Index for Inclusion in Instructional Practice at Elementary Schools
Juang Sunanto
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Elementary school, Inclusive classroom, Index for inclusion.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to measure index of inclusion of the inclusive classrooms in elementary schools
and to examine the teachers’ attitude, perception, and concerns toward the inclusion of children with special
needs in the regular education classrooms. This study used concurrent mixed methods. The participants were
10 elementary school teachers deliberately selected from schools identified as actively implementing inclusive
education programs. The inclusion index was measured through an observation and the teachers’ attitude,
perception, and concerns toward the inclusion of children with special needs were collected through a focus
group discussion. The results revealed that index of inclusion in inclusive classrooms at elementary schools
had not been optimal yet with average of inclusion index amounting to 38.58 of ideal index 48. Teachers have
a positive attitude towards inclusion of children with special needs in regular classrooms. In addition, teachers
have perception that inclusive education is the same as education for persons with disabilities or special
education. Some of the teachers’ primary concerns were implementing different teaching methods, choosing
instructional content to meet the needs of all students, and helping from specialist teacher to handle students
with special needs during instructional practice in the classroom.
1 INTRODUCTION
The Salamanca declaration in 1994 with a
commitment to Education for all brought the idea of
Inclusive education to the forefront of the
International scenario. According to the declaration,
inclusive education means the inclusion of all
children in all class-room and out-of-class room
activities, which implies that all children should have
equal opportunities to reach their maximum potential
and achievement, regardless of their origin and
abilities or disabilities, and regardless of their
physical, intellectual, social, emotional, or linguistic
differences (UNESCO, 1994; Stubbs, 2002;
Frederickson and Cline, 2009).
Implementations of inclusive education at
elementary schools have reported by only few
(Sucuoglu, Akalin, and Pınar, 2014). Hence,
questions on how far its implementation in Indonesia
should get attention. Some researchers investigated
implementation inclusive education in elementary
schools, for example, Lee et al. (2010) and Berry,
(2010) investigated implementation of inclusive
education in elementary schools. Thurlow et al.
(1984) and Golis (1995) investigated the instructional
characteristics of inclusive classrooms. However,
there were few studies regarding to evaluation of the
implementation of inclusive education in schools
during instructional process.
The main problem of this study was to explore
issues concerning with how to evaluate values of
inclusive education happened in instructional
processes at elementary schools. Therefore, this
study was carried out using descriptive study and the
purpose of the study was to measure index of
inclusion of the inclusive classrooms in elementary
schools and to investigate the teachers’ attitude,
perception, and concerns toward the inclusion of
children with special needs in the regular education
classrooms.
2 METHODS
This study used concurrent mixed methods to
measure index of inclusion and to examine the
teachers’ attitude, perception, and concerns toward
the inclusion of children with special needs. The
participants of the study were ten elementary school
teachers. There were five teachers of elementary
private schools and five of those public elementary
schools. They were six female and four male teachers
508
Sunanto, J.
Index for Inclusion in Instructional Practice at Elementary Schools.
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences (ICES 2017) - Volume 2, pages 508-512
ISBN: 978-989-758-314-8
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ranging in age from 35 to 55 years. The teachers were
selected from ten elementary schools in Bandung City
which were identified to actively implement inclusive
education programs.
The data were collected through observation and
focus group discussion. An observation guide
developed by Centre for Studies on Inclusive
Education (Booth and Ainscow, 2002; Booth,
Ainscow, and Kinston, 2006) was used to measure
index of inclusion in the process of instruction. The
index of inclusion is a number showing how far
inclusion practices occurred in instructional
processes. To measure the index, the participants
were asked to teach three different subjects in the
inclusive classrooms. During teaching-learning
process, the participants were rated by using the
observation guide consisting of sixteen indicators.
Each indicator was rated using a scale from 0 to 3.
The score of 0 indicated less inclusiveness where the
inclusive instruction was not at all identified.
Meanwhile, the score of 3 showed greater
inclusiveness where the inclusive instruction was
clearly identified. The total score ranged from 0 to 48.
In addition, a focus group discussion was used to
investigate teachers’ attitudes, perceptions, and
concerns toward inclusion of students with special
needs. There were ten questions were used in the
discussion.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figure 1 is index of inclusion achieved in the
instructional process of ten classes at elementary
school. The data shows that the highest index of
inclusion is 45.6 and the lowest is 28 with average
37.16 of ideal index 48. Index of inclusion is a
number that shows the inclusiveness happened in an
instructional process in the classroom. Therefore, a
class that has a high index of inclusion indicates that
the values of inclusiveness much happening in the
instructional process in the classroom. Index of
inclusion in the class 7 is higher than in other classes.
It indicates that the values of inclusivity in class 7
appeared more often than in any other class.
Inclusiveness occurring in an instructional process is
highly dependent on the performance of a teacher
who is doing instructional. Inclusiveness performed
by teachers during the instructional process in a
classroom can be influenced by many factors, such as
attitudes of teachers towards inclusive education, the
experience of teachers to deal with the children with
special needs, the ability of teachers to manage
classes and others.
