Transition partnerships: the views of education professionals and staff in support services for young people with learning disabilities

Transition to post-statutory education and employment for young people with learning disabilities has become a hotly debated issue among professionals in education and support services in the UK. Partnerships between educational institutions and voluntary sector providers are supposed to be ideal vehicles for delivering transition services and securing outcomes for young people with learning disabilities. In this article, Axel Kaehne and Stephen Bayer of the Welsh Centre for Learning Difficulties report the findings of a survey of the views of special educational needs co-ordinators and professionals who are involved at operational and strategic levels in the work of transition partnerships. The data show that undue emphasis is often placed, by all stakeholders, on the soft, rather than the concrete, outcomes of transition; that smooth transitions are still hampered by insufficient flow of information between collaborating agencies; and that there are still significant gaps in provision, in particular in the supported employment field, due to funding or referral restrictions. To deliver first-class transitions, argue Axel Kaehne and Stephen Bayer, partnerships that support young people with learning disabilities need to address these difficulties with some urgency.     

How students with intellectual disabilities experience learning in one Irish university

Over the last number of years, opportunities to learn in higher education for people with intellectual disabilities have increased. Consequently, this subgroup of students is gradually becoming part of an increasingly diverse college community. Because learning varies across different individual cultures and systems of higher education, our current understandings of how students with intellectual disabilities learn are inadequate. This study set out to explore how people with intellectual disabilities learn in one Irish college. Eighteen students with intellectual disabilities were asked to make a drawing of how they understood learning and were interviewed by six of their peers who trained as co-researchers. The findings indicate that the learning experiences of these students are as complex and as multifaceted as any other college student. A model that captures this learning is presented using four categories: the Cognitive Stages of Learning, Self-regulation of Learning, Learning as Collective Meaning Making and the Supportive Environment and Learning. The learning potential for people with intellectual disabilities presented in this paper goes some way to addressing preconceived notions associated with the label of intellectual disability.     

Exploring ICT Integration as a Tool to Engage Young People at a Flexible Learning Centre

The Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA) Flexible Learning Centres aim to provide a supportive learning environment for young people who find themselves outside of the mainstream secondary schooling system. Drawing on twenty first Century learning principles, the Centres aim to deliver a personalised learning experience with an emphasis on flexibility and individual choice. Provision of a comprehensive curriculum enables young people to make positive future life choices and successfully transition into employment and further training. The aim of this research project has been to work with teaching staff at a Flexible Learning Centre in North Queensland, Australia, to explore the value of integrating ICT in the form of Web 2.0 technologies to enhance young people??s engagement with the subject of science. The findings of this case study suggest that ICT integration is effective in revitalising science education interest for disengaged young people. This may have wider implications in relation to general concerns of declining student interest and participation in science in the secondary years of schooling.     

Preparing for Contact Between Mainstream Pupils and their Counterparts Who Have Severe and Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities

Despite the increasing societal inclusion of young people with a disability in Ireland, there is very little evidence of any substantive improvement with regard to inclusion for young people with severe and profound and multiple learning disabilities (usually referred to, in educational settings in the UK, as pupils or students with severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties). As a result, these young people often remain isolated within their local communities and have minimal contact, if any, with their mainstream counterparts. One innovative schools link programme in Ireland offers structured curricular activities that include mainstream pupils and their peers who have severe and profound and multiple learning disabilities. A video programme was used in the pre-contact phase of the programme and this paper explores the effectiveness of the video programme in preparing the mainstream pupils to meet their counterparts who have severe and profound and multiple learning disabilities. Michael Shevlin, who teaches in the Education Department of Trinity College Dublin and has research interests in inclusion, argues that it was evident that the mainstream pupils reacted positively to the video programme and found it useful in overcoming their anxieties at the prospect of contact. He discusses the implications of these findings in relation to the further development of structured contact sessions in integrated classrooms and to the wider issue of societal inclusion for young people with severe and profound and multiple learning disabilities.     

