study) deal with everyday phenomena in the special schools, albeit more frequently in schools for severe mentally handicapped children. The teachers in both studies adopt a scientific and research approach to study how disruptive and undesirable behaviors can be controlled. Such is the level of commitment and professionalism in our teachers. Quality enhancement and effective strategy are what our teachers strive for. They might not find the solutions or effective methods but their studies provide an important data base for future research and it is the accumulation of such research data that would enhance the quality of education service for children with special needs.
Challenges in the classrooms are not confined to special schools. Even before the adoption of the current integrated education, teachers had to deal with many problems and challenges associated with special educational needs. The challenges will definitely increase in number and complexity with more and more students with special educational needs being included in the classrooms. The Forum appeals to our colleagues in both special and mainstream schools to share with us their experiences and studies on managing problems in the classrooms. Sharing can take the form of a discussion paper, a research paper, an action research report, a project report, a case report or a personal view. We hope to have sufficient contributions to run a special issue on “Meeting the Challenges of the Classrooms”.
Special education is definitely entering a new era. The shift in paradigm has taken root. As practitioners of special education we must re-assess our roles, adjust our objectives, open up to new demands and rationale, but in the meantime continue with our pursuit of excellence and high level of service efficacy for our students. The building and accumulation of expertise among special education teachers is one very important pre-requisite for any education policy in integration (or inclusion).
A.
Tse