The increasing inclusion of students with disabilities in regular classes still leads to debate and many advocate for full inclusion of all students. Arguments for full inclusion are generally rights-based, but proponents also claim research supports the effectiveness of full inclusion over specialist provision for all students with disabilities. In this article, we analyse and critique the use of the research literature in an Australian advocacy paper as an example of the broad claims made concerning full inclusion. We examine the extent to which the sources used provide conclusive evidence about the merits of full inclusion. We find the advocacy paper relies heavily on opinion and non-peer-reviewed literature, with little use of quantitative research that compares outcomes for students in different settings. We suggest that policymakers should treat the conclusions drawn in this paper cautiously and give due consideration to the literature that is not supportive of full inclusion.
In this article, I address the problem that education support for students with communication impairment may be delivered in an inconsistent manner within schools, or school systems, exposing affected students to harm and affected schools to the risk of litigation. Analysis of relevant Australian disability discrimination legislation and related case law demonstrates that there is a legal obligation to make reasonable adjustment for students with communication impairment and that a fair and equitable system may be postulated to administer that obligation. The Australian Government has recently committed to a needs-based funding model for Australian schools but further work needs to be done to establish how resources that flow to schools under that model should best be applied. This article aims to provide some guidance to those who will make decisions within schools about the management of the sometimes scarce and often expensive support resources for students with communication impairment.
This paper reports the findings from a study investigating Bhutanese parents' involvement in supporting their children with special educational needs (SEN) in schooling. The interaction between the parents themselves in supporting each other was also explored. Individual interviews were conducted with 26 parents (13 fathers and 13 mothers) of children with either full inclusion or partial inclusion in 3 schools located in 3 regions (urban, semi-urban, and rural) and analysed using manual thematic coding and Leximancer text mining software. Of Epstein's (1987) 6 types of parental involvement activities in education, these parents reported their actions to be parenting, volunteering in schools, supporting learning and development at home, and collaborating with the community. The minimal interaction among the parents was mostly between the stay-in-school urban mothers who had consistent but impromptu and informal interactions. The implications of this study inform the need for schools to respond to policy and to actively engage parents, and for education programs and support groups to be set up to strengthen parental involvement in the education of children with SEN in Bhutan.
In the abovementioned article by Sng, Carter, & Stephenson, Figure 2 is incorrect. The phase change line from Baseline' to the Intervention' is cropped and in the wrong place. These two errors may mislead readers of the article.
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A pilot study of the effectiveness of guided access to websites that provide information on intervention options for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was conducted with 12 parents of preschool-aged children with ASD. Guided access to reliable websites that included information about the efficacy of interventions for ASD (Raising Children Network, 2006–2014; Research Autism, 2006–2014) was provided in the format of a DVD presentation. The guidelines for choosing interventions provided on the Raising Children Network (2009) website were reiterated and assistance was provided with navigation and interpretation of the sites. Participants reported the guided access to reliable websites as useful and also reported an increased level of confidence in making intervention decisions after using the package. However, the guided access did not appear to influence the factors that parents considered important in decision-making, their understanding of the level of research support for interventions, nor their desire to use different interventions. Implications for future research and attempts to disseminate information to parents are discussed.
In this qualitative study, we explored the perspectives of 10 adolescents with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their experiences of bullying. Through individual semistructured interviews, they were asked to describe their understandings and experiences of bullying. Details of their experiences are described as well as the perceived impact on the students and their schooling. Data analysis revealed a number of common experiences including high rates of traditional bullying and more specifically verbal bullying, with fewer incidents of cyberbullying reported. In support of literature in the area, the results of the study indicate that bullying can be a significant inhibitor, which may prevent students with ASD from taking full advantage of their schooling. Listening to and reflecting on the voices and personal stories of adolescent students with ASD is critically important for developing more supportive approaches to their education and needs. The reports of bullying by students on the autism spectrum emphasises the need for more effective interventions and management strategies to be implemented in a whole-school approach as well as targeted strategies to prevent bullying experiences for this particular population of students.