Developing the role of schools as research organisations: the Sunfield experience

We are entering a new phase in learning about childhood disabilities. While we have found out much of what we need to know about their causes and aetiology, solutions to many of the challenges we will face in the future will come from the evidence base held by practitioners. Practitioners are ideally placed to carry out 'real world' research but they often need support in carrying out setting-based enquiry. In this article, Barry Carpenter, Chief Executive and Director of Research at Sunfield, discusses the relationship between academic and practitioner research and the role of practitioners as researchers. He goes on to explore the development of a research culture in special schools, focusing on Sunfield, a residential special school for children with severe and complex learning disabilities. Barry Carpenter shows how research projects at Sunfield have generated evidence which has guided the school's development. The inter-disciplinary approach adopted in this setting has encouraged involvement in research from many staff in diverse professions throughout the school.     

Beyond school inclusion: secondary school and preparing for labour market inclusion for young people with disabilities in Spain

Research analysing good practices in the area of labour market inclusion for people with disabilities shows that the role of the secondary school is fundamental in improving employment opportunities. The aim of this article is to analyse to what extent secondary education in Spain prepares young people with learning difficulties for later inclusion in society and the labour market. Results from studies into good practices in secondary education have established which educational characteristics to take into account for pupils' transition to working life and the need for the school to lead this process. We contrast these results with the current situation in Spain by comprehensively analysing how current secondary education is facing up to the challenges of labour market inclusion for young people with disabilities. Following this, we propose guidelines for the improvement of educational practices in secondary education so as to foster opportunities for labour market participation, from an inclusive viewpoint, for young people with learning disabilities.     

Transition planning: how well does it work for young people with learning disabilities and their families?

The legislation and guidance require that transition planning takes place for all children with a Statement of Special Educational Needs. The research reported here was undertaken by Linda Ward, Professor of Disability and Social Policy at the University of Bristol, where she is director of the Norah Fry Research Centre; Robina Mallett, Carer Support Officer at the Home Farm Trust; Pauline Heslop, Research Fellow at the Norah Fry Research Centre; and Ken Simons, Senior Research Fellow at the Norah Fry Research Centre until his untimely death in January 2003, to find out how well this legislation and guidance works in practice from the perspective of young people with learning disabilities and their families. Based on information from questionnaires completed by parents and separate in-depth interviews with youngsters with learning disabilities and their parents, this article reveals that many young people in the study left school without any transition planning, as far as their parents were aware. Where transition planning had occurred, there was a stark mismatch between the topics families wanted to cover and those addressed by the professionals involved. Many of the youngsters who did receive transition planning had little if any involvement in the process; parental involvement was also significantly less than it should have been. In drawing conclusions from their research, the authors review the most positive aspects of the process from the perspective of the young people and their parents; parents' ideas for improving transition planning; and messages from the research for professionals, including those working in education.     

Book Reviews

Counselling in Child Disability: skills for working with parents
Implementing the Whole Curriculum for Pupils with Learning Difficulties
Supporting Visually Impaired Students in Further Education
Children's Gardening
Taking Control: Enabling People with Learning Difficulties
Autism: a guide for parents and professionals
Learning for Life: A pack to support learning opportunities for adults who have profound intellectual and multiple physical disabilities     

Meeting the challenge of limited literacy resources for adolescents and adults with intellectual disabilities

For adolescents and adults with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities (or, in the UK, learning disabilities or learning difficulties), the achievement of successful engagement with, and construction of meaning from, texts necessitates the implementation and use of specifically designed and adapted teaching strategies and resources. The careful selection and application of appropriate resources is vital to allow learners with intellectual disabilities to engage and participate with texts in positive, enjoyable and meaningful ways. The challenge for teachers of adolescents and adults with intellectual disabilities is to overcome the limited availability of suitable literacy resources for these learners. In this article, Michelle Morgan, who teaches literacy at the University of Queensland, and Karen Moni, director of the secondary programmes in the School of Education at the University of Queensland, identify the literacy needs and reading practices of adolescents and adults with intellectual disabilities based upon findings from an action research investigation. They go on to explore ways in which teachers can meet the challenge of limited resources for these learners through the specific and deliberate adaptation and creation of suitable texts.     

Making Every Child Matter: A Model for Good Practice in Counselling Children and Young People with Learning Disabilities

This paper is set against the backdrop of new policies and legislation regarding the health, welfare and education of children and young people in England. In response to these policies, the Department for Education and Skills has developed an increasing number of strategies to support the psychological health and well-being of children and young people and thereby signalled greater recognition of the value of improving mental health in relation to children's learning, achievement, attendance and behaviour. Counselling is increasingly seen as an effective strategy for addressing the psychological needs of children and young people with social, emotional, behavioural and academic problems. The aim of this paper is to explore the inclusion of children and young people with learning disabilities (13–19 years) in mainstream counselling services. The nature of learning disabilities is examined in relation to accessing counselling services and a model for inclusive counselling practice is developed from the research findings. Findings are based on data collected from a quantitative survey ( n =396) of 3000 counsellors and analysed using SPSS, along with qualitative data from the survey, which was analysed using a thematic approach.     

