Special Teachers Research Articles

지적장애 학생의 자모지식, 어떻게 가르칠 것인가?특수교사의 경험에 대한 UDL 원리 중심의 분석

[목적] 이 연구의 목적은 지적장애 학생에게 보편적 학습설계를 적용하여, 자모지식을 어떻게 가르칠 것인가를 알아보기 위함이다. [방법] 이를 위하여 2020년 11월 4일 온라인을 사용하여 지적장애 학생의 자모지식 교육 경험이 있는 5명의 특수교사를 중심으로 집중 면담을 하였다. 면담내용을 전사한 후 보편적 학습설계 원리(UDL)를 토대로 분석하였다. 그 결과는 다음과 같다. [결과] 첫째, 표상 원리 중심의 자모지식 교수는 다음과 같이 고려해볼 수 있다. 인지 방법의 다양한 선택을 위해 연필, 크레파스, 과자와 같은 학생의 관심을 끌 수 있는 구체물을 제공하여 모양을 만들면서 먼저 익힐 수 있도록 하였다. 친숙한 노래를 따라 부르고 노래 가사를 반복해서 읽고 노래할 수 있도록 하여 이해를 촉진하였다. 둘째, 행동과 표현 중심의 방향의 교수는 다음과 같이 고려해볼 수 있다. 신체적 표현방식 제공으로 특수교사들은 키보드 자판을 지적장애 학생 자신이 직접 쳐보도록 하였다. 이외에도 단어 카드를 활용하였고, 아니면 교사의 입 모양을 보고 흉내 내도록 하였다. 그뿐만 아니라 자석판을 사용하여 자모간의 변별할 수 있도록 하였고, 보드마커를 활용하고 큰 동화책을 읽도록 하였다. 셋째, 참여 중심의 방향이다. 흥미를 돋우는 다양한 선택 제공으로 가족 이름, 친구 이름, 교사 이름, 가수 이름 외우기를 통해 자모지식 교육을 하였다. 또한, 칭찬과 강화 그리고 실패하지 않도록 하는 방법을 제공하였다. 아동의 성취감을 위한 평가 방법은 게임이나 놀이 방식을 고려해볼 수 있다. [결론] 지적장애 학생의 자모지식 교육의 방향은 UDL 기반 교육 프로그램으로 다양한 표상, 행동과 표현 그리고 참여를 제공하는 교육으로 나아가는 것을 우선 고려할 필요가 있다. 다만, 이를 진행할 때 지적장애 학생의 특성을 반영한 프로그램 개발을 고려할 필요가 있다

발달장애인평생교육센터에 근무하는 어느 특수교사의 경험과 인식

본 연구는 발달장애인평생교육센터(이하 센터)에 근무하는 한 특수교사의 경험과 인식을 탐구할 목적으로 수행된 연구로서, 이를 통해 궁극적으로 발달장애인평생교육과 센터 체제가 교육기능을 중심으로 개선하려는 노력에 있어 시사점을 제공하고자 하였다. 특수학교와 센터 양쪽의 경험이 풍부한 특수교사를 연구 참여자로 선정하기 위해 단일사례연구방법을 적용하였으며, 심층면담 자료의 내용분석을 중심으로 연구결과를 도출하였다. 주요한 연구결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 센터의 주 이용자는 중도의 발달장애성인이며 그들의 교육적 요구는 학령기 때에 비해 크게 달라진 게 없는 반면, 그들과 부모의 생애주기 변화로 인한 차이점들을 경험하였다. 둘째, 센터의 교육은 이용자 수준과 특성을 반영해 융통성 있게 제공하고 있는데, 양질의 교육을 제공하는데 있어 어려움으로는 센터의 정체성 혼란, 교육과정의 부재, 특수교육 비전공 교육담당자의 교육역량 부족인 것으로 인식하였다. 셋째, 향후 발달장애인평생교육 전달체제는 개인중심 서비스 체제가 되길 희망하며, 이때 센터는 교육의 허브역할을 하는 것이 바람직하다고 인식하였다. 넷째, 센터 내 다양한 자격을 가진 동료들과의 협업 속에서 특수교사가 센터에 공헌할 수 있는 전문성에 대해 인식하게 되었다. 다섯째, 특수교육 전공자의 새로운 진로로서 센터에 대한 긍정적, 부정적 경험과 인식을 함께 가지고 있었다. 이를 바탕으로 주요결과의 시사점들에 대한 논의를 제공하였으며, 연구의 제한점과 후속연구에 대한 제언을 하였다.

