User:SantiagoGutierrezChlan/Curriculum adaptation

A curricular adaptation or curricular adequacy is a type of educational strategy generally intended for students with special educational needs, which consists of adapting the curriculum of a certain educational level with the objective of making certain goals or content accessible to the entire group, or modifying those elements of the curriculum that are not functional for all students. The purpose is to take into account methodological limitations in didactic planning, considering the characteristics and necessities of all students.

This concept of curricular adaptation is ample: based on it, we could speak of different degrees of adaptation or adjustments, meaning different levels of curricular adaptation.

The school curriculum proposed by the authorities acquires an open, flexible or adjustable quality to the needs or characteristics of the educational community in which the educative centers are immersed. This conception allows the implementation of a process of curricular adaptation from the first level of concreteness -teaching decrees- to individual or collective curricular adaptation. Therefore, curricular adaptations are intrinsic to the curriculum itself. The academic teams, departments, teachers or tutors adapt the curriculum according to the features of the students in the school cycle or classroom.

Principles
Curricular adaptation, as a process of decision making on curricular content, seeks to respond to the needs of the students. As part of this purpose, it must be taken into account:


 * Principle of standardization: the ultimate reference for all curricular adaptation is the regular curriculum. The objectives are to be achieved through a standardized educational process.
 * Environmental principle: curricular adaptation needs to adapt the educational needs of students to the most immediate context (school, environment, group of students and specific student).
 * Principle of relevance: in terms of curricular adaptation, reference is made to the adaptation of elements within a continuum that fluctuates between the insignificant and the very significant. Therefore, we would begin by modifying the elements of access, to continue, if necessary, adapting the basic elements of the curriculum: evaluation, methodology, etc. There are many attempts to classify the different degrees of modification of the curriculum, for example, going from the most significant to the least significant.
 * Principle of feasibility: for a curricular adaptation to be feasible, it is necessary to start from realistic approaches, knowing exactly what resources are available and where it is necessary to get to.
 * Principle of participation and involvement: curricular adaptation is the direct responsibility of the tutor and other professionals that work with students who have special educational needs. The decision making, the procedure and the adoption of solutions shall be carried out in a consensual agreement and the resolutions shall be reflected in the corresponding adaptation document.

Types of curricular adaptations
The different types of curricular adaptations would be part of a spectrum, where at one end there are the numerous and usual changes that a teacher makes in the classroom, and at the other extreme, the modifications that deviate significantly from the curriculum.

Curricular adaptations for access to the curriculum
These are modifications or allocation of spatial, material, human or communication resources that will enable some students with special educational needs to develop the regular curriculum or, if applicable, the adapted curriculum.

They usually respond to the specific needs of a limited group of students, especially students with motor or sensory disabilities. These adaptations facilitate the acquisition of the curriculum and do not affect its basic structure. Access curricular adaptations can be of two types:


 * Physical and environmental: Spatial, material and human resources. For example: elimination of architectural barriers by adding ramps and handrails, adequate lighting and sound, adaptation of equipment and furniture, acquisition of qualified support personnel.
 * Access to communication: Specific teaching and learning materials, technical and technological aids, complementary communication systems, alternative communication systems, use of Braille code punching machines, use of magnifying glasses and telescopes, use of computers and tape recorders, sign language, adaptation of texts, adjustment of graphic material, use of luminous indicators for deaf students, etc.

Adaptations for students with high abilities
It consists of an enrichment of the school curriculum, either by broadening objectives, contents and activities of higher levels or by deepening them, without advancing objectives, contents and criteria of higher levels.

Curricular adaptations
These are all those adjustments or modifications that are made to the different elements of the educational proposal developed for a student in order to respond to their specific educational support needs (SEN) and that cannot be shared by the rest of their classmates. They can be of three types:


 * Non-significant (NSAA): Modify non-prescriptive or basic elements of the curriculum. These are adaptations in terms of timing, activities, methodology, type of exercises or the way in which the evaluation is carried out. They may also involve small variations in content, but without implying a curricular gap of more than one school year (two courses). Any student, whether or not they have special educational needs, may require them at any given time. It is the fundamental strategy to achieve the individualization of teaching and therefore, they have a preventive and compensatory nature.
 * Significant (SCA): they involve prioritization, modification or elimination of contents, purposes, core objectives of the curriculum, methodology, etc. They are carried out from the programming, must always be done collegially according to a previous psycho-pedagogical evaluation, and affect the prescriptive elements of the official curriculum by modifying the general objectives of the stage, basic and core contents of the different curricular areas and evaluation criteria.

Significant curricular adaptations may consist of:


 * Adapting the objectives, contents and evaluation criteria.
 * Prioritizing certain objectives, contents and evaluation criteria.
 * Changing the temporalization of the objectives and evaluation criteria.
 * Eliminating objectives, contents and evaluation criteria of the corresponding level or cycle.
 * Introducing contents, objectives and evaluation criteria from previous levels or cycles.

It is not, therefore, a matter of adapting the spaces or eliminating partial or specific content, but a very exceptional measure taken when a student is not able to successfully achieve the essential objectives. Therefore, from primary school onwards, it is very likely that a student with Down syndrome will require a significant curricular adaptation if they attend an inclusive school.

The development team that performs a significant curricular adaptation must be more rigorous, if possible, than in other cases, and the evaluation of learning must be more specialized, taking into account factors such as learning ability, sensory and motor functioning, the socio-familial context, etc. In addition, the student should be under greater control, in order to facilitate their learning to the maximum and to make the modifications that are considered appropriate at any given time.


