Designing a school turned out to be far more enriching for me as an architect and as a person; it is a process that investigates the deep connection with one's childhood memories and helps in realizing how much impact the school environment has had on shaping the people we become. (In his book The Child, The City, The Artist) Aldo Van Eyck says: " In my beginning is my end … In my end is my beginning." The design of a school should be addressed as a place where childhood memories are created, where our understanding of play, social interaction, independence and awareness of ourselves and our architectural surrounding starts. It adds responsibility on the architect to make that space a perfect platform for learning, curiosity and creativity. As a child, going to school is a long process that may hold many obstacles. We can't imagine what it is like for someone on the Autism Spectrum. One to every 160 children in the world and one in every 59 children in the US are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder ASD. This high rise in the number of ASD diagnosis should urge architects to think of providing the infrastructure for those children to grow and adequately engage in their communities. This group of schoolchildren have the ability to blend with other neuro-typical children if the school was supportive of this merge both administratively and architecturally. Coming from a country that does not have enough support for such children was a big motivation for my thesis. I felt that we as architects can play a major role in supporting them and even raising awareness about ASD. In my thesis I have designed a school encouraging the inclusivity of students with ASD where the architecture facilitates the co-existence of two groups of children that have different yet complementary capabilities. It is my firm belief that an architecture that can embrace the challenges of such a group of children enriches the social and intellectual growth of both groups simultaneously. / Master of Architecture / This project tackles the question of how architecture can help children on the Autism Spectrum interact with their social and built environment. The project is an elementary school that is designed taking into consideration sensory aspects like color, light, textures and sound. In my thesis I have designed a school encouraging the inclusivity of students with ASD where the architecture facilitates the co-existence of two groups of children that have different yet complementary capabilities. It is my firm belief that an architecture that can embrace the challenges of such a group of children enriches the social and intellectual growth of both groups simultaneously.

No / After reviewing the literature on leadership that culminated in what has been described as the `New Paradigm¿, this article discusses the research which has led to the development of what might be regarded as a `New New Paradigm¿ model. The research was based on a gender-inclusive and black and minority ethnic-inclusive sample of over 3,500 managers and professionals, at different levels (chief executives, top, senior and middle managers), working in the UK National Health Service and local government. The model that emerged, which led to the development of a diagnostic 360-degree feedback instrument, the Transformational Leadership Questionnaire, has been found to be sufficiently robust as to generalize to private sector and other public sector organizations. Apart from having been inclusive at all stages of its development, the model is new in that it is based on a `nearby¿ rather than `distant¿ or `heroic¿ approach to leadership, using a Grounded Theory methodology. It leads to an understanding of leadership that goes beyond transformational models and, recognizing the significance of Greenleaf¿s concept of `servant leadership¿, focuses on the development of the individual, in an organizational context.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Educational Leadership, 2006. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-98).

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTERS IN EDUCATION In the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education of the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand, 2010. / The aim of this study was to investigate the challenges facing educators’ in the inclusion of ADHD learners in the mainstream classroom. As an introduction to the study the challenges faced by educators’ in the inclusion of ADHD learners in mainstream classes were reviewed by means of a study of available and relevant literature. Educators are people who make learning and teaching possible and their own challenges in what is happening in the classroom are of crucial importance. Research done in South Africa on challenges faced by educators’ in inclusive education indicated that educators in mainstream classrooms generally express negative attitudes to mainstreaming policies and thus finds himself with many challenges. In the new education dispensation educators in mainstream classrooms have to accommodate learners with impairments, such as the ADHD child. Inclusion makes additional demands on educators because of the special educational needs of learners with impairments. The challenges facing educators in inclusion and their efficacy in meeting the special needs of learners with impairments play a determining role in the successful implementation of an inclusive education policy. For the purpose of the empirical investigation a self-structured questionnaire was utilized. An analysis was done of 110 questionnaires completed by primary school educators from the Mafukezela Gandhi district on the North Coast of KwaZulu Natal. The data was processed and interpreted by means of descriptive statistics. Essentially the following were the main findings from the empirical study:  Educators lack the necessary knowledge, skills, training and experience of learners with special educational needs.  Educators have difficulty in identifying ADHD learners.  Educators needed to change their teaching methods to accommodate learners with diverse educational needs. The study concludes with a summary and findings from the literature study and descriptive statistics. Based on these findings the following recommendations were made:  The development of curricula, institutions and methods of assessments must include a variety of strategies to accommodate learners with special educational needs, such as ADHD learners.  The basic training of educators must include compulsory courses such as orthopedagogics that will enable them to cope with the demands for inclusion of learners with special educational needs.

