Abstract:

The classroom can be a very exciting place to be for some (both the teacher and the learner), yet a nightmare for others. Regular classrooms get a diverse range of learners with different personalities in terms of their learning styles, different interests and a variety of barriers to learning that may not necessarily warrant special education. The declaration of “education for all” by the UNESCO (1994) report and the Salamanca statement has also seen more schools become inclusive, thus leading to more diverse classrooms. As a result, there has been a significant amount of research on various approaches of how to include learners with learning disabilities in regular classroom with an aim of looking at effective means of combating discriminatory attitudes, creating welcoming communities, building an inclusive society and achieving education for all. However these researches seem to have the interest of the learner at heart, and biased towards the needs of the teacher.

From research findings, it is notable that the teacher is the ultimate key to educational change, Carrington (1994). Yet, Forlin (2001) wrote that the greatest barriers to the development of inclusion classrooms is because most teachers do not have the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to carry our work. They lack information, knowledge, and expertise in their attempts to include students with diverse leaning needs in regular classrooms. These findings led to new developments in inclusive pedagogies, Rouse and Florian (2012), had their research leading to teacher education including a deeper understanding of the theoretical principles and practical approaches that underpin inclusive pedagogy. According to their research, “The inclusive pedagogical approach provides a framework for thinking about learning and teaching. It also provides a means of articulating and justifying a way of working that focuses on everyone in the learning community of the classroom. There are now, available tools for teachers to use, including how to deferencitat e the lesson for all learners and many others.

In this presentation, I seek to give teachers of ordinary/diverse classrooms a simple guideline that will help them have happy balanced classrooms using a tool called CAME. CAME gives teachers a quick tick boxes while preparing their lessons on the Content to be covered, the Assessement tools that will ensure that learning has taken place, the Methodology of presenting the lesson to cater for the diverse learning needs and a quick look at the learning Environment itself. It does not neccessarily require teachers to have prior know in special/inclusive education, it is simple to use and it takes very little time.

Keywords:

CAME is an abbr for Content, Assessment tools, Method of teaching and the classroom Environment.