Caracterización del procedimiento general para la toma de decisiones vinculada a la

There was a broad consensus among general teachers that the essentials for teaching in an inclusive classroom were a wide range of simple teaching methods, variety in the use of educational aids, strong differentiation and cooperative learning, in addition to an understanding of the needs of pupils with SEN. Also highlighted were “continuous follow up of all their pupils”, “management of the inclusive classroom” (S1GT1), consulting the appropriate specialist teacher, and using various forms of groupwork. Some general teachers used a variety of teaching strategies in the classroom: "I use strategies like, exploration activities in which pupils learn how to explore and work as a team" (S2GT3). Teamwork was raised in terms of collaboration by one teacher, for instance “doing some exercises in the school book as a group, each pupil in the group should participate, their participation does not necessitate them being right" (S4GT2). Using a variety of teaching strategies “help[s] in dealing with some psychological difficulties experienced by pupils like their embarrassment when they participate with their friends in an inclusive classroom" (S2GT1). The importance of encouragement and praise was also recognized. Particular reference was made to strategies such “group dialogues" (S4GT3), “cooperative learning groups

[… and] group activities” (S5GT3), although the researcher’s classroom observations found that traditional desk-and-chair furniture and class sizes could make it very difficult to employ such strategies. Further detailed suggestions were the use of “sensory aids” (S2GT4), "classification" (S4GT2) and "repetition” (S2GT5). Flexibility was specifically mentioned by one teacher who saw this as benefiting all pupils (S5GT1), while linking classroom education with daily life was mentioned by another. The importance of “taking into account the individual differences between pupils" (S3GT1 and S3GT3) through "individual teaching, […] based on my knowledge and practice with LD pupils in inclusive classrooms" (S2GT3) also featured in responses. Reading and self-development on the part of the teachers were mentioned by three of the general teachers as a way of gaining the skills to teach effectively in inclusive classrooms.

Special needs teachers held similar views even though their teaching was limited to the context of the resource room or separate classroom for pupils with SLD, and stressed the importance of relating to individuals and “taking full account of individual differences” (S2ST1). Also acknowledged as important were “educational aids which meet all pupils’ needs regardless of whether or not they have SEN” (S4ST1, School 4, Special Needs Teacher). Two of the three specific comments concerning dyslexia made by a single teacher referred to teaching strategies. These show a focus on using a particular strategy for each learning difficulty.

“I decide how many lesson they should take, depending on their difficulties, and how many difficulties to deal with. For example, if an LD pupil has two difficulties like dyslexia and dysgraphia, then I have to teach her in the right way for both those difficulties - each difficulty has

special lessons to help LD pupils, but every pupil should have 3 lesson in resource room maximum" (S1ST1).

"My teaching strategies are… I use different strategies which depend on the LD pupils’ difficulties. I cannot use one strategy for all LD pupils in the resource room, so I use the special one for dyslexic pupils" (S1ST1).

In the resource room, one teacher used fishing for letters in a bowl as a particularly effective way of engaging and maintaining interest while teaching specific letters of the alphabet. In addition, one special needs teacher used a board to encourage children with learning difficulties: children added a part of a face when they did well in a lesson and once the face was complete, the child received a small gift from the teacher.

Parents endorsed the general views. They suggested hands-on activities, learning from experience and practice through concrete activities. "I think collaborative learning would help pupils to learn together" (S1GP2, parent of child without SEN) and "Any lesson taken outside the classroom would help all pupils to learn together, also teachers could sometimes use workshops, and make more educational use of school trips" (S1GP3). The choice of vocabulary in these comments indicates that at least some of the parents may have been education professionals. One less confident parent suggested "I have no idea about that but I think that pictures, science experiments …. could help pupils to learn" (S1SP5, parent of child with special needs). Parents of children with SEN highlighted collaborative learning: "Different resources to help

pupils to learn together, like education visits and trips, I think it breaks down barriers between pupils, also helps them to make friends" (S1SP1) and "I think that trips, pictures, watching educational films, workshops, all those could help pupils to learn together" (S1SP3). Their comments represented a consensus view.

