This paper questions the claim of the Warnock Report (a report on special educational needs by Great Britain's Department of Education and Science) that educational aims are the same for all children. The paper discusses the place of knowledge in the educational aims, preparation for personal autonomy, distinction between autonomy and…

A survey of 60 special schools serving physically disabled children (ages 14-16) in England and Wales determined that 70 percent of the schools did not teach foreign languages, and small percentages did not offer history, music, and geography. The impact of the National Curriculum on these students and schools is discussed. (JDD)

This paper reports on the "de-segregation" of students with disabilities, focusing on processes occurring before pupils actually enter the mainstream. De-segregation involves identifying target children, discussing the situation among staff members, evaluation by educational psychologist, discussing with parents and the child, selecting a…

This article views differentiation as the process of identifying, with each learner, the most effective strategies for achieving agreed targets. It presents 10 elements of differentiation in special education, such as differentiation is multidimensional; differentiation is diagnostic; differentiation challenges classroom relationships; and…

This paper argues that, rather than emphasizing differences in the educational needs of children, what is needed is a way to emphasize the links between special educational needs and the needs of all learners, and those links should be used constructively as a resource for improving learning opportunities for all children within the general…

Curriculum differentiation for students with special educational needs is examined in the context of Great Britain's move toward a market system for education and its impact on policy and practice. Issues considered include the vulnerability of particular groups, the ideals of entitlement and empowerment, values inherent in governmental policies,…

The most important feature of successful curriculum differentiation for special needs students is good planning, which involves the stages of curriculum support, development of units of work, adapting materials, grouping students, providing individual supports, and assessment. This model is applied to the classroom, the key stage or department,…

This paper suggests a variety of ways of assessing the curriculum and assessing pupils so that tasks can be matched to special needs learners in the process of curriculum differentiation. The emphasis is on formative and diagnostic assessment but summative assessment is also discussed. (Author/JDD)

This article reviews some ways of differentiating classroom methods for special needs students in Great Britain, including differentiation of content, interests, pace, level, access, response, sequence, structure, teacher time, teaching style, and grouping. The most effective methods of differentiation are felt to be grouping, structure, and…

The process of curriculum differentiation for students with special needs at a primary school in Great Britain is described, focusing on educational values, planning, role of the special education teacher in ensuring that the needs of all children are being met, individualized programs, and curriculum assessment. (JDD)

This paper describes the process of curriculum differentiation for special needs students at a comprehensive secondary school in Great Britain. The differentiation process involved the reorganization of special needs provision, collaborative work between the learning development department and content areas, and assessment of special learning…

A British school for students with disabilities planned and implemented its curriculum differentiation process by entering the core curriculum into a computer and coding each learning objective, thereby allowing teachers to draw out an individual program for each pupil, varied in length and time scale according to individual needs, and to evaluate…

This paper reviews the concept of adaptive behavior, the etiology of maladaptive behavioral patterns in learning-disabled individuals, and age-related trends in life adjustment. It advocates the use of adaptive behavior measures to identify homogeneous subtypes of learning disabilities, to predict educational consequences, and to determine…

This review examines signs indicating a child is reacting to a former traumatogenic event. Posttraumatic stress disorder, as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-III, Revised, can result when children are refugees, children of war, immigrants, migrants from a different environment, or when children have experienced a major trauma.…

The author contends that special education suffers from (1) the inappropriateness of the "industrial model" for education; (2) a failure by governments to appreciate that schools are catering to a future that is passing; (3) the need to separate liberal education from technical training for employment; and (4) oversensitivity toward fostering an…