Bilingualism and Special Education: Issues in Assessment and Pedagogy

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Multilingual Matters, 1984 - Education - 306 pages

This book has a practical focus in that it examines the effectiveness of alternatives to traditional assessment and pedagogical practices for bilingual children. However, a central theme of the book is that progress can be made in improving practice only by means of a thorough re-examination of the assumptions underlying the entire special education enterprise, and particularly the diagnostic-prescriptive medical model that dominates much current practice. It argues that despite its laudable intentions, much special education practice with respect to bilingual students is fundamentally misdirected. Concrete suggestions are made both for changing the structure of special education services for bilingual students and for instituting more appropriate assessment and pedagogical practices.

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Contents

THE ORIGINS OF BIAS IN IQ TESTS
66
THE CONSTRUCT OF LEARNING DISABILITY
80
UNDERACHIEVEMENT AMONG MINORITY CHILDREN
93
Copyright

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About the author (1984)

Jim Cummins is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, Canada and has spent the past 40 years researching and working with multilingual learners across the world. His controversial theoretical distinction between conversational versus academic language proficiency is a key topic in pre-service and professional development related to the education of minority group students who are learning the language of instruction.

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