Making the most of a changing teaching climate

ADVICE CENTRE: How are we responding to the growing diversity of student needs within Irish classrooms?Teachers and pupils are now beginning to settle back into the routine. But each year, the task of meeting the needs of an increasingly diverse population of students is getting more complicated and challenging, particularly for mainstream teachers.

Legislation now provides a legal entitlement to mainstream education for students with special educational needs.

This means that the educational landscape has changed radically from a decade ago. All teachers are now teachers of students with special and additional educational needs - the pupil with autism, dyslexia, ADHD or an intellectual disability is now in the mainstream classroom.

Having taken the roll call, the teacher has to ensure that instruction is tailored for the needs of all students in the class. This involves multiple tasks, individualising learning for those with significant special needs, giving frequent feedback and individual attention.

Teachers also have to cope with the presence of extra adults in the classroom, such as special-needs assistants or learning support/resource teachers. Managing all of this is a tall order when class sizes are frequently over 30.

Accommodating this diversity demands a new flexibility, responsiveness and access to specialist knowledge and skills. Teachers' responsibilities have expanded beyond the constituency of average or typical students.

They now have a frontline role in identifying and responding to the needs of all their pupils, whether those pupils have behavioural difficulties or a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia.

So what are the critical steps teachers must take to meet this challenge?

First of all they need to draw on the experience and skills of specialist colleagues and other teachers. Colleagues can provide support and practical advice on meeting the needs of particular students; they may be able to suggest specific support strategies or learning resources. Viewing diversity as an opportunity for collaboration can give teachers permission to seek both moral support and specialist assistance.

Research shows that many teachers feel unprepared for inclusive classes and lack confidence in their own ability to teach children with special needs. So a crucial step is provide access to training which is targeted at meeting the challenges of diversity in the classroom and builds on existing skills. A range of support services and training options are available for mainstream teachers, both primary and post-primary.

The Special Education Support Service (SESS) provides support and training to schools with particular reference to the education of students with special needs, and funds online courses for teachers run by the Institute of Child Education and Psychology Europe (ICEP Europe). Their training courses offer busy teachers a stress-free solution to gaining new skills.

• For further information: Contact SESS at www.sess.ie or tel: 021-4254241. For more on ICEP Europe's courses visit www.icepe.eu, tel: 01-6510618 or email: info@icepe.eu

TALKBACK

If we expect teachers to be able to support all learners, whatever their difficulties, then schools, and school management in particular, must prioritise the training of teachers in the necessary skills.

Given that up to 20 per cent of pupils will have a special educational need at some time during their school career, this is not an issue which schools can afford to ignore. While most schools have stepped up to the plate, and shown exemplary leadership on this issue, some schools persist in viewing pupils with special needs as the exception, and therefore outside the remit of ordinary teachers and "normal" schools. Barack Obama has called it the "these kids syndrome" - and we are all familiar with it - the tendency to explain away the shortcomings and failures of our schools by saying "these kids can't learn" with the implication that "these kids" should be someone else's problem. Obama stresses that "they're not 'these kids'. They're our kids. All of them."

Where inclusion flourishes, schools take full ownership of all their pupils. They are characterised by leadership, collaboration, support for staff and students and a high level of parental involvement. These inclusive schools have also taken steps to make sure that all their staff have access to the training they need to do their jobs effectively. They actively encourage a culture of continuing professional development and prioritise targeted training aimed at vulnerable and high-needs pupils. Not only does this approach build teacher skills and confidence, it also has preventative value, reducing teacher stress as well as pupil failure and disaffection.

Brian Lenihan should bear in mind as he presents his budget today that we do well to invest in the education of all our children, since their future is our future.

• You can talk back to Brian Mooney at talkback@irish-times.ie