A Study on the Collaborative Team Approach Between Special Teachers and Physical Therapists to Curriculum-Based Therapeutic Support

본 연구는 교육과정기반 치료지원을 위한 특수교사-물리치료사간 협력적 팀 접근의 그동안의 문제점을 파악하여 새로운 협력방안을 도출하고 그에 따른 개선방안을 제시하는 것을 목적으로 실행하였다. 이를 위하여 특수교사, 물리치료사, 학부모로 구성된 21인의 전문가 델파이 조사와 AHP 기법을 활용하여 수행되었다. 연구의 결과 첫째, 특수교사, 물리치료사, 제도적 측면의 주체별 구체적인 역할과 세부사항을 도출하여 최종 11가지 주제와 44문항을 확정하였다. 둘째, 도출된 내용을 토대로 교육과정기반 치료지원을 위한 특수교사-물리치료사간 협력적 팀 접근에 관한 협력방안 및 협력모형을 도출하였다. 이상의 결과를 바탕으로 종합적으로 논의하고 제언 및 연구의 시사점을 제시하였다. 이 연구를 토대로 향후 이러한 연구결과가 교육과정기반 치료지원을 위한 특수교사-물리치료사간 협력적 팀 접근 모델 개발 및 정책 수립 기초연구로 사용되기를 기대한다.

Ivan Fedorovych Prokopenko is 85 years old!

The article is devoted to the description of the life path of the doctor of Pedagogy, professor, academician of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine Ivan Fedorovych Prokopenko, who has been working for 40 years as rector of H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University — one of the leading higher pedagogical education institutions in Ukraine with high creative potential, where modern standards and technologies are being introduced, a new structure of organization and management of the educational process, the material and technical base is being strengthened, the volumes and quality of scientific and pedagogical personnel training are expanding. The main direction of the university's activity during all the years of I.F.Prokopenko’s tenure as rector was the training of specialist teachers — nationally conscious citizens, patriots and real professionals. Academician I.F.Prokopenko has worked out and provided a new educational system for training a future teacher into the practice of higher pedagogical education, which is implemented through innovative pedagogical technologies aimed at developing the student’s personality, his creative potential. I.F. Prokopenko is an example of an intelligent and decent person, a talented and successful organizer of educational activities, an experienced and principled educator.

Estudio y análisis de la evolución de los estudiantes matriculados en titulaciones de Educación Musical en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Este artículo muestra una investigación descriptiva y analítica de datos institucionales a lo largo del tiempo. Los objetivos planteados se circunscriben a la descripción de la evolución de la antigua especialidad de Música en la Facultad de Formación de Profesorado de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, así como a los factores determinantes de esta evolución en la pérdida tanto cualitativa, desde el punto de vista curricular, como cuantitativa en lo que respecta al cómputo en créditos/horas con la aparición de las menciones. Por otra parte, se referencia el lugar que ocupa la Mención de Educación Musical en el conjunto de menciones de la citada Facultad, tanto para el Grado de Maestro de Primaria como de Infantil. Los resultados evidencian de forma definida el concepto de maestro especialista frente al de maestro generalista en la evolución legislativa. Por otra parte, la conclusión más notable es que, con las nuevas menciones, la Educación Musical, ha perdido de forma relevante un espacio formativo para la Educación Musical en la Educación Infantil y Primaria, considerando las cifras de estudiantes de nuevo ingreso y comparándolas con las de la antigua Diplomatura de la Especialidad de Música y las de las demás menciones ofertadas actualmente.

