Mainstream Secondary Education Research Articles

Sociale inclusie en ASS in het voortgezet onderwijs: wat is er nodig?

Since the introduction of the Appropriate Education Act, attempts have been made to include pupils with special needs in mainstream secondary education, including pupils with autism. Statistics show that this was only partially successful. This may be partly explained by the fact that the main focus of the involved professionals (school principals, teachers) to date seems to have been mainly on the educational needs of these pupils and less on students’ sense of belonging, i.e. going to school with the feeling to be part of something, a group or community. The central question in this qualitative research is to what extent young people with autism within mainstream education experience this sense of belonging and what is needed for this. This has been investigated by means of literature research and focus groups with (former) students with autism. The first preliminary results show that students with autism indicate that they have little contact with their fellow students, which is complicated by a too busy environment (too many students, too few seats, too many stimuli). All this leads to overstimulation, fatigue, and can cause so much stress that it takes very little to completely skip school that day. In short, the most important recommendation is to create more calm and less crowded environments in schools. We conclude that social inclusion of pupils with autism in mainstream schools is essential for the success of the Appropriate Education Act but it does not come naturally: it requires active policies from schools. The project described in this article is part of a larger project in which we try to develop concrete recommendations for this purpose.

Including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities in mainstream secondary physical education: A revisit study

Our research used an innovative methodological approach by revisiting an original study conducted 15 years previously (Morley et al., 2005). A purposive sample of 31 secondary school teachers in the UK were interviewed to explore their perceptions of including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) in mainstream secondary physical education (PE). All interviews were transcribed verbatim and texts analysed thematically. Findings suggest that, despite significant policy developments, little has changed in teachers’ perceptions of their ability to include pupils with SEND in PE and there remain significant challenges to them achieving this. Some exceptions were documented, most notably an increased and positively received focus on inclusion within PE initial teacher education. The article concludes with recommendations for future practice, particularly in terms of teacher education and professional development, as well as the need for effective dissemination of research findings to key stakeholders.

Listening Difficulties of Children With Cochlear Implants in Mainstream Secondary Education.

Previous research has shown that children with cochlear implants (CIs) encounter more communication difficulties than their normal-hearing (NH) peers in kindergarten and elementary schools. Yet, little is known about the potential listening difficulties that children with CIs may experience during secondary education. The aim of this study was to investigate the listening difficulties of children with a CI in mainstream secondary education and to compare these results to the difficulties of their NH peers and the difficulties observed by their teachers. The Dutch version of the Listening Inventory for Education Revised (LIFE-R) was administered to 19 children (mean age = 13 years 9 months; SD = 9 months) who received a CI early in life, to their NH classmates (n = 239), and to their teachers (n = 18). All participants were enrolled in mainstream secondary education in Flanders (first to fourth grades). The Listening Inventory for Secondary Education consists of 15 typical listening situations as experienced by students (LIFEstudent) during class activities (LIFEclass) and during social activities at school (LIFEsocial). The teachers completed a separate version of the Listening Inventory for Secondary Education (LIFEteacher) and Screening Instrument for Targeting Educational Risk. Participants with CIs reported significantly more listening difficulties than their NH peers. A regression model estimated that 75% of the participants with CIs were at risk of experiencing listening difficulties. The chances of experiencing listening difficulties were significantly higher in participants with CIs for 7 out of 15 listening situations. The 3 listening situations that had the highest chance of resulting in listening difficulties were (1) listening during group work, (2) listening to multimedia, and (3) listening in large-sized classrooms. Results of the teacher's questionnaires (LIFEteacher and Screening Instrument for Targeting Educational Risk) did not show a similar significant difference in listening difficulties between participants with a CI and their NH peers. According to teachers, NH participants even obtained significantly lower scores for staying on task and for participation in class than participants with a CI. Although children with a CI seemingly fit in well in mainstream schools, they still experience significantly more listening difficulties than their NH peers. Low signal to noise ratios (SNRs), distortions of the speech signal (multimedia, reverberation), distance, lack of visual support, and directivity effects of the microphones were identified as difficulties for children with a CI in the classroom. As teachers may not always notice these listening difficulties, a list of practical recommendations was provided in this study, to raise awareness among teachers and to minimize the difficulties.

