What makes teaching students with special educational needs special? An investigation and comparison of effectively teaching students with special educational needs in mainstream and special education settings.
Year: 2025
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Effective teaching is widely recognized as a crucial factor contributing to students' learning and development, placing teachers and their teaching behaviors at the center of educational research. While effective teaching is often considered as a one-size-fits-all practice, recent research has endorsed the importance of teaching contingency. Under this assumption, the effectiveness of teaching is considered as dependent upon the unique classroom context in which it is implemented, including the students in the classroom and the classroom setting. Considering both components, this doctoral project has a twofold objective: (1) to conceptualize effective teaching for students with special educational needs (SEN), a specific group of learners who greatly benefit from effective teaching but is largely overlooked in most teacher effectiveness research; and (2) to compare the teaching behaviors of teachers who teach students with SEN in two distinct classroom settings: mainstream education teachers (MET) and special education teachers (SET). The general effective teaching principles defined in the Great Teaching Toolkit (GTT, Coe et al., 2020) are taken as a starting point to investigate effective SEN teaching throughout five studies. In the first two studies, effective teaching for students with SEN and differences between MET and SET are examined from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Study 1 involves a scoping review with the aim of providing a comprehensive overview of the literature on effective teaching focused on improving reading comprehension outcomes for students with SEN. In Study 2 interviews are conducted with MET and SET to gather and compare their perspectives on effective SEN teaching. Findings from these two studies are then used in Study 3 to develop a classroom observation instrument that aims to outline effective teaching behaviors implemented by teachers of students with SEN during reading comprehension lessons. Consequently, the instruments' use is illustrated in Study 4 by investigating the frequency of and variations in the implementation of teaching behaviors through viewing and scoring real lesson observations. Finally, in Study 5, teachers' reasons behind the implementation of specific teaching behaviors and their perceptions on barriers and facilitators to adapt their teaching to students with SEN are investigated and compared between MET and SET. The findings of the five studies support the application of the general principles defined in the GTT model to effectively teach students with SEN. However, what makes teaching to students with SEN special is the translation of these principles into detailed, context-specific teaching behaviors. It is at this more fine-grained level of effective teaching that meaningful differences are identified between teachers who teach students with SEN in different classroom settings. This doctoral dissertation concludes with a critical reflection on the complex concept of effective teaching and its measurement for students with SEN in particular. The findings of this doctoral project have the potential to make a valuable contribution to the delivery of more adequate and high-quality education for students with SEN in every classroom setting, ensuring that every student with SEN is provided with effective, high-quality teaching to learn and reach its highest potential.
Source: Lirias
Author: Delafontaine, Jolien
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7113527548