Which students need accommodations the most,and to what extent are their needs met by regular upper secondary school? A cross-sectional study among students with special educational needs

The aim of this study was twofold: (1) to identify factors associated with a high level of accommodation needs in school activities among students with special educational needs (SEN) in regular upper secondary education; and (2) to investigate the extent to which schools have met students’ perceived accommodation needs. Accommodation needs and their provision in school activities were assessed with the School Setting Interview for 484 students with SEN. Students’ mean age was 17.3 years and 50% did not have a diagnosis. A logistic regression analysis revealed that a high level of school absence, studying a vocational programme, and a neuropsychiatric disorder were associated with a high level of accommodation needs. In the majority of school activities, about 50% of students had not received any accommodation despite an experienced need for support. About 30% of students perceived a need for support even though they had been provided with accommodations, and around 25% stated they were satisfied with received accommodations. Regular upper secondary school students with SEN are insufficiently provided with accommodations to satisfactorily participate in education. Specific student characteristics, e.g. high level of school absence, should receive special attention when investigating and accommodating students’ needs for support in school activities.     

‘My family’s goals are also my goals’: the relationship between collectivism,distal utility value,and learning and career goals of international university students in Germany

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - The utility value of an academic task can affect university students’ learning behavior and career choices. For...     

A leap to the digital era—what are lower and upper secondary school students’ experiences of distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic in Serbia?

European Journal of Psychology of Education - The aim of this paper is to thoroughly examine how students in Serbia experienced their education through distance learning during the 2020 Spring...     

English secondary students’ thinking about the status of scientific theories: consistent,comprehensive, coherent and extensively evidenced explanations of aspects of the natural world – or just ‘an idea someone has’

Teaching about the nature of science (NOS) is seen as a priority for science education in many national contexts. The present paper focuses on one central issue in learning about NOS: understanding the nature and status of scientific theories. A key challenge in teaching about NOS is to persuade students that scientific knowledge is generally robust and reliable, yet also in principle always open to challenge and modification. Theories play a central role, as they are a form of conjectural knowledge that over time may be abandoned, replaced, modified, yet sometimes become well established as current best scientific understanding. The present paper reports on findings from interviews with 13–14 year olds in England where target knowledge presents theories as ‘consistent, comprehensive, coherent and extensively evidenced explanations of aspects of the natural world’. Student thinking reflected a two-tier typology of scientific knowledge in which largely unsupported imaginative ideas (‘theories’) became transformed into fairly definitive knowledge (such as laws) through relatively straightforward testing. These results are considered in relation to research into intellectual development which indicates that effective teaching in this area requires careful scaffolding of student learning, but has potential to contribute to supporting intellectual development across the curriculum.     

What they say is what they do? Comparing task-specific self-reports,think-aloud protocols,and study traces for measuring secondary school students’ text-learning strategies

European Journal of Psychology of Education - This study investigates the correlation between three data gathering methods for uncovering differences in secondary school students’...     

We are all born free and equal. But are we? Children’s responses to issues of conflict,migration and refugees in picturebooks

There has always been war and conflict in our world. Conflict almost always goes hand-in-hand with human suffering and is usually caused by issues related to religion, power and politics linked to greed and money. Ordinary people, trying to live their everyday lives often suffer the greatest effects, with extreme hardship, misery and intense unhappiness frequently leading to death, destruction and displacement. This article looks at the concept of migration caused by war and conflict as dealt with by a text set of picturebooks. It considers the responses of a group of 9- and 10-year-old children as they discuss what is meant by migration, migrants and refugees and focuses on what it would be like if, because of war, they found themselves in the situation of having to leave their homes and seek refuge in a new country.