融入通用学习设计理念：学习障碍APP的研究与实践

学习障碍在特殊学生中十分常见,目前虽无治愈方法,却可通过辅助技术在教学中的运用降低其影响。具有辅助技术功能的教育APP为学习障碍学生提供了多样化的参与、表征和表达方式,这正好与通用学习设计的理念相契合,有助于他们在融合班级中获得平等的受教育机会。这些学习障碍相关APP可划分为文字转语音、语音识别、单词预测、文字处理、计划与组织、数学运算等6种类型。一方面,作为能力补偿工具和学习支持工具,学习障碍相关APP能够在阅读、写作和数学学习中为学习障碍学生提供多元化、可参与的学习环境;另一方面,作为一种新型的教学工具,学习障碍相关APP也可能给学习障碍学生带来诸如注意力分散、学习情绪消极等负面影响。因此,其作用机制和在教学中的有效性仍有待明确。未来我国在学习障碍相关APP的研究与实践方面还需做到:推进通用学习设计理念在学习障碍学生教育中的应用与实践,为其学习提供适宜的环境和支持;完善特殊教育辅助技术相关法律和政策,确保各类特殊学生能够获得更专业的支持;加强学习障碍相关APP的开发与研究,使其能够更有效地应用于现实教学情景;建立教育APP的评价体系和支持系统,提升学习障碍相关APP的应用效果。     

Education for life?

Roy McConkey, Professor of Learning Disability at the University of Ulster, continues the New Professor series by focusing on 'lifelong learning' for people with learning disabilities and the consequent challenges for 'educators'.     

Examining the extent and nature of online learning in American K-12 Education: The research initiatives of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

In 1992, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation began its Anytime, Anyplace Learning Program, the purpose of which was to explore educational alternatives for people who wanted to pursue an education via Internet technology. Part of this grant activity was a research award to the Babson College Survey Research Group to examine online learning in American K-12 education. Three studies were conducted based on national surveys of school district and/or high school administrators. The focus of these studies was twofold: one, to examine the extent and nature of online learning in K-12 school districts; second, to examine the role of online learning in high school reform initiatives. The purpose of this article is to share the findings from these studies and to look critically at what they mean for the future of online learning in American K-12 schools.     

Rethinking the contributions of young people with learning disabilities to iPad storymaking: a new model of distributed authorship

Digital technologies such as iPads are now ubiquitous in classrooms and family homes, enabling new possibilities for all learners but particularly for those with disabilities. Existing literature explores how children with learning disabilities create and benefit from personalised digital stories but does not unpack theoretical understandings of their ‘authorship’. This paper addresses this gap by proposing an original model of ‘distributed authorship’ with three axes of distribution—interpersonal, technological and temporal—to account for the authorial contributions of young people with learning disabilities. Five families were given an iPad with Pictello storymaking app and instructed to use it with their young person in any way which was engaging for them. Data generation over 12 weeks included weekly diaries, home videos, semi-structured interviews and story collection. Findings indicated that whilst ability to directly engage with the app varied, all the young people could be said to exert authorial influence on the stories distributed across three axes: support from others, support from the technology itself and incorporation of prior embodied agency. The study has theoretical implications for our understanding of ‘authorship’ as well as implications for pedagogy and practice by reconceptualising severely disabled children as literate learners and co-authors.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this article:
Improving Transition Planning for Young People with Special Educational Needs Lesley Dee (2006)
Guidelines for a Speech and Language Friendly School A partnership of educational professionals
Developing an Inclusion Policy in your Early Years Setting Hannah Mortimer (2006)
Supporting Children with Dyslexia (second edition) Garry Squires and Sally McKeown (2006)
The Asperger Love Guide Genevieve Edmunds and Dean Worton (2005)
Ways into Literature: stories, plays and poems for pupils with special educational needs (second edition) Nicola Grove (2005)
Understanding Sensory Dysfunction - learning, development and sensory dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders, ADHD, learning disabilities and bipolar disorder Polly Godwin Emmons and Liz McKendry Anderson (2005)
I'm OK Being Me: activities to promote self-acceptance and self-esteem in young people aged 12–18 Anne Betts (2005)     

