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Special education in China provides education for all disabled students.
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Special education in China provides education for all disabled students.
According to the 2006 census, 82.96 million disabled people live in China, an estimated 6.34% of the overall population. This statistic had a 1.44% increase from the year 1987. Men outnumber women in China's 1.35 billion population making it no surprise that more than half of the people with disabilities are male. The number of disabled people living in the rural areas of China is 75% of the disabled population, compared to the urban which held 25% of the disabled population. Specifically relating to school-aged population, disabled children at the age between 6-14 reached to 2.46 million, 2.96% of the total disabled population. Less than 3% of China's disabled population is in the school-aged demographic. Although this statistic is shockingly low, the one child policy contributes to much of the population decreases seen in recent history especially among school-aged children. [1] [ full citation needed ] China categorizes disabilities differently than in other nations, for example China identified 5% of their school-aged population to be in need of special education whereas The United States identified 10% of their school-aged population; this comparison is a result of China not recognizing learning disabilities or disorders such as ADHD to be in need of special services whereas many other nations do. [2] Educational opportunities for disabled Chinese are lacking, causing elevated poverty and poor living conditions [ citation needed ].
As the chart indicates approximately 60%-70% of disabled children are educated, contrasted with close to 100% for the non-disabled. Only 25% of disabled children enroll in high schools or higher educational institutions. [3]
Due to the views held regarding Confucianism, people with disabilities have been respected and considered part of society throughout Chinese history. Throughout Chinese history citizens with disabilities did not have high social status due to their physical or mental characteristics which limited their abilities to climb socially. Instead of viewing the minorities as equals, the Chinese people sympathized and pitied those with disabilities. Although there were many who wished to help disabled people, “institutions for educating individuals with disabilities were not established during the feudal dynasties that lasted more than 2,000 years”. [2]
In the recent history of China, the most prominent influence in the beginning of special education was Mao Zedong. Improvement in the education system for children with disabilities was close to nothing until the twentieth century during Mao's time of power. "Under the Maoist philosophy, people with disabilities had been treated as equal members of society who could make contributions to the Socialist country. This promoted social awareness and acceptance of disability”. [2] The most paramount change seen in this time period was in 1951, when the Chinese Political Council established The Decision to Reform the Education System, "which explicitly required governments at all levels to establish schools for individuals with visual and hearing impairments and to provide education for children, adolescents, and adults with physical disabilities. This document, for the first time in Chinese education history, included special education in the formal public education system and advocated the legislation for special teacher education (Wang, Yan, and Mu 350). Results of this reformation led to "the number of schools and enrolled students with disabilities increas[ing] to 57 and 5,312, respectively, in 1955, and to 479 and 26,701, respectively, by 1960." [2] However, these increases did not last long and were strongly affected by the Cultural Revolution in 1966. This occurrence had a negative effect on special education growth based on political and economic insufficiencies of that time. The newly formed special education schools under Mao's rule suffered greatly "with many schools closing and the number of students falling from 1,176 before 1966 to 600 by 1976." [2] Mao can be placed responsible for the increase of special education and ultimately the halt on special education practices in China.
Few educational institutions serve special needs students. As of 2018 [update] , around 1710 institutions specifically serve disabled people, with forty-six thousand teaching staff spread across those institutions.[ citation needed ] In China, students with disabilities are usually separated from typical classrooms and placed in schools dedicated to special education. The first school dedicated to students with disabilities in China was established in 1987 in the city of Beijing. Currently this school has 60 staff members who teach more than 200 children in 17 classrooms. The school provides professional development and resource centers and an intensive diagnostic and training center for 3- and 4-year-olds with autism, as well as special education classes for school-age children". The school is described as being very academic however the students are involved in active activities and plenty of one on one time with their instructors. The school also recruits students from all around China due to the scarcity of special education schools across the country. [4] Segregation in education is what is typically seen within special education in China, however China has begun to adopt the idea of classroom inclusion which has proven to be beneficial in other nations who have adopted the method. Although this strategy is fairly new in China it has already shown positive results "Between 1987 and 1996, the school entrance rate of students with disabilities rose from 6% to 60%, and a large majority of these students were in general education classrooms." Meaning students with special needs are being placed in typical classrooms with specialized instruction being given to students who have varying needs. [5] Special teacher education has seen a large increase in the last decade "Conversations with teacher educators or trainers at Beijing Normal University and East China Normal University indicated that programs to prepare special education teachers are developing rapidly. Several teachers mentioned that rigorous examinations still are the most important determining criteria for accepting teacher candidates to teacher training programs" (Ellsworth and Zhang 63). However, there is still a large gap between the number of students in need and the qualified teachers to provide services. There has also been issues with the universities in China not providing special education programs in their schools, only limited schools in the urban areas provide this line of study, making the qualification for special educators hard to come by. [6]
An issue directly related to education is the employment rate. Some researchers report that more than 10% of the disabled people in China lack adequate food and clothing, about 40% have very little income and only 25% work on a full-time basis. Among those who are employed, 96.6% are manual workers. Employment status has a direct correlation with income. Families without a disabled person have an average 23.26% higher family income than families with at least one disabled person. [ citation needed ]
Special education is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates their individual differences, disabilities, and special needs. This involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials, and accessible settings. These interventions are designed to help individuals with special needs achieve a higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and in their community, which may not be available if the student were only given access to a typical classroom education.
