What are the challenges and opportunities of including a wide range of pupils in the mainstream classroom, in ensuring that effective learning opportunities are provided for all pupils?

click to edit

Curriculum: Is the current curriculum equipped to allow a wide range of pupils to access content? Challenge and opportunity

How are pupils with SEN enabled to access the same curriculum as other children?

click to edit

Do there have to be many adjustments made to the content so it is accessible to children with SEN? (From personal experience - yes which can sometimes distort what you are trying to teach the children, and sometimes feels like there is not enough support for teachers in adapting work for children with SEN: experienced training on this which did not seem particularly relevant to my context.)

click to edit

How do you measure the effects of the different types of curriculum on children with SEN, e.g those who find it hard to communicate. Link to assessment.

Thinking about the different types of curriculum: intended, latent (Pollard, 2018 as ref).

Teachers make choices about content and pedagogical methods to use. These decisions
define teachers as curricular-instructional gatekeepers (Watson-Canning, 2020, pp. 56)
This quote makes me think of the point I have made about the responsibility on teachers to deliver the curriculum to all students.

How are pupils with EAL enabled to access the same curriculum? Link to culturally responsive pedagogies

How is the curriculum in general, within the English primary educational context, designed to be accessible to all students regardless of race, class, gender, etc.? Is it lacking? (e.g personal experiences about debates between teachers of not having enough english texts that are focused on people of colour, other nationalities, are more modern than what we have at the moment.)

click to edit

National standardised testing in England and all students: how does it work for children with SEN, EAL, undiagnosed learning needs?

Role of support staff for wide range of pupils - challenge

Opportunities: what are the positives of the current curriculum in enabling children to learn about a wide range of pupils they may be at school with?

click to edit

How are 'funds of knowledge' utilised within the current curriculum (experience of wide range of pupils)?

click to edit

Challenges: being able to meet the needs of children with severe SEN in mainstream classes while also supporting other children - training in schools about moving away from 1:1 model with children due to fears on 'learned helplessness': https://maximisingtas.co.uk/assets/content/disss1w123r.pdf Was this an effective study? It was done in 2006 - is it still relevant today?

How is children's academic progress assessed when not doing SATs? https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03004279.2020.1772845

socio-emotional development and affective educational outcomes:how are the needs of a wide range of pupils met regarding this?

PEDAGOGY: opportunities of having a wide range of children in classroom: the need for culturally responsive pedagogies and the benefits of this: (Bringing the curriculum to life : engaging learners in the English education system / edited by Janice Wearmouth and Karen Lindley). Link to assessment

1) ‘Some other studies also found teacher assistants and paraprofessionals created social barriers between students with and without special needs. For instance, Woodgate et al. found that students without special needs lack opportunities to speak to students with disabilities due to the presence of teacher assistants’ (Kart & Kart, 2021, pp. 10).

I thought the above quote was interesting because it refers to what is often necessary for the support of children with differing learning needs in a mainstream classroom: support staff. I wondered how this necessity, which can sometimes present as a ‘challenge’ for full inclusion of children with special educational needs as seen by the above quote (in terms of both academic and social student progression), can be mitigated. This is an issue I have encountered while teaching, along with the fact that children with differing learning needs often miss out on ‘effective learning opportunities’ because they can be out of class for certain reasons, for example, relating to therapy or going home early because of arranged transport.

Considering children from different classes, race, cultural contexts
‘Social class as a site of difference was perceived by some children, although with a specific focus and understanding which positioned materialities as a key and common mode through which difference was noted. For example, how children spoke about housing was particularly interesting in relation to their understanding of social-class difference’ (Iqbal et al. 2017, p. 136).

This was a different interpretation of ‘wide range of pupils’ which I felt was pertinent having taught in extremely diverse primary school settings; I am interested in the dynamics of how children interact in these multicultural school settings and if there are any associated effects on their learning outcomes. I wonder how teachers can be aware of and possibly mitigate this awareness of ‘materialities’ as reflective of differences between pupils and their classmates, and how this may extend to other ‘sites’ of differences children perceive: ethnicity, learning needs, etc. Is this, as the essay title phrases it, considered a ‘challenge’ to including a wide range of children in the mainstream classroom? Furthermore, what are the possible opportunities that children being aware of these differences and embracing them may occur?

click to edit

What opportunities are afforded for everyone in the classroom when there is a wide range of pupils?

benefits of children's friendships in diverse classroom (different classes, social backgrounds) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02680939.2015.1130859?needAccess=true&role=button

‘Funds of Knowledge’ for Achievement and Success: Multilingual Pedagogies for Mainstream Primary Classrooms in England
Jean Conteh

Links to pedagogy and curriculum topic

Benefits for children with SEN in inclusive classrooms: Impact of Interactive Learning Environments on Learning and Cognitive Development of Children With Special Educational Needs: A Literature Review

Benefits for children without SEN of having different children in their classroom - academic and affective benefits?