Some parents saw pullout sessions as beneficial. For example, the parent of one child with speech and literacy problems said:

"I notice my daughter’s academic level has completely changed, she has a new academic level. Now she can read words and her speech is also improving. My daughter now uses a computer to learn the letters of the alphabet, and she can read better, even though not quickly. I think the problem is not in my daughter, but was her old teacher who did not care what my daughter was learning in her class, but over time we can fix this problem" (S1SP5).

This reveals not only the benefits of resource room sessions but also the parent’s unwillingness to accept that her daughter had learning difficulties.

However, some parents were less certain about the benefits of pullout sessions because children were separated from their peers and missing other lessons, leading them to raise the possibility of additional rather than replacement lessons. One said:

"The timing of the resource room lessons is not flexible enough. Sometimes when my daughter has a lesson in the resource room, others

pupils in her class have a new lesson in another subject like history, so then the teacher sends me a letter ‘Your daughter has not done this lesson’ and I am surprised, so I would prefer additional lessons for LD pupils in the resource room" (S1SP3).

This viewpoint was supported by parents of two other SEN children. The first said:

"Lessons in the resource room are not suitable for my daughter. The lesson takes her out of some lessons which she likes to take with her class" (S1SP4).

The second parent also stated:

"The time of the lesson in the resource room does not suit my daughter. When she has her lesson in resource room, other pupils have new lessons, so my daughter loses the chance to take this lesson with her classmates, so I would rather change the time of this lesson" (S1SP5).

These comments suggest that while parents may feel their child is losing as well as gaining opportunities, some children prefer to be with classmates, reinforcing the importance of a sense of belonging.

The SEN education supervisor was more confident about teachers and teaching: "I think almost all of them have the necessary skills for teaching SEN pupils but still we need to train them as much as we can” (SS). The general education supervisor highlighted the importance of continuous professional development: “I do not like ‘the one way’ without developing. Every year we have new plans and ideas for inclusion which have come from the previous year’s experience” (SG).

Observations in the resource room revealed that some teachers were using traditional or minimum effort teaching strategies. For instance, one did not use a variety of methods or aids to improve the pupil’s reading, simply working from paper. Sensory aspects such as audio or visual aids were not used, when in particular the pupil needed more help to speak a little more loudly. Although this particular teacher knew about this pupil’s speech problem, she did not use any activities to improve the pupil’s speaking ability. It seemed the teacher taught in a traditional way aimed at catering for the needs of the majority of pupils rather than focusing on the individual SEN pupil’s needs and engaging in differentiated teaching. Further, this teacher did not modify her classroom-based language to facilitate the SEN pupil’s comprehension in that she was observed to speak to the pupil as if she were at middle rather than primary school level. In this lesson, reading and writing skills were too closely interwoven. The number of pupils with learning difficulties (6 currently and 3 on a waiting list) meant that with her existing teaching strategies and methods the teacher was unable to help all the pupils. The importance of extending individual teachers’ range of teaching strategies, perhaps by concentrating first on differentiation together with small group teaching methods, cannot be overstated. In addition, this would help to make teaching more learner-centred while becoming able to support a larger number of pupils. In a second example, an individual lesson for a pupil with dyslexia, the teacher wrote some sentences on the board, asked the pupil to read them very carefully, then read single words one letter at a time when real difficulty was encountered. This was followed by two paper-based reading exercises and a writing exercise, ending with a further reading exercise. However, there was overall a noticeable lack of teaching strategies aimed at helping dyslexic children, whether in

the resources room or the regular classroom. For example, there was no initial overview or holistic view of what was to be presented in the session, neither were any strategies offered for seeing and understanding the whole word. Strategies were concentrated on improving the phonological processing deficit rather than on promoting alternative coping strategies.

In summary, whilst some general and special needs teachers were aware of a variety of appropriate teaching strategies, they were not all using them or not always using them appropriately.