Professional paper
Class Assistants: Problems in Practice and Perception of Self-role in Educational Process
Ksenija Romstein
; Sveučilište Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku Fakultet za odgojne i obrazovne znanosti Osijek, Hrvatska
Tena Velki
; Sveučilište Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku Fakultet za odgojne i obrazovne znanosti Osijek, Hrvatska
Abstract
Education policies in the last three years put an increasing emphasis on engagement class assistants, as a form of social support for students with developmental disabilities. To find out what the problems are in practice and how class assistants perceive their role in the educational process, it has been analyzed 53 written narratives of class assistant. It was identified three main categories of problems: (1) problems in relation to the educational process (absence of insight into the child's developmental profile and/or program and lack of adequate teaching methods), then (2) problems in relation to the collective and interpersonal relations (exclusion from collective, the lack of agreement and coordination in the implementation of activities in school), and (3) problems in relation with a student (not understanding the child's behavior, from value judgments in interpreting child behavior to open animosity towards the student and his habits). The class assistants’ role was predominantly seen as a regulatory and compensatory, rather than be seen as mediators between students and its immediate surroundings. The lack of clear criteria for screening of class assistant and continuous monitoring strengthens the social dysontogenesis that, for now at a theoretical level, present a risk factor for the emergence of peer exclusion and undesirable behaviors in students with developmental disabilities. Therefore, it is necessary class assistants’ works organize according to inclusive values and principles of inclusive education, which also has a prevention dimension.
Keywords
inclusion; class assistants; educational process, children with developmental disabilities
Hrčak ID:
193889
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2017.
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