Recently, a group of educators from Kazakhstan visited Palm Beach Atlantic University (PBA), immersing themselves in a week-long education training conference for students with special needs. From March 31 to April 4, the conference included seminars with special education experts, licensed clinical psychologists, non-profit organizations, and visits to several different schools in Palm Beach County where the educators were able to observe how educating students with special needs is done in traditional classrooms in the United States of America.
“It is a really remarkable thing that is happening, and it might sound bizarre because it is unique” said Lisa Smith, PBA’s Education Program Coordinator. “In the United States, we do a really good job with children who have cognitive or physical disability… they can be placed in traditional classrooms… However, the country of Kazakhstan does not do that, and children who are diagnosed early on with some kind of cognitive or physical disability become separated from those in traditional classrooms.”
She explained that Kazakhstan wants to change that. The government is now involved and taking measures to learn how to educate students with special needs and implement strategic programming.
Equipping Teachers with Practical Strategies
PBA’s conference focused on equipping the Kazakh teachers with strategies for knowing how to identify and teach students with special needs, supporting parents of both traditional and non-traditional learners, and integrating special needs students into traditional classroom settings.
Dr. Marcia Bedasse, dean of PBA’s School of Education and Behavioral Studies, spoke several times at the conference, providing those in attendance with professional development tools as well as a plan of implementation. She answered questions such as, “How do you assess students with special needs? How do you manage behaviors when there are many children in your classroom and two of them have special needs? How do you plan classes?”
“On a practical front, if you have a portion of your population that’s not being educated well… then you are setting yourself up for high crime and for people who are not functional and cannot contribute to the well-being of the society,” Dr. Bedasse explained. “From a personal and a Biblical standpoint, every person has worth. Each person has something to contribute.”
Global Impact Through Shared Learning
Zhulduz Tergeussizova, one of the Kazakh educators from the city of Astana, spoke about the impact the conference had on her and the other teachers.
“Our country has a lot of challenges related to inclusion with students with special needs,” she said. “Our teachers have been able to learn how to provide support for each diagnosis… I am so grateful that we brought our teachers to the United States. We have seen the culture of the United States and how society accepts students with special needs… I hope when we go back, we can implement all of this knowledge into our system.”
A Long-Term Partnership
Dr. Bedasse said she sees this conference as the beginning of a longer journey. Her desire is to walk alongside the people of Kazakhstan as they learn to educate students with special needs well.
“My hope is that this would be a continued partnership,” she said. “Just as we do with our students with special needs, we will walk alongside them until they are able to develop enough traction to run on their own… the Kazakh educators’ eyes have been opened, and they see the possibilities. They are willing to take on the work, and I think they left PBA feeling empowered.”
To learn more about PBA’s School of Education and Behavioral Studies, click here.