Grade 12 national examination assessment practices for learners with visual impairments in selected schools in Mwense and Lusaka districts, Zambia

The study aimed at examining the practices at Grade 12 level with respect to learners with visual impairments. The sample was drawn from Mwense and Lusaka districts of Zambia. The study was guided by the following objective: to establish the current practices of the Grade 12 national examination assessment for learners with visual impairments in selected schools of Mwense and Lusaka districts, Zambia. The study was qualitative, and a case study design was used. The study comprised 22 respondents consisting of four pupils, six school leavers, and six school specialist teachers, two school headmasters, two Education Standard Office (ESO) in charge of special education, and two officials from the Examination Council of Zambia (ECZ). Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data based on the themes that emerged in the study. The study findings revealed that learners who were totally blind wrote their examinations using braille format, and enlarged print was used for those learners who were partially sighted. The findings of study also showed that the examination questions were modified into a descriptive form, and by doing so, learners were able to access the examinations. The study further revealed that learners were given extra time during the examinations, although this was not adequate. It was equally revealed that there were no special provisions that were considered when marking examination scripts for the learners with visual impairments, meaning their scripts were marked just like other scripts for learners without sight challenges. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the Examination Council of Zambia should come up with a marking centre where the scripts for the learners with visual impairments could be marked to solve the problem of missing results, among others.

Preparing Pre-Service Teachers to Use Visual Representations as Strategy to Solve Mathematics Problems: What Did They Learn?

Recognizing the multiple interacting layers of pedagogical content knowledge, in this article, we present the findings from a study that examined the extent to which participation in case-based instruction about self-generated visual representations (VRs) supported special education pre-service teachers ( N = 25) in enhancing their (a) knowledge of VRs, specifically what and how to teach, as a strategy for solving mathematics problems, and (b) applied instructional practices, specifically analysis of student knowledge and instructional planning, about VRs for students with disabilities (SWDs) to solve mathematics problems. The data revealed that case-based instruction about VRs in a special education mathematics methods course enriched pre-service teachers personal understanding about VRs and their ability to target SWDs learning needs regarding VRs. Implications for pre-service teacher preparation and research are provided.

Improving knowledge distillation using unified ensembles of specialized teachers

The increasing complexity of deep learning models led to the development of Knowledge Distillation (KD) approaches that enable us to transfer the knowledge between a very large network, called teacher and a smaller and faster one, called student. However, as recent evidence suggests, using powerful teachers often negatively impacts the effectiveness of the distillation process. In this paper, the reasons behind this apparent limitation are studied and an approach that transfers the knowledge to smaller models more efficiently is proposed. To this end, multiple highly specialized teachers are employed, each one for a small set of skills, overcoming the aforementioned limitation, while also achieving high distillation efficiency by diversifying the ensemble. At the same time, the employed ensemble is formulated in a unified structure, making it possible to simultaneously train multiple models. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated using three different image datasets, leading to improved distillation performance, even when compared with powerful state-of-the-art ensemble-based distillation methods.

THE INFLUENCE OF QUARANTINE RESTRICTIONS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF OCCUPATIONAL BURNOUT IN EDUCATORES OF HIGHER EDUCATION AL INSTITUTIONS OF UKRAINE

Occupational burnout syndrome most often occurs among professionals of the at-risk occupations, i.e. those who work in close contact with people and have to communicate a lot and intensively with others. This group includes educational specialists (teachers, educators, psychologists), medical professionals, and sale representatives. Fatigue, weakness, lack of interest in their activities against the background of chronic stress, is well known to many people, especially workaholics, who strive to do as much as possible, resulting in emotional burnout. With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, burnout has taken on a different form due to isolation, fears for the lives and health of family members, and distance from workplaces and well-accustomed co-workers. Distance learning has created new challenges for teachers and students of HEIs. Study before quarantine was already complicated, given the heavy workload, the large volume of the curriculum, and the constant lack of free time. Working in such rhythm makes it difficult to maintain mental health and prevent emotional burnout. The professional activity of university educators is characterized by increased responsibility, a wide range of commitments and the need for continuous professional development. In addition to the educational process, the teacher is responsible for the implementation of methodological, organizational, educational and research work. The influence of stressors on a teacher’s health contributes to the emergence of the syndrome of occupational burnout. “Quarantine” factors influencing the development of occupational burnout can be assigned into two groups: organizational and psychological factors related to the novel special organization of work in quarantine; psychological factors associated with the new psychological features of the professional activity and their own subjective characteristics. To prevent the development of occupational burnout, psychologists recommend to take care of yourself; do not forget about rest; realistically estimate own capabilities and, accordingly, plan work and time; do not make unnecessary commitments; do not demand too much from yourself; work should bring joy.

