Autistic Child in School
A therapist works with an autistic boy in a public school. Autism severely impairs a child's ability to learn, communicate, and interact with others. Behavior modification and other forms of treatment offered in special education programs can improve the language and social skills of children with autism.
Will and Deni McIntyre/Photo Researchers, Inc.
Mental retardation is a form of developmental disability characterized primarily by an intelligence quotient (IQ) that is significantly below average. Other developmental disabilities include cerebral palsy, dyslexia, and certain learning disorders. An education program for a student with mental retardation varies depending on the student’s level of disability. Instruction may center on developing communication, socialization, or daily living skills. Many students with retardation receive services in regular classes in their local schools. Others with more profound levels of retardation may attend classes in specialized schools or hospital facilities designed for students with special needs.
Several different instructional techniques are used for students who have problems learning, remembering, and communicating information. Among these techniques is Direct Instruction, a method based on a systematic curriculum design and highly structured, fast-paced lessons in which students participate actively and often. Another method is known as learning strategies instruction, which is designed to teach a student specific learning skills, such as strategies to enhance memorization or problem-solving skills. Teachers may also help students to work around individual learning disorders. For example, teachers may allow a student with memory problems to use a tape recorder to dictate notes and record class lectures.
Gifted children are often moved through the regular school curriculum at a faster pace than their peers. Some children with exceptionally high ability in a particular subject area may be allowed to reduce the time they spend in their other subjects to permit more time to focus on challenging content in their specialty. A high school student who is particularly gifted in math, for example, may attend advanced math classes at a local college rather than music classes at the high school. Some gifted students may also skip grades or they may enter kindergarten, high school, or college at an early age.
Instructors teach social skills to help all students demonstrate the behavior needed to develop and maintain satisfactory relationships with peers and others. When students with disabilities have problems with behavior, special educators often use principles of instruction known as applied behavior analysis, which analyzes and alters the sources or consequences of problem behavior. Behavior analysis consists of defining and analyzing the specific task to be learned, direct and frequent measurement of student performance, and providing systematic feedback to the student. Behavior modification techniques help students to deal with anger and other emotions, to solve problems better, and to manage their own behavior.
Instructors teach social skills to help all students demonstrate the behavior needed to develop and maintain satisfactory relationships with peers and others. When students with disabilities have problems with behavior, special educators often use principles of instruction known as applied behavior analysis, which analyzes and alters the sources or consequences of problem behavior. Behavior analysis consists of defining and analyzing the specific task to be learned, direct and frequent measurement of student performance, and providing systematic feedback to the student. Behavior modification techniques help students to deal with anger and other emotions, to solve problems better, and to manage their own behavior.
Special Education, specially designed instruction to meet the unique needs and abilities of disabled or gifted children. Disabled children have conditions that adversely affect their progress in conventional education programs. Gifted children, who demonstrate high capacity in intellectual, creative, or artistic areas, may also fare poorly in regular education programs. Special education services can help both disabled and gifted children make progress in education programs. Most children served by special education programs are between the ages of 6 and 17.
The most frequently reported disabilities are speech or language impairments; mental retardation and other developmental disorders; serious emotional disturbance; and specific learning disorders, such as memory disorders. Other disabilities include hearing, visual, or orthopedic impairments; autism; and traumatic brain injury. An increasing number of children in the United States are identified as having attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and receive special education services.
Special education services make use of an extraordinary array of instructional methods and settings that make it possible for all students to learn. Special educators plan and evaluate instruction in an individualized manner to accommodate each child’s unique strengths and weaknesses. In planning instruction, teachers often use methods known as ecological assessments to consider environmental factors that influence learning, such as school, home, and community environments. Many students with disabilities receive instruction in traditional subjects, such as reading, writing, language, and math. To evaluate a student’s progress, teachers often rely on a method known as curriculum based assessment, which monitors progress within the student’s own curriculum rather than against the educational programs for other students.
Specific fields of special education address the needs of students with specific disabilities. These disabilities include (1) behavior disorders, (2) learning disorders, (3) mental retardation, (4) physical disabilities, (5) vision impairments, and (6) hearing problems. Special education also includes the field of education for gifted students.
Special education services are delivered in many different settings and facilities depending on the services to be provided, the age of the child, and the need for other related services. School districts must provide a full range of settings to meet individual needs of children with disabilities.
In conventional classrooms, teachers trained in special education collaborate with other teachers to plan and carry out instruction for students with special needs. Children with severe health or behavioral problems may receive education services in separate facilities or hospitals from many different teachers and specialists. A child with severe behavior problems, for example, may receive a combination of education, mental health, and social services. Infants and toddlers with disabilities often receive assistance in the home or in community settings, such as a school or hospital. Such assistance, known as early intervention services, focuses on treating existing disabilities or preventing their occurrence. As older children with disabilities prepare for adult life, planning increasingly centers on functional skills within community, work, and living environments; continuing education and training; and identification of support services, as needed, in the community.
Distance education has a major and varied impact worldwide. The following three examples illustrate some of the factors that influence distance education and show the demand for distance learning opportunities.
1. In sub-Saharan African countries, there is a tremendous shortage of classrooms, qualified teachers, and instructional materials. Distance education has the potential to contribute to national reconstruction by providing economically feasible educational opportunities to people in disparate geographic regions.
