Recenze: Individualized Education for Children with Disabilities: Theory, Planning, Implementation

Review: Individualized Education for Children with Disabilities: Theory, Planning, Implementation

Tang Shiyuan

The first author of this book is a professor at Chongqing Normal University. She is also known as a professor on the curriculum of special education in China. This book is a summary of the author's experiences and thinking that about the individualized education from theory to practice more than 20 years, including the experiences of practice and exploration in the Center for Special Needs Education and Research, as well as the experiences of teaching the courses of individualized education for special education, and combine with some excellent cases of teachers who are teaching in special education schools or rehabilitation institutions. The Center for Special Needs Education and Research started in March 1993 under Professor Zhang Wenjing, the first author of this book. Until now, the center has formulated and implemented an individualized education program (IEP) for more than 1,000 children with disabilities. The 2nd Edition of this book is revised on the book of Individualized Education and Teaching for Children with Disabilities published in 2005, and some new achievements gained from the author's last ten years of individualized education have been added.

As the title shows, this book provides three parts with eleven main chapters, systematically summarizing the development and practice of individualized education in China from the theory, planning and implementation.

The first part is about the theory and contains four chapters, including the overview of individualized education, the psychological and sociological basis of individualized education, the curriculum theory and growth of individualized education, and the theories and methods of educational evaluation. The first part traces the history of individualized education, introduces and discusses some essential concepts about individualized education, individualized education program (IEP), individualized supports plan (ISP), individualized education curriculum theory, formulation of the new curriculum, development of the curriculum, and educational evaluation, etc.

First, the author presents the origin of individualized educational thoughts in the classical educational thoughts in ancient China. We can learn about Confucius' idea of" instruction knows no class distinction"(more than 2,000 years), the idea of "cultivate the advantages to make up the defects" (from the excellent classic papers on education in ancient China), the thoughts of founding Nantong Blind and Mute School (one of the earliest special education school in China), etc.

Secondly, we can learn about the background, influence, and problems of individualized education in special education in China and the development of individualized education in China from introduction, doubt, and familiarity to consensus formation. Until now, individualized education has become an active pursuit in the field of special education in China. It has become one of the crucial ideas in some country's laws and regulations in China, such as the "Outline of the National Medium- and Long-Term Program for Education Reform and Development (2010-2020)", "National Curriculum Reform Plan for Special Education" and "Regulations on Education of Persons with Disabilities (2017)".

Thirdly, when the author introduces the sociological basis of individualized education, she emphasizes that special education is not only we help, support, or serve those children with disabilities, or give them more than we got, but we also receive as well as we give. We got the emotions from the children, including the experience of frankness, directness, and honesty. According to these experiences, we will think about our lives and lifestyles, take the children as a mirror to correct or understand ourselves, and cherish life and love life more. Just as a special educator said, "The people who benefit from interacting with children with intellectual disabilities are ourselves. It seems that we are teaching them, but they are teaching us. They teach us kindness, humility, and forgiveness."

Fourthly, the author selects practical cases carefully to interpret the theories and methods of educational evaluation and promote the understanding and mastery of theoretical knowledge. This phenomenon runs through all the chapters which involve theoretical application in this book.

The second part is about the planning and contains four chapters, including the educational evaluation and individualized education program, the term master plan, the design of Individualized teaching activities, reevaluation for individualized education. Based on the implementation process of individualized education, the author presents the theories and practices, such as how to perform educational evaluation (write a report and results from analysis), make individualized education program and term master plan, design the Individualized teaching activities, etc. We can learn about the special educators' understanding and practical abilities in China from these cases in this book. The author shows a student's IEP as one case for Chapter 5 to present a complete example for educational evaluation and IEP. In addition, a large number of cases (including reports, pictures, forms, etc.) are from the practices in the Center for Special Needs Education and Research, where the authors worked. The reader can notice and obtain examples quickly.

The third part, also the last part of this book, is about the implementation and contains three chapters, including individualized education in integrated education，related services，families. The author shows the implementation situation in different aspects, such as school management, teacher training, and the construction of particular education majors. We can learn about the needs and significance of educational rehabilitation in mainland China and the opportunities and challenges of expanding the courses of related services. We should strengthen the cooperation of special education and related services (AT, speech therapy, counseling services, etc) inside and outside the school and got the multi-disciplinary and cross-professional team to provide services for students with disabilities.

This book can be regarded as a representative work to understand the development of individualized education in China. However, this book also has few shortcomings, such as some of the discussion is relatively brief.

In conclusion, the book provides valuable material for teachers, students, parents, researchers, and others interested in individualized education. It links useful scientific research findings with teachers' work. Teachers can find inspiration here not only about the theory but also from the practical examples. Moreover, this book's ideas can help improve teachers' work and reduce their workload. The book is used as the textbook for special education majors in many colleges or universities in mainland China.

Literatura

[1] Wenjing, Zhang. - Xiaoqin, Yan. Individualized Education for Children with Disabilities: Theory, Planning, Implementation. 2nd Edition. Chongqing, TX: Chonqing University Press, 2020. ISBN 9787568919302. 

Kontaktní informace / Contact information

Tang Shiyuan

Department of Special Education, School of Education, Chongqing Normal University (CNU)

NO. 37, University Town Central Rd, High-tech District

401331 Chongqing

China

272430720@qq.com