Inclusion

Inclusion refers to the placement of children in heterogeneously grouped, regular education classrooms. Inclusion has an implicit philosophical commitment to promoting diversity in all of its forms and to the assertion that the best education occurs when children of all varieties are taught together. Placing children who have been identified as gifted and talented in a classroom with peers who have not been so identified and with peers who are disabled means they are in an inclusion-type classroom. Inclusion classrooms offer the typical general education curriculum in a regular education classroom. Sometimes inclusion is used to describe multiage, mixed-grade [Page 449]classrooms. Such classrooms may or may not meet the definition.

Inclusion has its roots in the field of special education and the concept of least restrictive ...