chinese dyslexic

Catering for Diverse Learning Needs Reflective Paper 2010106008

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THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

BEd and BEd(LangEd) Assignment Cover Sheet cum Assessment Feedback Proforma

Programme: * BA&BEd(LangEd) Stream: * English Year of Study: * 2 Course Code: EDUC 2003 Student Name: Cheung Wing Yo

Course Title: Catering for Diverse Learning Needs

Student No: 2010106008

Course Teacher: Dr. P. S. Yeung Due Date: 9th May, 2012

Assignment Title: Reflective paper *please delete as appropriate

Student Declaration: This assignment is entirely my own work except where I have duly acknowledged other sources in the text and listed those sources at the end of the assignment; I have not previously submitted this work to this University or any other institution for a degree, diploma or other qualification; I understand that I may be orally examined on my submission. I have read the booklet “What is Plagiarism” (available at http://www.hku.hk/plagiarism/page2s.htm) which gives details of plagiarism, and I have observed all the requirements set out in the booklet. In addition (please tick all that apply):

√I have submitted this assignment to Turnitin, have reviewed the Originality Report, and revised my assignment as necessary to ensure that my work is free of plagiarism.

This assignment includes data from my classroom, such as video and audio recordings of my lessons and copies of student work. The

data is used solely for the purpose of completing this assignment. The school and the students are not identified in this assignment. Where necessary I have used pseudonyms. I will destroy the data upon formal assessment of my assignment and my course grade is endorsed by the Faculty of Education.

Signed: Cheung Wing Yi Date: 9

th May, 2012

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Examiner: Date: ___


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Cheung Wing Yi,Wing

Systematic review on traditional Chinese developmental dyslexia

Abstract

Collating with English counterparts, developmental dyslexia is a relatively new concept among Chinese

(Ho, Chan, Tsang & Lee, 2002). During the past few years, there is an increasing referral numbers for

assessment and support for dyslexia at both the Department of Health and Education and Manpower

Bureau (Lam, 2005). It was estimated that the prevalence rate of dyslexic children in Hong Kong was 10 %

(Chan, Ho, Tsang, Lee, & Chung, 2007 as cited in Zhang, Biggs & Watkins, 2010, p.149). It is definitely

alarming and important for us, teachers, to delve deeper in this learning disability as well as to cater

dyslexic students’ needs even though causes, solution and identification of Chinese reading failure is still

unknown (Siok, 2011a). In this paper, traditional Chinese developmental dyslexia is investigated, possible

teacher accommodations and interventions are elucidated and obstacles faced in Hong Kong context are

also highlighted. At the end, areas for improvement are suggested accordingly.

Definition of traditional Chinese developmental dyslexia

In fact, it is difficult to define dyslexia (CsizÉe, Kormos & Sarkadi, 2010) as it is “manifested by variable

difficulty with different forms of language” (Orton Dyslexia Research Committee, 1994 as cited in Kirk et. al,

2008, p.114) due to “differences in the phonological transparency of different languages” (Ho, Chan, Tsang

& Lee, 2002) and different in degree of severity from surface to deep (Wengang, Shengxi, & Weekes, 2005).

The field has not yet reached a consensus on the definition of this disorder (Ho et. al, 2002).

In this paper, this is defined as “a severe reading disability without deficiency to intelligence, sensory

ability, verbal skills, and motivation and education opportunities” (Siok, 2012) which children encounter

difficulties in three main areas: 1) word recognition; 2) word reading; 3) dictation (Child Assessment Service,

2008).

Reading Acquisition of Chinese

Chinese which is morpho-syllabic (Siok, 2011c) belongs to logographic writing system in which

characters are “based on meaning” (Tan, Spinks, Eden, Perfetti & Siok, 2005) due to irregular

syllable-phoneme-mapping (Siok, 2011c), therefore “phonological short term memory is needed to learn

new characters” (Siok, 2011c). Instead of relying largely on phonological awareness in reading English, the

ability to read Chinese depend on visual-orthographic awareness, writing skills, minor phonological

awareness (Tan et. al, 2005; Ho et. al, 2002). Regarding writing skills, it is common for Hong Kong children

to learn traditional Chinese by spending a lot of time in copying exercises to help memorize new words

(Yang, 2009) and has been a practice used in schools (Siok, 2011c). On the other hand, Hong Kong children

also learn through look-and-say method (Ho et. al, 2002) – learning pronunciation along with the symbols

of characters at the same time. McBride-Chang and Ho (2000, as cited in Ho et. al, 2002) have suggested


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that speeded naming skills become pivotal in this Chinese-reading-acquisition method.

