With the introduction of the Ministry of Education’s SE2000 initiatives, the role of the RTLB has changed dramatically. ‘Clusters’ of schools were allocated itinerant RTLB’s on a ratio of 1:750. Clusters had a degree of autonomy in the management, allocation and service delivery models of the RTLB’s.

The basis of the new service delivery from RTLB’s was that they would change from providing a traditional 1:1 “remedial” type approach in a withdrawn situation involving special needs pupils (the deficit model) to working with teachers to identify and change the classroom dynamics to better meet the requirements of special needs pupils.

RTLB’s have moved away from working with children, to working with teachers.

The philosophical basis of the new approach is inclusion – working with the teacher to take ownership and responsibility to meet the needs of all the children, within the room. The assessment basis is one of ecological and holistic assessment – looking at all the factors that are impacting on the child’s present situation. Additionally, another assessment factor is that of reflective practice on the part of the teacher – what works, what doesn’t, why?

The methodological basis involves working with the teacher and class. The RTLB will model and train the teacher and class in a number of inclusive practices – peer tutoring, co-operative learning, reciprocal teaching and collaborative consultation. These represent best practice methodology in classroom management and practice.

The philosophy, assessment and methodology in which RTLB’s have been trained and the model in which they are expected to work, should lead to systemic changes in class and school cultures in the way that the needs of all its pupils are met.

SUMMARY OF R.T.L.B. MODEL
Philosophical Basis
Inclusion
Assessment Basis
Ecological Assessment
Reflective Practice
Methodology Practices
Peer Tutoring
Co-operative Learning
Reciprocal Teaching
Collaborative Consultation
Working with Teachers
Working with School Management
Leading to
Systemic changes in the way the school meets the needs of all its pupils
by changes in the way it does things, the planning and teaching etc.
It is apparent that not all RTLB’s are working in this model and that many schools are unaware or resistant to this new model and still cling to the old deficit withdrawal model a.k.a the ‘magic wand’ technique or the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ approach. Such obsolete methods allow schools and teachers to abdicate responsibility for their special needs pupils to the RTLB. The new method is about ownership and changing the class and school culture. It is about whole class and whole school professional and philosophical development. Why is the old model being perpetuated? Because some RTLB’s, despite their recent training, are clinging to their comfort zones and security blankets and because very clearly the SE2000 message to schools has not been effective enough – schools and principals don’t know what the new inclusive model is about. This situation reflects poorly on RTLB training, the MoE SE2000 information packages and schools and principals.

We have adopted the new inclusive model as a best practice example. The rest of this article will explain how and why it works. The concept was introduced to our school by a new RTLB. She discussed the service delivery model with the principal and then conducted two school wide inservice sessions. The first was a staff meeting outlining the role, the second was a practical workshop on a modeled lesson, “Nobody Owns the Sky’. using the staff members as a class.
The first essentials of the why it worked was the personality and the relationships developed by the RTLB.
There has to be energy, vitality and commitment from the RTLB to “sell” the concept and to explain what it involves and what are its advantages.

The second essential is that the concept needs to be driven by the principal. The principal needs to exercise leadership, to be the leading learner and make a strong commitment to the concept and to whole school development and training.
The principal must drive the concept on a school wide basis.

Following our first staff meeting an invitation was made to staff to be involved in the reciprocal teaching / co-operative learning model. One teacher literally jumped across a staffroom coffee table to be the first volunteer. A strong teaching partnership between the RTLB and classroom teacher became established. Dance and language became the vehicle for the teaching of co-operative learning / reciprocal teaching.

Our professional partnership in the classroom allowed me to model and coach the reciprocal teaching, co-operative learning model based on a novel called ‘Hatchet’ by Gary Paulsen. We danced to Destiny’s Child ‘I’m a Survivor’ because this story reflected the themes of survival. We taught the students to ask their own questions through prediction, clarification, inference, recall and summarizing. As teachers and students we all reflected on our own learning and teaching goals. We built relationships and we celebrated and affirmed the changes in our thinking and social skill levels in our teamwork. We managed to begin developing a level of inclusion and co-operation.
RTLB

The skills critical to this success was the knowledge base of the RTLB, the relationship established, the modeling and the positive observational feedback to the teacher. For the teacher, enthusiasm, open mindedness, risk taking and reflective practice were critical factors.