Inclusion of students with 'disabilities' in public systems of general education has been a global initiative since the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action by the Ministry of Education and Science, Madrid (Spain), and United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Paris (France), in 1994. Despite global and national policy efforts the practice has been sporadic and elusive. Framing education as categorical, specialised service delivery to discrete populations makes inclusion an unsolvable problem. The advent of multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) coupled with universal design for learning (UDL) practices delivered in whole-school rather than classroom-based formats poses a pathway out of the conundrum by framing public education as a system of equitable distribution of resources, such as services and supports, based on measured and monitored need on the part of all students. Potentially supportive research literature is reviewed.
We explored 3 general classroom teachers’ experiences of including a child with Down syndrome in their early years classrooms. Located at 3 different Australian school settings, 1 teacher was the head of a Preparatory class, 1 was a Year 3 teacher, and the third was a teacher of a split Preparatory/Year 1 class. Interview data were drawn from a larger study, in which data were gathered over a 5-month period through class observations and teacher interviews. The findings indicate that although there were highly inclusive experiences identified in the school sites, the school context played an important role in the inclusion of the child. Teachers indicated that receiving targeted information about Down syndrome and collaborative support from parents, teaching colleagues, and their wider school enabled them to work more inclusively with their student with Down syndrome in their classroom.
All forms of bullying, physical, verbal, social, and cyber, are prevalent among youth worldwide. An especially vulnerable population for involvement in bullying is students with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although there are some studies that have investigated bullying in these students, many of these are beset by methodological issues. We surveyed 104 students with ASD on their bullying experiences in all 4 forms of bullying and examined their roles as victim, perpetrator, and bully-victim, comparing them with a group of typically developing students matched for age and gender. It was found that students with ASD reported significantly more traditional victimisation (physical, verbal, and social) than their typically developing peers. Cyberbullying victimisation was similar for the 2 groups. There were no differences between the groups on traditional bullying perpetration; however, typically developing students reported more cyberbullying perpetration behaviours. Implications for prevention and intervention are discussed.
Using a second cohort of Australian school students, this study repeated the propensity score analysis reported by Dempsey, Valentine, and Colyvas (2016) that found that 2 years after receiving special education support, a group of infant grade students performed significantly less well in academic and social skills in comparison to matched groups of students who did not receive support. Using Longitudinal Study of Australian Children data, the present study found that the second cohort of students with additional needs also performed less well than matched groups of peers and that these results also held true for the specific subgroup of these children with learning disability/learning problems. The ramifications of these results to the delivery of special education in Australia are discussed.
The implementation of a transition model, the flexible integration model, was investigated in a school in Sydney, Australia, using an exploratory single case study design (Rowley, 2002). It is a person-centred model designed to assist students in transitioning from a special school for students with emotional and behavioural disabilities to mainstream settings. Students enrol in mainstream classes in areas that interest them academically and vocationally, while receiving support in developing the necessary social and behavioural skills to successfully fully transition to mainstream and post-school settings. The model, based on the person-centred planning framework, was implemented with 1 student during the last 2 terms of a school year. The outcomes and effectiveness of adopting the model were evaluated by analysing the student's behaviour and attendance, and interviews with principals, teachers, and paraprofessionals. Results indicated improvement in the student's behaviour, attendance, and interpersonal skills.
Participant-driven photo-elicitation, a visual research technique, is commonly used with marginalised and vulnerable groups of individuals. Reflections on the use of this technique are illustrated through a study examining the conceptualisation of student wellbeing from the perspectives of teachers, parents, and students with autism spectrum disorder. Interviews were used to collect data from teachers and parents, while photovoice, a community and participatory action research strategy, was used as a data collection method for students. Although participant-driven photo-elicitation (a component of photovoice) requires much planning, resources, collaboration with teachers, and the flexibility of the researcher, it empowers and engages students with autism spectrum disorder, helps develop social, communication, and self-awareness skills, enables the collection of rich data, and enables the voices of these students to be heard.