2. In response to rapid population growth and a high cost per capita for higher education, China developed a national distance learning program for higher education in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Because China could not afford to meet the higher education needs of its expanding population, the government developed a national radio and television university system.
3. Distance education has a long history in European countries. The continuation of this tradition is evident in the vast array of programs offered by European Union countries such as Spain and France. Enrollment in these programs was almost 23 million in 2000. France, for example, offers university-level distance education through 22 offices within traditional universities. France is also a leader in providing substantial opportunities for distance education training that does not lead to a university degree.
The practice of distance education has dramatically changed since the early 1990s. Educators are using technology to increase the distant learner’s access to the local classroom, to improve access of all learners to resources, and to make the experience of the remote student comparable to that of the local learner. Distance education no longer relies as heavily as it used to on the delivery of print and broadcast media technologies. Recent innovations in hardware, software, and Internet technologies have made telecommunications-based distance education systems more available, easier to use, and less costly.
Distance instruction is learner-centered—that is, it enables learners to tailor the instruction that they are receiving to meet their individual needs. Some distance programs use print media, some use telecommunications, and many use both, but geographic and time separation of the student and the teacher is a fundamental characteristic of distance education. Multimedia instruction with networked computers, video systems, or television may be used to connect the local classroom to learners at a distance. Satellite, compressed video, and fiber-optic systems are increasingly used for same-time, different-place education. This approach is also called synchronous distance learning. Students can also learn at different times and in different places. This approach is called asynchronous distance learning.
Interactive instruction is possible because the technologies used permit the learner to contact databases, information sources, instructional experts, and other students in real-time and interactive ways. For example, individual students can use their computers to contact other students or individuals who have information they need. Entire classes can participate in interactive video sessions with teachers from remote sites or with groups of students from other schools. An instructor can orchestrate the individual learning activities of students who collaborate with other learners, with the teacher, and with multimedia technology available locally or via the Internet. Distance learning encourages collaboration without the limitations of time and location inherent to the brick-and-mortar classroom.
By Michael R. Simonson
Distance learning is one of the most dramatic technology-based changes occurring in education today. Communication technology enables learners to receive instruction despite geographic and time disparities that would make traditional classroom instruction impossible.
Why should you consider distance education? Chances are it will open up educational possibilities you didn’t know existed.
The United States and other countries have begun to take advantage of the ability of audiovisual devices to transcend geographical barriers. Audiovisual devices can expose students to experiences beyond the classroom, and they can disseminate instruction across large areas, making education accessible to more people. In the U.S., communication satellites distribute educational programming to all public television stations; some programs are broadcast and others may be viewed on closed-circuit systems. India has also experimented with satellites to broadcast educational materials. In England, the Open University provides a college education by using radio, television, and regional learning centers. Other nations that have used audiovisual devices to transmit educational materials over large distances are France, Canada, and Brazil.
As the technology improves, educational capabilities increase correspondingly. The emergence of inexpensive computer technology and mass storage media, including optical videodiscs and compact disks, has given instructional technologists better tools with which to work. Compact disks (the CD-ROM and CD-I) are used to store large amounts of data, such as encyclopedias or motion pictures. At new interactive delivery stations with computers and CD-ROM, CD-I, or videodiscs, a student who is interested in a particular topic can first scan an electronic encyclopedia, then view a film on the subject or look at related topics at the touch of a button. These learning stations combine the advantages of reference materials, still pictures, motion pictures, television, and computer-aided instruction. With even newer technologies now being developed, such learning stations will eventually be commonplace in homes for both entertainment and educational purposes.
The American psychologist B. F. Skinner was influenced by these advantages when he developed his teaching machines in the 1950s. Skinner's concept of programmed instruction emphasized the need for a total educational plan. The process involved identifying objectives; arranging subject matter into logical sequences; preparing and testing instructional programs; and then implementing, testing, and revising them. Skinner shifted the emphasis in education away from the teacher's presentation of information and toward the learner's behavior and, especially, reinforcement of that behavior. His teaching machines provided programmed instruction, which allowed students to proceed through lessons by small steps, at their own pace, following an orderly sequence, and receiving immediate reinforcement for every correct response. Skinner's work emphasized the role of audiovisuals in facilitating individualized learning.
Studies in the psychology of learning suggest that the use of audiovisuals in education has several advantages. All learning is based on perception, the process by which the senses gain information from the environment. The higher processes of memory and concept formation cannot occur without prior perception. Persons can attend to only a limited amount of information at a time; their selection and perception of information is influenced by past experiences. Researchers have found that, other conditions being equal, more learning occurs when information is received simultaneously in two modalities (vision and hearing, for example) rather than in a single modality. Furthermore, learning is enhanced when material is organized and that organization is evident to the student.
These findings suggest the value of audiovisuals in the educational process. They can facilitate perception of the most important features, can be carefully organized, and can require the student to use more than one modality.
Audiovisual Education
Computers in Schools
Computers have become valuable educational tools in the classroom. They allow students to learn about a particular topic through written text, sound, graphics, animation, and video. Nearly every school in the United States has desktop computers available for use by students.
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Audiovisual Education, planning, preparation, and use of devices and materials that involve sight, sound, or both for educational purposes. Among the devices used are still and motion pictures, filmstrips, television, transparencies, audiotapes, records, teaching machines, computers, and videodiscs. The growth of audiovisual education has reflected developments in both technology and learning theory.