The Development Of Pupils With And Pupils Without Special Educational Needs In Primary Schools In The Netherlands
Author(s):
Ed Smeets (presenting / submitting) Guuske Ledoux (presenting)
Conference:
ECER 2013
Network:
04. Inclusive Education
Format:
Paper

Session Information

04 SES 07 C, Students

Paper Session

Time:
2013-09-11
17:15-18:45
Room:
D-401
Chair:
Jonathan Rix

Contribution

One of the trends in education in Europe is an increasing focus on the inclusion of students with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools. However, students with SEN do not form a clearly defined group (Pijl, Frostad, & Flem, 2008). Moreover, percentages of students who are considered to have SEN differ between countries (Ferguson, 2008). A large-scale study in The Netherlands showed that according to primary school teachers, on average 26% of the pupils in their classes had special educational needs (Van der Veen, Smeets, & Derriks, 2010). In an earlier study in the UK a similar percentage had been found (Croll & Moses, 2003). In these studies the focus was not on the comparatively small group of pupils who are considered to have SEN according to official criteria, but on the whole range of SEN as estimated by teachers. These studies also showed large differences between teachers with respect to the percentage of pupils they considered to have SEN. This raises the question whether pupils are considered to be SEN pupils during all of their school career, and what relation can be established between their type of problems and their cognitive and social-emotional development.   

In the present study four research questions were addressed:

(1) What proportion of pupils in mainstream primary schools in The Netherlands have special educational needs according to their teachers and what kind of problems do these pupils have in opinion of their teachers?

(2) What proportion of pupils who are considered to have SEN are estimated as having SEN three years later as well and what proportion of pupils not estimated as having SEN are considered to have SEN three years later?

(3) What is the development in cognitive attainment of pupils with and pupils without SEN?

(4) What is the social-emotional development of pupils with and pupils without SEN?

Method

Longitudinal data were analysed on 4467 pupils in mainstream primary schools from two consecutive measurements of a large cohort study in the Netherlands ('COOL5-18'), with a three year interval. Teachers were asked to fill in a questionnaire for each pupil with special educational needs in their class. It included a list of 38 difficulties / disorders. Teachers were asked to state whether and to what extent these applied to the pupil. A pupil with special educational needs was defined as a pupil: - for whom there is an individual education plan; and/or - for whom a specific approach or extra help is needed; and/or - who has a specific problem or learning difficulty. In addition, the teachers were asked to fill in a questionnaire for all pupils in class, addressing background variables, the pupil’s achievement, behaviour, attitude towards school work, popularity, and the pupil teacher relation. Finally, performance tests in arithmetic, vocabulary and reading were completed by the pupils. Analyses of variance were carried out to check for significant differences on various outcome variables between the following pupil groups: - no SEN; - SEN at T1, no SEN at T2; - no SEN at T1, SEN at T2; - SEN at T1 and T2.

Expected Outcomes

At the first collection of data 26 per cent of pupils were considered by their teachers to have SEN. Three years later, at the second collection of data, this applied to 23 per cent. On the whole, 65 per cent of pupils were not considered to have SEN at either of these moments of data collection, whereas 12 per cent according to their teachers were SEN pupils at both moments. A comparatively large group, 23 per cent, was considered by the teacher to have SEN at only one of these two occasions, so the stability of the ‘SEN label’ is questionable. According to the teachers the most common problems of pupils with SEN are being behind in literacy and/or numeracy (17%), having a problematic attitude to work (15%), and suffering from internalising disorders (13%). Test scores of pupils with SEN on average were below those of non SEN pupils, but some remarkable differences in progress were noted between groups. Pupils with SEN were on average rated less positively by teachers on underachievement, behaviour, attitude to work, and popularity with classmates. Moreover, these pupils were considered to be more dependent upon the teacher, and had more conflicts with the teacher.

References

Croll, P., & Moses, D. (2003). Special educational needs across two decades: Survey evidence from English primary schools. British Educational Research Journal, 29, 731-747. Ferguson, D.L. (2008). International trends in inclusive education: The continuing challenge to teach each one and everyone. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 23, 109–20. Pijl, S.J., Frostad, P., & Flem, A. (2008). The social position of pupils with special needs in regular schools. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 52, 387–405. Pirrie, A., Head, G., & Brna, P. (2006). Mainstreaming pupils with special educational needs. Glasgow: The SCRE Centre, Faculty of Education, University of Glasgow. Van der Veen, I. Smeets, E., & Derriks, M. (2010). Children with special educational needs in the Netherlands: number, characteristics and school career, Educational Research, 52, 15-43.

Author Information

Ed Smeets (presenting / submitting)
ITS / Radboud University, The Netherlands
Guuske Ledoux (presenting)
Kohnstamm Instituut / University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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