Joanne Marie Deppeler

Improving inclusive practices in secondary schools: Moving from specialist support to supporting learning communities

Much of current inclusive education provision in Australian secondary schools relies on ‘specialist’ support from outside the classroom. Students with diverse abilities are placed within the regular classroom and additional specialist services such as therapy, counselling, psychological assessment and special education teaching are required to support their placement. This form of support often relies upon a diagnostic‐ prescriptive approach where the specialist assumes responsibility for and has a central role in shaping practices. In this paper, we raise issues regarding this model of specialist support in enacting effective inclusive practices in secondary schools. We suggest that one alternative is to shift the focus from the students who are different, to the community of learners in the school. This alternative approach uses collaborative and evidence‐based practices to support inclusive ideals and grounds improvement efforts in changes in teachers’ knowledge as well as the cultural and organisation...

Public School–Based Interventions for Adolescents and Young Adults With an Autism Spectrum Disorder A Meta-Analysis

This article reviews research on the effectiveness of four categories of intervention when implemented in public schools with adolescents and young adults diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. The study’s inclusionary criteria include a setting of public schools, participants aged between 12 and 22 years, and the investigation of an antecedent-, consequence-, self-management-, or video-based intervention strategy to influence skills or behaviors in students. A total of 34 studies met these criteria. The procedures of the What Works Clearinghouse Standards for Single-Case Designs and Evidence are used to evaluate whether sufficient high-quality research in using antecedent-, consequence-, self-management-, and video-based strategies exists to consider these evidence-based practices. Intervention effectiveness is estimated using PAND scores and phi coefficients. The results suggest that sufficient research exists to consider antecedent-, video-, and consequence-based interventions evidence-based practices for adolescents and young adults in public schools. The need for more applied research with adolescents and young adults is highlighted.

Validating the British Index for Inclusion for the Australian Context: Stage One.

This paper presents a summary of outcomes from the first stage of a 3‐year project funded through the Australian Research Council Strategic Partnership Industry Research Training (ARC‐SPIRT) scheme and the Catholic Education Office in Victoria. This longitudinal study, in Catholic primary and secondary schools, will investigate the effectiveness and sustainability of a whole‐school approach to improving inclusive practice, strengthening transition networks outside the school and improving learning for students with disabilities. The first stage of the project evaluates the recently developed Index for Inclusion (2000). The Index clearly provides a valuable starting point, but as it was developed in the UK, there is a need to establish its validity for use in the Australian context. There is a need, therefore, to ensure its content fits with local ‘cultures’ including Commonwealth legislation and State and school‐level policy legislation. The paper reports on a six‐phase process of validation and modification including both quantitative and qualitative analyses and the resulting trial versions of four questionnaires.

Improving inclusive practices in australian schools : Creating conditions for university-school collaboration in inquiry

This paper describes a model of professional development that guided a two-year university-school partnership in Melbourne, Australia. The project was aimed at enhancing teachers’ capacity to respond to diversity through collaboration and active involvement in evidence-based inquiry in their schools. The project involved eight schools and approximately 45 teachers in two years of university accredited post-graduate study. Conditions that fostered collaborative inquiry and supported teacher and student learning are presented from the view of the leaders and teachers as well as from the perspective of the university facilitators. Findings suggest that CI partnerships will be of higher quality if they are sustained over time and build conditions that demonstrate a value for both collaboration and inquiry as part of teachers’ routine work. The process is highly complex and the relative importance of conditions that appeared to support the change process is not fully understood.RésuméLe but de cette communication est de décrire un modèle de développement professionnel qui est la résultante d’une collaboration de deux ans entre des institutions universitaires et secondaires à Melbourne, en Australie. Le projet avait pour but d’améliorer la capacité des enseignants à répondre aux besoins d’un environnement de diversité culturelle à travers une collaboration et une participation actives dans une enquête menée dans les écoles concernées. Le projet s’adressait à 8 écoles et à 45 enseignants pendant les deux ans de leur cours en sciences de l’éducation au niveau de la Maîtrise. Les conditions qui ont permis cette collaboration et qui ont soutenu la démarche pédagogique sont présentées du point de vue des responsables de groupes, des enseignants et des facilitateurs au niveau du cours universitaire. Ce projet démontre, en fin de compte, que de telles collaborations du type CI peuvent être encore plus efficaces si elles sont maintenues dans le temps et si elles créent les conditions nécessaires pour démontrer la validité d’un tel exercice comme partie intégrale de la routine de l’enseignant. Le procédé de réflexion et d’analyse est très complexe et l’importance des conditions qui soutiennent le changement n’a pas été totalement compris jusqu’ici.

