Social And Dialogic Thinking And Learning In Special Education

Drawing on a three-year post-critical ethnography, this volume counters deficit-based notions of disability to present a new social and dialogic theory of thinking and learning for students with significant support needs. Dismantling ideas around ableism/disableism, Social and Dialogic Thinking and Learning offers a uniquely theoretical and conceptual contribution to special education and capability research. Illustrating how students exhibit varied practical, social, and creative abilities, possess agency and perform identity, chapters present a challenge to the restrictive ways in which disability is constructed through prescriptive forms of teacher-student interaction and instruction. The text ultimately offers a powerful re-imagining of how educators and researchers can perceive, observe, and respond to students beyond current institutional and cultural norms. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in inclusion and special educational needs, disability studies, and the theories of learning more broadly. Those specifically interested in educational psychology and the study of severe, profound, and multiple learning difficulties will also benefit from this book.

This book offers the first collection of international academic writing on the topic of teaching assistants. It serves as an indicative summary of current research and thinking in this field and as a point of departure for future research and development. With contributions from leading researchers, the book draws together empirical work on the deployment and impact of teaching assistants from various perspectives and from a range of methodological approaches. It highlights and celebrates the vital everyday contributions teaching assistants make to their schools and their communities: from their role within classrooms, to their moment-by-moment interactions with pupils and teachers. The book examines the effect that teaching assistants can have on pupils’ learning and wellbeing, and considers issues of over-dependence on classroom paraprofessionals and the unintended consequences to which this can lead. Bringing together work from a journal special issue with brand-new and updated chapters, the contributions offer insight into the liminal space between educator, caregiver, behaviour manager, and facilitator of learning and of peer relations, which characterizes the teaching assistant role. This timely and important book will be essential reading for academics, researchers, and students interested in special educational needs, disability, and inclusion, and those interested in the wider topic of paraprofessionals in labour markets.

Education is a main issue in all countries. Policy makers, educators, families, students and, in a more general way, societies expect schools to provide a high quality education. They also expect students to be able to achieve and to become active and critical citizens. As senior researchers in education, we address some of the most complex and demanding research questions: How does learning affect identity? How does participation to educational settings, scenarios and situations impact the way we are or became? Can changes in how we perceive our Selves be considered as part of the learning process? This book attempts to outline some answers to such broad questions using a very robust and updated theoretical frame: the dialogical approach. In these chapters very well-known international authors from different continents and countries analyze school and educational situations through new lens: by considering the teaching and learning processes as multi-voiced and socially complex and considering identity development as a true leverage for development. The focus on the dialogical nature of both learning and identities makes this book interesting not only for educators and educational researchers but also for anyone interested in human sciences, policy makers, students and their families. We also aimed at producing a book that can be useful for different cultures and educational systems. Thus, in this book there are researches and comments from different cultural perspectives, making it appealing for a very large target-public.

This book examines the role that technologies play in the lives of adults with learning disabilities. It analyses how design and support practices can be used to support access to technology in ways that can enhance opportunities and life experiences. Drawing on international literature and the author’s own research, the book considers what we know about past and present practices of supporting adults with learning disabilities to use technologies. It outlines how support practices can offer opportunities to overcome digital inequalities, offering a framework of core beliefs and knowledge that can inform future initiatives. The book has a particular focus on technologies, policies, practitioner communities and the characteristics of support practice. It also highlights the potential of people with learning disabilities, the potential of technology and the potential of the environment to support technology use. This important book will be highly relevant reading for academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the field of special educational needs and disabilities, digital education and learning technologies, inclusive education and social work.

