SCoTENS

Investigation into the professional development requirements of post primary teachers who have a specific remit to work with students who have special educational needs.

Overview and Objectives

The purpose of this research project was to investigate the professional development requirements of those second level (post primary) teachers who have a specific remit to work with students who have special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream school settings in both Northern and Southern Ireland.

With the inclusion of many more students with additional needs and disabilities in mainstream classes, teachers at second level face ever increasing challenges as they work to meet the needs of the students on a daily basis. Second level teachers are now working in a variety of roles within schools as they strive to meet these various needs.

The objectives of the project were:

To identify the professional development requirements, north and south, of post primary teachers working in the area of special educational needs in mainstream schools.
To identify the roles and functions, north and south, of post-primary teachers working in the area of special educational needs in mainstream schools.
To develop recommendations for continuous professional development programmes, north and south, in the area of special educational needs.
To strengthen best practice currently in operation in the training of special needs teachers, north and south.

Activities/Outputs

This research was carried out under the auspices of SCoTENS between April 2007 and June 2008 it was carried out within the overall framework of identifying common areas for potential cross-border collaboration to promote inclusive education within second level/postprimary schools in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The study set out to gain an understanding of teachers’ perceptions of their continuing professional development (CPD) needs arising from the move towards more inclusionary practices in mainstream post-primary schools. To this end, the research investigated the CPD requirements of second level/postprimary teachers who have a specific remit to work with students who have special and additional educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools in both the North and South of Ireland. These were identified as SENCOs and Learning Support/Resource (LS/R) teachers within the two jurisdictions. Specifically the project sought to make a set of recommendations for the CPD of these teachers that would be applicable in both jurisdictions.

This research drew on the experiences of current, second level practitioners whose remit is to work with students with special and additional needs both North and South, to establish their professional development requirements across a variety of school-based roles. A report containing the findings of the project, titled ‘Professional Development for Post-Primary Special Educational Needs (SEN) Teachers in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland’, was published in 2009.

Impact

This research underlines the real need for CPD for teachers whose remit is to work with students with special and additional needs in second level/post primary schools. A coordinated programme with a whole school focus would seem to be desirable. There is also a need for certified programmes at graduate diploma and masters levels. The overarching philosophy of all such programmes should be for professional development to interrogate and inform the role for the future rather than have the current role dictate the nature of professional development.

It was anticipated that the results of this study will be used to assist in the reviewof current CPD programmes and in thedevelopment and implementation in bothjurisdictions of models of CPD that willbe beneficial to schools, teachers andstudents. It is through well grounded,well researched, and evidence-basedprofessional development programmesthat system capacity improves inaddressing educational provision forstudents identified with special needs.In addition, it was anticipated that theCPD needs identified by the participantswould be closely associated with the rolesthey were undertaking currently withintheir specific school contexts.