Major characteristics and Educational implications of Chinese developmental dyslexia

Ho et. al (2002) suggested that Chinese-dyslexic-children would suffer from the following multiple

deficits.

Reading-related cognitive skills

Rapid automatized naming deficits (RAN)

Although Ho et. al (2002) supported the “multiple-deficit in Chinese developmental dyslexia” , they

concluded that RAN is the most dominant and prevalent (Wong & Ho,2010) cognitive deficits in

Chinese children with dyslexia. RAN are “thought to index the ability to retrieve accurately and

efficiently phonological information from the lexical store” (Denckla & Rudel, 1976 as cited in Wong ,

Kidd, Ho & Au, 2010) but severity is manifested(Wong & Ho, 2010).

Orthographic deficits

Ho et al. (2002, 2004) indicated another prominent problem encountered by Chinese-dyslexic-children

is orthographic deficit (as cited in Chung, Ho, Chan, Suk-Man & Suk-Han, 2010).

Chinese-dyslexic-children performed less well than average reading counterparts of same

chronological age in Ho et.al (2002)’s orthographic tasks which aimed at assessing their knowledge in

Chinese character structure.

Visual deficits

Gardner’s (1996, as cited in Ho et. al, 2002) Test of Visual-Perceptual Skills was used to test children’s

visual-perceptual and visual-memory-skill. Chinese-dyslexic-children’s performances in the subtests

were relatively weaker than their non-dyslexic counterparts of same chronological age (Ho et. al,

2002). They are prone to encounter difficulties in acquiring visual-orthographic knowledge and

developing a strong orthographic representation of words in their mind (Chung et.al, 2010).

Owing to these cognitive deficits, Chinese-dyslexic-children will have the following major

characteristics and educational implications, which divide into two aspects – 1) word recognition and

reading; 2) writing to dictation, based on Child Assessment Service (2008) and “poor comprehenders”

(Yeung, 2012).

Regarding word recognition and reading, recurrent errors are made by Chinese-dyslexic-children even

after repetitive studies or practices (Child Assessment Service, 2008). Besides, they “cannot read with

fluency and tend to mispronounce words or forget the pronunciation” (Education Bureau, 2010). They also

incline to mix up characters of similar shapes like “毛” and “手” (Child Assessment Service, 2008).

Furthermore, they would read “高興” as “快樂” or “秩序” as “規則” since these words are with similar or


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related meaning (Child Assessment Service, 2008). Finally, they tire easily or even suffer from headache

during reading (Child Assessment Service, 2008). Hence, they need greater efforts to finish reading and

writing assignments (Education Bureau, 2010).

Concerning writing to dictation, they “fail to recall simple words accurately in dictation” (Child

Assessment Service, 2008) even after considerable efforts. Wrong patterns in words (Child Assessment

Service, 2008) also exist, for example, they will “omit or add unnecessary strokes to Chinese characters

when copying” (Education Bureau, 2010). Plus, they may have “reversal errors and mirror writing” (Siok,

2011b), such as “reversal of left-right stroke sequence” (Child Assessment Service, 2008). Besides, they

write “stroke by stroke slowly and in wrong sequence due to weakness in word recognition” (Child

Assessment Service, 2008). Finally, their performance in unseen dictation by listening often has a poorer

result than dictation of memorized passages (Child Assessment Service, 2008) due to their “weak working

memory and slow processing speed” (Education Bureau, 2002) and sequencing and organization difficulties

(Education Bureau, 2002). Comparatively, their oral ability is better than written expression (Education

Bureau, 2002).

Apart from the above, Chinese-dyslexic-children would perform less well than their counterparts of

same chronological age in reading comprehension and both word- and text-level reading-related skills (Chik,

Ho, Yeung, Wong, Chan, Chung & Lo, 2012) as well.

