No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Experiences of an Integration Link Scheme: The Perspectives of Pupils with Severe Learning Difficulties and their Mainstream Peers
Abstract
The paper explores the perspectives of pupils involved in an integration link. Data from the mainstream pupils demonstrate a generally positive acceptance of the scheme, and in some cases the development of friendly relationships with the special school pupils. A significant number would wish to see more functional integration in lessons. The special school group also show positive feelings about their involvement. Profiles of individual pupils, however, reveal significant variations in the ways they respond to the opportunity for interaction with their mainstream peers. If integration schemes are to promote successful interactive experiences for all the pupils involved, then aspects of individual diversity need to be taken into account. Specifically, variation in motivation for interaction and in the perception of shared interests and experiences warrant consideration. In order to respond to such diversity, the planning of integration schemes should be informed by the views of the pupils themselves.
... Although integration is closely linked with participation, very little empirical research exists on secondary school integrative music projects involving pupils with SLD working with their mainstream peers [11]. In 1992 Moger and Coates reported briefly on such a project, which aimed at greater involvement of special school pupils in their local community and mainstream pupils' increased sensitivity towards their special school peers [12]. ...
Secondary school music curricula often alienate pupils because of their limited relevance to pupils' future lives and their experiences of music outside school. Moreover, music continues having to justify its place in secondary school settings. With an objective of expanding music educational thinking and increasing music's social relevance and usefulness, parallel case studies were used to explore, among other concepts, teachers' engagement in two integrative secondary mainstream-special school musical projects. Small's concept of 'musicking', which asserts the centrality of relationships in any form of musical performance, underpinned this research. In exploring the notion of an inclusive, socially just form of musicking, achieved through the musical integration of secondary mainstream and special school pupils, this paper outlines some hierarchical relationships in the projects influencing participating teachers' engagement. In such projects, mainstream and special school teachers' strong emotional engagement and their sense of self-efficacy were found to be important in enhancing or limiting the future likelihood of similar integrative projects. Suggestions for augmenting teachers' self-efficacy and for future research in this under-researched field are offered.
... Although integration is closely linked with participation [12], very little empirical research exists on secondary school integrative music projects involving pupils with SLD working with their mainstream peers [13]. In 1992 Moger and Coates reported briefly on such a project, which aimed at greater involvement of special school pupils in their local community and mainstream pupils' increased sensitivity towards their special school peers [14]. ...
This article describes, discusses and interprets the ways in which mainstream music teachers and their special school partners worked together, and with their integrated class, in two ten week-long music based projects. It forms part of my doctoral study which also assessed the interaction between the mainstream and special school pupils, and the feasibility of such projects. This form of inclusive music education is a significantly under-researched and neglected field.
... For most children and adolescents, friendships are established and maintained at school, in the local community and through leisure and recreational activities. A wealth of research has been carried out on inclusive education and indeed there is a great deal of evidence to support its success in terms of social gains (Beveridge, 1996;Lipsky and Garniner, 1997). By contrast the area of leisure and recreation has been somewhat neglected. ...
... Many studies which explore effective educational inclusion choose as their primary focus the views of head teachers, class teachers, teaching assistants, student teachers and parents of pupils (Fox et al. 2004; Hastings & Oakford 2003). A number of studies focus on the views, attitudes and changing perceptions of mainstream pupils (Beveridge 1996; Shevlin & O'Moore 2000; Yazbeck et al. 2004) but silent amongst these accounts of inclusion are the voices of those with learning disabilities. ...
Accessible summary
Listening to what young people with severe learning disabilities have to say about inclusion is important.
Researchers must be prepared to use a range of resources to facilitate communication.
Resources must be appropriate and familiar to the individual.
Summary
This paper describes the evaluation of a drama production which involved 6 young people with profound and complex learning needs and 23 pupils from a mainstream school. The young people worked together on the project for nearly 2 years. At the end of the project we wanted to find out what the young people with disabilities thought of the inclusion project. Very often, the thoughts of young people with learning disabilities are not included because professionals do not have the resources or experience to conduct the interviews. This paper explains how the interviews were arranged, what tools were used and finishes with two case studies which are examples of what the young people thought. This research demonstrates that young people with severe learning disabilities have important messages to tell us about their experiences of inclusion. This paper gives examples of how we can enable young people with severe learning disabilities to express their views.
This paper is concerned with the impact of an Irish schools’ link programme on the attitudes of able-bodied young people towards their severely/profoundly intellectually disabled peers. Eradicating the misconceptions and stereotypes often associated with severely/profoundly intellectually disabled young people can be particularly difficult in an Irish context as these young people attend Developmental Day Centres under the auspices of the Department of Health rather than a regular school. Within the remit of this paper, it is proposed to focus on the effects of structured contact on the attitudes of mainstream pupils towards their counterparts who have severe/profound intellectual disabilities. Findings would suggest that involvement in the link programme had enabled the mainstream pupils to develop and retain over a two-year period positive pro-social attitudes towards their severely/profoundly intellectually disabled peers.
