Assessment Task 3 and 4

CHARACTERISTICS OF AN INCLUSIVE SCHOOL

CHARACTERISTI
C
Effective
Leadership

DESIGN TARGET

THEORY

SIMPLE RULES

Comprehensivenes
s Effective adoption
Emergent Feedback
Theory

SchoolLevel
Schema
Simple
Rules
Embedded
design
Similarity
at Scale
Emergent
Feedback
Dispersed
Control

Family and
Community
Involvement

Emergent Feedback
Theory

Embedded
design
Dispersed
Control

Clear and Shared

Focus

School-Level
Design for SchoolLevel Influence
Emergent Feedback
Theory

SchoolLevel
Schema
Simple
Rules
Embedded
design
Similarity
at Scale

Recognise and
celebrate student
individuality; value
and utilise taskrelevant
experience,
encourage staff to
take on leadership
roles, and find ways
of building
consensus without
sacrificing critical
thinking (Ainscow,
2003, p. 5).
We believe that that
all have a
responsibility to
educate students,
not just the
teachers and staff,
but families,
businesses, social
service agencies,
and community
colleges/universitie
s (Shannon &
Bylsma, 2007, p.
119).
We as a school are
committed to
inclusive education
and believe that all
individuals with
disabilities have a
right to be included
in naturally
occurring settings
and activities with
their peers, siblings
and friends
(Foreman, 2008).

Professional
Development and
Feedback

Professional lives
Emergent Feedback
Theory

SchoolLevel
Schema
Simple
Rules
Embedded
design
Emergent
Feedback

Supportive
Learning
Environments

Professional lives
Emergent Feedback
Theory

Embedded
design

We see
professional
development as
essential to
improvement,
allocate time for
staff development
activities and
emphasise that
classroom
partnerships display
strong
characteristics of an
inclusive school
(Ainscow, 2003, p.
5).
Our school creates
learning
environments which
are safe, civil,
healthy and
intellectually
stimulating; where
students feel
respected and
connected with the
staff and are
engaged in learning
(Shannon &
Bylsma, 2007, p.
107)

Assessment Task 3: Why they are important.

Comprehensiveness must be ensured by the leaders within the school.
Gaps found in professional development, curriculum support, feedback, and
school-level design must be monitored (Bain, 2007, p. 24).
Effective adoption Leadership plays a vital role in promoting inclusive
education through decision-making, self-evaluation methods, school-level
data analysis, lobbying, and awareness raising (Bain, 2007, p. 30).
School-Level Design for School-Level Influence To embrace inclusive
education, school-wide reform must provide direct, detailed design
intervention at the school organisational level (Bain, 2007, p. 29). This must

include a clear and shared focus that all staff members engage and believe in
order for it to be a success.
Implementation Integrity For inclusive education reforms to be successful,
schools need to demonstrate that inclusive practices have been implemented
and sustained with integrity over time (Bain, 2007, p. 33). Frequent monitoring
of learning and teaching is one way of ensuring this, however, this also needs
to be embedded in all other characteristics.
Professional lives for school to completely embrace inclusive education, it
must deeply affect the professional lives of teachers and the totality of the
school community (Bain, 2007, p. 27).
Emergent feedback, refers to the capacity of a design to monitor and
manage its implementation and effects and to work out its successes and
problems as they occur (Bain, 2007, p. 25), This should be a key design
target of every characteristic. It should be used to work out what to do next,
and inform decision-making processes (Bain, 2007, p. 26).
Assessment Task 4: Theoretical Principles
School-Level Schema is defined as a commonly held set of professional
understandings, beliefs and actions about teaching and learning (Bain, 2007,
p. 44). It is linked with aspects such as effective leadership, clear and shared
focus and communication and collaboration which enables the development
of a shared language within the school community, allowing members to
problem-solve, provide feedback, and share perspectives in professionally
meaningful ways (Bain, 2007, pp. 46-47).
The schema should be used to provide a set of regularities, common rules,
(and) protocols within these areas (Bain, 2007, p. 44). School-level schema
links to characteristics such as frequent monitoring of teaching and learning,
professional development and feedback, and curriculum, instruction and
teaching practices.
Simple Rules are designed to drive the form and function of the school (Bain,
2007, p. 48). They are linked to many characteristics of the inclusive school
because they act as a powerful source for self-organisation (Bain, 2007, p.
48), and should guide actions within these areas.

Embedded Design involves schools embedding their beliefs, values, and

actions about teaching and learning in every part of the organisations design
(Bain, 2007, p. 49), and is therefore connected to every aspect of the table.
The creation of simple rules and embedding them within each characteristic,
allows for self-repeating patterns (Bain, 2007, p. 50). This enables teachers to
become familiar with the pattern language about teaching and learning
necessary for self-organisation (Bain, 2007, p. 51).
Similarity at Scale, involves the schema being represented similarly in the
roles of agents and groups at different levels in the school (Bain, 2007, p. 52),
should have a significant role in numerous parts of the design, particularly in
areas such as communication and collaboration and problem solving
Emergent Feedback, is a critical aspect, supporting and promoting a network
of continual exchange among individuals, that holds each person responsible
for the success of the system (Bain, 2007, p. 53). Emergent feedback also
aids teachers to develop their skills and capacities (Bain, 2007, p. 54),
strengthening a self-organising system.
Dispersed Control is of vital importance in attaining a bottom-up, selforganising approach (Bain, 2007, p. 55). It is incorporated into areas of
leadership, family and community involvement, and teaching arrangements as
team members at every level are required to pool their collective intelligence
(Bain, 2007, p. 55) in building an inclusive environment.