Massachusetts Educators Call For Learning-Diversity Paradigm
Wednesday, June 04, 2014
McDonald and Riendeau have published their proposal in a paper titled, "Disability, Difference, Diversity: A Copernican Revolution in Learning."
Eagle Hill School
Founded in 1967, Eagle Hill School is an internationally known college-preparatory boarding school that educates students with learning diversities, including Attention Deficit Disorder and Dyslexia, in grades 8-12. McDonald serves as headmaster while Michael Riendeau is assistant headmaster for academic affairs.
Three paradigms of learning
McDonald and Riendeau compare and contrast the three paradigms of learning. The "learning disability" paradigm makes evident the assumption that disabilities exist within individuals. They cite the definition of learning disability of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which suggests that learning disabilities are disorders of "basic psychological processes." By definition, psychological processes occur within individual minds (or brains). As a result, disorders to those psychological processes occur within individuals. IDEA's so-called "exclusionary" definition notes additionally that if difficulties can be traced to environmental, cultural or economic disadvantage, then they should not be considered evidence of a learning disability.
Values individuals
McDonald and Riendeau call on America to move toward the vision of an educational paradigm that values individuals.
"In practical terms, we think this means beginning to think and speak in terms of learning (dis)abilities, emphasizing what students can do rather than what they cannot do," McDonald and Riendeau state. "In taking this approach, we will be winking to each other and our students as we stare into the face of IDEA and educational reforms that take the form of high-stakes testing. In effect, we will need two languages: one, for the courtroom; and one, for the classroom."
"Continuing to use what we have-for the good of students-while we work toward what we think is ideal, seems to us both possible and positive," McDonald and Riendeau conclude in their paper. "Allowing our fear of losing what we have, to keep us from what we might make for ourselves in the future, seems pessimistic. We must look energetically forward to a learning-diversity paradigm that demands that we consider each student not in terms of an idealized, objectified norm, but in terms of his or her own abilities, hopes, and dreams."
Related Slideshow: New England Colleges With the Best Undergraduate Teaching
U.S. News & World Report released a survey conducted in 2013 of college administrators on the best schools for undergraduate teaching. Several New England made their lists for best National Universities, Liberal Arts Colleges, and Regional Universities. See which schools made the lists in the slides below:
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