Extending the learning community
Extending the learning community
A feeling of isolation is quite often felt by those teaching science to chil- dren with specific special educational needs. It might be the first time that
a mainstream teacher has taught a child with autism, or it might be that the science coordinator in the special school has always struggled to teach
a specific topic in science. ICT introduces a means for those in geographic- ally diverse locations to share their experiences, ideas and resources in a virtual environment. This connectivity with others can be very reassuring and has been particularly effective for those working with children with special educational needs. For e-mail forums to be successful the numbers registered must reach a ‘critical mass’, with subtle prompting or leading from the coordinator of the forum, since many of those registered will at first not feel comfortable sharing their views in what is seen as a public domain. This can be illustrated by looking at findings based on the SENCO Forum, which is a well established e-mail forum that has been monitored and researched (Lewis and Ogilvie 2002) during its development. Other successful SEN e-mail forums are operated by Becta (Becta/Ngfl SEN forums) and the ASE also operates the Inclusive Science e-mail group (ISSEN website: http//www.issen:org.uk/).
It can be hard to find specific resources that are identified as really addressing inclusion and special educational needs in science. In the recent past, some manufacturers may have been timid in promoting a resource as applicable ‘for SEN’ for fear that it might marginalise the appeal of the resource. However, with the inclusion agenda having become a higher priority, this does not seem so much the case today, with manufacturers beginning to refer to accessibility and special educational needs in their promotional materials. However, it is a small start – Becta (2003b) stated that ‘only a small percentage of curriculum materials are currently available in alternative formats accessible to those with special needs.’ Resources such as the Ngfl/Becta Inclusion website (Ngfl/Becta) have provided a portal for identifying suitable materials and sharing ideas that address these important considerations.
Vignette 5: Extending the learning community Several groups have been established to provide a means of linking those
working with different groups of children. For example, the ISSEN group was set
MAKING SCIENCE INCLUSIVE
up with an ethos of bringing together expertise in making science more inclusive, and the Becta SEN forums, including the SENCO forum, provide links for ICT and inclusion.
An example of a more local initiative is the Science To Raise And Track Achievement (STRATA) project (Oswald et al. 2002; STRATA website: http// www.ase.org.uk/sen/sen/strata-schemes.htm) which brought together teachers in Cambridgeshire special schools to develop topic-based schemes of work for science incorporating the p-scales (QCA 2001) and going up to level 4. The process was not only worthwhile for participating teachers, but the resulting schemes have been further disseminated through the Astra Zeneca Science Teaching Trust website. A Continuing Professional Development unit has also been developed to enable other teachers to gain a better understanding of how to make appropriate use of the p-scales with their students. The schemes, having been adopted and adapted by other teachers working in similar environments with ICT, have been the key to disseminating this good practice beyond the original group, saving others from ‘reinventing the wheel’.