Teachers’ capacities to meet students’ additional support needs in mainstream primary education
- 4 November 2015
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice
- Vol. 22 (4), 448-460
- https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2015.1082727
Abstract
Mainstream primary school teachers generally acknowledge the need to implement adaptive teaching; however, meeting a variety of students’ needs is a challenge. Studies have addressed the conditions under which teachers attribute their (in)capacities, but these have mainly involved vignettes. Therefore, it remains unknown whether teachers are capable of meeting their own students’ needs and what is of help or hindrance to them. The current study drawn from survey data obtained from 108 Dutch teachers addresses teacher-perceived (in)capacities to meet their students’ needs and perceived sources of help or hindrance in meeting them. Teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs were expected to partly explain teachers’ capacity. Results show that teachers feel fairly adequate in meeting students’ needs. They discern four sources of help or hindrance to which teachers attribute their success, including the teacher him/herself, student characteristics and school/working conditions. Attributions at the teacher and school levels were mostly related to teacher-perceived capacities rather than to teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs.This publication has 36 references indexed in Scilit:
- Differentiated instruction in teacher education: A case study of congruent teachingTeachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 2013
- Differentiated instruction in small schoolsTeaching and Teacher Education, 2012
- Supporting teachers’ relationships with disruptive children: the potential of relationship-focused reflectionAttachment & Human Development, 2012
- Regular primary schoolteachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education: a review of the literatureInternational Journal of Inclusive Education, 2011
- Measuring teacher efficacy to implement inclusive practicesJournal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 2011
- Addressing the professional development needs of teachers working in the area of special education/inclusion in mainstream schools in IrelandJournal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 2010
- Children with special educational needs in the Netherlands: number, characteristics and school careerEducational Research, 2010
- Teachers' democratic and efficacy beliefs and styles of coping with behavioural problems of pupils with special needsEuropean Journal of Special Needs Education, 2007
- Enhancing students’ learning through differentiated approaches to teaching and learning: a Maltese perspectiveJournal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 2004
- Student teachers’ attitudes towards the inclusion of children with special educational needs in the ordinary schoolTeaching and Teacher Education, 2000