According to Blatchford, learning support assistants (LSA) in schools within England comprise of a quarter of their workforce. In recent years, the inclusion of children with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream school settings has seen significant rises. Furthermore, the English government has raised expectations on the amount of…

Within categories of special educational needs, emotional and behavioural difficulties have received much attention in recent years, particularly in relation to their definition and identification by parents and teachers. This paper stems from previous research which highlights how children from disadvantaged backgrounds and those attending…

Various models of providing for the inclusion of children with disabilities and special needs exist in different European countries. Central to all these models is the notion that support for children and teachers is pivotal in ensuring effective inclusion. This article draws from three qualitative studies on the role, employment and deployment of…

In this study 20 beginning special education teachers were asked to describe their experiences in general education settings. To provide data, each teacher completed approximately three electronic reflective journals during a school year and also participated in a phone interview, which was aimed to give in-depth information regarding the…

The main purpose of the present study was to examine the long-term effects of a previous quasi-experiment that used inner speech as a tool to promote appropriate strategies in multiplication. Results one year after the intervention were published by Ostad and Askeland. This is a follow-up study. The 50-week intervention program was conducted in…

This paper through the theoretical framework of constructive attitude theory explores mathematics teachers' attitudes and pedagogical strategies with reference to inclusive practice. The authors argue that though teachers may have formed positive inclusive attitudes, the translation of these into practice does not always occur and poses…

In this follow-up study, development of co-teaching was studied in four different schools in Helsinki, Finland. Teachers, altogether 54, 51 and 26, respectively, responded to an electronic questionnaire three times during one year. The attitudes towards co-teaching were positive although the frequency of co-teaching remained low. Co-teaching was…

The "Attitudes Towards Integration Scale" (ATIS) assesses the attitude of the general public towards the school integration of children with disabilities. The scale was empirically created in a pilot study (n=351) and later used to survey 2158 people. The data from both surveys are analysed in the present paper; the results show that the scale…

The goals of the study were to examine the relations between maternal coping and hope among mothers who participated in early intervention program for their infants. Earlier studies focused attention on mothers' experiences of stress and their coping. Within the salutogenic construct, we aim at examining relations between mothers' coping and hope…

Due to the fact that the outcomes of education for most school leavers who are deaf in Northern Ireland are weak literacy skills and below average reading ages, a study was undertaken to investigate this situation. The views and experiences of teachers of children who are deaf, and of young people who are deaf in Northern Ireland, where oral and…

The reported level of use of eight instructional strategies in a sample of 531 special educators in the Czech Republic was examined in this study. Consistent with recent parallel studies in North America and Australia, the respondents reported that they used a combination of evidence-based instructional practices (such as direct instruction and…

Research has shown that high expectations of teachers about their students' academic development have a positive influence on how these students actually develop. Therefore, when aiming to improve students' learning results it is essential to know how teachers think about their students' abilities. The present study was meant to investigate what…

This paper reports the findings from a project focused on teaching secondary aged pupils with moderate learning difficulties (MLD) using Lesson Study methodology--a collaborative approach for teachers to assess, evaluate and plan a sequence of lessons that focuses on the learning of one to two focus pupils identified as having MLD. The research…

The aim of this research was to examine the type of activities as well as the challenges faced by befrienders supporting persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Twenty-nine volunteers befriending an equal number of families with children with ASD participated in this study. Content analysis was applied on visit logs (n = 465) completed by…

Parents' involvement in their children's education is known to be an important predictor of a range of adaptive outcomes. For learners with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), lack of parental engagement and confidence has been highlighted as a problematic issue. Given this, the objectives of the current study were to: (i) determine…