One of the characteristics of the inclusive classroom
is that teachers are able to manage a class effectively
and all students can participate in the learning
process. There are several key practices that were
important contributors to meeting the needs of all
students in inclusive school, for example, teachers
have high expectations for behavior of all students
and students with special needs are supported as a
natural or ordinary part of support that is provided for
all students (McLeskey, Waldron, and Redd, 2014).
Figure 1: Index for inclusion for each class and average.
Figure 2 shows that index of inclusion of a class
that has 2-3 students is 45.5 while a class that has 4-5
students is 35.5. Index of inclusion of classes with
more number of children with special needs is lower
than those of less number of children with special
needs. It indicates that index of inclusion increased as
a result of the number of children with special needs
in a class decreased. Teachers will face some
difficulties to manage students’ behavior when there
were many students with special needs as well as
students without special needs in the classroom.
Vaughn (1996) mentioned one of several aspects
which might cause teachers difficult to improve
inclusiveness was the large number of students with
special needs in the class.
Figure 2: Index for inclusion as a function of number of
students with special needs in each class.
Index for Inclusion in Instructional Practice at Elementary Schools
509

Figure 3 shows index of inclusion of a class have
same or less than 25 students is 45.4 while a class that
has 25 students or more is 29.85. This data reveals
that a class with more students cause inclusion index
becomes lesser. In the classes having much number
of students, the main teachers of inclusive classroom
are not able to pay attention to the regular students as
well as students with special needs optimally.
According to Odongo and Davidson (2016) there
were some important issues identified in their study
regarding large class sizes, teacher training, student
needs and resources are particularly important for
inclusive practices to be successful.
Figure 3. Index for inclusion as a function of total number
of students in each class.
Figure 4 shows index of inclusion of a class that
have teacher assistant more than 3, 3, and 1 to 2 is
45.6, 39.4, and 32.56 respectively. It indicates that
the existing of the teacher assistant in the inclusive
class could increase inclusion index. It should be
noted that inclusive education would best be achieved
if appropriate supports were available to assist the
teachers and learners in inclusive rooms (Kristensen,
Omagor-Lican, and Onen, 2003; Dupoux, Wolman,
and Estrada, 2005). Collaboration between the
mainstream and the special education teachers is
important and that there should be a clear guideline
on the implementation of inclusive education. When
implementing inclusive education in regular
classrooms, teachers are confronted with various
problems that require many types of support. Teacher
assistant or specialist teacher, resource teachers and
resource rooms are one emerging form of support
services in regular schools (Xiaoli and Olli-Pekka,
2015).
Figure 4. Index for inclusion as a function of number of
teacher assistant in each class.
In general, the teachers have a positive attitude
towards inclusive education. It is believed that
teachers and their attitudes toward inclusion are very
important variables in the implementation of
successful inclusive practices (Avramidis and
Norwich, 2002; Parasuram, 2006). Teachers who
have favorable attitudes toward inclusion generally
believe that students with disabilities belong in
general education classrooms, that they can learn
there, and that the teachers have confidence in their
abilities to teach students with disabilities (Berry,
2010).
In general, an elementary school teacher has
perception that inclusive education is the same as
education for persons with disabilities or special
education. Actually, inclusive education was the
education that providing appropriate responses to the
broad spectrum of learning needs in formal and non
formal educational settings (UNESCO, 2003). It
indicated that achievement of an inclusive education
system is a major challenge facing countries
throughout the world (Meynert, 2014; Elton-
Chalcraft, Cammack, and Harrison, 2016).
The data shows some of the teachers’ primary
concerns were implementing different teaching
methods, choosing instructional content to meet the
needs of all students, and helping from specialist
teacher to handle students with special needs during
instructional practice in the classroom. In the
inclusive teaching-learning practices, most of regular
teachers face challenges with respect to the diversity
of characteristics, abilities, and learning needs of the
students, because they do not have competence to
handle students with special needs. It believed that
inclusion is more likely to be successful when the
class teacher takes a central role in the teaching-
learning process. In addition, the outcomes of
inclusion are strongly influenced by the ways in
which the specialist teacher works together with the
class teacher (Sam Fox and Davis, 2004).
ICES 2017 - 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences
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In many countries, there is an increasing
educational trend towards full inclusion, meaning that
every child, disabled or not, should be taught in a
regular classroom. The need to provide learning
environments that respond to individual differences
has been a longstanding concern. Index of inclusion
is one way to evaluate the implementation of
inclusive education in schools during instructional
process. The present study evaluated the inclusive
index using 18 observational items developed by
Ainscow so that there were some inclusivity values
during the teaching-learning process could not be
revealed. Additional research is needed to develop
observational items of the inclusive index. Moreover,
future investigation should use comprehensive
observational item more suitable with the condition
of teaching learning in Indonesia.
4 CONCLUSION
Indexs of inclusion achieved by the elementary
schools amounting to 38.58, whereas ideal inclusion
index is 48. It shows that achievement of index of
inclusion in the instructional practice can be
influenced by number of student with special needs,
total number of students, number of teacher assistant,
and teachers’ experience in attending training on treat
children with special needs. In general, the
elementary teachers have a positive attitude towards
inclusive education and they agreed that inclusive
education should be implemented in the elementary
schools. Some of the teachers’ primary concerns were
implementing different teaching methods, choosing
instructional content to meet the needs of all students,
and helping from specialist teacher to handle students
with special needs during instructional practice in the
classroom.
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