Perspectives on Socio-Educational Inclusion of Children with Special Educational Needs

The socio-educational inclusion of children with special educational needs is an insufficiently explored topic in Romania, despite the fact that we are part of many international organizations that support human rights and an increasing number of nationally ratified conventions. This paper aims to capture the perception and attitude of teachers on the rights and possibilities of these children to integrate into mainstream education, identifying obstacles and possible solutions. The study was conducted through an opinion poll and a focus group with the participation of teachers from mainstream education units.The main conclusions show that regular education will not be able to integrate children with special educational needs, in the absence of differentiated teaching/ learning, programs and assessments tailored to the specifics of each child, a thorough training of teachers and support of specialized staff, parents and community.

Adaptive teaching for GCSE and A level classical literature

The new ITT Common Core Framework (CCF) for teachers expects trainee and early-career teachers to adapt their teaching to support all students in class (Department for Education, 2021). What used to be called ‘differentiation’ is now referred to as ‘adaptive teaching’ and full details of what it consists of, as far as the Department for Education in England is concerned, can be found on pages 19–20 of the CCF document. Much of the advice of that document is about supporting students with special educational needs and disabilities, about teachers’ need to recognise that different students have different levels of prior attainment and may have barriers to learning, and how different types of student grouping may affect learning in different ways. It dismisses as a ‘common misconception’ that students have different learning styles and warns against teachers creating ‘distinct tasks for different groups of pupils’ or ‘setting lower expectations for particular pupils’.

Perspectives of Parents of Children with Special Educational Needs: Self-Efficacy and School Supports During COVID-19

The role of parents in supporting at-home learning increased dramatically in the spring of 2020. Schools in most Canadian provinces closed physically due to COVID-19, and remote-learning options were quickly developed to ensure continued education for students. Many students with special educational needs, who typically benefit from a range of supports from school, became reliant on parents to provide means of access to and participation in remote learning. Using an online survey, we explored the perceptions of 263 Canadian parents of children with special education needs with regard to their self‑efficacy and supports from schools. We conducted multiple linear regression analyses for each of three dependent variables (academic supports, parent self‑efficacy, and social-emotional supports); independent variables included student grade level, education placement, and total school-provided supports prior to the pandemic. Findings indicated that most parents engaged in remote learning and lacked confidence in their ability to support the learning of their child. Parent self-efficacy was related to social-emotional supports from schools and not to academic supports. Parents of children in elementary grades, and of those who had received more supports from school prior to COVID‑19, reported feeling better supported in social-emotional areas by the school. Schools should explore ways of building strong collaborative relationships between educators and parents, as well as continuing to find ways of supporting families and students in both in- and out-of-school places. The pandemic, and school-building closures, have reminded us how partnerships between parents and schools are crucial for the well-being of all involved.

Evaluation of Disabled STEAM -Students’ Education Learning Outcomes and Creativity under the UN Sustainable Development Goal: Project-Based Learning Oriented STEAM Curriculum with Micro:bit

This research aims to discuss the impact of the STEAM curriculum on students with learning disabilities and their learning outcomes and creativity. Teaching for creative thinking is the strategy to deliver a STEAM-structured curriculum and to reach the SDG4 targets. The content is designed in line with project-based learning (PBL), while the micro:bit and paper cutting are used as materials to support it. Methods and Procedures: The single-case research approach (A-B-M) was applied to study three students with special educational needs in primary school. The entire curriculum takes up to 10 weeks with 12 STEAM lessons with activities. The independent variable was the PBL-oriented STEAM curriculum, and the dependent variables were the learning outcomes and TTCT results of pre-tests and post-tests for creativity. There were immediate learning outcomes and retention effects found on the three participants. This paper addresses that the STEAM curriculum had a positive impact on their creativity, which gives affirmative feedback on the curriculum. Conclusion: This PBL-oriented STEAM curriculum under the SDG4 targets gave students with disabilities creativity competency and positive learning outcomes in these case studies. These teaching materials enable teachers to deliver the STEAM curriculum to students with learning disabilities.

More Money, More Problems? Addressing the Funding Conditions Required for Rights-Based Child Welfare Services in England

Policymakers and academics continue to debate the criteria used in formulas to allocate funding to children’s services, but few studies have considered how well the results of these formulas align with rights-based entitlements and commitments after implementation. This research measured correspondence between local authority spending per child and levels of income deprivation, special educational needs, and child development from 2011–2019 to assess the extent to which funding matches local authorities’ statutory responsibilities to provide support to children ‘in need’ under the Children Act 1989. There was weak and worsening correspondence between funding and needs, especially for preventative services.

Preparing for an outing part 2

Preparation is the key to making sure children with special educational needs and disability (SEND) benefit fully from an outing. It takes foresight and careful planning to ensure they have the same successful and rewarding experience as all children.

Educational Technology Based on Virtual and Augmented Reality for Students With Learning Disabilities

Educational technology is contributing towards diversity awareness as it allows you to create more personalized and student-centered learning situations. This chapter addresses specific learning difficulties (SpLD) and, specifically, dyslexia, since it is one of the most prevalent challenges in the educational field. Information and communication technologies allow direct intervention with students who have special educational needs as an alternative to traditional resources, which is much more motivating. In this sense, as an example, various projects and applications are presented that allow working on this type of difficulties with students. This chapter highlights the virtual reality and augmented reality software carried out in the context of the European Erasmus + FORDYSVAR project, of which the authors are part.

Teacher Attitudes Towards the School Integration of Students With Special Educational Needs

In recent decades, the issue of integrating students with SEN in mainstream education has been the focus of both educationalists and teachers from Romania. In this respect, integrated education means the form of schooling in which students with SEN are taught in mainstream education, while inclusive education assumes that schools adjust themselves to the psycho-individual particularities of each student, whether or not they have certain disabilities. Unfortunately, teachers and other educational agents are not always prepared to accept and meet the needs of a student with disabilities. Thus, the aim of this research was to identify the attitude of teachers towards the integration of students with SEN in the mainstream education of Bihor county, Romania. The results show that both society and a large part of the school staff ignore the issue of people with disabilities, preferring a superficial involvement, which restricts itself mainly to the administrative aspect instead of developing quality interpersonal relationships between non-disabled students and those with SEN.