New book from Crane faculty associate supports learning together by students with, without disabilities
Ensuring that students with disabilities meaningfully engage with students without disabilities is an important part of a child’s healthy development and the goal of inclusive education. Dr. Matthew Brock, an associate professor of special education at Ohio State and a Crane faculty associate, provides strategies to foster that engagement in his recent book It Isn’t Inclusion Without Peers: Supporting Students With and Without Disabilities to Learn Together.
Brock is an internationally recognized expert in special education and has studied peer-mediated interventions in the context of inclusive classrooms. In the book, Brock sets forth strategies to use in the classroom, during recess, and through student-to-student tutoring to deepen the interactions connecting students with disabilities, and their peers without disabilities. Having these students in the same educational space does not necessarily create meaningful interactions, since students with disabilities might spend most of their time talking and engaging with support staff rather than building social connections with peers.
Clearly, being in the same physical space does not automatically translate into meaningful engagement with peers. Students with significant disabilities will experience the full benefits of inclusion only when strategies are in place to promote positive interactions and cooperation with peers.
Brock’s book, which was published in August, is part of the Norton Professional Books series, Inclusive Education for Students With Disabilities.