Chinese-dyslexic-children “must cope with recurrent academic failure” (Singer, 2008) and “fluctuating

academic performance” (Education Bureau, 2002), their “learning motivation” (Yeung, 2012) and academic

self-worth(Chapman & Turner, 1995; Harter, 1999; Humphrey, 2002; Linnenberg & Pintrich, 2002; Riddick,

1996; Singer, 2005 as cited in Singer, 2008) is impeded when compared with their non-dyslexic peers (Csizér

et. al, 2010). They “learn with lower efficiency” (Child Assessment Service, 2008) as they “switch off easily”

(Education Bureau, 2002), leading to poorer academic results (Child Assessment Service, 2008).

Unfortunately, these “difficulties [encountered may not only] lead to profound academic problems [but are

also] often associated with behavioral and emotional problems” (Osmond, 1993 as cited in Chung et.al,

2010).

Different manifestations of behavioral and emotional disorder seem to be more frequent among

dyslexic children than among their normally-achieving-peers (Rourke, 1988). Due to their repeated

experiences of failure and frustration (Kirk et.al, 2008, p.125), they “dislike reading, writing and homework”

(Child Assessment Service, 2008). Worse still, they may try to escape by “behaving uncooperatively” (Child

Assessment Service, 2008) to hide their difficulties faced and have “negative self-expectations” (Yeung,

2012), leading to “anticipatory anxiety in the face of new situations even when the situation is not

particularly stressful” (Bender, 2001; Levine, 2003 as cited in Kirk et. al, 2008, p.125). This anticipatory

anxiety will sabotage their success as their self-confidence will be undermined in trying new experience

and become more sensitive and self-defensive. Finally, it leads to erosion of one’s adaptive ability to new

environments or grasping opportunities (Kirk et. al, 2008, p.125) and “low self-image and self-confidence”

(Child Assessment Service, 2008). Another possible culprit is teachers’ misconception of acknowledging


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them as “naughty or lazy before diagnosis” (Child Assessment Service, 2008).

Unfortunately, this emotional context will wield on their social situations (Kirk et. al, 2008, p.125).

They may have poor social skills or having difficulties to interact with peers (Yeung, 2012).

Chinese-dyslexic-children are easily prone to encounter problems in the above areas, ranging from

academic, behavioral and emotional to social, but they do not necessarily possess all. For example, “most

appear to experience no such difficulties in socio-emotional disturbance” (Rourke, 1988).

Teacher accommodation in general education settings’ classroom

According to Education Bureau (2008), “inclusion is concerned with the learning and participation of

all students, not only those with impairments or those who are categorized as ‘having special educational

needs’”. In order to cultivate students’ positive attitudes in supporting students with Chinese-dyslexic,

school should adopt whole-school-approach (Education Bureau, 2002) and characteristics inside to

enhance inclusive learning and cater Chinese-dyslexic students’ needs are discussed in the following. An

appropriate instruction should be based on students’ individual needs (Kirk et. al, 2008, p.128) through

identification of students’ strengths and weaknesses in the first place and choose the appropriate

accommodation and intervention to address the above characteristics and their respective educational

implications.

“Accommodations are changes in the usual manner of teaching that help the SEN students” (Siegel L.,

2008, as cited in Yeung, 2012) and involves changes in instruction, sequence or timelines instead of content

or expected learning outcomes (Nolet & Mclaughlin, 2000 as cited in Yeung, 2012).

Addressing academic difficulties

Differentiated teaching

It denotes that diversified teaching techniques and assistive equipment should be used to cater for

students’ diverse learning (Education Bureau, 2010). Regarding the diversified teaching strategies,

Education Bureau (2002, 2010) suggested that multi-sensory-teaching should be used to enhance students’

memory and their hands-on experience. For example, different colors can be used to highlight strokes or

radicals in Chinese characters (Education Bureau, 2010), “computer-based multisensory learning” (Kast,

Meyer, Vögeli, Gross, & Jäncke, 2007) or reading-word-aloud along with a simultaneous tracing the Chinese

character on sand paper, which involves students’ auditory, visual, tactile and motor memory (Education

Bureau, 2002). Various memory strategies will be beneficial to [dyslexic-student] (Ho & Lai, 1999).

Apart from multi-sensory teaching, teachers should adopt an array of teaching strategies, for instance,

a copy of class notes (Education Bureau, 2002) can be provided in order to reduce the amount of copying

for students-with-copying-difficulties. Besides, teachers can also arrange them to sit near the blackboard or

teachers to boost concentration or facilitate copying when necessary (Education Bureau, 2002).

