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Membership, Participation, and Learning

This chapter describes and provides numerous examples of three of the core best practices and ultimate outcomes of the BA Model—membership, participation, and learning. First, we provide an overview of how membership and participation provide the context for enhancing learning. We then describe the importance of, strategies for enhancing, and indicators for membership, participation, and learning. In our experience, many educators begin their planning for instruction by asking questions about how to modify the curriculum content and materials based on unwarranted lack of confidence in student abilities. These perceptions of student abilities are inaccurate, in part, because of insufficient AAC supports. In doing so, there is a risk of the trap presented in Jay’s story in Chapter 1.

These questions lead a teacher to create a version of the curriculum that is different from the one taught to students without disabilities and then to design ways to teach it that also may be different from the instructional plan for students without disabilities. It is understandable that educators want to prioritize their attention to support student learning. In the instructional planning process, however, prioritizing the content to be learned over the context and the instructional processes through which it will be taught may mislead educators to make changes in educational programming that are not aligned with their vision of inclusive education.

For example, follow this teacher’s line of thinking: “This book would have to be significantly modified to work for him. The book will be so different from that of his classmates that we will have to pull him aside to provide individualized instruction. Being in the general education classroom appears unnecessary with so much pull-aside instruction. I could teach him this modified book better if he came to my resource room and I pulled in the other two students in the building who are functioning at his level.”

Figure 4.1 depicts the BA approach to learning in the context of membership and participation. It is apparent in this figure that learning is situated in general education classroom membership and participation is situated in general education instruction. In this model, intensive support planning for students’ learning must ensure that membership and participation are in place in order to maximize the social opportunities in the general education classroom and the academic instruction offered there.

Membership

Educators and psychologists have reported that students’ presence in the classroom as members of the learning community—a member of both social and academic activities—is a requirement for optimal student learning.

In his award-winning film, Including Samuel, filmmaker Dan Habib (2007) tells the story of his 8-year-old son Samuel’s full inclusion in a second-grade general education classroom in his neighborhood school. Habib recalls the angst that he and his wife Betsy felt when they first learned of the severity of Samuel’s disabilities.

Membership in the general education class represents students having access to valued social roles and the symbols of belonging, such as having a desk, being given class jobs, going on field trips, and having one’s name called during attendance. In addition, through the lens of presumed competence, the symbols of the student’s membership, sense of belonging, and social roles within the classroom would reflect a vision of equity and reciprocity with classmates who do not have disabilities.

Enhancing Membership to Enhance Learning

During the orientation to the BA Model and in ongoing professional development provided to school teams (including administrators and parents), journal articles, book chapters, videos, and guest presentations from other parents or adults with disabilities are shared to emphasize the importance of membership in general education. Although a student does not need to be included in general education all day, every day in order for a team to begin using the Model, we suggest that students be included in a general education classroom for at least two core academic subjects (i.e., math, language arts, social studies, science). The team then uses the BA Model to focus on improving instruction and supports (including AAC) to the student during these two periods of the day, prior to expanding the student’s inclusion within other classroom lessons and activities.

Table 4.1. Sample indicators of student membership in the general education classroom

• The student attends the school he or she would attend if he or she did not have a disability.
• The student is a member of an age-appropriate general education class.
• The student’s name is on all class lists, lists of groups put on the board, job lists, and so forth.
• Related services are delivered primarily through consultation in the classroom.
• The student receives the same materials as students without disabilities, with supports (i.e., accommodations, adaptations) provided as necessary.
• The student passes classes with other students, arriving and leaving at the same time.
• The student has a locker/cubby alongside students without disabilities.
• The student rides the same school bus as his or her peers without disabilities.

Participation

Research, practice guidelines, and disability policy have identified engagement and participation as positively correlated to educational achievement and to quality-of-life outcomes of children and adults with disabilities. Although students with IDD may exhibit characteristics that seem to inhibit their full engagement and participation in classroom activities (e.g., movement, sensory, communication, learning, and behavior difficulties), research has shown that engagement can be positively influenced by:

1. The choice of instructional method;
2. The characteristics of the learning environment;
3. The interactions between the student and his or her teachers, other support providers, and peers;
4. Accommodations and supports for dealing with sensory stimuli;
5. Interventions that help the student manage his or her emotional and behavioral needs.

Enhancing Participation to Enhance Learning

During the orientation to the BA Model and in ongoing professional development provided to school teams, journal articles and guest presentations from educators, parents, or adults with disabilities are shared to emphasize the importance of participation in general education academic instruction. To enhance participation, classroom instruction occurs through a variety of arrangements, such as writing on a black- or whiteboard, one-to-one instruction by an adult, partnering with a classmate in a learning activity, small-group teacher-directed instruction, student-managed cooperative learning groups, large-group lecture, and individual learning activities such as seat work, library research, and lab experiments.

Table 4.2. Sample indicators of student participation in general education classroom routines, activities, and lessons

• The student participates in classroom and school routines (e.g., Pledge of Allegiance, lunch count, jobs, errands, eating lunch) in typical locations.
• The student passes classes with other students, arriving and leaving at the same time.
• The student participates in classroom instruction in similar routines as students without disabilities.
• The student completes assignments and other work products (with adaptations and modifications) as students without disabilities do.
• A high school student engages in outside-of-school, age-appropriate, and inclusive environments (e.g., service learning) similar to classmates without disabilities.

Learning

Researchers have called for instruction in academics to be an educational priority if students are to achieve desired outcomes and make progress. As discussed in both Chapters 1 and 2 of this book, there is research supporting the idea that students with IDD can learn academic content. Comprehensive reviews of the literature related to reading, mathematics, and science provide additional examples of students with IDD acquiring academic skills.

Promoting full membership and pursuing the five-step instructional planning process for a student’s participation in the general education classroom sets the stage for a student’s demonstration of both anticipated and unanticipated learning. Findings show how using the BA Model can increase the amount of time a student spends within the general education classroom, and thus increase the likelihood that he or she will be perceived by others as a member of that classroom.

Conclusion

This chapter described and provided a rationale for why membership, participation, and learning, anchored in the first best practice of presuming competence, are important best practices of the BA Model. In addition to the priorities chosen to enhance students’ learning of general education curriculum content, teams must maintain a vigilant focus on membership and participation.