Thank you everyone for your contributions to the Week 2 discussions. Here are a few things which I noticed as being important. Feel free to add any that you think I have missed.
1. Policies. It is clear that internationally there are some good intentions towards inclusive education, expressed in policies, but that those policies are not always implemented effectively.
2. Teaching very large classes is seen as the greatest issue many of you, making involving all learners and tracking individual progress, difficult. There is not 'magic bullet' - but things that can help, include: identifying potential group leaders, so you can explain a task to them and they each lead a group of 10 students; focus on a few students each lesson, but make sure that over time, you (in a week? if you are a primary school teacher) speak to all children individually; plan your teaching carefully; look for clues that tell you how the lesson is going; use pair work and open questions to break up a long exposition; focus on resources that are locally.
3. There is much agreement that LCE requires proper planning and that this can be an issue for teachers who have taught for a long time and are used to teaching the same thing each year.
4. There is an interesting debate about whether LCE is culturally appropriate. There is a significant literature on this - questioning what pedagogies are suitable in different contexts The stance that we take on this course is that LCE is not a set of particular approaches, but rather a frame of mind - one which means that the teacher always considers the learner perspective, and that that is transferable as it is in keeping with the UN Rights of the child philosophy
Please add anything other ideas that you picked up from week 2!
Kris