 * Individualized (ICA): addressed to students with special educational needs, adjusting to their individual characteristics.

Universal design for learning
Universal design for learning is a set of principles that guides the development of flexible learning environments and learning spaces that can be adapted to individual learning differences.

The UDL was developed by the Center for Applied Special Technology or CAST. CAST had been working on helping students with disabilities adapt to the regular curriculum. But in the 1990s they shifted their focus and began to think that the burden of adaptation had to be on the curriculum rather than on the student.

The approach takes its name from the concept design for all or universal design from the area of architectural and product development, first pioneered by Ron Mace of North Carolina State University in 1980.

The UAD is based on 3 principles that provide the structure and guidelines for its development:

1st Principle: Offer multiple kinds of representation, understanding that people percerivev and understand information differently

2nd Principle: Offer multiple forms of action and expre

3rd Principle: Provide multiple forms of motivation and involvement.

Examples of significant curricular adaptations

 * Suppression of content related to color discrimination for blind people.
 * Suppression of certain content related to written language skills for individuals with physical or sensory disabilities.
 * Suppression of content in the musical area for deaf people.

Examples of non-significant curricular adaptations

 * Implementation of oral examinations for blind students.

Examples of access adaptations

 * Use of adapted furniture, such as folding tables.
 * Access ramps to the educational center.
 * Use of FM devices.
 * Text enlargement.
 * Relief maps.
 * Reading and writing in Braille.
 * Pictograms for communication.

Access curricular adaptations
Before focusing on specific adaptations, it is worth mentioning that at a general level it is unquestionable the ease of use provided by the implementation of new technologies, since they promote adaptation to the different needs and characteristics of the users.

For a student with difficulties in the process of abstraction or memory, support material will be offered, such as the Pythagorean table, problem-solving worksheets (step guide), or for a student with dilated attention, the text to be worked on will be reduced or the task will be assigned to the student in parts.

For a visually impaired student:


 * Material adaptations: tiflotechnology (talking note takers such as spoken Braille, computer adaptations such as Jaws screen explorer, character magnification and zoomtext; text recognition software such as Tifloscan and the audio book player such as the talking book, optical aids (hand-held magnifiers, table magnifiers and magnifying glasses), tactile aids (ruler, punch, ledger paper, Perkins machine, arithmetic box, grooved or raised geometric game, raised maps, sound ball, road maps) or auditory aids (audio book, digital agenda, Optacon, talking calculator and macrotype, electronic dictionary).
 * Communicative adaptations for visually impaired students (Braille impact printer, an application called Helena that turns a tablet into a Braille keyboard for the sighted).

For a hearing impaired child:


 * Material adaptations: visual aids (information panels, illuminated signs, image captioning, signoguide and giant screens), auditory and tactile aids, computer programs (for the visualization of speech parameters, for the stimulation of language development, for the development of reading and writing, for the learning of sign language, for the learning of bimodal language, for the learning of complementary words and a typographical dictionary), educational didactic material (musiqueando notebooks).
 * Spatial adaptations: Visual aids such as light indicators, good luminosity (it is advisable that the child's back is turned to natural light), placing the classroom tables in a U-shape so that the child can locate himself in the environment and at the same time locate all the objects that make it up, reducing environmental noise as it distorts and interferes in the correct auditory perception and the use of other instruments such as FM or magnetic loops.

- For a child with motor disabilities:


 * Material adaptations: For postural control, headrests, lateral controls for the trunk, separating block, armrests and footrests are used in chairs and height-adjustable tables, with recesses, suction cups, with ridges, made of non-slip material and inclined plane. For writing devices, adapters for tweezers or grips, stencils, ferric slate, oral wand and adapted keyboards are used; while in reading, magnifying glasses and rubber thimbles are usually applied. In addition, scissors, notebooks, ballasted bracelets, electric pencil sharpeners, liquorice sticks (for signaling, for using magnetized material, for plastic activities or for writing on the keyboard), mouse, pushbuttons and screens are also complementary.
 * Spacial adaptations:
 * School transportation: Access ramp, reserved space with seat belts, and accessible parking spaces.
 * Access to the interior: Accessible door marked with a sign, doors with a 90 cm clear passage opening (this measurement will be the same as a minimum for all interior and exterior doors) and a space adjacent to the door of at least 1.5 meters in diameter free of obstacles.
 * Horizontal route: Floors made of non-slip materials both wet and dry, surfaces that prevent dazzling, color contrast between floor and wall, doors with a minimum clear passage space of 90 cm and handrails and banisters at 4 cm from the wall and at two heights (60 and 80 cm).
 * Vertical itinerary: Stairs and ramps with a free passage width of at least 90 cm, the floor must be of non-slip material and the maximum slope will be 8%, handrail at double height at 60 cm and 80 cm, the classroom must have wider passage spaces to facilitate mobility within the room.
 * Toilets and changing rooms: Space of 1.5 meters in diameter free of obstacles, toilet centered with an adjacent free space of 70 cm, bars with hinged fastenings at 75 cm in height and 50 cm in length, washbasin preferably without pedestal; mirrors should not be above 90 cm in height, shower to have minimum dimensions of 180 x 120 cm, seat in the changing room attached to the wall 70 cm long, 45 cm high and 40 cm deep.
 * Communicative adaptations: SPC (pictograms), Bliss system, orthographic writing, speaking dynamically, Picaa system, boardmaker, QWERTY spoken, EHRBN2 (hardware mouse emulator by scanning), etcetera.

Also see

 * Inclusion (pedagogy)