Library / Glossary / The context glossary
Inclusion, diversity and special educational needs glossary
28 terms from C07, Inclusion, diversity and special educational needs — each defined in the primer's own words. Every term the primer teaches links to the slide that teaches it.
C07 · Teaching and learning
Inclusion, diversity and special educational needs
“Inclusion is an accessibility checklist.”
Every term below is defined in the words of inclusion, diversity and special educational needs, primer C07 of understanding the context of education, and opens the primer at the slide where it is taught. The whole context glossary holds all of them together.
| Term | Definition | Referred to in | Read further |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | |||
| Acceleration and enrichment | Two ways to serve highly able students, which many programmes combine: acceleration moves them ahead when ready, and enrichment goes broader and deeper while keeping them with their age group. |
| |
| Access arrangements | Adjustments to examination conditions, such as extra time, a separate room, enlarged print or a reader, that let candidates with SEN show what they know without changing what is assessed. In Singapore they are granted by the examinations board (Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board, n.d.). |
| |
| Accommodations and modifications | An accommodation changes how a student learns or is assessed and keeps the goal. A modification changes what the student is taught or expected to learn (Understood, 2025). The difference matters for how results are reported. |
| |
| ADHD | Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a neurodevelopmental condition involving persistent patterns of inattention, hyperactivity or impulsivity that affect daily functioning (National Institute of Mental Health, n.d.-a). Diagnosis is a clinical matter. |
| |
| Allied Educators (SG) | Singapore school staff who work alongside teachers. Allied Educators (Learning and Behavioural Support) are learning support specialists who help students with mild special educational needs (National Youth Council, n.d.). |
| |
| Assistive technology | Any device or software used to increase, maintain or improve what a learner can do, from text-to-speech and screen readers to communication aids. It usually works as an accommodation. |
| |
| Autism | A developmental condition that affects how people interact with others, communicate, learn and behave (National Institute of Mental Health, n.d.-b). Many autistic people see it as part of their identity rather than only a disorder (Kapp et al., 2013). |
| |
| C | |||
| Culturally responsive pedagogy | Teaching that uses students' cultural knowledge and experience as a route to learning. Ladson-Billings (1995) framed culturally relevant pedagogy around academic success, cultural competence and critical consciousness; Gay (2002) developed culturally responsive teaching. | ||
| D | |||
| Dyslexia | A learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling (Rose, 2009). It occurs across the range of intellectual abilities. |
| |
| E | |||
| Early intervention | Help given as soon as a difficulty is noticed, rather than after a learner has fallen far behind or received a diagnosis. The UN committee lists it with support and reasonable accommodation as part of inclusive education (Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2016). |
| |
| G | |||
| Gifted education | Provision for students with high ability or potential, through acceleration, enrichment, grouping or specialised programmes. Singapore is changing its approach from 2024 (Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2024). |
| |
| H | |||
| Human rights model of disability | The view, turned into law by the UN Convention, that barriers within the community and society, rather than personal impairments, exclude persons with disabilities (Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2016). |
| |
| I | |||
| Inclusion and integration | Integration places students with disabilities in mainstream settings and expects them to adjust. Inclusion changes content, teaching, structures and strategies so that all students can learn together (Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2016). |
| |
| Individual education plans | A written plan for one student that sets out goals, the support to be given and how progress will be checked. Their form and legal status vary between systems. | ||
| Interactional view of disability | The view that disadvantage comes from the meeting of impairment and environment, so both the person and the setting can be targets for help (Wasserman & Aas, 2022). |
| |
| L | |||
| Learning support | Help beyond core classroom teaching for students who need it, often in small groups or one to one, and often in literacy, numeracy or behaviour. In tiered systems it corresponds to Tier 2 or Tier 3. |
| |
| M | |||
| Medical and social models of disability | The medical, or individual, model locates the problem of disability in the person. The social model locates it in barriers created by society (Oliver, 1990). Critics argue strong versions of the social model understate impairment (Wasserman & Aas, 2022). |
| |
| Mother Tongue Languages (SG) | The second language Singapore students study alongside English. Studying a Mother Tongue Language is compulsory, with some exceptions (Ministry of Education, Singapore, n.d.-b). |
| |
| Multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) | A system that applies the same layers of help to both academic and behavioural needs, a proactive and preventative framework that integrates data and instruction (Center on Multi-Tiered System of Supports, n.d.). |
| |
| Multilingual learners | Learners who use more than one language in their lives, including those still learning the language of instruction. The term treats their languages as a resource rather than a deficit. | ||
| N | |||
| Neurodiversity | The idea that neurological differences, such as autism, ADHD and dyslexia, are part of natural human variation. The neurodiversity movement challenges the medical model's focus on cause and cure (Kapp et al., 2013). |
| |
| P | |||
| Person-first and identity-first language | Person-first wording, such as "students with disabilities", follows the UN Convention; many disabled and autistic people prefer identity-first wording, such as "autistic student", and no term suits everyone (Kenny et al., 2016). |
| |
| R | |||
| Response to Intervention (RTI) | The best-known form of tiered support: core teaching for all, then targeted and intensive help for students whose progress checks show they need it (Fuchs & Fuchs, 2006). |
| |
| S | |||
| Salamanca Statement | A statement agreed by 92 governments and 25 international organisations in June 1994, which argued that regular schools with an inclusive orientation are the most effective means of achieving education for all (UNESCO, 1994). |
| |
| Special educational needs (SEN) | Learning needs that call for support beyond what is usually provided in class. Definitions and recording rules differ widely between systems, so rates are hard to compare. |
| |
| T | |||
| Translanguaging | The practice of drawing on a learner's whole language repertoire, rather than keeping named languages strictly apart, for thinking, talk and writing (García & Li Wei, 2014). | ||
| Twice-exceptional learners | Students who show the potential for high achievement or creative productivity in one or more domains and also have one or more disabilities (Reis et al., 2014). |
| |
| U | |||
| Universal Design for Learning (UDL) | A framework developed by CAST for building options in from the start, through multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression, with learner agency as the goal (Meyer et al., 2014). |
| |
No term matches. Try fewer letters.
Nearby