Scripts in written or auditory form have been used to teach conversational skills to individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but with the proliferation of handheld tablet devices the scope to combine these 2 formats has broadened. The aim of this pilot study was to investigate if a script-based intervention, presented on an iPad conversational app, would be effective in teaching basic conversation skills within a school setting. A multiple baseline with probe design across scripts was employed to teach a student with ASD on-topic responses. Experimental control was demonstrated across 2 of the 3 baselines. Surprisingly, a substantial degree of generalisation was evident, which may have compromised demonstration of experimental control. This app may be a practical and effective tool for teaching on-topic responses to an individual with ASD, and further research is warranted.
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
In Victoria, Australia, one of the major roles of the teachers’ aide (TA) is to assist students with disabilities to access their education. Researchers have identified the inconsistencies in defining the roles of the TA, in a variety of settings, by TAs, teachers, parents, and other research participants. Four main themes that have been frequently reported in educational research related to the role of TAs formed the basis for this study: (a) inclusion in the school community, (b) curriculum, (c) classroom management, and (d) student support.Drawing on the results of a questionnaire administered to teachers and TAs at a government nonselective secondary school in Victoria, Australia, data were collected to explore the differing perspectives on the role of the TAs by the teaching staff and the TAs. In all, 65 individuals participated in this study. The participants formed 3 groups: TAs (n= 10), teachers (n= 49), and T/TAs (n= 6; participants in this group had worked as both a teacher and TA). The results of the study showed a diversity of views across the 4 themes. In 3 of the 4 themes that included inclusion, classroom management, and student support, the 3 groups agreed on the role of the TA. In the remaining theme, curriculum, opinions varied significantly. The results of the study reveal that a concerted effort to clarify the role of TAs would be beneficial to all stakeholders.
Preservice teacher education courses provide an opportunity for the development of knowledge, skills, and confidence in classroom and behaviour management. This study reports the change in classroom management sense of efficacy (CMSE) of a small cohort of Australian preservice primary teachers at 4 time points (precoursework, preprofessional experience, postprofessional experience, and postcoursework), during a semester-long course focused on managing challenging behaviours in the inclusive classroom. CMSE increased between the time points, significantly so, pre–post course. The sources of efficacy information available and the learning activities completed during each intervening time point are explored as possible explanations for the changes in CMSE reported. Issues in measuring preservice teachers’ efficacy related to coursework are discussed.
Implementation of multi-tiered systems of support is occurring within and across a number of countries with an increased recent focus on the development of local system capacity to maintain high levels of practice implementation fidelity. The purpose of this paper is to describe the importance of local capacity development in the high fidelity and sustained implementation of empirically supported practices within a multi-tiered system of support. After we describe the rationale for, and descriptions of, capacity development and multi-tiered systems of support, we (a) present a framework for the development of implementation capacity, (b) emphasise guiding concepts and principles, and (c) use positive behavioural interventions and supports as an example of a capacity development framework. We conclude with implications and recommendations.
This research was undertaken to determine if significant relationships exist between teachers' self-reported attitudes, concerns, and efficacy to teach in inclusive classrooms and their actual classroom behaviour in Winnipeg, Canada. Five teachers completed 3 scales measuring their attitudes to inclusion, their level of concerns about teaching in inclusive classrooms, and their level of efficacy for teaching in inclusive classrooms. They were observed using a newly developed scale to measure their inclusive teaching practices. Each teacher was observed from 3 to 5 hours on different occasions. Data were analysed using 1-tailed Spearman correlations. Results indicated that teachers who were highly inclusive in their classroom practices tended to have significantly lower degrees of concerns and positive attitudes to inclusion. Implications of the research for policymakers, future researchers, and teacher educators are discussed.
