Session Information
04 SES 13 B, Teacher Education for Inclusion: Recent research and future directions
Symposium
Contribution
In a context where there are long standing, Europe wide concerns about the efficacy of pre-service teacher education in preparing teachers for inclusive practice for learners with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in mainstream schools, this paper reports on the findings of research which explored the key question ‘What models and pedagogic frameworks are effective in developing skilled, confident and effective teachers who can successfully include learners with special educational needs (SEN) within mainstream classrooms? A key objective of this research was to construct a professional learning community comprising University tutors, pre-service teachers, serving teachers and teaching assistants within a large mainstream primary school. This learning community was constructed and managed to reflect the evidence and hypotheses in the literature about the principles and practices most likely to be efficacious. In summary, these included: •Enabling a culture of collaboration and teamwork across the learning community (Argyropoulos & Nikolaraizi; Sin & Law, 2012; Waitoller & Artiles, 2013). •The deliberate adoption of Research Oriented Clinical Enquiry (ROCE) in the context of authentic classroom practice with a focus on instructional techniques and outcomes for learners (Burns & Mutton, 2013; RSA BERA, 2013). •The design of carefully planned practicum experiences (Darling-Hammond, 2006; Lancaster & Bain 2007; Molina, Sharma, Forlin & Loreman, 2008) to include opportunities for reflexive work to deconstruct discourses and traditional practices and explore values and beliefs (Korthagen et al., 2006; McLeskey & Ross, 2004; Waitoller & Artiles, 2013). •Linking initial teacher education to continuing professional development in the context of professional enquiry through partnership between school and university staff (McIntyre, 2009). Within the context of an Action Research Project built upon these principles, a highly nuanced professional learning activity was designed for pre-service teachers to complete during their practicum named ‘Personalising Learning Planning’ in collaboration with participating teachers and teaching assistants. Further, there were careful and deliberate efforts to include teaching assistants:• Within the professional learning community •As collaborators in the ‘Personalised Learning Planning’ task •As mentors to pre-service teachers in the development of inclusive practice. This paper reports on the impact of these activities and its purpose is to inform teacher educators and policymakers about pedagogic design for effective inclusive teacher education. It offers an account of Research Oriented Clinical Enquiry (ROCE) (Burns and Mutton, 2013) as a route to efficacious professional learning which in turn can lead to sustainable inclusive reform in mainstream schools.
References
Argyropoulos, V., Nikolaraizi, M. (2009). Developing inclusive practices through collaborative action research. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 24(2), 139-153. Burns, K., Mutton, T. (2014). Research and teacher education: The BERA RSA enquiry. (Enquiry Paper 4). London: BERA and RSA. Darling-Hammond, L. (2006). Constructing 21st-century teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 57(3), 300-314. Korthagen, F., Loughran, J., Russell, T. (2006). Developing fundamental principles for teacher education programs and practices. Teaching & Teacher Education, 22(8), 1020-1041. Lancaster, J., Bain, A. (2007). The design of inclusive education courses and the self-efficacy of pre-service teacher education students. International Journal of Disability, Development & Education, 54(2), 245-256. McIntyre, D. (2009). The difficulties of inclusive pedagogy for initial teacher education and some thoughts on the way forward. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(4), 608-613. McLeskey, J., Ross, D. D. (2004). The politics of teacher education in the new millennium. Teacher Education & Special Education, 27(4), 342-349. Sin, K. F., Law, S. Y. (2012). The construction of an institute-school-community partnership in teacher education for inclusion. In C. Forlin (Ed.), Future directions for inclusive teacher education. London: Routledge. Waitoller, F., Artiles, A. (2013). A decade of professional development research for inclusive education. Review of Educational Research, 83(3), 319-356.
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