Variables affecting teachers’ intentions to include students with disabilities in regular primary schools in Bangladesh

This paper presents an overview of a study conducted to examine the influence of teacher attitudes, teacher efficacy and perceived school support on teachers’ intentions to include students with disabilities in government primary schools in a region of Bangladesh. All of the variables were conceptualized within the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The participants in the study were 1387 in-service teachers drawn from government primary schools located in urban, semi-urban and rural sectors of Dhaka. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that all three Theory of Planned Behaviour variables (teacher attitudes, teacher efficacy and perceived school support) explained 40% of the variance in teachers’ intentions to include students with a disability in regular classrooms. This paper describes the process for conceptualizing the variables, discusses the methodology and presents the outcomes concluding with implications for educational policy reform and practices in Bangladesh. Areas for further research are also identified.

Predicting pre-service teachers’ preparedness for inclusive education: Bangladeshi pre-service teachers’ attitudes and perceived teaching-efficacy for inclusive education

This study reports on the second phase of a larger study, which investigated the preparedness of pre-service teachers to teach in inclusive classrooms in Bangladesh. Phase 1 employed two standardised scales that were used with 1623 pre-service teachers from 16 teacher education institutions to measure their attitudes and perceived teaching-efficacy for inclusive education. The findings of Phase 1 indicated that the level and length of training, along with gender, influenced both teacher attitudes and teaching-efficacy. In Phase 2, semi-structured interviews with six administrative heads of the pre-service teacher education institutions were conducted in order to better understand these findings. Outcomes of Phase 2 indicated that curriculum, teacher-related and a number of contextual variables may explain the differences in the findings of this study that were in sharp contrast to those from previous international research. Recommendations for policy and curriculum reform for pre-service teacher education are also made.

Challenges to prepare pre-service teachers for inclusive education in Bangladesh: beliefs of higher educational institutional heads

This paper reveals the beliefs of higher education institutional heads about the challenges they face in preparing pre-service teachers for inclusive education in Bangladesh. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 institutional heads. Data were analysed by applying thematic analysis procedure. Challenges were found in four theme areas: attitudinal beliefs, academic challenges, challenges in practicum and challenges for beginning teachers. Lack of appropriate information in the teacher preparation curriculum, untrained teacher educators, limited resources, inappropriate teaching-learning approaches, insufficient practicum experiences, and large class sizes were some of the major challenges identified. Participants also identified some useful strategies to address the challenges which ranged from curriculum reform, emphasizing practicum more than theories, human resource development empowering institutional heads to implement inclusion and resource support. Implications of the findings for university educators are discussed.

Using inquiry-based approaches for equitable school improvement

This editorial sets out the context and agenda for this special issue of School Effectiveness and School Improvement, which brings together accounts of initiatives from diverse national contexts around the world. The overall purpose is to explore the possibilities and challenges of using inquiry-based approaches to school improvement, focusing in particular on the challenge of equity. The editors begin by outlining some of the important considerations for researchers working in collaborative projects that specifically place equity, and educational and social change, at the center of the development work. They then indicate themes for readers to keep in mind as they consider the arguments developed in the papers.

The Ecology of Inclusive Education

This is the author accepted manuscript. the final version is available from Sense Publishers via the DOI in this record

Conceptualising and Measuring Inclusive Education

Abstract This chapter provides an overview of inclusive education, specifically examining conceptualisations of inclusive education and some of the models used to frame an evaluation of the practice. While international human rights agreements, covenants and legislation provide definitions that focus on equity, access, opportunity and rights, inclusive education continues to lack a tight conceptual focus that may contribute to its misconception and often confused practices. In the absence of a unified definition of what inclusion is, attempts to measure or compare such a complex equity issue are challenging. Some promising models do, however, exist and are explored in this chapter.