Furthermore, various learning skills should also be taught to help students-with-comprehension-problem

identify salient point or key words (Education Bureau, 2010). Teachers should not avoid teaching writing to


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this population as they need more practice than their peers to develop fluent writing productivity. Hence,

positive and constructive writing opportunities should be provided for students with dyslexia (Gregg,

Coleman, Davis & Chalk, 2007) even though they may encounter difficulties in writing. Therefore, teachers

can polish dyslexic-student’s writing skills through introduction of “6Ws” or mind-mapping or tree-diagram

(Education Bureau, 2010). After that, teachers should also help students develop self-review-habit to

alleviate writing errors (Education Bureau, 2010). “These students usually respond successfully to

appropriate teaching methods” (Education Bureau, 2002).

Concerning assistive technology, Education Bureau (2010) encouraged the use of computers and

information technology to facilitate students’ learning; for example, utilizing computer-assisted learning

software (Education Bureau, 2002) like replacing pen or paper with word processing software (Education

Bureau, 2010). Other hardware like “textbook and books on Tape, screen reader or allowing them to take

notes on computers during class” (Yeung, 2012) can also help.

Curriculum accommodation

In order to adapt the curriculum, Education Bureau (2002, 2010) suggested teachers to divide tasks

into trivial steps to suit students’ pace and learning capabilities in a structured and sequential manner; or

to “grade curriculum in accordance with the level of difficulty” Education Bureau (2010).

However, there are criticism about “watering down” curriculum which will widen learning gap

between dyslexic-student and their non-dyslexic-peers (Yeung, 2012a). Universal Design for Learning

should be used (Yeung, 2012a). (It will further discussed in Intervention part)

Assessment accommodation

“If the curriculum has been tailored to meet a student’s special needs, the method of assessment

should also be adjusted accordingly” (Education Bureau, 2002). Accommodations are reasonable in so far

as they permit valid assessments of student performance (Fletcher, Francis, Boudousquie, Copeland, Young,

Kalinowski, & Vaughn, 2006) as assessments are “an integral part of the learning and teaching process”

(Education and Manpower Bureau, 2004). Education Bureau (2010) encouraged teachers to adopt

assessment accommodation in three stages – before, during and after assessment.

Before assessment, the scope of dictation materials for Chinese-dyslexic- students should be reduced

and to marking rubrics should also be informed in advance (Education, Bureau, 2010). Besides, excessive

factual recall should be prohibited to demonstrate mastery of the subject content, nor using reading or

writing as a method of assessment” (Education Bureau, 2002).

Due to the “low productivity counts for this population” (Gregg et. al, 2007), additional time allowance

up to 25% is given for dictation, tests or examinations (Education Bureau, 2002) during the assessment. The

presentation or layout of the question paper (Education Bureau, 2002) should be customized, for instance,

highlighting keywords and examples to give clearer instructions or giving enough space for answers etc.

After the assessment, teachers should penalties for poor spelling or poor handwriting should be


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banned (Education Bureau, 2002).

Instead of sticking to these conventional assessment methods, teachers are also encouraged to

consider alternative means of assessments (Education Bureau, 2002), ranging from “means of access to

questions to presenting and scoring responses” (Education Bureau, 2002). The former can be the

permission of reading out questions to students if there is a considerable discrepancy between reading and

reasoning ability (Education Bureau, 2002). The latter allows students to simply underline or encircle the

answers on the passage (Education Bureau, 2002) or “exams in point-form” (Yeung, 2012) instead of asking

them to copy answers (Education Bureau, 2002). Education and Manpower Bureau (2004) even suggested

teachers to verbalize expressions or replace dictation with games.

Finally, homework accommodation should also be administered (Education Bureau, 2010), by

customizing them to students’ needs, like enlarging writing grid (Education Bureau, 2010) for students who

have writing problems.

Addressing social difficulties

Peer Support

Teachers ought to organize circles of peers or buddy programs strategically to this population

(Education Bureau, 2010) to “build on peer support” (Education Bureau, 2002). For example, Big Brother

and Big Sister Scheme help foster interaction with their normal peers to achieve mutual benefits – both

sides’ learning and personal development (Education Bureau, 2002). “Co-operative learning” (Yeung, 2012)

is advocated to alleviate the threat from comparing among peers or even teasing which may wield on

dyslexic-student’s self-esteem (Singer, 2008).

