Original scientific paper
Differences in social and academic functioning among visually impaired children in special, integrated and inclusive educational settings in Poland
Beata Papuda-Dolińska
; Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland
Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine the differences in social functioning (status in peer group, child’s satisfaction with peer relations), as well as in educational functioning (teachers’ difficulties, child’s satisfaction with academic performance) of students with visual impairment and their teachers in three types of school setting: special, integrated and inclusive. The sample consisted of primary school students with visual impairment (n=90) and their teachers (n=59). The measurement instruments used were the Polish adaptation (Szumski, 2010) of the FDI questionnaire (Haeberlin, Blees, Moster and Klaghofer, 1989), with 45 self-report questions, a classic sociometric assessment technique, as well as a questionnaire with open-ended questions about the difficulties in teaching faced by the teachers. The data were analyzed in SPSS using descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA. The results showed no significant differences among the three groups of children regarding their subjective opinions of school satisfaction. However, the sociometric status of visually impaired children in integrated and inclusive classrooms implies a small number of popular positions. Teachers reported difficulties in teaching children with visual impairments; these difficulties were categorised into two groups: those caused by the disability and those caused by inappropriate school functioning. Determination and comparison of the school situations of students with visual impairment seems to be particularly important in the current state of fundamental transformations of the educational system. These results may contribute to the creation and improvement of programs for inclusion of visually impaired children into regular schools.
Keywords
inclusive education; special education; visual impairment
Hrčak ID:
193747
URI
Publication date:
16.2.2018.
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