Investigating Meaningful Teaching Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Investigating Meaningful Teaching - Essay Example 3). In inclusive classrooms, students with disabilities attend a regular class part of the day with resource room and other support services provided in the regular class. This can be considered as partial inclusion. However, during the recent times, the concept of full inclusion has been steadily gaining acceptance. The concept of full inclusion "maintains that a child with disabilities - even severe disabilities such as profound mental retardation - should be placed in a regular classroom for most or all of the school day" (Ayres & Meyer as cited in Kearney, 1996, "What is full inclusion" section, para. 1). The proponents of inclusion rationalize this concept on several grounds. First and foremost, inclusion is a right of all students. Students with disabilities learn social skills from their normally developing peers. Disabled students benefit from friendships and social relationships with non-disabled students and vice versa. Inclusion allows friendships among diverse students an d help children understand human differences (Price, Mayfield, McFadden & Marsh, 2000, Objectives section, para. 6). Placement of a child in a self-contained classroom involves removing the child from the general school population to work in a small controlled setting with a special education teacher (Mauro, 2009, Self-Contained Class section). Students in a self-contained class may work at different academic levels with different curricula, as they need different levels of specialization. Experiences, Observations and Opinions of Special Needs Educators A couple of teachers working with children with special needs in inclusive classrooms were approached and interviewed to learn their experiences and observations in working in that situation. According to them, special education is most meaningful and fulfils its purpose when children with special needs are capable of overcoming their shortcomings and become independent to the maximum extent possible by them. The same opinion was shared by educators working with children with special needs in self-contained classrooms as well. They recounted examples where children with some issues of dyslexia could be later on included in a regular classroom after initial training in the self-contained classroom. Another example was of a child with learning disabilities whose artistic skills were so encouraged that they could hold an exhibition of his works on the school grounds. His talent caught the attention of not only the students and their parents, but of the public and the media as well. Of course, the children's needs are at different levels and their likelihood of attaining independence is also varying. The teachers following both modes of education feel that they feel maximum satisfaction and contentment on seeing the evolution of a child with special needs to as close to a normally developed child as is possible by them physically, mentally and intellectually. This involves tackling not only academic and developmental issues, but also issues of social etiquette, propriety and decorum. What is most necessary here is being able to view a disabled child as a normal child with certain shortcomings and to

MPTP and Its Role in Toxic Parkinsonism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

MPTP and Its Role in Toxic Parkinsonism - Essay Example The degeneration of the substantia nigra of the basal ganglia coupled with intracytoplasmic inclusions known as Lewy bodies is the pathological characteristic seen in patients afflicted with PD. "The primary biochemical defect is the loss of striatal dopamine" which is the neurotransmitter produced by the neurons in the pars compacta of the substantia nigra (Braddom, 1164). The basal ganglia "assist in the regulation of voluntary movement and the learning of motor skills" (Snell, 320). It also functions in the initiation of movements. It is because of this that patients present primarily with motor affectations with the cardinal signs for PD which include bradykinesia (characterized by a slowness and sudden pause in movement), resting tremors (uncontrolled shaking or movement), muscular rigidity (stiffness) and postural instability. The specific cause for Parkinson's disease is still unknown. Genetic factors such as defects in or mutations of several genes are known to cause PD, but these mutations actually result in only a very small number of cases of PD, in as little as 5% of the total number of PD cases. The two most important genes are "called parkin (autosomal recessive) and LRRK2 (autosomal dominant). Other genes that, when mutated, are known to cause PD include alpha-synuclein, DJ-1, PINK-1, and UCHL-1" (American Parkinson Disease Association). Envirionmental factors, such as exposure to toxins like pesticides/herbicides, industrial chemicals, trace metals, cyanide and carbon monoxide, are also thought to be a likely cause of Parkinson's Disease. 'The most compelling evidence for an environmental factor in PD relates to the toxin 1,2,3,6-methyl-phenyl-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)" (Olanow & Tatton, 124). In the late 1940's, MPTP was first tested for its possible therapeutic use tested as a possible anti-pa rkinsonian agent. Conversely, the drug was abandoned soon after the 6 humans given the drug developed PD symptoms and 2 of them died (myDr.com). The surge in the numbers of the MPTP-induced Parkinsonism came in the 1980's when it was being sold in the streets as synthetic heroin. The case study done by (Ballard, Tetrud & Langston, 949) wherein the subjects, seven patients in total, developed permanent chronic and severe parkinsonism after repeatedly injecting MPTP intravenously. MPTP is able to cross the blood-brain barrier and react with the enzyme monoamine oxidase (MAO) (Hauser et.al). The interactions of MPTP with monoamine oxidase (MAO) was studied by Singer, Salach, Castagnoli & Trevort in 1986. (785) (Last Name) 3 l-Methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP), a thermal breakdown product of a meperidine-like narcotic. The nigrostriatal toxicity is not due to MPTP itself but to one or amore oxidation products resulting from the action of monoamine oxidase (MAO) on this tertiary allylamine. Both MAO A and B catalyse the oxidation of MPTP to the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-2,3-dihydropyridinium species (MPDP+), which undergoes further oxidation to the fully aromatic 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium species (MPP+). These bio-oxidations are blocked by selective inhibitors of MAO A