Since the vast majority of classrooms worldwide include students with different learning styles, abilities, interests, needs, and also specific learning difficulties, educational systems should adapt and create learning environments in which all students develop and progress according to their abilities and potential. The present chapter, based on bibliographic references, suggests the implementation of inclusive education in mixed-ability classrooms to support the needs of students with specific learning difficulties and to achieve the inclusion and participation of all students in the educational process. The creation of inclusive classrooms, in which all students participate, acquire knowledge, and achieve their personal learning goals, requires employing differentiated instruction practices and innovative educational processes and methods. Teachers having received appropriate training can guide students throughout a most productive, creative, and fulfilling learning process by addressing their learning difficulties and ensuring their participation.
TopDefining Mixed-Ability Classrooms
A mixed-ability or a heterogeneous class, as it may be called, is a class that includes students of various cognitive levels, needs, and skills. It accommodates students with different learning styles, prior knowledge, attitudes, strengths, and weaknesses (Mirani & Chunawala, 2010). Taking into account that no class has students of the exactly same cognitive level or with the same needs, lacks, skills, and interests mixed-ability classrooms should be considered a norm in educational systems worldwide (Al-Subaiei, 2017; Chapman & King, 2003). Therefore, homogeneous classes do not actually exist, and all classes could be considered heterogeneous. Significant differences have been reported in the students’ cognitive levels, weaknesses, strengths, and approaches to learning in mixed-ability classes (Al-Subaiei, 2017; Ansari, 2013).
Multiple factors may affect learners’ performance, attitude, and level of achievement which constitute the main reasons for the existence of mixed-ability classrooms (Al-Subaiei, 2017; Ansari, 2013). Students’ multiple learning styles and intelligence are a main characteristic of mixed-ability classrooms since there are students who are either visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learners (Al-Subaiei, 2017; Chapman & King, 2003). The students’ cognitive level and aptitude may also differ as well as whether the students act and perform in a more or less autonomous manner (Northcote, 2006). The students’ cultural background, domestic or social environment, personality traits, psychological state, experiences, or even behavioral problems may also affect their performance in class and their attitude toward learning. Consequently, students’ participation, motivation, and concentration may also be factors indicating a mixed-ability class. However, apart from all the above circumstances that constitute the most common grounds for the existence of mixed-ability classrooms the fact that students with SLD attend general classrooms is itself an element that determines the heterogeneous nature of classrooms worldwide and the present chapter will focus on the inclusion of such students in the learning process.