Teachers talk about inclusion… but can they implement it in their classroom? Exploring teachers’ views on inclusion in a Scottish secondary school

Although there is much research regarding the inclusion of pupils with additional support needs (ASN) in mainstream secondary education, there is little research specifically exploring the perspectives of staff who support and teach this population. This small‐scale exploratory study in a Scottish secondary school investigated staff perspectives, aiming to provide unique insights and personal accounts of issues pertaining to inclusion. The findings suggest that there is a need to increase the skills of staff in order for them to be suitably equipped, competent and confident to meet all pupils’ needs.

Becoming a more adaptive teacher through collaborating in Lesson Study? Examining the influence of Lesson Study on teachers’ adaptive teaching practices in mainstream secondary education

Adaptive teaching has become increasingly important in research and practice. However, its complexity calls for effective professional development approaches, such as Lesson Study, that may promote adaptive teaching practices. This study uses a quasi-experimental mixed-methods design, consisting of stimulated recall interviews and classroom observation instruments, to determine whether participating in Lesson Study leads to more adaptive teaching practices in both teachers’ perceptions and behavior. Although intervention group teachers reported various important changes in their perceptions about adaptive teaching and their (adaptive) teaching behavior, no intervention effects were found. This raises questions about how adaptive teaching can be defined and measured.

Educational resilience and experiences of African students with a refugee background in Australian tertiary education

In Australia, only a handful of refugee background students are able to navigate mainstream secondary education and senior high school (Years 11 and 12). Most refugee background students arrive in Australia as adults and enrol in Vocational Education and Training (VET) colleges as a pathway to university. The institutions and educators that receive these students can struggle with supporting their integration into the Australian education system, and students struggle with learning new content, in a new language, within a new culture. To complete tertiary education in their new home, these students must possess educational resilience, amid language barriers and culture shock. Using three cases (the researcher and two participants) this article presents the narratives of displaced African students, highlighting their educational trajectories and the factors influencing their educational resilience. This article seeks to open space for situated and embodied understandings of the broader resettlement experience for refugee background students. It tries to intervene in and interrupt the 'deficit logics' that have shaped scholarship in this area. Data were obtained by means of life history narratives and self-reflective methodologies. Educational resilience is evident in the students' lived experiences and influences from: family; community; teachers; peers; faith and religion; and self-determination and behavioural factors. The study's findings reveal that the effects of displacement continue beyond people's initial school experiences and into their vocational and/or university education. In other words, the trauma of social breakdown, war and geographic displacement experienced by these students unfolds into major educational and vocational challenges. My personal life story of growing up a refugee, and the struggles I have gone through to acquire tertiary education, resonates with those of my research participants across multiple institutions and locations within and outside Australia. The stories in this study reveal the impact of forced displacement on refugee background students' education pathways.

Translation and validation of the Listen Inventory for Education Revised into Dutch