Re-engaged students’ perceptions of mainstream and flexible learning environments – a ‘semi-quantitative’ approach

ABSTRACT

Flexible Learning Options (FLOs) attempt to enable secondary school completion by young people for whom ‘mainstream’ schooling has not worked well. Despite their proliferation and the increased research attention to understanding the mechanisms at work within such programmes, quantitative methods have not been utilised to compare participants’ perceptions of the learning environments of FLOs and mainstream schools. This study describes the development and application of a quantitative instrument to assess re-engaged Australian students’ perceptions of an FLO relative to their previous (mainstream) schools. Findings indicate that, on average, young people rate the learning environment more highly at the FLO than at the mainstream school from which they disengaged, indicating that the learning environment of the FLO aligns more closely with the needs of its student cohort. However, bimodal results for some instrument items highlight that the learning environment is influential, but not necessarily a precondition of school disengagement or re-engagement. Implications of this study are considered, with attention to the complexities that mainstream schools and FLOs negotiate in creating effective learning environments for diverse young people.     

学习困难学生自主学习策略研究

为揭示自主学习策略对学习困难学生的影响,并为学习困难学生的训练和矫正提供心理学依据,应用自主学习策略问卷,对小学5年级95名学习优秀学生和89名学习困难学生进行了自主学习策略比较研究。结果发现:学习困难学生自主学习策略明显低于学习优秀学生;学习困难女学生自主学习策略水平整体显著高于男生;影响学生学习成绩是多个自主学习策略因子共同作用的结果。     

An examination of the values and perceptions of parents and teachers in relation to parental involvement in school policy formation

Abstract

In the last decade access initiatives have been designed to facilitate greater access and participation for people from marginalised groups who have traditionally been excluded from higher education. In common with international trends, young people with disabilities in Ireland have been included in this process. However, people with disabilities remain under‐represented in higher education. This study explored the quality of access to higher education for young people with disabilities through existing access routes. Both the young people and the professionals (career guidance teachers) agreed that access routes lack transparency. There was a dearth of professional knowledge about the options available to young people with disabilities leaving school. This lack of professional knowledge combined with the opaqueness of access routes forced the young people to rely on parental support and/or disability agencies for information and guidance. It can be concluded that goodwill and compassion are no substitute for an informed system that ensures equitable access for young people with disabilities to higher education.     

(Re)affirming identities: implementing a play-based approach to learning in the early years of schooling

Learning through play has traditionally been a central tenet in early childhood education, however, in recent times primary schools have begun to consider the benefits of introducing a play-based approach into early years classrooms to support young children’s learning, especially in the areas of language and literacy. This study focuses on the introduction of a play-based approach to a Foundation classroom (first year of formal schooling) in one Catholic primary school in Victoria, Australia. Taking a qualitative approach, drawing on interpretivist theory, data collection methods included group interviews with two Foundation teachers and their Early Years Coordinator at different points during the year, and two classroom observation sessions. This paper considers some of the challenges these teachers experienced and how they interpret and make sense of their work and the consequences this has for their identities as teachers. The data highlight tensions for these teachers that relate to issues of accountability and legitimisation.     

Open Learning: The answer to the government's equity problems? A report of a study on the potential impact of the Open Learning initiative on people with disabilities

This paper describes the process and results of a study to gauge the potential impact of the Open Learning initiative on people with disabilities. A problem‐solving approach was employed, using nominal group technique. Due to the nature of the study this was conducted at a distance, by written correspondence. The ideas generated suggested that the Open Learning initiative's impact will lie in its claim to flexibility, with its potential to give all people an opportunity to gain a university degree, to relieve physical access barriers and to reduce geographical isolation. Aspects of Open Learning which may not improve quality and/or access were identified as potential difficulties in gaining access to support and advice services, library and research facilities and academic support. The opinions generated were as much a reflection of the inflexibility of the current university structure as a request to the Open Learning Agency to respond to suggestions for greater accessibility. The Commonwealth's investment in Open Learning could be interpreted as a shift in policy from a belief that access and equity in Australian higher education should be addressed by specifically targetting perceived disadvantaged groups, to a policy encouraging more open and flexible forms of learning.