People with disabilities in the United States are a significant minority group, making up a fifth of the overall population and over half of Americans older than eighty. There is a complex history underlying the U.S. and its relationship with its disabled population, with great progress being made in the last century to improve the livelihood of disabled citizens through legislation providing protections and benefits. Most notably, the Americans with Disabilities Act is a comprehensive anti-discrimination policy that works to protect Americans with disabilities in public settings and the workplace.
An Individualized Education Program (IEP) is a legal document under United States law that is developed for each public school child in the U.S. who needs special education. It is created through a team of the child's parent(s) and district personnel who are knowledgeable about the child's needs. IEPs must be reviewed every year to keep track of the child's educational progress.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an educational framework based on research in the learning sciences, including cognitive neuroscience, that guides the development of flexible learning environments and learning spaces that can accommodate individual learning differences.
In education, Response to Intervention is an approach to academic intervention used to provide early, systematic, and appropriately intensive assistance to children who are at risk for or already underperforming as compared to appropriate grade- or age-level standards. RTI seeks to promote academic success through universal screening, early intervention, frequent progress monitoring, and increasingly intensive research-based instruction or interventions for children who continue to have difficulty. RTI is a multileveled approach for aiding students that is adjusted and modified as needed if they are failing.
Mainstreaming, in the context of education, is the practice of placing students with special education needs in a general education classroom during specific time periods based on their skills. This means students who are a part of the special education classroom will join the regular education classroom at certain times which are fitting for the special education student. These students may attend art or physical education in the regular education classrooms. Sometimes these students will attend math and science in a separate classroom, but attend English in a general education classroom. Schools that practice mainstreaming believe that students with special needs who cannot function in a general education classroom to a certain extent belong in the special education environment.
Inclusion in education refers to all students being able to access and gain equal opportunities to education and learning. It arose in the context of special education with an individualized education program or 504 plan, and is built on the notion that it is more effective for students with special needs to have the said mixed experience for them to be more successful in social interactions leading to further success in life. The philosophy behind the implementation of the inclusion model does not prioritize, but still provides for the utilization of special classrooms and special schools for the education of students with disabilities. Inclusive education models are brought into force by educational administrators with the intention of moving away from seclusion models of special education to the fullest extent practical, the idea being that it is to the social benefit of general education students and special education students alike, with the more able students serving as peer models and those less able serving as motivation for general education students to learn empathy.
Special education in the United States enables students with exceptional learning needs to access resources through special education programs. These programs did not always exist. "The idea of excluding students with any disability from public school education can be traced back to 1893, when the Massachusetts Supreme Court expelled a student merely due to poor academic ability". This exclusion would be the basis of education for all individuals with special needs for years to come. In 1954, Brown v. Board of Education sparked the belief that the right to a public education applies to all individuals regardless of race, gender, or disability. Finally, special education programs in the United States were made mandatory in 1975 when the United States Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) "(sometimes referred to using the acronyms EAHCA or EHA, or Public Law 94-142) was enacted by the United States Congress in 1975, in response to discriminatory treatment by public educational agencies against students with disabilities." The EAHCA was later modified to strengthen protections to students with disabilities and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA requires states to provide special education and related services consistent with federal standards as a condition of receiving federal funds.