Addressing “maladaptive” (Singer, 2008) learning motivation and low self-confidence

Students’ efforts and progress should be valued and build on their strengths (Yeung, 2012) through

positive reinforcement (Yeung, 2012) or allocating them some responsibilities in class (Education

Department, 2002). Besides, teachers may adopt awarding marks for correct answers instead of deducting

marks for wrong answers to help sustain students’ learning motivation (Education and Manpower Bureau,

2004).

Intervention strategies in general education settings’ classroom

“Interventions for reading disorders such as dyslexia may need to be modified for various languages”

(Ehrenberg, 2004). For example, behavioral remediation (Tan et. al, 2005) used for alphabetical languages is

not applicable here. “Interventions are direct teaching addressed specifically to a problem” (Siegel, 2008 as

cited in Yeung, 2012), “direct instruction which has no inferences” (Wong, 2009 as cited in Yeung, 2012),

“compensatory approach” (Deshler, Schumaker, Lenz & Ellis, 1984) and “strategy instruction which make

use of acronym to achieve memory assistance” can help address Chinese-dyslexic-student’s needs.

According to Mather & Goldstein (2001, as cited in Yeung, 2012), there are several steps to adopt


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direct instruction: 1) a well-organized and sequenced manner should be used to present lessons; 2) to start

a lesson by recap of prior knowledge and overview of the lesson, especially for providing an accurate

elucidations and demonstrations of learning objectives; 3) adopt step-by-step strategy in presentation of

materials and initial demonstration through task-practice; 4) recurrent chances are given to students to

consolidate their skills through application; 5) checking students’ understandings through urging students

to elicit responses from questions.

Compensatory approach allows teachers to use “non-traditional methods of presenting content”

(Deshler et. al, 1984), for example, allowing the use of assistive technology like using computers to type

instead of writing.

Strategy instruction can also be used. For example, Hughes &Suritsky (2003) suggested an acronym

“TREE” to help elementary students in writing (as cited in Yeung, 2012). This strategy instruction has been

found as an evidence-based practice for improving comprehension (Jitendra, Burgess & Gajria, 2011).

“Think aloud” (Davey, 1983 as cited in Yeung, 2012) strategy is also useful in facilitating reading

comprehension – a series of questions are taught to help monitor dyslexic-students understanding while

they read by observing teacher to verbalize the strategies he/she adopts.

Apart from the above intervention used by teachers, IDEA (2004 as cited in Kirk et. al, 2008, p.113)

introduced Response to Intervention (RTI) for schools to help identify students with learning disabilities. In

order to implement a more comprehensive RTI, UDL should be embedded as suggested by Basham, Israel,

Graden, Poth & Winston (2010). The UDL framework guides teachers through pedagogical steps are

incorporated with RTI (Yeung, 2012a).

Students in general education settings belong to Tier I which entails “universal screening and progress

monitoring, evidence-based practices and effective instruction” (Kiok et. al, 2008, p. 129). Universal

screening and periodic progress monitoring are useful in general education settings to check on the needs

of students (Compton, Fuchs, Fuchs, & Bryant, 2006 as cited in Kirk et. al, 2008). A clear goal should be set

to help teachers determine the choice and application of the flexibility inherent in UDL learning materials

beforehand (Yeung, 2012a). To facilitate effective instruction, it should be individualized (Yeung, 2012a) in

responding students’ needs (Kirt et. al, 2008). For example, reading intervention is found to be most

effective when dyslexic-students in small groups or on a one-to-one basis (Hatcher, 2003). Assessing

progress not only helps measure students’ advancement (Yeung, 2012a) but it also helps teachers

determine whether students conformed to his/her expected learning outcomes and he/she may use this

progress to measure the feasibility of overall learning objectives (Kirk et. al, 2008). However, this

evidence-based practice is implemented effectively through teach-parent-collaboration by incorporating

unique insights and knowledge of parents (Cook, Shepherd, Cook, & Cook, 2012).

However, the above accommodations and interventions may not be applicable to all

Chinese-dyslexic-students as they “will have a unique profile and will need an educational environment

that can address these differences” (Kirk et. al, 2008, p.128).


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Possible challenges in Hong Kong context

An array of hurdles is faced by all concerned parties when inclusive education is incorporated in Hong

Kong mainstream schools (Leung & Mak, 2010).