No description available.

The thesis deals with inclusive education, specifically parents as co-actors to inclusive education. The goal of the thesis is to determine what role parents occupy in cooperation with a school with inclusive concept of education, what are their views on inclusion, and thus contribute to the current topic of inclusive education. The theoretical part focuses on the current changes in the field of inclusive education, social heterogeneity in inclusive school, educational approaches and needs in inclusive education and on teachers and parents as actors for inclusive education. The practical part contains case studies on three selected schools with inclusive education in Prague. Part of these case studies is interviews with teachers and parents on the involvement of parents in inclusive education.

Text in Afrikaans / Presently, within the South African Educational system. there is an indinatlon towards a single indusive educational system. Since the implementation of such a system lodges with the educator within the classroom. factors that have a bearing on the role of the educator. seen from an educational psychological perspective in conjunction with a literature study as well as a quantitative research are hereby researched. Attention is also devoted to the setting of guidelines by the educational psychologist for the educator in respect of the implementation of this given concept. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Voorligting)

This thesis investigates the design of inclusive services by integrating theory and approaches from the domains of Service Design and Inclusive Design. This integration was used to evaluate bus service use by younger and older people and the role of other stakeholders. The research was carried out through the case study of the bus service in Guadalajara, Mexico. As a result of this research, an inclusive service design approach and a tool are proposed to guide the design of inclusive services. Using an inclusive service design approach led to the application of a mixed methodology for data collection, which included: 1) a series of individual and group interviews with stakeholders as well as a document analysis; 2) structured focus groups with younger and older people; 3) observation of younger and older passengers using the service; and 4) accompanied journeys with older people. Data were analysed using both qualitative and quantitative techniques, and the results facilitated 1) the understanding of the service operation; 2) the identification of the main barriers for interaction with the service along a door-to-door journey; and 3) the determination of the gap between what younger and older users need and desire and what bus operators actually provide. The research then focussed on visualising and communicating the findings to stakeholders. An inclusive service blueprint was developed to graphically represent the level of difficulty in using the service by younger and older people across the door-to-door journey, and to highlight areas for service improvements. A final study was undertaken to assess the usefulness of the inclusive service approach and the blueprint in improving the bus service. Collectively, the findings indicate that integrating inclusive principles along with a Service Design approach provided several benefits in investigating and improving the bus service. The uniqueness of data generated by younger and older users and the understanding of inclusive principles by the stakeholders already shows the potential to lead to a more inclusive service given the activities now happening in Guadalajara. This research contributes to the discussion of how the design of services can evolve through the incorporation of inclusive principles in the design process. Whilst the research was undertaken in the context of the bus service in Guadalajara, the approach and some outcomes from this research may be applicable for designing inclusive services in other contexts around the world.

This paper reports a case study conducted at a local Government-aided primary school in Hong Kong to explore the teaching and learning of three students with special educational needs (SEN). The research aims to investigate the perceptions of the principal, teachers, social workers, students and parents on inclusive education, and look at the practicability and feasibility of the school inclusive policy. Results indicated that although the school embraces the inclusive ideology in principle, the interviewees expressed serious reservation on the Government promoted whole school integration approach to include all students with special educational needs. The study on one hand examined the government and school policy and practice on inclusion, and on the other hand identified the difficulties and obstacles encountered by the school, some of which were regarded as fundamental problems that require changes in the educational system. The paper ends with recommendations for further research that is worth exploring in order to achieve a true and effective inclusive educational system in the Hong Kong landscape. Research methodology is qualitative. Interviews were conducted with a number of school staff and two parents of the SEN students. The interviews focused on how school key personnel and teachers viewed their roles, contributions, and difficulties in implementing inclusive education, and how parents view the studies and growth of their children at the case school. A 10-week observations aimed at observing how the three students under the case study adapted, learnt and grew in a mainstream school environment. Through inductive reasoning, data collected was subsequently grouped into patterns and regularities. There are two recurrent themes brought up at the study. First, the success of inclusive education rests largely and predominately on the ‘heart and soul’ – the attitudes and values of the teachers in educating the SEN students; and second, the school does not have the right conditions, in particular, sufficient resources to provide a true inclusive environment for the SEN students with intensive support needs, where the system must change to adapt to the children’s needs and not the vice versa. The general conclusion developed is that the case school, in face of the increasing number of SEN students, is forced to do more with less under the current government inclusive policy; and the SEN students themselves are forced to squeeze in the shoes of the regular students in a mainstream school. Without a system change, there is only partial inclusion at the mainstream school, and the SEN students must adapt to the regular classroom mode and curriculum, or fail. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education