Penny Lacey

Interdisciplinary training for staff working with people with profound and multiple learning disabilities

Traditionally, teachers, therapists, nurses and social workers have separate training which fits them each for special and defined roles in their work with people with learning disabilities. In reality, these roles, at least, are complementary and in many cases overlap considerably. In schools and adult centres, professionals are expected to work in what are termed ‘multidisciplinary teams’, which implies that they have the desire and the ability to share and collaborate, using the expertise born from their individual disciplines to meet all the needs of the people in their care. There is a long history of examples of how difficult it is to achieve this and a huge literature base on the reasons why this might be so (Lacey&Lomas, 1993). There are, however, remarkably few research studies demonstrating the effects of working together across disciplines and even fewer which address aspects of training members of multidisciplinary teams, although shared learning has provoked much interest, especially in healt...

What Provision for Pupils with Challenging Behaviour

Jill Porter and Penny Lacey, lecturers in special education in the School of Education, University of Birmingham, describe a survey of the provision made by schools for pupils with learning difficulties and challenging behaviour, which focused on in-class support; curriculum access; and additional facilities and resources for such pupils.

Including children with special educational needs in the Literacy Hour: a continuing challenge

This paper reports on a study to examine whether the framework for teaching the Literacy Hour can provide an inclusive learning environment for pupils with special educational needs. Carol Miller, Penny Lacey and Lyn Layton, all members of the Inclusion, Special Education and Educational Psychology Group in the School of Education at the University of Birmingham, used a survey and case studies to provide examples of organizational strategies and activities in literacy teaching. The authors go on to evaluate the extent to which these approaches promote inclusion in the Literacy Hour. They conclude that, while most children were included, some were engaged in alternative activities which were, in reality, focused on the development of communication skills. The authors close their article with a call for further research.

Collaboration and integration of services in Greek special schools: two different models of delivering school services

Multidisciplinary collaboration is considered to be very important for the education of pupils with special educational needs and particularly those pupils with the most severe disabilities. This research adopts a multiple case‐study design in order to understand collaboration and the integration of services and the effectiveness of these among pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD) in Greece. The teams, choosing case studies in five special schools, considered 10 pupils and their parents. Reviews and analyses of the legislation; the use of diaries; participant observations and semi‐structured interviews were used for the collection of data. Two different models of service integration which provide different opportunities to the inclusion of pupils with PMLD were revealed since schools have different methods of integrating health and social professionals. In the first model, the school works with outside services, whereas in the second, services are within the school. In addition, roles and responsibilities differ within the different models. Service integration and collaboration were found to be more effective in schools where teachers and health and social professionals work under the same management. The study suggests the expansion of the second model of multidisciplinary collaboration with the integration in schools of health therapists, educational psychologists and social workers.

Enabling Teachers: in-service education in learning difficulties and challenging behaviour

Abstract In this paper there is a report of a survey of 80 teachers of pupils with learning difficulties and challenging behaviour appertaining to issues of in-service education and training. Teachers were asked about their previous experience of training relating to challenging behaviour and what they would like in a module for a distance education course on the topic. Results indicate that although everyone had received some training, most was very short and more was wanted, particularly of a practical nature related to effective interventions. These results raise issues about the nature of education and training for staff working with pupils with learning difficulties and challenging behaviour

Training for Collaboration

ABSTRACT Although there is much commitment to working together collaboratively in special education, there is little training to help staff do this effectively. This paper contains a record of attempts to develop training for collaboration, using mainly reflective enquiry. It is the result of a 4‐year project at the University of Birmingham, designed to evaluate these attempts. Results indicate that specific training in collaboration is effective in improving practice.

Improving Practice through Reflective Enquiry: confessions of a first‐time action researcher

ABSTRACT This is an account of the birth of an action researcher. Whilst conducting an ethnographic study into the workings of multidisciplinary teams in special education, the author became increasingly interested in affecting change, both in the work of these teams in schools and in her own development as a person facilitating these changes. The article outlines the phases through which the project went as two courses were developed and evaluated. Evaluations were conducted through a series of open‐ended questionnaires, semi‐structured interviews and a personal diary. Results demonstrated that both courses had self‐reported positive effects on the practice of participants. There is a section in the paper in which the author attempts to analyse her own development as a teacher, with particular reference to a style she adopted and which she named ‘teaching through comment’. Evaluations of this style were also positive.