International trends in the education of students with special educational needs
Over-representation of Students from Low Socio-economic Families
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- 5.4 Summary
- CHAPTER SIX
- 6.1 The Architecture Of The Brain
- 6.2 The Executive System
- 6.3 Emotions and the Brain
5.3 Over-representation of Students from Low Socio-economic FamiliesElsewhere, the writer reviewed the literature showing that poverty has a negative impact on child development (Mitchell, in preparation). He noted that the deleterious effects of poverty on child development have been well established in research, with poverty identified as being among the most powerful risk factors for development (Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 1997). For example,, children exposed to poverty have poorer cognitive outcomes and they are at higher risk for antisocial behaviors and mental disorders (Yoshikawa et al., 2012). As noted in a recent review by Bruce & Venkatesh (2014), Fujiura & Yamaki (2000) in their analysis of the National Health Interview Survey data from 1983–1996, correlated growing US childhood poverty rates with increased rates of disability identification. Similarly Delgado & Scott (2006) found that poverty-related factors such as low birth weight, prematurity, and low maternal education were related to higher levels of special education referral in the US. Living in poverty means living in impoverished neighborhoods where poor schooling and exposure to violence is more likely, creating additional risks for a disability (Suarez-Orozco, 2001). Further, children from lower socio-economic backgrounds are more likely to attend under-resourced schools with teachers who are not as well qualified, and they are more likely to be denied participation in the most academically challenging programmes, putting them at risk for eventual identification of a mild disability (Harry & Klingner, 2007; Parekh, et al., 2011; Skiba et al., 2008). A recent US study showed that poverty in early childhood has a negative impact on brain development at school age (Luby et al., 2013). Children were assessed annually for 3 to 6 years, during which they were evaluated on psychosocial, behavioral, and other developmental dimensions. There were two major findings: first, poverty was shown to be associated with smaller white and cortical gray matter and hippocampal and amygdala volumes, and, second, the effects of poverty on hippocampal volume were mediated by caregiving support/hostility on the left and right, as well as stressful life events on the left. These brain regions, involved in memory, stress regulation and emotion processing, are known to be sensitive to environmental stimuli. The authors noted that poverty is strongly associated with a number of risk factors implicated in poor developmental outcomes, such as unsupportive parenting, poor nutrition and education, lack of caregiver education, and high levels of traumatic and stressful life events. This study is consistent with other research that found a smaller hippocampus and amygdala in 5- to 17-year-old children living in poverty (Noble et al., 2012). Another study similarly found that lower SES was associated with smaller hippocampal gray matter volumes in a small sample of healthy 10-year-old children (Jednoróg, 2012). For further reviews of the impact of poverty on brain development, see Lipina & Colombo, 2009). These findings go a long way to explaing the over-represenation of children from low-SES homes in special education. 5.4 SummaryDisproportionality, or disproportionate representation, is generally defined as the representation of a particular group of students at a rate different than that found in the general population. There is an irony in considering over-representation to be a problem if students are purportedly gaining the advantage of special education. There is clear international evidence of disproportionality of students from ethnic minority backgrounds in special education. However, some caveats have been entered regarding the evidential basis of ethnic disproportionality– at least that coming out of the US. The consistent overlap of race and poverty in the US has led some to suggest that race is simply a proxy for poverty and that ethnic disproportionality in special education is in large measure an artefact of the effects of poverty. However, the evidence suggests that where poverty makes any contribution to explaining disproportionality, its effect is primarily to magnify already existing racial disparities. There is an extensive literature on how schools can prevent underachievement and failure at the school level, thus obviating the need for special education placement. There is clear international evidence of a gender imbalance in the incidence of disabilities, special education enrolments and academic achievement. Since the 1960s, the overall male to female ratio in special education has been between 2:1 and 3:1. Some writers portray the gender imbalance as reflecting either or both an over-identification of males and an under-identification of girls. In addressing the question of the over-representation of males in special education and the corollary phenomenon of more underachievement among boys, a range of reasons have been advanced. These include: biological factors unacceptable behaviour patterns peer influences learning strategies under-identification of girls school factors ethnicity students’ age Educators should recognise that, in general, boys are biologically at higher risk than girls for certain disabilities and should accommodate their teaching to take any associated learning difficulties into account. Poverty has a negative impact on child development and is associated with a higher prevalence of some disabilities. In the case of students whose special educational needs are more clearly associated with environmental factors, schools should carefully evaluate their policies and procedures to deal with these factors. Schools and those responsible for assessing students’ needs for special support should re-examine their criteria to ensure that problems that girls may have are not overlooked. CHAPTER SIXDEVELOPMENTS IN NEUROSCIENCEThe brain, with its 100 billion nerve cells, is the seat of our mental faculties, regulating our bodily functions, as well as performing such higher functions as language, reasoning, and memory (OECD, 2007). The burgeoning and highly promising field of neuroscience must be considered here, albeit briefly. For more in-depth explanations of neurobiology, see the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Stein (2012), Hudson, et al. (2007), and Fischer (2009). This chapter will outline the architecture of the brain and the functions of its various regions, the executive system, the relationships between emotions and the brain, the brain and disabilities, and brain differences between the sexes.