IntroductionIn Belgium the majority of children with CI's are being educated in mainstream schools. In mainstream schools difficult listening situations occur (e.g. due to background noise) which may result in educational risks for children with CI's. A tool that identifies potential listening difficulties, the English Listen inventory for Education Revised (LIFE-R), was translated and validated into Dutch for elementary and secondary schools (LIFE-NL, LIFE2-NL respectively). MethodsTwo forward-backward translations were performed followed by a linguistic evaluation and validation by a multidisciplinary committee. The LIFE-NL was further validated on content by pre-testing the questionnaire in 5 students with hearing loss (8–13 years). After minor cross-cultural adaptations normative data were assembled from 187 normal-hearing (NH) students enrolled in mainstream secondary education (1st to 4th grade). The normative data were further analysed based on grade and school type. Additionally, the internal consistency was evaluated by calculating Cronbach's alpha for 3 different scales of the LIFE2-NL: the LIFE total (situation 1–15), LIFE class (situation 1–10: listening situations in classroom) and LIFE social (situation 11–15: social listening situations in school). ResultsNH students scored on average 72.0 (SD = 19.9%) on the LIFE2-NL, indicating they experience some difficulties in secondary mainstream schools. The most difficult listening situations were those where fellow students are noisy or when students have to listen in large classrooms. NH students scored significantly higher on the LIFE class compared to the LIFE social (84.1 ± 14.7% vs. 68.1 ± 19.0%, p < .000). Moreover the LIFE social tend to decrease from the 3rd grade on. The different subscales of the LIFE2-NL showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha of 0.86, 0.89 and 0.75 for LIFE total, LIFE class and LIFE social respectively). ConclusionThe LIFE-NL and LIFE2-NL are valid Dutch translations of the original LIFE-R and are fully comprehensible for students with hearing loss. The normative data of the LIFE2-NL provide a representative framework for interpreting the results of mainstreamed students with hearing loss in secondary schools.

How to support and engage students in alternative forms of education and training? A qualitative study of school staff members in Flanders

This study focuses on how students, who for a variety of reasons struggle in mainstream secondary schools, can be supported and engaged by alternative forms of education and training to attain a (formal) qualification. Interviews and focus groups are carried out with school staff members of distinct types of alternative learning arenas in Flanders (northern part of Belgium): second chance secondary education, part-time apprenticeship track and part-time work-based vocational education. Our analyses reveal that, due to the selectiveness of mainstream secondary education, staff members in alternative learning arenas mainly struggle with the ways to develop inclusive curricula/practices and with the actual content of the curricula of their educational training or programme they are supposed to teach. Staff members struggle with putting into practice the fundamental aim to prepare socially vulnerable students for their future lives. Debates within the school team focus upon the relative importance of transferrable, specialist and social skills and competences. Results of this study are discussed to further enhance the professionalisation of school teams, and can be seen as the starting point to specify and develop the curriculum taught in both alternative learning arenas and mainstream secondary education.

Debates about dedifferentiation: twenty-first century thinking about people with intellectual disabilities as distinct members of the disability group

ABSTRACTDedifferentiation describes a shift away from regarding cognitive impairments as the origin of difficulties experienced by people with intellectual disabilities and, instead, regarding their difficulties as socially produced and common to all people with disabilities. This article reviews research evidence concerning the advantages and disadvantages of dedifferentiated policy and service systems for people with intellectual disabilities, the bulk of which addresses education and health service systems. Advantages of dedifferentiation include its avoidance of assumptions about homogeneity, and the stigma of being labelled intellectually disabled; and its support for strong collectives and advocacy that enable people with all types of disabilities to live in the presence of others. For young children, dedifferentiated school and mental health services have positive outcomes not found in similar services for older children and adults. Disadvantages of dedifferentiation include inaccurate or absent representations of unique needs arising from intellectual disability, failure to reduce marginalisation, poor-quality non-specialist mainstream secondary education and health services, and deteriorations in social care. Arguments that dichotomies such as dedifferentiation/differentiation encourage simplification and misconception are reviewed: instead, twenty-first-century thinking negotiates between diverse parties and perspectives. The article makes the case for treating people with intellectual disabilities as members of the broad disability group wherever possible, and for protecting and developing differentiated opportunities, services and research whenever necessary. This requires policymakers and practitioners to balance conflicting ideas more effectively, but it also requires reflection and debate that allow new conceptual tools to emerge. The article concludes by posing three questions intended to encourage reconceptualisation.

‘Successful’ Alternative Education: Still Reproducing Inequalities? The Case of the Community School Program in Egypt

Community schools are an alternative form of education that center on partnerships between the community and/or the state, aid organizations, and non-governmental organizations. The Community School Program (CSP) in Egypt sparked a social movement in education in that country, with disparate actors all coalescing around the CSP as an alternative, empowering model of education. This study examined the relationship between the CSP and the dynamics that formed, shaped and co-opted it through in-depth interviews and observations. Our analysis examined the program’s processes and legacies on its former students. The study found that critical factors in the program’s success were its cost for the students, physical proximity, and quality teaching. After completing the program, these students faced significant challenges in mainstream secondary education. The CSP model is now converging with mainstream education. The interplay of national and global discourses shaped the CSP’s formation and continue to shape students’ social and academic learning through the evolution of its program.