In between special needs teachers and students: paraprofessionals work in self-contained classrooms for students with intellectual disabilities in Sweden

ABSTRACT Based on street-level bureaucracy, this study investigates the paraprofessional role and assignments in self-contained classrooms for students with intellectual disabilities in Sweden. The research design contains a mixed method approach using a digital questionnaire for paraprofessionals (N = 60) and semi-structured interviews with four special teachers and five paraprofessionals. The results demonstrate that paraprofessionals cooperate with special needs teachers and have a supportive role working with students throughout the day. A lack of support for paraprofessionals’ professional development and few opportunities for them to co-plan, co-teach and co-assess with special needs teachers is said to hinder this advancement. The complexity of being both an educator in the classroom and a caregiver taking the responsibility for students’ wellbeing, peer-to-peer relations and care orientated work tasks are discussed.

Peningkatan Kemampuan Guru SLB dalam Melakukan Asesmen Keterampilan Berbahasa Anak Autis Melalui Workshop Berbasis Digital

One of the limitations of children with autism is the limitations in speaking both expressively and receptively. As a result, there are communication problems between teachers and children with autism, children with autism, and parents and caregivers mutually. This article aims to prove the improvement of teacher skills in assessing the language skills of children with autism by special teachers through digital-based workshops. Workshop participants consisted of 25 autistic special teachers in West Sumatra. The data were collected through a questionnaire that was filled in by the participants and a skills test to perform an assessment and analyzed using quantitative descriptive. The workshop results showed that there was a significant increase in teacher skills between the pretest and posttest scores in assessing the language skills of children with digital-based autism.

Longitudinal study of ‘retraining’ non-maths specialist teachers to become capable, confident teachers of mathematics

One of the key problems to be solved in mathematics education in England is that the demand for mathematics teachers is far in excess of the supply. Acknowledging that there are simply too few mathematics teachers, the UK government has invested significantly in retraining programmes. These programmes ‘retrain’ out-of-field teachers, that is, teachers of other subjects or from other phases, to teach secondary mathematics. The increased mathematical demand of the reformed GCSE courses coupled with the expectation that most post-16 students will engage with some mathematics (studying for A and AS levels, a Core Maths qualification or re-sitting GCSE) means many more teachers of mathematics will be needed. We consider the viability of a retraining course as an effective way of alleviating the problem of the lack of well qualified teachers for mathematics. In this four-year longitudinal study, we followed teachers during their year of ‘retraining’ and in the succeeding years. Once a participant completes their part-time one-year course, the teacher is considered ‘retrained’. However, we conclude that without ongoing professional development involving collaborative support retraining courses alone can have little impact on the problem of the lack of competent and confident teachers of mathematics in the secondary sector.

ReImagine: Amulti-Disciplinary Quality Improvement Plan to Work at Top of Scope

BackgroundThere is a growing need for quality, community care models centered on the care of the child with medical complexity. This quality improvement project was conducted in a community-based medical daycare program within a large, metropolitan, pediatric hospital network of care location. A multi-disciplinary team, led by a clinical nurse specialist, occupational therapist, and early childhood special education teacher, addressed staff frustrations and low morale related to barriers to working at top of scope and feelings of a chaotic care and learning environment for children. AimsTo improve staff satisfaction through a decrease in perceived barriers to practicing at top of scope and to refocus each discipline's role. A secondary aim was to improve child engagement through restructuring the therapeutic and learning environment and reducing distractions to better meet the unique needs of the children the program serves. MethodsThis quality improvement (QI) project used multiple methods, including staff surveys, child observations and timecard review, to measure the project's impact on ability to work at top scope, child engagement and staff satisfaction. ResultsThe QI project resulted in positively impacting work culture and structure by increased time professional staff practiced at the top of scope, decreased perceived barriers to do so, improved overall job satisfaction and improved child engagement. ConclusionIncreased multidisciplinary collaboration and increased structure promoted an enhanced learning environment, healthier staff environment, and a more fiscally responsible program. There is little knowledge about medical daycares and further investigations in this setting is warranted.

