Abstract:

Education of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is still challenging in many countries. Students with ASD demonstrate uneven intellectual abilities, have higher abilities in concrete tasks as opposed to abstract ones, basic reading, encoding, and rote skills and tasks are usually intact in high functioning ASD. Deficits are noted in all academic domains: comprehension, written expression, processing of complex materials, abstract and problem solving tasks (Bouminger-Zviely, Kimhi, 2013). Children with ASD have challenges with communication and social skills; they may have some type of restricted interest of repetitive behaviours (APA, 2013) Children with ASD tend to have more behavioural and emotional difficulties rather than children with typical development (Matson, Sturmey, 2017) Personalized learning (PL) approach has gained its popularity in an inclusive educational setting. PL is student – centred approach, which allows students with special needs to be involved into classroom activities with other children (Worthen, 2016). PL environment allows students to take an active part in setting the goals of learning, planning their learning, tracking and determining how learning will be conducted (Jones, Casey, 2015; Pane et al., 2015). Several qualitative research reveal benefits of PL but assert that teachers have uneven understanding of the meaning of PL. Practical implication of this approach requires collaboration between school communities and the policy of the government in order to achieve success in inclusive settings (Courcier, 2007; Abawi, 2015; Stewart, 2017; Cardno et al., 2019). The authors of this explanatory research, that is part of the broader research, aim to reveal what approach dominates in inclusive primary school setting while teaching children with ASD. The explanatory research has been used as a methodology of the research. Methods, including semi-structured interview, content analysis, and scientific literature analysis have been employed.

The interview questions include the following topic areas:
1) general questions;
2) selection of educational content and method;
3) cognition and education of pupils with ASD;
4) promoting student participation in the educational process;
5) determining the learning goals of a pupil with ASD;
6) resources used in lessons;
7) assessment of progress.

Participant of the study - primary school teachers, who teach children with ASD in inclusive classrooms (N=8). The research show that teachers classify children according to their academic abilities when organizing a lesson. They provide educational content and materials based on general education programs; apply active teaching methods, present teaching materials according to child interests, adapts tasks to address the needs of a child. They seek to involve a student with ASD in common activities with his/her peers; and to ensure that child feels well in a classroom. Individual progress of the child is taking into consideration. Teachers emphasize that inclusion is only possible when a sufficient resources including educational support is available in school. This paper concludes that individualization prevails in the education of children with ASD in inclusive classroom. PL and individualized learning seem almost interchangeable for the teachers who took part in the research.

Keywords:

Personalized learning, autism spectrum disorders, inclusive primary education.