Embedded learning opportunities (ELO) involve systematic instruction that is incorporated into the natural learning environment. Teachers insert embedded instruction into the routines of the general education class in order to address the needs of children with special needs. The rationale for embedded instruction is that instruction that takes place in a natural classroom situation is more meaningful to children than direct instruction in a pull-out situation where the child is withdrawn from the general education classroom and instructed individually.
Embedded learning opportunities require teachers to plan for instruction, implement that instruction, and evaluate the effectiveness of that instruction. The assessment of ELO outcomes are used in planning future instruction. Instructional procedures teachers can use to implement ELO include curriculum modifications, naturalistic instructional procedures, prompting and fading, and feedback strategies.
Curriculum modifications are accommodations or adaptations that a teacher uses to support instruction in the general education classroom. Modifications may be used to alter the physical environment, the instructional materials, the educational tasks, or to support the student. Environmental modifications might include preferential seating for a student with a visual impairment. Instructional materials may be adapted by cutting down the number of items on a page for students with attention deficits. An educational task can be modified by allowing a dyslexic or dysgraphic student to answer verbally rather than in writing. An individual student support might include a special desk to accommodate a wheelchair. These modifications are intended to allow the student to perform successfully in the general education class.
Embedded instruction requires teachers to use milieu teaching techniques. These are procedures that require teachers to watch for opportunities to expand student learning during the school day. Examples of milieu teaching techniques are mand-modeling and incidental learning techniques. Mand-modeling involves the teacher using verbal prompts to request responses from the student and modeling these responses when the student is unable to generate them. This prompting and modeling must be faded over time until the student can perform the tasks without prompting. Incidental learning involves using a child's natural motivation and curiosity to drive teaching opportunities. This may mean the teacher must set up opportunities for choices in learning tasks on the part of the students.
Embedded instruction must also include feedback. Praise and rewards must be tempered with error correction. Teachers may need to break specific tasks into component parts and teach the parts in sequence. This is known as chaining. The teacher rewards the child for each part of the task he is able to complete successfully. This is called rewarding "successive approximations," and the teaching technique is known as "shaping" the behavior. Appropriate and immediate feedback and reinforcement are crucial for student achievement through embedded learning opportunities.