Mitacs | carolineinchina

Mitacs Globalink

“Special Education and Student Support in Canada Compared to China” Abstract

Accommodations are an essential part of education for students with differing needs. In order for many students to reach their full potential and to succeed in education, there are a variety of different accommodations that the Canadian school system provides to help support all students. This study will explore how the Chinese education system supports students with special needs, compared to the Canadian education system. This research is contextualized in Dr. Shijing Xu’s Reciprocal Learning Program between University of Windsor and Southwest University China and Xu and Connelly’s larger SSHRC Partnership Grant Project. According to Xu and Connelly (2013-2020), their research takes as its starting point the idea of a global community in which ideas, things and people move between countries and cultures. This research in conjunction with the larger partnership project will provide an understanding of the differences and similarities that exist between how the Chinese and Canadian educational systems support students with disabilities. Through observing student success as a result of different forms of individualized education this research aims to gain understanding of effective support for students with special needs.

The aim of this study is to understand the similarities and differences that exist between the Canadian and Chinese support for students with special needs in high school classrooms. High school students are the focus of this study because they are at the stage in schooling where students take final exams, and are placed in a big school managing multiple subjects. The goal of this research is not to determine which country has the better system for students with disabilities, but rather to explore both systems and to see what either country can learn from each other. Looking at student success as a result of different forms of individualized education will help to gain understanding of effective support for students with special needs.

Experiences to Contribute to my Research:

66364114_2197764393868902_34255532582974

At first I thought collecting information on my research topic was going to be challenging because there were very few students with visible disabilities in the classes. Soon after getting to Chongquing I started to see different children that were in the typical school systems that had disabilities such as Autism. I attended two different Skype meetings on Special Education where I was a part of deep conversations with the teachers about how to support and accommodate. Another way I collected information was through informal conversations with teachers about differing ability levels in their classrooms. Additionally, I had conversations with students studying to become special education teachers. This was interesting because I found that many of them did not have a passion for working with children with disabilities like I do, but rather they were in the program because their grades were not high enough or because they wanted to avoid giving the students huge standardized tests. One really helpful school visit was in Chendu when we went to a special school that had a school for the deaf, blind and mental disabilities. This was so amazing because I got to interact with the students at this school and really understand how special schools support their students.

Skype Call on Special Education

During my time in China I went to two different Skype meetings with the topic of special education. These Skype meetings involved the Chinese school Skype calling the teachers back in Windsor to discuss how our different countries implement special education. This was probably the most constructive opportunity for me to collect information for my research. Comparing how the two countries implement special education is essentially my thesis, so the Skype call fit my research perfectly. It was really cool to see the Chinese teachers asking questions to the Canadian teachers about how they accommodate and the formality that they follow, as opposed to the Chinese teachers informally accommodating students who need additional support. I loved listening to the different cases that the Chinese teachers were experiencing in their classrooms, and having the Canadian teachers explain how they would approach that situation. During this Skype call I was taking notes constantly, and hopefully this will greatly benefit my paper.

67229164_489131008515512_666659470437882