In clinical diagnostic and functional development, special needs refers to individuals who require assistance for disabilities that may be medical, mental, or psychological. Guidelines for clinical diagnosis are given in both the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the International Classification of Diseases 9th edition. Special needs can range from people with autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, dysgraphia, blindness, deafness, ADHD, and cystic fibrosis. They can also include cleft lips and missing limbs. The types of special needs vary in severity, and a student with a special need is classified as being a severe case when the student's IQ is between 20 and 35. These students typically need assistance in school, and have different services provided for them to succeed in a different setting.
Emotional and behavioral disorders refer to a disability classification used in educational settings that allows educational institutions to provide special education and related services to students who have displayed poor social and/or academic progress.
Learning disability, learning disorder, or learning difficulty is a condition in the brain that causes difficulties comprehending or processing information and can be caused by several different factors. Given the "difficulty learning in a typical manner", this does not exclude the ability to learn in a different manner. Therefore, some people can be more accurately described as having a "learning difference", thus avoiding any misconception of being disabled with a possible lack of an ability to learn and possible negative stereotyping. In the United Kingdom, the term "learning disability" generally refers to an intellectual disability, while conditions such as dyslexia and dyspraxia are usually referred to as "learning difficulties".
Remedial education is assigned to assist students in order to achieve expected competencies in core academic skills such as literacy and numeracy.
The term twice exceptional, often abbreviated as 2e, entered educators' lexicons in the mid-1990s and refers to gifted students who have some form of learning or developmental disability. These students are considered exceptional both because of their giftedness and because they are disabled or neurodivergent. Ronksley-Pavia (2015) presents a conceptual model of the co-occurrence of disability and giftedness.
A resource room is a separate, remedial classroom in a school where students with educational disabilities, such as specific learning disabilities, are given direct, specialized instruction and academic remediation and assistance with homework, and related assignments as individuals or in groups.
Special educational needs (SEN), also known as special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the United Kingdom refers to the education of children who require different education provision to the mainstream system.
Disability in China is common, and according to the United Nations, approximately 83 million people in China are estimated to have a disability.
Approximately 180-220 million young people live with disabilities globally, with 80% living in the developing world, therefore lacking access to education, healthcare and employment [1]. Disability includes physical, mental or mental illness. Many young people live a healthy and stable life, although people with disabilities may have more obstacles than those without because of their possible limitations, created by physical weakness and social incapacity..
Disability Studies in Education (DSE) is a field of academic study concerned with education research and practice related to disability. DSE scholars promote an understanding of disability from a social model of disability perspective to "challenge social, medical, and psychological models of disability as they relate to education". A DSE perspective situates disability within social and political context and is concerned with the civil and human rights of students with disabilities, including issues of equity, access, and inclusion in educational settings, curricula, and activities. DSE emerged as a part of the broader, interdisciplinary Disability Studies movement and as a critique of special education. Special education (SPED) in the United States emerged after the signing of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1975, marking the shift in educational rights by explicitly making the refusal of educational access illegal. Over the past few decades, special education has grown into an established academic curriculum and program which aims to enhance individuals with disabilities' performance by focusing on changing their given educational environments and the limitations placed on them to foster growth and opportunities. SPED aims to build a caring society that accepts and celebrates different abilities without stigmatizing individuals with disabilities. Through SPED, students should be able to engage in learning and have opportunities for growth through education each and every day. Though SPED has good intentions for creating learning opportunities for students, there is a constant tension between DSE and SPED, primarily around the idea that disability studies in education should be inclusive of students with and without disabilities in order to best foster awareness and understanding of disability studies. SPED lacks the challenge of the social model of disability which is seen in DSE.
Inclusive Classroom is a term used within American pedagogy to describe a classroom in which all students, irrespective of their abilities or skills, are welcomed holistically. It is built on the notion that being in a non-segregated classroom will better prepare special-needs students for later life. In the United States, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 guaranteed civil rights to disabled people, though inclusion of disabled students progressed slowly until the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, after which almost half of US students with disabilities were soon in general classrooms.
Disproportionality in special education refers to the unequal representation of certain demographic groups in restrictive placement and discipline, particularly in the United States' public school system. Disproportionality is often displayed as the under- or overrepresentation of specific racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, or culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) groups in special education compared to their presence in the overall student population. A child's race and ethnicity may significantly influence the likelihood of being misidentified as needing special education services, raising concerns about fairness, equity, and the potential impact on students' educational outcomes.