Reform, Inclusion and Teacher Education

This ground-breaking book considers current perspectives on special education reform in the Asia-Pacific region. It has a major focus on a new era of special education, and how this relates to education reform towards inclusive education.
With major changes being proposed under current educational reform and confusion as to how to instigate these measures, this book provides ways to better prepare teachers. It is helpfully divided into three different sections of education reform:



"Education Reform in the Asia-Pacific region" reviews broad trends and issues in special education across the region, including Taiwan, Korea, Australia, India, China and Hong Kong.


"Preparing Teachers to work in Inclusive Classrooms" focuses on curricula and pedagogical practices for teacher education. This section considers different approaches to preparing teachers such as cross-categorical, collaborative, innovations, and the impact of teachers’ attitudes, perceptions and concerns on inclusion.


"Effective Special & Inclusive Practices" draws upon evidence–based research to provide best practice models to assist in developing inclusive school communities.

Each section addresses a list of objectives and questions; suggests best practice pedagogy; and concludes with a support section with useful websites and suggested professional development activities. This book will interest teachers, teacher educators, university lecturers in education and post graduate students.

Chris Forlin is Head of Special Education in the Department of Educational Psychology Counselling & Learning at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.
Ming-Gon John Lian is the Director of the Centre for Advancement in Special Education (CASE) at The University of Hong Kong.

Introduction Section 1: Education Reform in Asia 1. Contemporary trends and issues in education reform for special and inclusive education in the Asia–Pacific region - Chris Forlin and Ming-Gon John Lian 2. Education reforms in special education - Wu-Tien Wu, Yong-Wood Kim and Adrian Ashman 3. Collaboration in the era of inclusion - Anuradha Naidu 4. Meeting new challenges of special education in China - Jiacheng Xu Section 2: Preparing teachers to work in inclusive classrooms 5. Education reform for inclusion in the Asia–Pacific region: What about teacher education? - Chris Forlin 6. Preparing early childhood teachers to work with young children with disabilities - Hsin-Yi Wang 7. Training of special needs officers in Singapore to support inclusion - Kaili Chen and Kenneth Poon 8. Teachers’ attitudes, perceptions and concerns about inclusive education in the Asia–Pacific region - Chris Forlin, Mei-Lan Au and Stella Chong Section 3: Effective special and inclusive practices 9. The challenge of raising student levels of achievement in an inclusive national curriculum - Keith Humphreys 10. Promoting inclusion in the primary classroom - Richard Rose 11. The inclusive secondary school teacher - Michelle Pearce 12. The changing roles and responsibilities of school principals relative to inclusive education - Umesh Sharma and Ishwar Desai 13. General classroom strategies to enhance the inclusion of students with learning difficulties - Bruce Knight, Lorraine Graham and Anne Bellert 14. Including children with autism in the culture of play with typical peers - Pamela Wolfberg 15. Including students with attention–deficit hyperactivity disorder and autistic spectrum disorders - Neil Humphreys 16. Transition for students with disabilities - Gilson, Christie and Ming-Gon John Lian 17. Inclusive education as a catalyst for special educational reform in the Asia–Pacific region - Tim Loreman