This revised edition of a popular text offers students an updated and comprehensive overview across special education. It critically examines the intellectual foundations of special education and considers the consequences of their influence for professional and popular thinking about learning difficulties. The chapters place inclusion within a social and political context to highlight how concepts have been influences by theory and ideology across the years. The book offers guidance to students on specific issues such as reading and behavioural difficulties with theoretically grounded information. With a fresh chapter discussing current research, intersectionality and increased marketisation within education this book reflects the new landscape and legislation of special education. “Essential reading for anyone studying or working in either special or inclusive education… Few could build the case as well as Thomas and Loxley.” Melanie Nind, Professor of Education, University of Southampton, UK “Few books in the field of education merit the soubriquet 'must read'. This is one such." Philip Garner, Professor, Brunel University, UK “An absolute must-read for all of us committed to realising genuine inclusion within schools and society!” Jan Valle, The City College of New York, USA "Finishing your first reading of their book makes you realise that you must return to it, such is the richness of the analysis and reach of its detail. This is a tour de force, a line in the sand for all successive work in the field of inclusive education." Roger Slee, Diamond Jubilee Professor of Disability Studies, University of Leeds, UK

This book draws on an extensive international literature and policy context, from a wide range of fields of enquiry, to challenge the orthodoxies and systemic issues that serve to marginalise children and young people and lead the way for schools to become more equitable, inclusive and compassionate in their practice. With a particular focus on children with social, emotional and behavioural/mental health needs, it critiques policy and practice as they pertain to behaviour management and school discipline in the UK and the USA, and offers alternative perspectives based on collaborative and relational approaches to promoting positive behaviour and building community. Each chapter features reflection points to provoke discussion as well as offering additional suggested reading, culminating in a discussion of the role of school leaders in leading for social justice. Ultimately, this book will be of benefit to scholars, researchers and students working in the fields of behaviour management, inclusion and special needs education, and education, policy and politics more broadly. It will also offer substantial appeal to education professionals, school leaders and those with a locus on the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.

Much has been written about special education and about inclusive education, but there have been few attempts to pull these two concepts and approaches together. This book does just that: sets special education within the context of inclusive education. It posits that to include, effectively, all children with special educational needs in schools requires an integration of both concepts, approaches, and techniques. It has never been more timely to publish a book that helps professionals who work with schools, such as psychologists, special education professionals, and counselors, to identify effective practices for children with special needs and provide guidelines for implementing these in inclusive schools.

As teachers around the world deal with the challenges of inclusive education, they must find effective ways of enhancing their classroom teaching methods. What Really Works in Special and Inclusive Education presents teachers with a range of evidence-based strategies they can immediately put into practice in their classrooms. This unique book will be an invaluable resource for educators who may not have the time or the inclination to engage with theory-heavy research, but who wish to ensure that their teaching strategies are up-to-the-minute and proven to be the most effective best practices. Each of the 27 strategies that this book comprises has a substantial research base, a strong theoretical rationale and clear guidelines on their implementation, as well as cautionary advice where necessary. In this new second edition, David Mitchell, a leading writer in special and inclusive education, continues to break new ground with revised and updated strategies based on evidence from the most recent studies in the field. From the myriad of related research available, only those studies with genuine potential for improving the practices of teachers and schools have been included, with the aim of facilitating high-quality learning and social outcomes for all learners in schools. Updates to this new edition include: four new chapters, on response to intervention, universal design for learning, inter-agency cooperation and one on the Finnish education system over 350 new references an even wider international focus, including evidence drawn from Asia references to recent developments in neuroscience a new companion website, with extra case studies, links to further reading, journal articles and videos, and an interactive quiz, at www.routledge.com/cw/mitchell This book will be essential reading for anyone with a vocational or academic interest in evidence-based special educational needs teaching strategies, whether a student in initial teacher education or a qualified classroom teacher, teacher educator, educational psychologist, special needs coordinator, parent, consultant or researcher. David Mitchell is an Adjunct Professor in the College of Education, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, and a consultant in inclusive education. ‘This is the book I wish I had written, synthesizing an enormous literature focused on special needs students. It is robust, it is readable, and it is your right-hand resource. A stunner of a book.’ –Professor John Hattie, University of Melbourne, author of Visible Learning