A decision was made by the principal to extend the model school wide and three classes were timetabled to be involved in the programme. What we learnt from this now appears glaringly obvious. It was soon apparent that one teacher wasn’t ‘ready’ to be involved. Some basic classroom management structures were not in place eg: children used to taking turns, attentive listeners, on-task performance etc. The RTLB programme requires some pre-requisite learning and management features already being in place. There was also some obvious resistance and “excuseology” to the programme.

Where the teacher wants to be involved and is prepared to take ownership, to reflect, synthesis, assimilate and generalize the positive attributes of the methodology and philosophy, then the successful outcomes will be assured.
When the teacher doesn’t want to be involved, then the programme will never work.

What are the benefits of the RTLB inclusive model of service delivery? In our school we adopted the model as part of our professional development. Teachers were upskilled in the concepts of inclusive practice, ecological assessment, reflective practice, peer tutoring, co-operative learning, reciprocal teaching and collaborative consultation. They became more risk taking especially in the integration of dance and drama and art in their programme. They taught co-operatively with the RTLB. They taught in a more holistic way.

Pupils noticed a change in the way they treated each other. They took turns, they listened empathetically, they valued the opinions of others with no put downs and also learned to work co-operatively. Their reflections are enlightening, I include just one:

REFLECTION

Ever since Mrs S was here I’ve been understanding more things and realising, that I have to respect more people’s opinions.

I was too scared to stand up and say it but now my clarifying and teamwork has improved. The cohesion exercise helped me to learn more about my class mates.

I realised after reading ‘Hatchet’ that some people are blocked out of civilization, not just because of a plane crash, but because no one noticed them.

Mrs S got us to realise that we need to bring those students out of their shells, who are too scared to stand up and talk.

At the start of all of this, she mentioned Reciprocal teaching and I was like, O.K, what is that? Then I realised that it is actually a really cool thing that I think everyone should learn.

Group work is so much more fun than it used to be. I’ve been setting myself goals that I know I will pass, like the goals I set at the start of the year.

Do you know, I was never that positive. I was not saying that many nice things about people, but now I do to everyone. I say things like “you have cool pants” and “I like your hair.”

Now, in every book I read, I put a dot next to the word I don’t understand and then I look it up in the dictionary and find out the meaning. Then I read on knowing what the story means.

You should be so happy with yourself. You have made us think about others, not only ourselves, and respecting them and including other people.

‘Hatchet’ showed me that no matter what I have to survive, there are people in the world that have it a lot worse than me, and I want to show them that we do care about them in this part of the world. Now I can reflect because of this.

Rosie
Matipo Primary School
October 2001

Finally, how did special needs pupils benefit from this approach? The greatest value is in teachers assuming responsibility and accountability for their special needs pupils – a realization that they can be taught in the room without recourse to withdrawal situations or being flicked off to others. The inclusion training quickly led to strategic seating inclusion – not having the special needs pupils grouped together or sitting in the corner. The co-operative teaching taught children to involve and value everybody. The programme had led to changes in classroom teaching practice and changes to classroom tone, culture and management. It leads to systemic change in classrooms and schools.

In summary, I present reflections from a teacher and teacher aide.

Teacher: After the inservice sessions, it became evident to me that the way to move forward with challenging children was through inclusive practice. After working with RTLB it was like seeing the lights come on! I could see the children thriving in the co-operative model. It was amazing to see the quality of thinking. This has been the most powerful teaching experience I have encountered in my 20 years of teaching.

Teacher Aide: Since working with Mrs S, Mariah now has a big smile and is making more progress in class. She contributes more – a huge contribution verbally. Heaps more confidence. A better feeling of her own self worth. She is like a sponge. She now knows she can do it.