This article reviews recent literature on the effects of integrating children with severe learning difficulties (or severe intellectual disabilities) into mainstream schools. It begins with a brief discussion of some of the inherent methodological problems in evaluating integration. This is followed by a review of the literature in the following areas: the role of support workers in facilitating integration; the effect of integration on communication and linguistic interaction; the relevance of curriculum differentiation; the impact of the age, ability and behaviour of the children with disabilities on integration; the effects of integration on children without disabilities; the attitudes of mainstream teachers and Local Education Authority staff towards integration. It concludes with a summary of the main findings and discusses the implications for future policy, provision and research.
The association of inclusive education with an equity discourse means that the question of ‘how’ to include is one currently faced by many teachers in the UK. Written by Eve Griffiths, who teaches English, literacy, media studies and drama in a special school in Wolverhampton, this article constructs a set of inclusive principles for teaching and learning and reports on pupil and teacher responses in mainstream and special schools to a three-week literacy project in which these approaches were implemented. Research diaries and small group-based interviews were used in both educational settings to access the opinions of 20 pupils with a Statement of special educational needs. The research found that the pedagogical approaches were successful in breaking down some barriers to inclusion between the two groups of pupils, but Eve Griffiths concludes that significant changes would need to be brought about for there to be any longevity in the eradication of these obstructions.
A research programme was initiated to promote positive attitudes towards children with special needs. Fifteen students each taught four lessons to children from second to sixth class in Primary Schools. Their approach was constructivist involving discussion and activities designed to provide opportunities for the children to reconsider their ideas. A post‐test was given to 465 experimental and 326 control children. Experimental children were different from controls in being more prosocial in a number of ways. Children who knew somebody with a mental handicap were affected by the programme differently in comparison with inexperienced children, largely by becoming more aware of the difficulties of children with special needs. There were a number of age and gender differences in the ways children think about mental handicap.
The study reported here focused on changes in attitudes of nine non‐handicapped (NH) six and seven year olds towards peers with severe learning difficulties (SLD) after experience of structured integration sessions over one school year. Year‐end interviews indicated that the NH children had generally maintained their positive attitudes shown towards children with SLD early in the year. This contrasted with attitudes towards classmates thought to be ‘not very clever’ or needing ‘a lot of help’ which remained relatively negative. Knowledge about SLD encompassed four different explanatory models of SLD: sensory‐motor difficulties, including deafness; young age; naughtiness; or ‘bad brains’. Implications of the study, particularly the importance of structure in integrated sessions and the provision of coherent explanations of handicap, are considered.
This study explores children's understanding of the causal origins of disabilities. Using a forced-choice explanation task, children's understanding of social-psychological, physical, and biological causal explanations of disabilities was considered. We presented 79 children (26 4- to 5-year-olds, 26 6- to 7-year-olds, and 27 10- to 11-year-olds) with 4 vignettes describing a child with a particular disability (physical disability, blindness, learning disability, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Participants rated their agreement with a variety of causal explanations of disability. Results showed significant age, disability, and causal explanation differences in children's causal understandings of disability. Children of all ages showed a preference for physical and biological causes of disability and rejected social-psychological causal explanations. These findings highlight the usefulness of employing a forced-choice methodology to examine young children's concepts of the causal origins of disabilities.
Students with severe and multiple learning difficulties have traditionally been excluded from mainstream education. Three arguments are put forward for integrating these students: social and humanitarian motives; interpretations of the ‘least restrictive environment’ as one in which interactions with non‐disabled peers are least restricted; and a changing concept of education to include a range of functional skills which provide preparation for adult life. Ways of implementing integration are discussed, including location of special classes in regular schools, integration into regular classes, and partial integration through links between regular and special schools. Although many existing integration programmes appear promising, there has been little systematic research in the area and few attempts at independent evaluations. Fears about potential loss of support services in integration appear to have some justification. Fears about adverse behaviour by non‐disabled peers have proved to be largely unfounded, but opportunities need to be deliberately structured to ensure that positive interactions occur between integrated students and their peers. Long‐term outcomes for students with severe and multiple learning difficulties integrated into regular schools have not been considered.
A review of the literature on integration was commissioned by the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This drew on literature from around the globe and was conducted by leading experts in five different countries. The review was organized in terms of categories of disability. This paper introduces the review and sets it in the context of emerging developments in integration. The pros and cons of using a categorical approach are discussed. Attention is drawn to key issues arising in the literature ‐ efficacy, characteristics of effective integration programmes and attitudes to integration. Finally, some pointers for the future development of integration are considered.
