Promoting Social Acceptance

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Promoting Social Acceptance

• With greater emphasis
• on inclusion, general
• education teachers are
• expected to make
• provisions for students
• who have difficulties with
• social interactions.

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Promoting Social Acceptance

• Attitudes and feelings of the peers, teachers,
  and parents of classmateshave tended to be
• unaccepting.
• Negative effects of not being accepted not only
  impacts self-concept but also school performance.
• (Act Read assigned case on p. 141. Indicate
  one thing that can be done by the teacher to
  enhance social acceptance of the student.)

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Promoting Social Acceptance

• Students with special needs may be apparent to
  others (visual impairment, wheelchair bound,
  hearing aids) or not (learning disability, mild
  mental retardation, ADD).
• Such students perceptions and school failure -
  social and academic -may lead to withdrawal.
• This withdrawal can contribute to their
  rejection and make it difficult for even the most
  effective and creative teacher to provide an
  appropriate learning situation.

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POOR SOCIAL SKILLS Among Students with Special
Needs

• Results from
• Inability to initiate and sustain appropriate
  social relationships
• Fail to develop social skills due to fewer
  friends
• Difficulty with social cues
• Act Read research excerpts on p. 142.

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GENERAL EDUCATION TEACHER ATTITUDES

• Labels may lower teacher expectation - at least,
  initially.
• Teachers make fewer praise statements, ask fewer
  questions, and provide less feedback - especially
  for boys.
• Teachers perceive these students as less
  desirable (NCLB issue).
• Some teachers feel they have a lack of training.
• Former special education practices focused on
  removal.
• Challenges come from ALL parents - some are
  overprotective.
• (attitudes of the teacher have a significant
  effect on the attitudes of students in the
  class.)
• How might any of these attitudes be changed?

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ENHANCING SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE

• Information dissemination - videos, simulations,
  and peer tutoring (See Inclusion Tips, p. 145)
• Recognize similarities among all students
• A difference is only a difference when it makes
  a difference.
• Preparation of general education students for
  inclusion (See p. 145-6)
• Preparation of special education students for
  inclusion - direct instruction of skills
• Prepare parents for inclusion

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DATA COLLECTION

• Teacher/parent interviews rating scales
• Sociometric measures - Nomination, Rating Scale,
  and Paired-comparison techniques
• (Nominations method - See Table 6-1 Read p.
  147)
• it is important to note that although they
  provide an overall measure of the acceptance of
  students, they do not identify specific behaviors
  of skills that require intervention. (p. 147)
• Self-concept, attitudes toward school, peer
  relationship measures (See Figure 6-1)

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DATA COLLECTION

• Direct observation - Select a target behavior and
  count
• For example, frequency of positive statements
  made by teacher to the student with special needs
  or the number of social interactions between the
  student with disabilities and peer in general
  education (p. 147)
• -or- a student may be observed participating in
  an instructional group and then rated on a number
  of classroom behaviors (e.g., The student attends
  to the teachers instructions? The student raises
  his or her hand before responding? The student
  maintains eye contact when talking to the
  teacher?) (p. 148).
• Social Environmental Checklist (Read excerpts
  from figure 6-2)

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PROMOTION OF SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE - PROVIDING
INFORMATION

• Inform students about disabilities directly or
  via research by students - see www.kotb.com
• Have persons with
• disabilities visit class.
• Simulate a disability.
• Read a story (See
• inclusion tips on
• p. 151-2).

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PROMOTION OF SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE - COOPERATIVE
LEARNING

• Provide for cooperative learning which is
  superior to to both competitive learning and
  individualistic learning
• Not only is academic success increased but the
  social interactions involved promote the
  development of the social skills of the student
  with disabilitiesand their acceptance by peers
  in general education (p. 153).
• See Gottlieb Leyser steps for teacher.

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PROMOTION OF SOCIAL ACCEPTANCESome Cooperative
Learning Approaches - p. 154 Aim is to reduce
student isolation and perceived hostile climates
that exist in highly competitive classrooms.
Student Teams-Achievement Divisions(STAD) - Mixed
groups, learn information, individually tested,
greatest pretest-posttest gain receives
recognition. Cooperative Integrated Reading
Composition (CIRC) - Mixed pairs use basal
readers and focus on reading and written
expression. Teacher instructs groups whil pairs
work on related tasks. Testing when students
feels teammate is ready. Jigsaw - Individuals
share information with 5-6-member teams,
Individual performance on collected information
is evaluated. Benefits of Cooperative Learning
Reduces one person doing all the work Individual
learning is evaluated Even low achievers can
improve/contribute Public recognition is
motivating.
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PROMOTION OF SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE - ECOURAGE
FRIENDSHIPS TUTORING

• Encouraging friendships outside of class can help
  build social skills.
• Teachers can arrange for these experiences or
  reinforce them when they naturally occur.
• Specifically trained general education students
  who serve as peer or cross-age tutors have
  produced academic and social gains.

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PROMOTION OF SOCIAL ACCEPTANCESocial skills are
best developed through direct instructional
procedures, following the same principles
academic instruction.

• Teacher describes why skill is needed, how skill
  is performed, when it is to be used, and what its
  specific components are. Teacher uses prompts,
  praise, and corrective feedback during each step
  (pp. 155-6).
• Programs like Walker Social Skills Curriculum
  (ACCEPTS) have advantages because they have been
  field tested and require minimal amount of
  preparation by teachers.
• Cognitive training includes presenting
  self-instruction steps, anticipation of
  outcomes - problem solving, data collection -
  self-evaluation, and reinforcement for successful
  performance - self-reinforcement.

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PROMOTION OF SOCIAL ACCEPTANCEGoto Status
Treatments for the Classroom

• If ever you become concerned about how parents
  might treat you, read A parent of special
  students speaks to educators (Figure 6-5).
• OYO Upgrade the Teachers Information and Skills
  (p. 157-8)

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