Actual aspects of tutoring in inclusive education

Abstract

The article discusses the changes in the role of the tutor of inclusive education in the formation of an individual education route for students with special needs in the open educational space.

Full Text

According to the World Health Organization, there are more than one billion people in the world (23% of the world's population) who have a disability; among them almost 200 million people have serious dysfunction. In Russia, according to official statistics, almost 12 million people (8.1% of total population of the Russian Federation) had a status of disabled [1]. However, taking the expanded definition of disability specified in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2006, in Russia more than 30% of the population has functional health limitations, which corresponds to the quantitative indicator in the countries of the European Union.

People with disabilities around the world show lower health rank, lower educational achievement, less active work life and higher levels of poverty than their normally developing peers. This is due to the fact that people with disabilities face barriers that limit access to health care, education, employment and information.

To achieve successful economic development in the long term, indicated among the goals of the Millennium Declaration [2], one of the fundamental provisions is the empowerment of persons with disabilities; reducing barriers that limit their participation in society; accessing to a quality education; decent paying job.

Inclusion as a process of full integration of people with disabilities in the social life suggests that a person's disability does not limit his or her social activities and studying. The social importance of inclusive education is recognized as the fact that society includes people with disabilities in the educational process, regardless of their social, economic and physical condition. For example, at the international and national levels, social policy to people with disabilities is regulated by the Declaration [3] and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities [4], the Constitution of the Russian Federation [5] and the Law on Education of the Russian Federation [6].

The development of the inclusive education’s practice ensures the observance of the persons with disabilities rights and the quality education’s availability. More and more of these people are studying on various level of educational institutions (from school to university), as social adaptation and education is more effective in an environment of typically developing peers.

The pandemic provoked rocket changes in the education system, where both teachers and students of various education levels were involved - this is a pervasive process of digitalization, a massive transition to digital learning formats and a change in the usual model of communication between a teacher and students. These changes set a number of tasks for the entire education system: increasing the mobility and flexibility of the educational environment; changing the system of interaction "teacher - student", where the student takes an active position, comprehending his own experience, evaluating and justifying his beliefs and values; a personalized education route, in which the student himself makes an independent conscious choice of the direction (track) of his/her learning from a variety of possibilities.

In researches on the new education architecture noted that “on the part of the leaders of the educational process, there are already and will be developed tools for determining an individual learning style (cognitive traction), the pace of work on tasks, the student’s involvement in learning, and so on” [7]. The main role in the individual educational track formation is assigned to the tutor, can also be as a consultant, mentor, curator.

The profession of a tutor has existed since 2008 [8] and was mostly interpreted as a teacher’s assistant in mastering the educational program for students with disabilities, depending on their capabilities (physical and mental).

The Russian scientific and pedagogical community has proposed several concept interpretations of "tutoring" and "tutor" (E.A. Aleksandrova, G.A. Gurtovenko, S.I. Zmeeva, T.M. Kovaleva, E.B. Kolosova, N.V. Rybalkina, P.G. Shchedrovitsky, S.A. Shchennikov, S.A. Famelis, etc.), which indicates the need and demand for both the concept of pedagogical support and the interest in the tutor as a profession.

The Tutor is a pedagogical position ensures the development of individual education programs for students and accompanies the process of individual education at school, university, additional and continuing education [9].

Today, when the trend towards personalization of education plans and tracks has settled in state education strategies and documents, and the position of a tutor has officially appeared in the standard of teaching professions, a social order has been formed for students with special educational needs’ tutoring. It should be noticed that tutoring support is one of the most important conditions for the transition to the inclusive form of education.

There are contradictions between the formation of an open education space, changes in the tutor functions (from helping students to master the education program to personal support for the individual education track implementation in the open education space) and the lack of tutors’ professional training system for inclusive education.

Theory and practice of tutoring support for inclusive education formed two main positions: a tutor as a specialist in education track supporting and supporting the student with special needs in the education process considering individual health abilities. Tutoring support for students with special educational needs is based on two approaches: in the context of individualized education and in the context of an individual approach to the student.

Today, the educational system in the Russian Federation listens to the request of the student with special educational needs, his representatives; provides options for an alternative choice of education track for students with special educational needs; provides a wide range of educational services, training programs for students with special educational needs. The individualization of the education track becomes the main principle that ensures such characteristics of the education system. The main task of a tutor as a specialist in supporting a student with special needs is to design an open education space that takes into account the educational interests and initiatives of the student, the effectiveness of the socialization process. Therefore, the professional activity of the tutor will be directed to the formation of a conscious choice of studying, its comprehension; in the choice of various forms of the educational process. The tutor, within the framework of his professional functions to accompany a student with special educational needs, forms an educational environment according to his individual needs and characteristics; reduces the difference between the level of studying load, given by the training program and the real capabilities of the student.

The tutoring support model includes stages: the formation of a resource base; execution; evaluation and formation of new resources. This model involves tutor support for a student with special needs: preliminary, adaptation stages, assistance and evaluation of results [10].

The stage of resource formation includes: collection and analysis of information about a student with special needs and his social environment; adaptation of the education program according the capabilities of the student; selection of resources for the socialization of the student (special courses, electives, events, etc.).

The implementation stage includes: the formation of comfortable relationships with the social environment; implementation of an adapted education program; organization of the student’s life in the educational organization and outside it.

The stage of assessment and formation of new resources includes: collection and analysis of new information about a student with disabilities and his social environment; reflection and new design.

The development of the tutoring model in Russia requires the development of a professional training system for tutors of inclusive education.