PP06.1 – 2574: Aetiologies of CVI in Mainstream Secondary Education

Objective To study the aetiology of the brain dysfunction in children with CVI (cerebral visual impairment) in mainstream secondary education. Methods A retrospective study in children with CVI in mainstream secondary education is performed. 19 Children are included, 7 male/12 female. Mean age is 15 years, from 13 years to 18 years. The visual acuity of the best eye is 10/10 in 10 children, the lowest acuity measured is 1.6/10 and mean visual acuity is 8/10. 26% had another ophtalmological diagnosis (5/19), e.g. cataract or retinopathy of prematurity. IQ was good: total mean 90, from 72 to 127. 79% suffered from comorbidity, e.g. DCD and ASD. 20 Children with CVI, who attend special education are not included in this study. Results 63% have perinatal problems (12/19). Only 4 are born premature. The lowest gestational age is 29/40, with a birth weight of 1100 g. In 4 term children problems during delivery are reported. Only very few is known about neonatal hypoglycaemia and CVI. In only 1 child neonatal hypoglycaemia is reported. In all the other children information on neonatal glycaemia is lacking. The periventricular leukomalacia on MRI images of children with neonatal hypoglycaemia is very similar to what is seen in children with CVI. 37% have no history of any perinatal problem (7/19). The aetiologies in these children are tumour, meningitis, head injury, hypoxia at later age, turner syndrome or an arteriovascular malformation. Conclusion The children with CVI in mainstream education have less disabling aetiology than those reported in literature. They have the same % of comorbidity, but less severe comorbidity. They have better visual acuity. They compensate due to good IQ. In the future we will study the children with CVI who follow special education in order to compare whether they have different aetiologies than those in mainstream education. To study the aetiology of the brain dysfunction in children with CVI (cerebral visual impairment) in mainstream secondary education. A retrospective study in children with CVI in mainstream secondary education is performed. 19 Children are included, 7 male/12 female. Mean age is 15 years, from 13 years to 18 years. The visual acuity of the best eye is 10/10 in 10 children, the lowest acuity measured is 1.6/10 and mean visual acuity is 8/10. 26% had another ophtalmological diagnosis (5/19), e.g. cataract or retinopathy of prematurity. IQ was good: total mean 90, from 72 to 127. 79% suffered from comorbidity, e.g. DCD and ASD. 20 Children with CVI, who attend special education are not included in this study. 63% have perinatal problems (12/19). Only 4 are born premature. The lowest gestational age is 29/40, with a birth weight of 1100 g. In 4 term children problems during delivery are reported. Only very few is known about neonatal hypoglycaemia and CVI. In only 1 child neonatal hypoglycaemia is reported. In all the other children information on neonatal glycaemia is lacking. The periventricular leukomalacia on MRI images of children with neonatal hypoglycaemia is very similar to what is seen in children with CVI. 37% have no history of any perinatal problem (7/19). The aetiologies in these children are tumour, meningitis, head injury, hypoxia at later age, turner syndrome or an arteriovascular malformation. The children with CVI in mainstream education have less disabling aetiology than those reported in literature. They have the same % of comorbidity, but less severe comorbidity. They have better visual acuity. They compensate due to good IQ. In the future we will study the children with CVI who follow special education in order to compare whether they have different aetiologies than those in mainstream education.

