Joyful learning: using active and collaborative strategies in the inclusive classroom

In today's classroom, teachers are required to present curriculum in such a way as to ensure that all learners in the class meet the prescribed learning outcomes. As the range of diversity of the needs of students increase due to larger class sizes, class composition and lack of resource staff, the classroom teacher is faced with the challenge of meeting the needs of all learners. The purpose of this research was to plan, implement and evaluate active and collaborative learning strategies to engage all students within the classroom, with an emphasis on identified challenged students. The question is: Through implementation of a variety of active and collaborative strategies, will the participation and on-task behaviour of students increase? This research was completed in two phases. During Phase I in which active learning strategies were integrated into lesson planning for a four week period, indications of increased student engagement was observed. In Phase 2, both active learning strategies and cooperative learning strategies were integrated during planning for Social Studies and Science classes. Observations and test results during the three month term suggest that integration of these strategies did indeed increase on-task behaviour of learners during the activities. However, the main benefit of the strategies implemented was that the activities provided the teacher the opportunity to observe, assist and assess the learning of all students within the classroom. --P. ii.