Per Frostad

Does being friendly help in making friends? The relation between the social position and social skills of pupils with special needs in mainstream education

Pupils with special needs can have difficulties in building relationships with peers in inclusive education. An important condition for developing positive relationships with peers is having the age‐group appropriate social skills. It seems likely that pupils with an insufficient set of social skills face a larger risk of being excluded. This study describes the social skills of pupils with special needs and relates these to their social position in inclusive classrooms. In total 989 pupils from the 4th and 7th grades participated in the data collection. The analyses are based on three different indexes for social inclusion: peer acceptance, friendships and membership of a cohesive subgroup. The results show that 20% to 25% of the pupils with special needs are not socially included in their peer group. In general social position and social skills show low correlations, but that does not hold for pupils with behaviour problems. Their social position strongly relates to their social skills. For this particular group, social skills training can support them in maintaining contacts, relationships and friendships with their peers.

Peer Acceptance and Self-Concept of Students with Disabilities in Regular Education.

This study addresses the relationship between the acceptance of students with disabilities by their peers and their self‐concept. Research shows that level of acceptance and self‐concept are moderately related. Students with disabilities not accepted by their peers in regular classrooms thus run the risk of developing low self‐concept. It is assumed that this does not apply to students with moderate to severe learning disabilities (LD), because they are less able to understand fully their level of acceptance by typical peers. Therefore, they do not experience negative feelings linked to an eventual isolated position and are less likely to develop a low self‐concept. In total, 498 seventh‐grade students participated in the study, of which 37 were described as having a disability. The data indeed showed a moderate relationship between acceptance and self‐concept in the total group. But contrary to expectations, the students with moderate LD showed a marked relationship between peer acceptance and self‐concept. For these students meaningful relations with peers are as important as for all students with and without special needs. The results of this study caution parents and teachers of students with moderate to severe LD not to underestimate the relevance for these students of being accepted and having friends in the peer group.

Mathematical achievement of hearing impaired students in Norway

ABSTRACT In this paper the arithmetic achievement patterns among Norwegian hearing impaired children aged 7 through 16 are addressed. Research has pointed to an increased deficit in hearing impaired childrens computational skills relative to normally hearing students as they grow older. However, results from Swedish studies with eighth‐grade students indicate that the shift from a purely oral communication mode in deaf education in the 1960s, to a sign language communication mode in the 1980s has raised the arithmetic competence of the hearing impaired students. Results from the current study support these findings. However, hearing impaired students still seem to be underachievers in the field of arithmetic. Hence factors other than the communication mode used by teachers need to be considered when describing a good learning environment in mathematics classes for hearing impaired students.

Deaf Children's Use of Cognitive Strategies in Simple Arithmetic Problems.

Research shows that deaf children have inferior achievement in simple arithmetic compared to their hearing agemates. The reported study investigates whether the reasons for deaf childrens poor achievement can be sought in their strategy development. As this is a central issue, the strategies used by deaf children when solving symbolic addition and subtraction problems are identified, classified and compared to findings from earlier research, involving both deaf and hearing children. The effect of Sign Language in strategy invention and use is the main concern in this study. One result from the present study is that structural aspects of Sign Language counting may influence deaf childrens thinking in a way that does not lead to a developed conceptual knowledge base, but instead to refined procedural competence. This is a development in simple arithmetic that is compatible with that of less able hearing children. The counting procedures used by the deaf children involve both oral counting and Sign Language counting. Due to the small sample size, and the shortcomings of the research design, the results are more suggestive than conclusive. Thus, further studies are needed in this area.

Losing All Interest in School: Social Participation as a Predictor of the Intention to Leave Upper Secondary School Early

Early school leaving in upper secondary education is a serious problem for both students and society. Several reviews have shown that there is no simple cause of early school leaving, but it seems to relate to demographic variables, social factors, academic achievement, and school factors. In this study, data from 2,045 students aged 16 from upper secondary schools in Norway were analyzed using a hierarchical regression model. Their intention to leave school was the dependent variable. Our analyses found that teacher support and loneliness in the school context were strong predictors of such intension. The effects of peer acceptance and friendship were minimal.

Students with special educational needs in secondary education: are they intending to learn or to leave?

During their secondary school years, a considerable number of students seriously consider choosing between learning and leaving. Leaving school early means that students do not complete their education. Early school leaving is the last step in a process in which students gradually lose interest and develop the intention to leave school. This study focuses on students with special needs and the impact of their social relations with parents, teachers and peers on their intentions to leave school early. The sample for this study comprises 1873 typical students and 132 students with special needs aged 16 from secondary schools in a large region of Norway. The intention to leave early can be predicted by teacher support and by loneliness as an indicator for peer support. The findings suggest that especially peer support is, for all students, a key variable in staying motivated for school. For students with special needs, teacher support is also important to stay in school in the early years. Over time, however, the support from teachers becomes less important for students with special needs. They too become more dependent on support from peers.

Measuring the causes for the growth in special needs education. A validation of a questionnaire with possible factors explaining the growing demand for special provisions in education

In recent decades, the basic principle in Norway’s education policy has been that all students should receive adapted education within the framework of the mainstream schools. This policy notwithstanding, the rate of students for whom special support was initiated, rose from 6.2% in 2006 to 8.0% in 2014. The study reported here developed measures for the possible causes for this unwelcome development. A questionnaire with 23 statements suggesting possible causes of the increase in the use of special support was presented to 136 teachers in primary and lower secondary school. A factor analysis revealed that 12 items formed three reliable scales for possible causes behind the high demand for special provisions: ‘Focus on students’ problems’, ‘External pressure on schools’ and ‘Early support’. The teachers stated that these causes had moderate impact. The study has resulted in three scales useful in measuring three causes.