Video Modelling, Drama Therapy and Self-help Skills of Pupils with Moderate Intellectual Disability in Lagos State, Nigeria

The study examined the effects of Video Modelling (VM) and Drama Therapy (DM) on self-help skills of pupils with moderate intellectual disability in Lagos State, Nigeria using parental involvement and age of entry to school as moderating variables. The study adopted a pretest-posttest control group quasi experimental design using a sample size of Seventy-five (75) participants purposively selected from three special primary schools in Lagos State, Nigeria. The instrument used for the study include Slosson intelligence test (r=0.91), Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) adaptive Skills test (r=0.81), Self-help skills performance test (r=0.76) and parental involvement rating scale(r=0.92). The findings revealed that VM and DM are effective in the acquisition and enhancement of self-help skills of pupils with moderate intellectual disability, also age of entry to school had significant main effect on self-help skills acquisition while parental involvement have none. Based on the findings in the study, some recommendations were made which includes Special Educator, Care-givers and teachers can utilize VM and DT to improve self-help skills of pupils with moderate intellectual disability irrespective of their parental involvement. Pupils with moderate intellectual disability should be encouraged to enrol for formal education early, this implies that participants that entered school early were known to do better in their self-help skills than those that entered school late. Curriculum planners should incorporate VM and DT in the curriculum for teaching pupils with moderate intellectual disability self-help skills. Keywords : Self-help skills, Video modelling, Drama therapy, moderate intellectual disability DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-9-05 Publication date: March 31 st 2021

Evaluation of emotional and psycholinguistic problems in deaf and hard-of-hearing students in the Canary Islands

ObjectivesThe current study evaluated deaf and hard-of-hearing students' mental health in terms of emotional and behavioral strengths and difficulties, as measured by the SDQ in the Canary Islands. Furthermore, it evaluated the students’ psycholinguistic abilities using the Spanish version of the ITPA. MethodsThe Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was used to assess school children problems. The Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities measured student spoken and written linguistic abilities. ResultsStudent self-reports yielded different SDQ scores to parent and teacher reports. Student spoken and written linguistic abilities varied according to ten covariates. DiscussionPerceptions about the mental health of children differed according to the groups studied. Perceptions about student abilities in the classroom were different, particularly the ability to reproduce sequences of complex and non-significant figures by memory. ConclusionTwo outcomes emerged: a) conduct problems were the SDQ subscale that most distinguished children with cochlear implants from those with hearing aids, and b) tutor and specialist teacher experience appeared as the decisive influencing students’ psycholinguistic abilities.

Подготовка специалистов к использованию в профессиональной деятельности ресурсов «Московской электронной школы» для обучения школьников с особыми образовательными потребностями

The article is devoted to the issues of training specialists in the field of special education using modern digital educational technologies, in particular, using the innovative resources of the Moscow Electronic School.
 The prerequisites are the urgent need to train modern special teachers who are able to work with children with disabilities and who are proficient in modern digital educational technologies.
 The purpose of the study is to develop a technology for training specialists in higher education, who own the resources of the "Moscow Electronic School".
 Research methods: questioning of students, expert assessment of students by pedagogical workers in order to assess the skills and abilities of working in the MES environment.
 The results of the study indicate that the proposed technology for training specialists in higher education, who own the resources of the Moscow Electronic School, within the elective, has demonstrated rather high results. The study revealed a greater satisfaction of teachers with the preparation of students, namely, an increase in the creative potential, the emergence of students' involvement in practice was noted. In particular, this was noted in the students' independent approach to adapting their lessons to the special educational needs of mentally retarded schoolchildren, in the correct temporal alternation of the stages of working with the interactive panel. So, teachers, heads of practice noted a high level of ownership of MES resources in 2020 among 57% of students, which is almost twice as high as among students who underwent teaching practice in 2018 (31%). The average level in 2020 was registered in 28%, low - in 15%, which is almost two times less than in 2018 (27%). 
 The introduction of such an elective is exclusive, since it is focused on students enrolled in the specialty (defectological) education and solves the following problems: firstly, equipping with the skills and abilities of working in a digital environment, namely the environment of the Moscow Electronic School, and secondly, equipping with specific knowledge and skills of developing electronic content for children with disabilities.

