iv.The experiences of pupils with SEND in mainstream schools (MAST and SENSE)
Staffing on the MAST and SENSE projects
Rob Webster and PB were co-directors.
The field work for the MAST project was mostly conducted by Ayshea Craig and Alison Wren. For the SENSE secondary school phase, in a rather unique collaboration, school visits were conducted by students on the Doctorate of Educational Psychology course at UCL Institute of Education and also at Southampton, Birmingham, Sheffield and Manchester Universities, as part of their professional training. In addition, a small group of educational psychologists (EPs) and assistant EPs in LAs undertook fieldwork. Thanks to the course leaders, tutors and EPs who helped with the training and fieldwork arrangements, and who also facilitated introductions to the LA SEND teams who aided the participant recruitment process.
As with the other research projects, the study was also supported by a team of data-entry assistants, transcribers and coders who helped process what amounted to thousands of hours of observation and interview data. Thank you to all of you for your contributions.
Since the 1980s in the UK, the number of children with SEND educated in mainstream schools has greatly increased, and a lot of attention has been paid to the inclusion of pupils with SEND into schools. The DISS team’s understanding about pupils with SEND was largely through the focus on TAs in classrooms. Following the DISS project, Rob Webster and Peter Blatchford applied to the Nuffield Foundation for a more direct study of the educational experiences of pupils with SEND in mainstream primary schools, compared with typical or average pupils in the same schools. This was the Making a Statement (MAST) project. The aim was to provide a detailed account of the reality of inclusion for pupils with SEND, in terms of the classroom contexts in which they learn, such as the size of the class, the size and composition of their within class groupings and their other characteristics, and the nature of the interactions they have with teachers and TAs, and other pupils. Once again, the main method of data collection was systematic moment-by-moment and child-focused observations. Following the completion of this project, the Nuffield Foundation also funded an extension into secondary schools (the Special Educational Needs in Secondary School – SENSE – project).
In the MAST study, observations were made of 48 pupils with SEND in Year 5 (9-10 years), and in the second phase of data collection (the SENSE study), observations were made of 49 pupils with SEND in Year 9 (13-14 years) (see Blatchford and Webster, 2018, for full details).
Observations were also collected on a sample of control or typically developing pupils who were average in the class in terms of their academic attainment, in order to compare them with the results on the pupils with SEND. Observations were collected on 151 control pupils in Year 5: 115 boys and 36 girls. Observations in Year 9 were collected on 112 control pupils, again matched by gender with the SEND sample: 83 boys and 29 girls.
Drawing together observation data from both the MAST and SENSE studies resulted in a data set totalling 67,928 observations in all.
Key findings from MAST and SENSE
There was a high degree of separation for pupils with SEND in mainstream schools from their teachers, other pupils, the classroom, and the curriculum.
Pupils with SEND had more 1 to 1 interactions with TAs with less educationally beneficial talk, fewer interactions with teachers, less teaching overall, more correctional talk, no more individual teaching and half the number of peer interactions compared to typical, average-attaining classmates.
Attention to the classroom contexts and interactions of pupils with SEND helps show that inclusion is not just about having the right school policies and ethos but about a strategic approach to the organisation of everyday contextual and relational aspects of classroom on the ground.
We should use additional adults in the classroom to strengthen, not replace, teaching, ensuring all students retain access to the teacher, peers, and curriculum.
Key references for MAST and SENSE
Blatchford, P., & Webster, R. (2018) Classroom contexts for learning at primary and secondary school: class size, groupings, interactions and special educational needs. British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 44, No 4, pp. 681-703. Published on line. Among the top 10% most downloaded papers in BERJ.
Webster, R. & Blatchford, P. (2018) Making sense of ‘teaching’, ‘support’ and ‘differentiation’: the educational experiences of pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans and Statements in mainstream secondary schools, European Journal of Special Educational Needs. DOI: 10.1080/08856257.2018.1458474 Among the top 10% most downloaded papers in EJSEN after publications.
Blatchford, P. (2027) Inside Classrooms: How contexts and relationships shape learning and teaching. London: Routledge, Chapter 7.