In inclusive education, the experience of positive emotions, social participation and confidence in one’s own abilities can be considered as key objectives. Emotions are important mediators and outcome variables, and therefore they are strongly related with cognitive and motivational processes (Pekrun & Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2014). Friendships between peers are related to the individual development of students (Pijl, Koster, Hannink, & Stratingh, 2011). The academic self-concept is reciprocally related to academic achievement (Huang, 2011). Research in inclusive education has shown that students with special educational needs (SEN) struggle more often with social participation (Koster, Nakken, Pijl, & van Houten, 2009) and have a lower academic self-concept than their peers without SEN (Ruijs & Peetsma, 2009). However, findings about emotional well-being of students with SEN are not that clear. This study aims to determine the consistency between students’ self- and teacher-reports regarding the above mentioned three dimensions of inclusive education. We will focus on two research questions: 1) How consistent are student and teacher ratings? 2) What effect have student characteristics (SEN, sex, age) on self-reports and teacher-specific ratings? To answer these questions, self- and teacher reports about 329 students from grade 8 (N = 20 classes) were analyzed. The mean age of the students was 14.5 years (SD = 0.5), and about 10% of the sample was diagnosed as having SEN. Students’ and teachers’ views of inclusion were measured by the student and teacher version of the Perceptions of Inclusion Questionnaire (PIQ; Venetz, Zurbriggen, Eckhart, Schwab & Hessels, 2015). The PIQ is a valid screening instrument, assessing emotional inclusion, social inclusion and academic self-concept with four items per scale. To answer the first question, a multiple-indicator correlated trait-correlated method model with one method factor less than methods (CT-C[M-1]; Eid, Lischetzke, Trierweiler & Nussbeck, 2003) was employed. A main result of this analysis was that the consistency of self- and teacher reports differs with regard to the dimensions: On the latent level the correlation between the self- and teacher reports is .26 for social inclusion, .44 for emotional inclusion and .64 for academic self-concept. With respect to the second question, results of structural equation modeling indicate that student characteristics (SEN, sex, age) have different effects on self-reports and teacher-specific ratings. Implications of the results for both further research and practice will be discussed.

Eid, M., Lischetzke, T., Trierweiler, L. I., & Nussbeck, F. W. (2003). Separating trait effects from trait-specific method effects in multitrait-multimethod models: A multiple-indicator CT-C(M – 1) Model. Psychological Methods, 8(1), 38-60. Huang, C. (2011). Self-concept and academic achievement: A meta-analysis of longitudinal relations. Journal of School Psychology, 49, 505-528. Koster, M., Nakken, H., Pijl, S. J., & van Houten, E. (2009). Being part of the peer group: a literature study focusing on the social dimension of inclusion in education. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 13(2), 117-140. Pekrun, R. & Linnenbrink-Garcia, L. (2014). Introduction to emotions in education. In R. Pekrun & L. Linnenbrink-Garcia (Eds.), International handbook of emotions in education (pp. 1-10). New York, NY: Routledge. Pijl, S. J., Koster, M., Hannink, A., & Stratingh, A. (2011). Friends in the classroom: a comparison between two methods for the assessment of students' friendship networks. Social Psychology of Education, 14(4), 475-488. Ruijs, N. M. & Peetsma, T. T. D. (2009). Effects of inclusion on students with and without special educational needs reviewed. Educational Research Review, 4(2), 67-79. Venetz, M., Zurbriggen, C.A.L., Eckhart, M., Schwab, S., & Hessels, M.G.P. (2015). The Perceptions of Inclusion Questionnaire (PIQ). German Version. Available from http://www.piqinfo.ch