The hindbrain comprises the upper part of the spinal cord, the brain stem and the cerebellum, or little brain, as it is sometimes called. The latter is responsible for learned rote movements, such as playing the piano or hitting a ball, skills that require the smooth coordination of movement. Above the hindbrain is the midbrain, which controls some reflex actions and is part of the circuit responsible for voluntary movements. The forebrain, or frontal lobes, comprise the largest and most highly developed part of the brain and consist mainly of the cerebrum, which is the home of our intellectual activities – our memories, our executive system (see below) our imagination, our reasoning, and our thinking. The Broca’s area, located in these lobes, is important for the transformation of thoughts into speech and language. The cerebrum is split into two hemispheres, which, although they are joined and communicate with each other, have different specialisations. The left hemisphere seems to be responsible for forming words, while the right hemisphere seems to control many abstract reasoning skills, as well as visuo-spatial analysis, emotional sensitivity and expression, and non-verbal communication. It must be noted, however that these differences are not absolute and that females have less marked hemispheric specialisation, with more communication between the two hemispheres. In the rear portion of the frontal lobe is a motor area, which helps control voluntary movement. The parietal lobes are responsible for integrating sensory information, linking language to memory, and determining spatial sense and navigation. The forward part of these lobes contains the sensory areas, which receive information about temperature, taste, touch, and movement from the rest of the body. The occipital lobes process images from the eyes and link them with images stored in memory. The temporal lobes, located under the parietal and frontal lobes, have several functions. The top part processes information received from the ears, the bottom part has a crucial role in forming and retrieving memories, while other parts seem to integrate memories and the sensations of touch, sight, sound, smell and taste. The limbic system is a complex set of structures that lies on both sides of the thalamus, just under the cerebrum. It includes the hypothalamus, the hippocampus, and the amygdala. It appears to be primarily responsible for our emotional life, and has a lot to do with the formation of memories. For example, the hippocampus sends memories out to the appropriate part of the cerebral hemispheres for long-term storage and retrieval when necessary. The basal ganglia is responsible for initiating and integrating movements. Clearly, if for any reason any components of the brain are not functioning optimally, a person’s capacity to learn will be affected. These reasons could be genetic or environmental. Research is increasingly helping us to understand the underlying causes, suggesting ways of preventing or remediating them by targeting each learner’s strengths and weaknesses. Neuroscience is giving us fruitful leads to follow, a situation that will undoubtedly improve in the future. We now know that the developing brain is incredibly plastic and adaptable so that neighbouring and connected parts of the brain are able to assume some or most of the functions of damaged or malfunctioning areas (depending on the age of the person and the degree of damage). It does this by strengthening very weak pre-existing connections among the synapses in the brain and by making new connections to surviving structures, as well as by weakening or eliminating other connections through ’pruning’. This process of rewiring is most active in the first several weeks after an injury. We also know an increasing amount about two related principles of brain development, namely that ‘neurons that fire together, wire together’, and ‘use it or lose it’. The first of these refers to the synapses between two neurons being strengthened if frequent connections are made. The second recognises that the main function of a neuron is to connect with other neurons, either close by or at greater distances; unless this happens, it will be removed (Stein, 2012). Finally, we also know that there are sensitive periods when certain types are learning are optimal, when the brain is primed to engage with certain types of stimuli. For example, for sensory stimuli such as speech sounds and for certain emotional and language experiences, there are relatively tight sensitive periods – hence the importance providing appropriate experiences in early intervention (OECD, 2007). But there is not one critical period. Different parts of the brain have different critical periods and they last for different length of time. For example, critical periods for higher thinking and control functions can extend well into the late teens and early twenties (Merzenich, 2012).
The executive system carries out its functions by receiving messages from our ‘motivational headquarters’. In turn, the executive system can activate our motivations. It also receives information in the form of feedback provided by external sources such as educators and from our own evaluations of our behaviours Perhaps most important of all, it directs our selection of strategies. It also monitors and regulates our attention. The executive system is increasingly important as development proceeds. Various studies have shown that there is a positive relationship between executive functioning skills and literacy acquisition in English (Altemeier et al., 2008; Welsh et al., 2010) and Chinese (Chung & McBride-Chang, 2011). There is some evidence, too, that Asian children, particularly from Korean and Chinese societies, are better than Western children in executive functioning, at least in preschool years (Sabbagh et al., 2006; Oh & Lewis, 2008).
How we feel about something can be just as important in determining what we remember as what we think about it. This is especially so with children whose brain regions that process emotions (the limbic area) are generally more advanced than the regions responsible for thinking (the prefrontal cortex) (Sousa, 2009). Further, when we feel positively about something, the chemicals endorphins and dopamine are activated. Endorphins elicit feelings of euphoria, while the neurotransmitter, dopamine, stimulates the prefrontal cortex, keeping us attentive and increasing the likelihood of remembering an experience. On the other hand, negative feelings release the hormone cortisol, which puts the brain into survival mode so that it can deal with the source of stress, which in turn distracts it from the task in hand. If a learner is stressed, information is impeded from passing through the affective filter in the amygdalae, which are part of the limbic system located in the brain’s temporal lobe (Sousa, 2009; Willis, 2007). Emotion has the ability to enhance or impair the amygdala’s long-term memory storage. Thus, the ‘Goldilocks principle’ applies: not too much and not too little emotion will facilitate arousal and, hence, memory.
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