ACTUAL CONDITIONS OF MANAGEMENT AND EVALUATION TO LEARNING ENVIRONMENT BY TEACHER BY QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY TO THE ELEMENTARY DEPARTMENT OF FORMER BLIND-DEAF-SPECIAL SCHOOL

Abstract

Students who once attended schools for the blind, deaf, and other special needs are now centralized under special-needs schools. Some have severe disabilities or multiple conditions. For this paper, a questionnaire was administered to the elementary department of domestic blind-school, deaf-school, and special-schools during its transitional period to becoming a special-needs school. Its purpose was to discover issues and considerations encountered during this stage by previously segregated schools by having teachers describe actual conditions of management, spatial considerations, and learning environment. This report seeks to provide basic strategies for future school improvement under the statute to pursue diversification and address the severe disabilities of children. The following knowledge was provided. 1) Legislation covering various disabilities was passed at different times, so the dates at which the new schools were established vary considerably. Most of the consolidation reconstruction occurred between the 1890s and the 1950s at schools originally established for the blind and for the deaf. 2) The teachers who answered the questionnaire originally taught at special schools where different kinds of disability were intermingled. The school accepted children with multiple handicaps, including intellectual disabilities, physical/mobility disorders, other kinds of disability (e.g., auditory difficulties and visual disorders). The children transitioned to the consolidated special-needs school had previously attended blind-only and deaf-only schools, and did not have additional disabilities. At the new school, actually, there were children who had overlap with various disability types. 3) There were no big differences in class organization, with the students continuing to be grouped by type and severity of disability. The class organization was done flexibly, depending on the number of children registered at each school year and the scope of the disabilities. 4) All the relevant schools were classified with respect to the space constitution, and especially “relations with the open space of classroom circumference” and “relations of connection with classroom and courtyard.” Most were classified as having the conventional “corridor type” of school architecture. 5) Any kinds of school did the correspondence of the children who became the panic in classrooms and health room, empty rooms. Support in the classroom in school for deaf-school and special-school were used dividers. 6) All school types can be characterized in evaluations of learning environment as “object” and “reason.” However, “reason” is defined differently according to school classification (e.g., special needs vs. mainstream), with different goals. This difference is reflected in the results that indicate the characteristic support necessary for children. 7) The school classification found both common needs for the space usage and unique or differing needs for the space usage. In addition, according to the specific respondents, most of the suggestions for schools for the blind or deaf apply to the special-needs school. This paper addressed issues and considerations that arise during the transition period to a consolidated special-needs school, as reported by teachers describing actual conditions of management, spatial usage, and learning environment. In the next article presents additional information with respect to these schools and how the spaces are used, gathered through first-hand observation.