Teachers` views of the quality of special education in the Finnish comprehensive school

Author(s):

Erika Puro

Conference:

ECER 2010

Network:

11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance

Format:

Paper

Session Information

11 SES 02 B, Effectiveness of Diversity and Special Needs Educational Treatment

Paper Session

Time:

2010-08-25

11:15-12:45

Room:

U40 SALI 11, Metsätalo

Chair:

Manuela Guillen

Contribution

The success in PISA-studies (Välijärvi et al. 2007) has increased international interest in Finnish school system (McKinsey 2007). Finnish comprehensive school is a school where whole age groups are educated together. On the other hand, special education has a significant role in Finland: 22 per cent of the pupils participate in part-time special education and 8 per cent of the pupils have been transferred to special education. Because of its aim to ensure equality among pupils and the emphasis on pupils` skills developing, the special education system has also been of high interest (Kivirauma & Ruoho 2007).

In generel, the quality of special education consists in the parallel between expectations and experiences (Parasuraman et al.1985) and it includes 10 areas: school values, classrooms environment, staff, co-operation, teaching, pupils` welfare, pupils` satisfaction, pupils` outcomes, school leadership and community support. There is some previous research about quality of special education (e.g.Skårbrevik) and about special education teachers` and general education teachers`different ways to perceive school. However there is lack of comprehensive research on quality of special education from the viewpoint of different focus groups. This paper is a part of a large research project which included views of pupils, parents, parapforessionals and headmasters. The aim of this paper is to examine how comprehensive school teachers view the quality of special education of their own school and how these views differ between special eduation teachers and general education teachers.

Method

The quantitative data was collected from 25 communities all over Finland. This paper is focused on the questionnaires from 431 Finnish comprehensive school teachers (N= 203 special education teachers and 228 general education teachers). The questionnaire contained 96 standardized items from 10 the quality areas. 10 sum variables were formed of the items, respectively. Each quality area was measured by perceptions and expectations in the Likert scale. Some issues were also measured by open questions. Data was analyzed mainly by quantitative methods. Differences between perceptions and expectations and between teacher groups were comparen by T-test.

Expected Outcomes

The results showed that the quality of special education was mainly regarded quite positive from the viewpoints of teachers. Despite the discrepancies between perceptions and expectations (p<.001), almost all evaluations were placed in top quartiles. The biggest discrepancies were found in the areas of the community support, classrooms environment and school leadership. Teachers were the most satisfied in the area of pupils` school saticfaction and pupils` outcomes. Some differences between teacher groups were found (p<.05 - p<.001). Special education teachers had higher quality expectations than general education teachers, but both groups were nearly on the same satisfaction level.

References

Kivirauma, J. & Ruoho, K. 2007. Excellence through special education? Lessons from the Finnish school reform. Review of Education 53(3), 283-302. Mc Kinsey & Company. 2007. How the world´s best performing school systems com out on top. Available online at: http://www.mckinsey.com/locations/UK_Ireland/~/media/Reports/UKI/Education_report.ashx (accessed 15. january 2010). Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A.. & Berry, L.L.1985. A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research. Journal of Retailing 49(4), 41-50. Skårbrevik, K. J. 2005. The quality of special education for students with special needs in ordinary classes. European Journal of Special Needs Education 20(4), 387-401. Välijärvi, J., Kupari, P., Linnakylä, P., Reinikainen, P., Sulkunen, S., Törnroos, J. & Arffman, I. 2007. The finnish success in PISA – and some reasons behind it 2. PISA 2003.Jyväskylä: Kirjapaino Oma. Available online at: http://ktl.jyu.fi/img/portal/8302/PISA_2003_screen.pdf (accessed 14. january 2010).

Author Information

Erika Puro

University of Jyväskylä

Department of Educational Sciences