Apart from dyslexic-student, teachers may not have robust knowledge about

Chinese-developmental-dyslexiia due to limited training of curriculum design of inclusion (Leung & Mak,

2010). “Many teachers also reflected that their training in special education was insufficient” (Lian, 2004;

Sin, 2007 as cited in Leung & Mak, 2010). In fact, Leung & Mak’s study (2010) clearly showed that many

teachers are motivated to be benefited from related training. Another research showed that Hong

Kong’s teachers may know more about legislation and policy concerning inclusion or even equip with

increasing levels of confidence in becoming inclusive teachers (Forlin & Chambers, 2011), but these fail to

alleviate their “ perceived stress about having students with disabilities in their classes” (Forlin & Chambers,

2011). According to Gwernan-Jones, & Burden (2010), even though teachers may have confidence or desire

to help, due to inadequate training provided, their motivation to help will soon be diminished. Worse still,

teachers’ un-preparedness will impede students’ desire to go to school (Chan, 2005b as cited in Leung &

Mak, 2012).

Challenges encountered not only by in-service teachers but also pre-service teachers. Implementing

inclusive education offer chances for hand-on application experiences to work with dyslexic-student, which

has arouse some pre-service teachers’ awareness of need. Unfortunately, it heightened their concerns

rather than ameliorating their attitudes towards inclusion (Forlin & Chambers, 2011). Pearce & Forlin,

(2005) denoted that inclusive education training for pre-service teachers nowadays emphasize on primary

but not for inclusion in secondary schools” (as cited in Forlin, 2007).

Parents may question teachers’ teaching method (Ray, Pewitt-Kinder, & George, 2009 as cited in Yeung,

2012c). It sabotages the establishment of a positive and collaborative relationship among these two parties

(Yeung, 2012c).

On top of that, Lo (2007) criticized that no one in Hong Kong’s educational field seems to be eager or

enthusiastic about advancing inclusive education, evidenced by government’s hesitate and indeterminate

implementation of inclusive education policy (Lo, 2007) and few Hong Kong schools participated in

Integrated Education Project account (Lo, 2007).

Suggested rooms for improvement

In order to address the undermining motivation and insufficient training for in-service teachers, school

administrators help promote enrolment in registered professional training courses on one hand such as the

“Advanced Course on Catering for Diverse Learning Needs” (Hong Kong Institute of Education 2008) as

suggested by Leung and Mak (2010) to facilitate a better understanding in inclusive education.

Gwernan-Jones & Burden (2010) also suggested extending Postgraduate Teacher Training to include an

induction year involving various extra modules for a Master’s degree qualification should incorporate

further training in ways to help pupils with learning difficulties in general and dyslexic difficulties in


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particular. On the other, it is also vital for schools to encourage teachers to understand the importance of

increasing and deepening their learning (Leung & Mak, 2010).In view of this, schools should alleviate

teachers’ workload to allow them to have more free time to engage in continuing education on this topic

(Leung & Mak, 2010). Moreover, there should be a wider “variety of training activities available for

educators” in Hong Kong (Leung & Mak, 2010), such as organising visits and placements as a myriad of

activities can provide meaningful insights to the participants.

In order to alleviate challenges faced by pre-service teachers, training could start from pre-service

level (Forlin & Chambers, 2011), for example, in a course called Catering for diverse learning needs is

provided in University of Hong Kong is provided as an introductory course. Mentorship programs from

experienced in-service inclusive teachers so as to “ensure long-term support for teachers and in providing

continual and appropriate professional learning (Forlin & Chambers, 2011). Moreover, the establishment of

a “collaborative and systematic effort between universities and educational systems” (Forlin & Chambers,

2011) are very vital as it guarantees “a cohesive transition from undergraduate teacher preparation to

become a competent and effectively trained inclusive teacher” (Forlin & Chambers, 2011). In turn, a

“sustained development of inclusive education” can be built (Forlin & Chambers, 2011).

To parents, schools should help initiate home–school cooperation by encouraging parents to join

school activities and training, or organise sharing sessions among parents and teachers and encourage

mutual support (Leung & Mak, 2010).

Finally, Hong Kong government should subsidise more funding for educational practitioners who

organise relevant structured courses (Leung & Mak, 2010) and help “promote the idea of inclusive

education by highlighting its advantages to the public” (Leung & Mak, 2010).

Conclusion

With the concerted efforts of the above concerned parties, confounders faced in Hong Kong will be

ameliorated and will turn over a new leaf toward a more inclusive whole-school-approach (Forlin, 2007).


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