Special Education
There does not seem to be an author listed, but the page is from "Facts on File," on the Issues and Controversies page from the Lancaster Bible College library.
Why this website is credible: It is on a database which is supported by the LBC library. The author's name is provided, along with citations and a bibliography.
Reflect: I think that this is a great article for my topic. It provides me with a good base, by giving background information on the issue and its history. It is a big help because it shares pros and cons of both sides of the argument and provides plenty of statistics and percentages for my research.
Summary:
The article starts off by giving a background knowledge of the argument, giving a quick look at the two different ways to approach the issue. The author talks about how in 1975 a special education system was put in place (called IDEA) and how it brought more special needs children into the mainstream school system, which was a shift from the prior trend of separating the special needs kids from the rest. IDEA created a way for parents and teachers to work together so that they could form the best "least restrictive environment" method for their child. The article goes on to state that there are many public-schooled student in the US who are in enrolled in special education and a lot of government funding goes into these programs. It moves on to verify the pros of mainstreaming special needs children. He argue's that both the non-disabled and the disabled will be able to learn and be influenced by each other, and will gain understanding in the present and also for later on in life. He believes that mainstreaming will help to better train the teachers and it is simply the right of the student to have the option of being placed in school with everyone else. After asserting the benefits of mainstreaming, the author moves into the concerns being raised on this issue. Many think that it is simply illogical. Special needs students have too many needs that they just cannot possibly be met in a "normal" classroom setting. Mainstreaming can also bring a lot more tension into the lives of the all the students. The author concludes by emphasizing the growing trend of mainstreaming, and although there are some legitimate questions and concerned being raised, mainstreaming seems to offer the "least restrictive environment" for students across the board.
Issues and Controversies is a wonderful source to turn to when you need a clear summary of the pro and con arguments that surround your topic, so I think the selection of this source was a good one. I'm looking forward to you posting a revised phase 2, so I can comment more effectively on how suitable sources are to your research purpose and audience.
ReplyDeleteAs for your credibility statement, I think the citations and the bibliography are great credibility indicators. And, I presented the Issues and Controversies database to the class specifically as a credible database. I will offer the reminder that databases do cover a wide range of sources; you're more likely to find a credible source in a database rather than through a google search. Just don't forget that there are varying levels of sources within databases, ranging from newspaper articles written to general audiences all the way to scholarly journals with more reference material than many of us would read in a year :-) Also, you note that there was an author for the Issues and Controversies source, but a specific author is not named. You are relying on the reputation of the organization to make a credibility decision for this source.
For your summary portion, I can see that you took each section of your original source into consideration as you were writing the summary. You were able to eliminate the specific statistics and examples that were not necessary to include as you sought to give the main points of the article to your readers.
I can't say for sure without seeing your revised phase two, but I'm guessing that the pro/con elements of the source were the most valuable to enhance your research, so those are the sections that the summary should cover more in depth. On the pro side, I think you caught all of the arguments by including at least a phrase about them in your summary. The con side didn't quite get equal treatment; you left out the pressures on the teacher and the criticism that schools only maintain a high percentage of mainstream students to help them meet standardized test expectations. Those issues could be potential angles on the topic that will become significant as you continue your research.
Overall, you are definitely moving in the right direction. I look forward to seeing what else you are going to discover as you pursue this topic. I still think this topic is a great fit with your interests for the future because if you pursue physical therapy, you certainly might wind up working with students who have special needs and with parents and teachers who are trying to make decisions about the appropriate learning environment for the child.