Assignment 1: SEND Learning
Title: A critical exploration of how the learning of pupils with SEND is supported.
Requirement:
A written assignment, focusing on research and practice linked to the support of learning for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND).
Award Level: This assignment carries 15 credits at Level 7.
Brief description and aims:
You will explore how children with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) learn in schools and the way in which this can be supported. This will make reference to relevant literature, as well as observation and discussion tasks at placement schools.
By undertaking this assignment you will develop an understanding of the following:
• How children with SEND learn in schools;
• How adults support the learning of children with SEND, through a range of practices;
• The relationship between the literature read and practice observed around SEND education.
By submitting the assignment, trainees are providing their consent for the contents to be used for professional purposes within their school, the SCITT and the university.
Assignment objectives:
By successful completion of the assignment, you will be able to demonstrate:
1. Critical awareness and understanding of current research and theories about how to support the learning of a child with SEND in the classroom.
2. The ability to critically analyse and interpret current SEND research, when applying it to your own observations of learning in the classroom.
3. The ability to critically reflect on the learning of children with SEND in classrooms and the way in which this aligns with conceptual understanding.
This assignment supports the following elements of the ITT Core Content Framework:
How Pupils Learn, where you will learn that:
• Learning involves a lasting change in pupils’ capabilities or understanding.
Adaptive Teaching, where you will learn that:
• Pupils are likely to learn at different rates and to require different levels and types of support from teachers to succeed.
• Seeking to understand pupils’ differences, including their different levels of prior knowledge and potential barriers to learning, is an essential part of teaching.
• Adapting teaching in a responsive way, including by providing targeted support to pupils who are struggling, is likely to increase pupil success.
• Adaptive teaching is less likely to be valuable if it causes the teacher to artificially create distinct tasks for different groups of pupils or to set lower expectations for particular pupils.
• Flexibly grouping pupils within a class to provide more tailored support can be effective, but care should be taken to monitor its impact on engagement and motivation, particularly for low attaining pupils.
• There is a common misconception that pupils have distinct and identifiable learning styles. This is not supported by evidence and attempting to tailor lessons to learning styles is unlikely to be beneficial.
• Pupils with special educational needs or disabilities are likely to require additional or adapted support; working closely with colleagues, families and pupils to understand barriers and identify effective strategies is essential.
Professional Behaviours, where you will learn that:
• Teaching assistants (TAs) can support pupils more effectively when they are prepared for lessons by teachers, and when TAs supplement rather than replace support from teachers.
• SENCOs, pastoral leaders, and other specialist colleagues also have valuable expertise and can ensure that appropriate support is in place for pupils.
In turn, this Core Content will help you in progressing towards achievement of the following Teachers’ Standards:
2. Promote good progress and outcomes by pupils
• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how pupils learn and how this impacts on teaching
5. Adapt teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils
• know when and how to differentiate appropriately, using approaches which enable pupils to be taught effectively
• have a secure understanding of how a range of factors can inhibit pupils’ ability to learn, and how best to overcome these
• demonstrate an awareness of the physical, social and intellectual development of children, and know how to adapt teaching to support pupils’ education at different stages of development
• have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs; those of high ability; those with English as an additional language; those with disabilities; and be able to use and evaluate distinctive teaching approaches to engage and support them
8. Fulfil wider professional responsibilities
• develop effective professional relationships with colleagues, knowing how and when to draw on advice and specialist support
• deploy support staff effectively
Assignment outline
At this initial stage in your training to be a teacher, you will be asked to explore the specific needs that pupils with SEND have, when learning in the school environment, and how these can be supported by teachers and the school. This will look broadly at what is known about supporting the learning of pupils with SEND but may also consider those pupils with specific learning difficulties (SpLD), whether they are:
• moderate learning difficulties (MLD);
• severe learning difficulties (SLD); or,
• profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD).
As part of your evaluation of school practice, you will be asked to focus specifically on a pupil in your placement school, considering how their specific needs are met.
In order to do this, you will first need to think about the specific needs of pupils with SEND. Here, you may consider some of the following:
• inclusion within the school: consider the relationship between concepts around ‘SEND’ and ‘inclusion’. This might require you to explore the history of SEND education in the UK, including the Warnock report and government policy;
• provision and support for pupils with SEND: how are pupils with SEND supported in the school setting? How does this vary across different needs and contexts? You might explore why a single standard model is problematic in SEND education, due to the inclusive climate of schools, or how support may be particular to the school setting;
• staffing and the role of different adults: here you may want to consider the different parts that adults play in a SEND pupil’s school life e.g. teachers, teaching assistants (TAs), SENCO, specialist TAs (e.g. ELSAs), external agencies etc. You may wish to consider the relationship between teachers and TAs in the school classroom;
• planning for all pupils: in order to meet the needs of all pupils, lessons need to be planned for all. You may want to consider the concept of differentiation here and the strengths and limitations of planning lessons by differentiating the planned learning approaches;
• teaching for all pupils: where differentiation has the potential to lead to inequality in the classroom, there is an argument that teaching is not always of the same quality for all pupils. You may therefore wish to think about how lessons meet the needs of all pupils in an equally challenging way.
This will move you on to thinking about how the learning of pupils with SEND is supported in the school classroom and/or other learning environments. Specific observation and reflection in school may lead you to consider some of the following questions:
• routines: what routines are established, particularly in the different phase/subject environments?
• lesson timings: how are activities timed to manage the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND?
• lesson structure: how is learning being structured in order to meet the needs of all pupils?
• instructions: how are instructions given so that they meet the needs of all pupils?
• transitions: how do adults move from one learning moment to another, ensuring that all pupils are able to process the development of ideas?
• resources: how are both physical and human resources used to support the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND?
• groupings: how have you seen groups used to support learning?
• environment and layout: how does the learning environment support and/or hinder the needs of pupils with SEND?
• pupil management and relationships: how do adults build relationships in order to manage all pupils?
Having explored both the needs of pupils with SEND and the different ways in which adults support this, you will need to think about what practice is telling you and how this reflects the literature you have read. You should begin to consider the relationship between theory and practice and what this suggests to you about education and the school settings that you are training in. You will also want to explore some of the literature around meeting the needs of the pupil that you have observed e.g. dyslexia, ASC etc.