Особенности русского профессионального языка в области лингвистики

In the modern rapidly developing theory of intercultural communication, special attention is paid to the study of professional communication and the analysis of language means used therein. Every branch of professional knowledge has its own language for specific purposes. In the sphere of linguodidactics, there is a language whose metalinguistic function presents certain difficulties for communicants. Linguistic terminology is a set of language means that describe, group and classify lexical units of both native and foreign languages. At the same time, linguistic terminology is an important component of a special professional language for specific purposes. At present, much attention is given to the study of professional languages, but the language for specific purposes in the field of philology has not been sufficiently investigated. The purpose of this research was to describe the main features of linguistic terminology and identify problematic issues of its functioning. The paper is relevant due to the general need for studying linguistic terminology as one of the important tools in the work of various specialists (philologists, translators, lexicographers, terminologists, terminographers, and teachers). This research is an interdisciplinary one, since it covers a range of topical problems addressed by lexicology and lexicography, terminology science and terminography, linguodidactics, theory and practice of translation, as well as general and specific theory of language. In this paper, general linguistic methods – definitive, comparative, contrastive, and descriptive – were applied. The language material and the results of its analysis can be used by specialists in such fields as lexicography, theory and practice of translation, native and foreign language teaching, as well as terminology science.

Perceptions of linguistically responsive teaching in language specialist teachers and mainstream teachers

Linguistically responsive teaching (LRT) means understanding the role that language has in building meaningful learning environments. In this paper linguistically responsive teaching is viewed as one way of implementing the notion of intercultural education. This qualitative study analysed data from 10 specialist language teachers and mainstream teachers to examine their perceptions of linguistic responsiveness in teaching Spanish as a second language to immigrant students. The findings revealed that there are differences in the perceptions of teachers on linguistically responsive teaching. Overall, the language teachers, as compared to mainstream teachers, showed a more extensive perceptions related to the LRT framework. Qualitative data suggested that training in relation to teaching L2 and previous experiences in teaching immigrant students had an influence on participants’ perceptions. Finally, the study indicates that while teachers did consider several elements of the LRT framework in their discussions on their practices, much more work regarding skills and knowledge aspects of understanding second language acquisition is necessary to prepare linguistically responsive teachers.

Development of Training Program Model －Perceptions of Special Teachers Regarding Applied Music Education

Development of Training Program Model －Perceptions of Special Teachers Regarding Applied Music Education

Learning about ‘inclusive’ pedagogies through a special school placement

ABSTRACT Background It is well-established that traditional approaches to initial teacher education do not adequately prepare physical education (PE) teachers for teaching pupils with disabilities. Consequently, pupils with disabilities participate less frequently and in fewer PE activities than their age peers. School-based placements, which form a cornerstone of the professional socialisation phase of teacher education, can help to prepare prospective and pre-service teachers for the demands of working in educational settings. We should not assume, though, that placing prospective or pre-service PE teachers in a school impacts positively on learning about inclusive pedagogies and, consequently, the educational experiences of pupils with disabilities. Purpose We used a special school placement and created opportunities for students to critically reflect on situated learning experiences to challenge normative perceptions of pedagogy and facilitate their learning about more inclusive approaches to teaching and learning. Specifically, we explore the influence of a special school placement on prospective PE teachers’ learning about inclusive pedagogies. Methodology Twenty-six first year undergraduate students, all of whom aspired to become PE teachers, participated in focus group interviews and were selected because they had attended a placement in a special school. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically. Findings The findings were underpinned by situated learning theory and suggested, for the first time in research terms, that through a special school placement prospective PE teachers learned about: adapting activities; breaking activities into smaller, more manageable parts; demonstrating activities; pacing the delivery of activities; when to repeat activities; non-verbal communication; and managing disruptive behaviours. We conclude by arguing that this pedagogical learning will contribute to preparing our participants for teacher education programmes and a career teaching PE, given that it aligns with the criteria used to judge the performance of pre- and in-service teachers in England (see Department for Education (DfE). 2011. Teachers’ Standards. London: DfE. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/665520/Teachers__Standards.pdf). Thus, we advocate for such placements to become a more frequent feature of the learning experiences of prospective and pre-service teachers. However, we do question and therefore call for future research that explores the longer-term influence and transferability of what is learned during special school placements.