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Education in segregated settings for pupils with intellectual disability (ID) has often been portrayed as a unified form of schooling. There is a risk of providing a simplified picture of these settings and of what pupils with ID need to learn. This is generally stipulated in policy documents, leaving room for staff in school to interpret curricula and form learning environments. The aim of this study is to explore how four different learning environments are constructed in segregated settings where pupils with ID are educated in Sweden. The study was conducted as a multiple case study, using observations and interviews with teachers and pupils in four special classes for pupils with ID (SCIDs). Drawing on curriculum theory, the four learning environments, in the results named as Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta class, respectively, appeared to be characterized by different ideas of schooling, labelled as knowledge-mediating, socializing, functional life skills and caring as well as teacher-centred classrooms. The study contributes to a deepened understanding of the complexity of education for pupils with ID in segregated settings.

This study contributes to previous research on collaborative approaches to instruction in mathematics. The study focuses on the relationships between the type of talk in groups and individual students’ combinatorial thinking. Four case studies of mixed-attainment groups of middle-school students working with mathematical problem solving in combinatorics were conducted. Video-recordings of dyad and group work, as well as interviews with four students (one per group), were analyzed. The results reveal how affordances and constraints in different types of talk (exploratory, cumulative, disputational talk) in mixed-attainment groups can contribute to individual students’ combinatorial thinking. The results highlight the interconnectedness of collective and individual reasoning in combinatorics, emphasizing the role of quality of group talk.

Background

While positive school climate is important for students’ well-being and mental health, school personnel may experience challenges in creating a nurturing school climate. School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SW-PBIS) has shown positive effects on school climate and children’s prosocial behaviors, but fewer studies have been conducted in a European context.

Aim

This project aims to investigate the effectiveness of SW-PBIS program for students’ social-emotional skills and academic achievement as well as teachers’ and students’ perceptions of classroom learning environment. Furthermore, the study intends to evaluate how school-level factors mediate or moderate the effects of the intervention. In addition, the study includes a qualitative evaluation of the dynamic interaction processes that occur during program implementation in local school contexts.

Methods

Data on school- and individual-level measures are collected in intervention and control schools. With regard to challenges in retaining control groups over extended time periods, two waves of recruitment are used. In the first wave, an active control group is used and data are collected during three time points. In the second wave, a wait-list control group will be used and data will be collected during two time points during one school year. Hierarchical regression analyses will be conducted to explore the effects of SW-PBIS on the outcomes of the study. An ethno-methodological approach will be applied to provide a detailed examination of the social interactional and meaning-making practices of different school implementation teams, and the negotiation of normative expectations and rules of conduct in peer-teacher-student interactions in different classrooms.

Discussion

The study is expected to contribute to knowledge on the effects of the SW-PBIS program and how these effects may be mediated or moderated by school-level factors. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the significance of school contexts in the implementation of the SW-PBIS program constitutes the strength of the study. The challenge in the study is the extended period of implementation of SW-PBIS, which entails difficulties in retaining a control group over the required time period. Therefore, two waves of recruitment are used, encompassing different procedures of allocation to intervention or control group.

Research on inclusion in early childhood educational (ECE) settings points to the need for a deeper understanding of professionals' perceptions of the dilemmas and challenges situated in the varying contexts of these settings. Viewing inclusion as a complex phenomenon, this study uses the Deweyan theory of democracy as a lived experience to describe how professionals in three ECE settings understand the values of inclusion and democracy and how these values are enacted in their everyday practices of creating democratic communities. Three case studies were conducted, including individual interviews with head teachers, focus-group interviews with professionals and semi-structured observations in three ECE settings. The results show that the three settings present unique prerequisites and challenges for the building of democratic communities related to the varying views on inclusion and democracy. The understandings of values of inclusion and democracy and how these are enacted in the three ECE settings are discussed with regard to the possibilities and obstacles involved in the creation of democratic communities.