Describe a survey of children who transferred to mainstream schools from a special school for pupils with moderate learning difficulties. While the survey done in late 1991 was small-scale and its findings are tentative, it offered some interesting insights into parents' and pupils' reactions to the transfer to mainstream schools and suggests some lines of research that might be pursued further.
Although the ‘voice of the child’ is being stressed more and more in legislation and general debate the principle does not yet seem to be widely translated into practice. Dr Paul Cooper, lecturer and research officer, Oxford University Department of Educational Studies, has added to practice with his study of pupils' views in two residential schools for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. He suggests that the elements of their schooling which are most valued by the pupils are respite, relationships and opportunities.
Link arrangements between special and ordinary schools can provide a base for the full- or part-time integration of pupils with special educational needs and encourage the exchange of those ideas which lead to mutually beneficial curriculum development. A recent research project at the National Foundation for Educational Research has surveyed the current situation. Felicity Fletcher-Campbell, a Senior Research Officer at the NFER, outlines some of the findings and addresses some of the issue arising.
Seven months after the transfer of the senior department of a school for pupils with severe learning difficulties into a local upper school, an evaluation was carried out by staff of the special school and their liaison educational psychologist, Phillip Whitaker. It attempted to investigate the perspectives of all who took part, focusing particularly on any actual or potential problems so as to shape the future development of the project. This report focuses on the attitudes and experiences of the mainstream students and on the lessons which were drawn from their experience. The author, Phillip Whitaker, is a member of the Leicestershire Educational Psychology Service.
Peer interaction and the processes of socialization Early Intervention and the Integration of Handicapped and Nonhandicapped Children
- W W Hartup
Hartup, W. W. (1978) Peer interaction and the processes of socialization. In M. J. Guralnick (ed.) Early Intervention and the Integration of Handicapped and Nonhandicapped Children. Baltimore: University Park Press. European Journal of Special Needs Education 8 (3), 194-200. Schools. London: HMSO.
Special needs at the crossroads
- P Mittler
Mittler, P. (1993) Special needs at the crossroads. In J. Visser and G. Upton (eds) Special Education in Britain after Warnock. London: David Fulton.
Children Helping Children
- H C Foot
- M J Morgan
- R H Shute
Foot, H. C., Morgan, M. J. and Shute, R. H. (eds) (1990) Children Helping Children. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.
Effective School for Disaffected Students: Integration and Segregation. London: Routledge. -(199313) Learning from pupil perspectives
- P Cooper
Cooper, P. (1993a) Effective School for Disaffected Students: Integration and Segregation. London: Routledge. -(199313) Learning from pupil perspectives. British Journal of Special Education 20 (4), 129-33.
Friendship and Social Relations in Children. Chichester, John Wiley and Sons. provision? Collaboration between ordinary and special schools
- A J Foot
- J R Chapman
- Smith
Foot, A. J. Chapman and J. R. Smith (eds) Friendship and Social Relations in Children. Chichester, John Wiley and Sons. provision? Collaboration between ordinary and special schools. British Journal of Special Education 21 (3), 118-20.
Reviewing the literature on integration. HMI (1989) A Survey of Pupils zilifh Special Needs in Ordinary Jenkinson Integration of students with severe and multiple learning difficulties
- S Hegarty
Hegarty, S. (1993) Reviewing the literature on integration. HMI (1989) A Survey of Pupils zilifh Special Needs in Ordinary Jenkinson, J. C. (1993) Integration of students with severe and multiple learning difficulties. European Journal of Special Needs Education 8 (3), 320-35.
Joining Forces: A Study of Links Between Special and Ordinary Schools
- S Jowett
- S Hegarty
- D And Moses
Jowett, S., Hegarty, S. and Moses, D. (1988) Joining Forces: A Study of Links Between Special and Ordinary Schools.
Attraction and communication in children's interactions
- S Duck
- D K Miell
- H C Gaebler
Duck, S., Miell, D. K. and Gaebler, H. C. (1980) Attraction and communication in children's interactions. In H. C.
Experiencing Special Education: What Young People with Special Educational Needs Can Tell Us
- B Wade
- M Moore
Wade, B. and Moore, M. (1993) Experiencing Special Education: What Young People with Special Educational Needs Can Tell Us. Buckingham: Open University Press. integration. British Journal of Special Education 21 (l), Whitaker, P. (1994) Mainstream students talk about 13-6.
Mainstreaming of Children in Schools: Research and Programmatic Issues
- P S Strain
- M M Kerr
Strain, P. S. and Kerr, M. M. (1981) Mainstreaming of Children in Schools: Research and Programmatic Issues. New York: Academic Press.
- Lewis
- Cooper