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Provision and specific approaches to the assessment of pupils with profound/multiple learning difficulties and the implications/impact upon teacher training in Norway. The legal system. Every pupil has the right to adapted learning in inclusive settings
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Provision and specific approaches to the assessment of pupils with profound/multiple learning difficulties and the implications/impact upon teacher training in Norway
The legal system • Every pupil has the right to adapted learning in inclusive settings • Pupils who do not have or cannot recieve satisfactory benefits offered by the mainstream curriculum have the right to special needs education • All municipalities must have a psychological pedagogical service • There is also a National Support System for Special Needs Education
Facts • Pupils having severe learning difficulties, like multi-disabled, are often diagnosed before starting school by a local or national service (can be multi-disciplinary) – these children have a right to pp-service also before starting school • Very often this means a medical diagnosis bases on different tests and observations • The teachers are usually not involved in the diagnosis
Facts 2 • Pupils who meet learning difficulties after starting school, are sent to the local psychological pedagogical service for further expert assessment • The expert assessment will often concentrate of a better understanding of the learning difficulties, but be more remote from the link to curriculum and goal-orientation linked to the learning process • The needs of the pupil shall decide what type of learning the pupil is offered and the content of the individual learning plan • The teachers are usually not involved in this assessment
The legal system 2 • The parents must accept special education • Each child with the right to special needs education has an individual learning plan • The individual learning plan is made by the teacher, the local support system assures that there is a link between the learning difficulties and the individual learning plans • The individual learning plan is written annually • Reports are written twice a year – they should contain individual learning goals – kept by the school and a copy is sent to the pp-service
About assessment i general • A new national curriculum and also results from international studies (PISA, TIMSS++) has started a national debate about our educational system i general and also our system for pupil assessment • The national curriculum is goal-oriented, describing what competences the pupils are to achieve at certain stages • There are no standards and no description of the different marks • At present (since 2006) there is an on-going national project started by the Ministery of Education to promote better practice in pupils assessment
Challenges • The use (quality) of marks is very much up to each school and each teacher • The standards varies a lot • The level where you send pupils to the local pp-system varies a lot according to the local standard • The amount of pupils with individual learning plans varies also a lot, some schools have many children, others not
Challenges • The personal learning plans are often too vague • The goals are impossible to measure and to reach • The local pp-system report that they have seen plans with the same learning goals for five years • Our teachers are not too familiar with using external tests to improve teaching ang learning (the use of summative data for a formative purpose) • Too much planning for activities and not planning for learning (OECD expert group) – also an issue for teachers in special needs education
Challenges • The practice is entirely up to each teacher • The teachers do not have sufficient tools and they need training in using them • Lack of cooperation between different expert groups • In the society/between different expert groups • Between those who diagnose/identify and those who are responsible for the follow-up • At certain stages: from kindergarden to school, from primary to secondary school, from school to adult life
Implications/impact upon teacher training • Assessment has not been a part of teacher training, but this is changing now due to the national project about assessment practice • A part of the national project is focusing/linked to assessment in the teacher training – both at universities and university colleges • Adapted learning for children with severe learning difficulties is hardly a part of the general teacher training
Further education in teaching of children with special needs • Focused on diagnosing and the use of methods – of course giving a better understanding of the learning disabilities • More focused on the person rather than the learning process • Can be even more remote from the work with the national curriculum; setting goals and assessing the pupil’s level of achievement
Finally • New national centre of competence for people with disabilities (NAKU) • On-going debate on teacher training and the lenght of studies • More debate of specialisation in teacher competence • More debate of assessment and standards in education • Implications for teaching of students with special needs?
