In-service teachers' use of graphical accounts to illuminate aspects of their practice in special educational needs (original) (raw)
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University of Essex & Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, 2020
This thesis explores brief psychotherapy with children on placement at a specialist school setting, as part of an on-site, child psychotherapy outreach provision. The study sought to explore two research questions concerning the themes that could emerge in brief work with children and how these themes could be discussed in relation to the understanding formed by their mainstream school teachers. A qualitative research design was used to investigate these questions. The methods used to collect data were case studies, concerning the brief psychotherapy with 4 boys, aged 7 years, and and semi-structured interviews were conducted with the teachers. Thematic analysis was used to explore the data. The themes that were derived from the analysis were described in detail. The research found that brief work has considerable benefit for children and mainstream schools. Through the brief work intervention, the children all made significant progress in all areas of their lives a school. Contributions that the research makes to related fields, the implications that it has for policy and practice and recommendations for future research were all discussed.
European Journal of Special Needs Education, 2013
The project reported in this paper addresses the issue of trainee teacher learning with regard to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) during the school placement element of one year postgraduate teacher training programmes in England. Through a focus on the university/school partnership, school organisational and classroom pedagogic processes, the project aimed to improve knowledge and understanding about teacher education relevant to the special educational needs and inclusive education fields. Specifically the project examined and compared the school based learning and outcomes of postgraduate teacher trainees in primary and secondary programmes that used different approaches to preparing teachers for the special needs aspects of their future teaching. Three kinds of school based approaches are examined: one that involved a practical teaching task; a second which involved a pupil-focused task (but not practical teaching); and a third where there was no specific pupil-focused SEND task other than class teaching practice. The paper reports on what and how trainees learned about teaching pupils with SEND and on differences related to the use of SEND tasks. Findings indicate that what trainees learn about teaching pupils with SEND is strongly interlinked with what they learn about teaching in general. The pedagogic knowledge learned from undertaking planned pupil-focused SEND tasks, however, centres on pupils' personal learning needs, something that was less likely to be learned from only whole class teaching experience. Implications for schools, initial teacher education providers, national and international policy are presented as evidence-informed questions with possible options.
Rethinking roles, rethinking concepts: Special needs teachers in mainstream schools
Support for Learning, 1991
Readers will be aware that in last August's issue of this journal, Alan Dyson wrote, somewhat provocatively, about the future roles of special educational needs coordinators. This provoked many comments, including a response from Norman Butt and Gordon Malone in our last issue. The debate shows no sign of subsiding. Here Dyson elaborates and refines previous arguments. He goes to the heart of the matter, he asks special needs teachers to compare their present role with that of his model and he provides a step-by-step guide for this re-examination. Those with developing roles are invited to contact him at the School of Education, St Thomas' Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NEl 7RU in order to share experience. When I wrote 'Effective learning consultancy: A future role for special needs co-ordinators? ' (Supporf for Learning 5 , 3) it was with the purpose of engendering a debate. The reaction would seem to indicate that the debate has indeed begun. I am delighted that Norman Butt (1991) and Gordon Malone (1991) in print, and many others by more informal means, have taken the trouble to engage with the ideas 1 floated, even if they have disagreed with me fundamentally. I suppose the natural next step would be to respond to their criticisms in defence of my original position, or, as many have asked me to do, to elaborate on that original position in order to show precisely how the effective learning consultant might operate. In fact, 1 intend to do neither of these things, and that is because the debate I am interested in is of a very par-This paper was given at the International Special Education Congress, Cardiff, 1990.
Mapping and Visualisation of Activities in Special Education
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2014
The paper deals with geographical identification of territorial distribution of activities within special education in the Czech Republic. It response to the research questions: What are territorial differences in content and volume of special education at national level? Are there any regional disparities? The research was designed to collect territorial arguments about legislation, infrastructure, activities and visions for governmental and management decisions in policy of special education in the Czech Republic. The authors applied several scientific methods-a standardized form for recording of particular contact the teacher with child in Special Education Centre, database design, spatial analysis, map and atlas compiling. The study confirms a significant increase of disability in higher age and dominant role of the family in the care for a person with disability. It brings the principal arguments in the form of relevant document-the Atlas of Atlas of Special Education Centre in the Czech Republic. Its thematic maps give an overview concerning the distribution of special needs centres, ie some regions have no centre that specialise in all disabilities, the ratio of specialists in centres etc. The research confirmed the dominant role of regions as special needs centres authorities. Based on a unique survey the study quantified special needs centres activity regarding their stance to proposals to dominant means of special pedagogical support-teacher´s assistant.
Mapping a Pedagogy for Special Educational Needs
British Educational Research Journal, 2001
Hours, assume the validity of a broadly common curriculum for all pupils. This article synthesises a review which set out to subject that assumption to critical scrutiny, addressing the ensuing question: can differences between learners (by particular special educational needs [SEN] group) be identi ed and systematically linked with learners' needs for differential teaching? Generic teaching effectiveness studies have assumed that what works with most pupils would also work for all pupils. However, little direct evidence for this position has been presented in the areas of learning dif culties which are covered in this review. Similarly, some papers by SEN specialists make calls, which were also mostly unsubstantiated by empirical evidence, for what the authors call, the 'unique differences' position. This rejects distinctive SEN teaching strategies and accepts that there are common pedagogic principles which are relevant to the unique differences between all pupils, including those considered to be designated as having SEN. This position is quali ed by some recognition of the need for more intense and focused teaching for those with SEN. Support for a common pedagogy also comes from the authors' analyses of pedagogy by SEN group. They conclude that the notion of continua of teaching approaches is useful as it makes it possible to distinguish between the 'normal' adaptations in class teaching for most pupils and the greater degree of adaptations required for those with more severe dif culties in learning, those designated as having SEN. These are adaptations to common teaching approaches, what have been called specialised adaptations, or 'high density' teaching.
Empowering teachers: Using teaching images to understand self
1999
During a professional development program, teachers working in child care centres reflected on their images of teaching and their images of self as teacher. Teachers explored their images by engaging in conversation, drawing, metaphor and journal writing. Insights provided by these reflective strategies enabled teachers to experience greater selfunderstanding, awareness and knowledge and reduced feelings of isolation common to teachers who work in child care centres. This renewed awareness was empowering leading teachers to feel more certain and confident about their complex teaching roles and their teaching decisions. Feeling better equipped to deal with ongoing complexity, the teachers were able to imagine new possibilities for their work and felt liberated to progress in new directions. Wilson, H.S., & Hutchinson, S.A. (1991). Triangulation of qualitative methods: Heideggerian hermeneutics and grounded theory. Qualitative Health Research, 1, pp. 263-276. Yonemura, M. (1982). Teacher conversations: A potential source of their own professional growth. Curriculum Inquiry, 12, 3, pp. 239-256. AUTHOR Alison Black, Lecturer, School of Early Childhood, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Specialisations: Early childhood teacher education, teachers'