Enhancing Literacy and Communicative Skills of Students With Disabilities in Special Schools Through Dialogic Literary Gatherings

Abstract

Enhancing the quality of learning opportunities for students with disabilities and the learning level attained is a pending challenge. This challenge is especially relevant in the context of special schools, where the learning possibilities derived from interactions with others is limited. However, providing these students with a sufficient level of instrumental learning, such as literacy, and communicative and reasoning abilities is crucial for their subsequent educational and social opportunities. In this case study we analyse a special school that has implemented Dialogic Literary Gatherings with their students as a means to increase learning interactions within the group around the reading and debate of classical books. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the school principal and with a teacher of the transition to adult life course, and two focus groups were conducted with teachers–one with primary education teachers and one with secondary education teachers–and two focus groups with students–one with primary education students and one secondary education and transition to adult life students–. On the one hand, results show the characteristics of the Dialogic Literary Gatherings that allowed these students to participate and learn. On the other hand, several improvements have been observed. First, regarding instrumental learning, students increased their motivation for reading, and improved their communicative and reasoning abilities and in their reading proficiency. Second, regarding students' behavior, conflict has reduced, solidarity attitudes have increased, and they have acquired dialogic and argumentative habits. Finally, at the emotional level, they gained self-esteem and confidence and feel more empowered to make their voice heard.

Assessment of future primary school teachers' development of creative competence: A case study

“…Most research (Fernández-Villardón, Valls-Carol, Melgar Alcantud, & Tellado, 2021;Ritter, Gu, Crijns, & Biekens, 2020) concurs that universities need to foster students' creative abilities. However, there is no proper definition of creativity in education (Perry & Collier, 2018;Sidek, Halim, & Buang, 2022) and academic institutions have not established methods for measuring its development or tools specifically designed to monitor student progress.…”

Promoting high‐quality interactions among early childhood education minority students: a case study of dialogic literary gatherings

“…In the case of early childhood education, DLGs are increasingly being applied in new contexts (European Commission, 2019). Their implementation has been documented in countries such as the United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal and in different Latin American countries, including Brazil, Colombia and Mexico (European Union, 2019;General Directorate of Education, 2021;Rodríguez-Oramas et al, 2021). However, little research analyses DLGs in early childhood education in depth (Soler-Gallart & Flecha, 2018).…”

“…DLGs have been widely analysed and shown to promote high‐quality instructional, emotional and social interactions in adult and primary education (Fernández‐Villardón et al, 2021; Soler, 2015). Previous research has also found that DLGs can promote prosocial behaviour, better integration of students with disabilities and social inclusion of vulnerable groups in primary education (Molina, 2015; Villardón‐Gallego et al, 2018).…”

“It was Very Liberating”. Dialogic Literary Gatherings Supporting Mental Health Literacy

“…DLGs consist of choosing a book from among the classics of world literature, agreeing among participants which chapters to read, reading what has been agreed upon and underlining the sentences that are considered interesting, and then getting together to read and comment on the paragraphs that have been underlined (Fernández-Villardón et al, 2021 ). The role of the moderator is not to lecture on the analysis of the book but to ensure that mutual respect and interest prevail and that everyone feels comfortable and legitimated to participate and thus enrich the conversation (García et al, 2017 b).…”