Children with severe disabilities are often excluded from educational opportunities due to inter alia attitudinal barriers and a lack of teacher training. This scoping review paper assessed intervention studies focused on inclusive education for children with severe disabilities. It was found that a total of 13 studies met the review's inclusion criteria. The results revealed a paucity of literature and highlighted five main areas of focus in the available intervention studies. The majority of intervention studies were found to be focused on increasing engagement, reducing behaviours and improving social inclusion as outcomes. There was limited focus on studies focusing on the improvement of academic outcomes.

Background: Inclusive learning environments are considered as crucial for children’s engagement with learning and participation in school. Partnering for change (P4C) is a collaborative school-based service delivery model where services are provided at three levels of intensity based on children’s needs (class, group-, individual interventions). Interventions in P4C are provided universally to support all children with learning, not only children with special education needs (SEN), and as such are expected to be health-promoting.

Aim: The aim of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of P4C as well as school staff members’ and children’s experiences after P4C.

Methods: In a parallel, non-randomised controlled intervention design, 400 children, aged 6–12 years, and their teachers, will be recruited to either intervention classes, working according to the P4C, or to control classes (allocation ratio 1:1). Data will be collected at baseline, post-intervention (4 months), and 11 months follow-up post baseline. The primary outcome is children’s engagement with learning in school. Secondary outcomes include for example children’s health-related quality of life and wellbeing, occupational performance in school, attendance, and special educational needs. The difference-in-differences method using regression modelling will be applied to evaluate any potential changes following P4C. Focus group interviews focusing on children, and professionals’ experiences will be performed after P4C. A health economic evaluation of P4C will be performed, both in the short term (post intervention) and the long term (11-month follow-up). This study will provide knowledge about the effectiveness of P4C on children’s engagement with learning, mental health, and wellbeing, when creating inclusive learning environments using a combination of class-, group- and individual-level interventions.

This chapter is based on a study aimed at deepening our knowledge about SNEs’ work and the development of learning environments in relation to special educational needs (SEN) and special needs education for immigrant students. The study’s result is based on a survey answered by Swedish special needs educators (SNEs). The importance of this research can, for example, be seen through statistics showing difficulties for immigrant students to qualify for upper secondary school in Sweden. The results from the study indicate that SNEs are somewhat detached from the direct work with these students. Instead, SNEs devote time to administration and supervision. Direct support is provided by tutors in the students’ mother tongue, class and subject teachers. When SNEs describe developments of learning environments for immigrant students at their schools, small groups and individual teaching for language learning appear to exist in parallel with general solutions (i.e., “one size fits all” approach). The chapter questions the extent to which the Nordic model, characterized by an ambition to create democratic learning environments, provides equal opportunities for all learners and creates inclusive schools.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of intervention, combining instruction in cooperative learning and reading comprehension strategies on students’ reading comprehension in grade 5. The teachers in the experiment group implemented the intervention while the teachers in the control group received training in reading comprehension strategies and taught as usual. Students in the experiment group and control group participated in tests of reading comprehension before and after the intervention. The results showed that being a part of the experiment group did not lead to greater gains in reading comprehension above the control group. Students of teachers who did not fully implement the intervention attained higher scores on reading comprehension than students in the control group. Students of teachers who fully implemented the intervention, on the other hand, received lower scores. The results are discussed with regard to research on teachers’ integration of intervention into their instructional routines.

Many pupils with disabilities receive schooling in segregated contexts, such as special classes or special schools. Furthermore, the percentage of pupils educated in segregated settings has increased in many European countries. Studies suggest that there is high commitment to the general ideology of inclusive education among teachers in ‘regular’ education in many countries. This survey study investigates the views of teachers in segregated types of school about education. A questionnaire was sent out, in 2016, to all Swedish teachers (N = 2871, response rate 57.7%) working full time in special classes for pupils with intellectual disability (ID). On a general level results show that there is a strong commitment to preserving a segregated school setting for pupils with ID, a limited desire to cooperate with colleagues from ‘regular schools’ and a view that schooling and teaching are not quite compatible with the idea of inclusive education. The results highlight the importance of investigating processes of resistance within segregated schools to the development of inclusive schools and education systems. We argue that, while research and debate about inclusive education are important, both are insufficient without analyses of existing types of segregated schooling.