Pre‐service teacher training and special educational needs in England 1970–2008: is government learning the lessons of the past or is it experiencing a groundhog day?

Abstract

TitlePre-service teacher training and special educational needs in England 1970England -2008: is government learning the lessons of the past or is it experiencing a groundhog day? AbstractThe paper outlines the findings from a literature review of the English's government's response to the issue of training pre-service teachers in the delivery of effective special educational needs support. The Review's findings detail that although educational practice in mainstream classrooms has changed considerably since the 1970s the training of pre-service teachers with regards to special educational needs has seemingly changed very little. The paper argues that the government needs to radically re-think its policy of inclusion to ensure that a coherent plan is formulated which enables Higher Education Institutions' initial teacher training programmes to train students who are competent and confident in their abilities to work with children with special educational needs and/ or disabilities.

Insights into teacher learning about pedagogy from an international group of teachers of students with severe intellectual disabilities

“…It is useful, however, to provide contextual background information about the different teacher education provision with regard to severe intellectual disabilities in both countries. Teacher education in special education has a particularly problematic historical chronology in the USA (Brownell et al 2005) and in England (Hodkinson 2009). In the USA, currently, there are both stand-alone special education and more integrated special and general education teacher pre-service programmes (Sindelar et al 2014).…”

The inclusion of students with BESD in mainstream schools: teachers' experiences of and recommendations for creating a successful inclusive environment

“…Email: r.l.goodman@ljmu.ac.uk Downloaded by [Stanford University Libraries] at 20:51 25 September 2012 types of SEN that may appear in the inclusive classroom. Indeed, despite the many changes in inclusion policy over the last 30 years, Hodkinson (2009) argues that teacher training for SEN is insufficient and not in accordance with these changes in policy. While BESD is a somewhat imprecise term (Cole and Visser 2005), aspects of the behavioural and emotional difficulties shown by students with BESD typically include being hyperactive and lacking concentration, presenting challenging behaviour and being disruptive and disturbing (SEN Code of Practice, DfES 2001).…”

Scaffolding learning for independence: Clarifying teacher and teaching assistant roles for children with special educational needs

“…In terms of professional development, TAs and teachers being trained together has been strongly recommended (Giangreco et al, in press). More widely, the twin issues of meeting the needs of pupils with SEN and managing and working effectively with additional adults in the classroom -for too long overlooked -must be more rigorously addressed in initial teacher education and continuing professional development (Hodkinson, 2009;Blatchford et al, 2012).…”