Statements of special educational needs and mainstream secondary physical education in north-west England

This article, by Anthony Maher of the University of Central Lancashire, explores, from the perspective of SENCos and learning support assistants (LSAs) in north-west England, the perceived adequacy of Statements of special educational needs as they relate to physical education (PE). The findings, generated via online surveys, suggest that most SENCos and some LSAs believe that Statements are appropriate for all curricular subjects, with PE being no different. Thus, two groups who play an integral role in facilitating the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs in mainstream secondary schools in England do not differentiate between classroom based and more physically orientated subjects such as PE, which could have a negative impact on the experiences of pupils with special educational needs in PE because of the contextual and dynamic nature of special educational needs. Indeed, because most Statements do not provide PE-specific information or learning targets, teachers and LSAs are often unable to collaboratively plan and deliver inclusive lessons or monitor and evaluate the progress made by Statemented pupils in PE.

Inclusive Physical Education: teachers’ views of including pupils with Special Educational Needs and/or disabilities in Physical Education

This article uses a purposive sample of 43 Secondary school (pupils aged 11-18) teachers to explore perceptions of including children with Special Educational Needs and/or disabilities in mainstream secondary Physical Education. Findings suggest that teachers’ conceptions of inclusion are based primarily around the level of participation children with Special Educational Needs and/or disabilities could achieve and that this could be affected by the activity area, level of support and training opportunities avail able to them. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of this research for teachers’ professional development and school organization and specific implications for the future practice of PE teachers and Teacher trainers are suggested.

Selected research published in Spain 1999–2002

In this first of a series of country-specific reviews of published research, my aim has been to highlight current lines of research in Spain which are either new in themselves or have taken their starting-point from existing international research agendas. In the preparation for this review more than one hundred papers were reviewed from over forty journals, conference proceedings, and books edited during the period 1999–2002. Inevitably, however, a ‘selection’ of recent research is just that. Demands of space are, of course, paramount but – in the light of the sheer volume of work published in Spain over the period – some kind of personal criterion inevitably needed to be used for the inclusion or otherwise of a paper. I have decided primarily to highlight experimental or quasi-experimental research which, though it might be based on, or targeted at, a local population or context, also has considerable interest for the wider readership of Language Teaching. Such a decision is not meant to imply a personal preference for such research over other kinds; rather I wished on this occasion to highlight what I perceive as a recent increase in interest in Spain in such studies. Many national university PhD programmes now include the production of an original piece of experimental research as an obligatory requirement of the course, and much of the research cited below has its origins therein. Conversely, this has meant that other, equally valid and commendable, published work has had to be omitted or mentioned only in passing. Amongst these are the numerous on-going reports on locally-initiated and government-funded research projects which are currently operating in many higher-education establishments, as well as teaching and learning materials production carried out with European Union (EU) initiatives. For example, current and recent LINGUA and COMENIUS projects in which there has been considerable Spanish representation include PINOCCHIO (the production of Italian language and culture materials for use in mainstream secondary education – University of Seville), SUBJECT PROJECTS (the production of plurilingual didactic tools for use in European secondary schools – University of the Basque Country), ARTEMIS (the creation of an advanced communicative course for L2 Greek–University Complutense of Madrid), and LEARNER AUTONOMY (an inventory of training needs and current practices for the teaching of learner autonomy in foreign language (FL) teacher training–University of Granada).

Peer Education in Mainstream Secondary Education: Using ‘Buddying’ to Address Social and Behavioural Issues

Having discussed Peer Education and some aspects of provision for pupils with special educational needs, this paper goes on to describe a specific buddying system which involves aspects of both. In this well-structured and planned scheme the focus is on the social and emotional dimension. The potential benefits of this for both older and younger pupils involved is illustrated through a case study.

Practitioner Report: The Role Self-Complexity, Self-Verification, and Self-Handicapping in Understanding Adolescents with High Emotional Needs

ABSTRACTProviders of alternative educational programs for adolescents who are not coping with mainstream secondary education have relied historically on behavioural and cognitive theories for intervention rationales. However, psychologists are increasingly turning to the motivational role of the self-system, particularly to the developmental and multidimensional construct of self-perception, for theoretical guidelines to educational practice. Self-verification, self-complexity, and self-handicapping are three theoretical constructs within a social psychological perspective that help to explain non-compliant and unusual adolescent behaviour and provide direction to service providers for its management.