Designing and implementing an individualised educational programme is crucial for the development and education of children with special needs. An individualised educational programme is a basic document drawn up by a team of professionals in cooperation with the child and his parents for a pupil with special needs, regardless of the educational programme in which the child is enrolled. An individualised educational programme is also the process of planning and monitoring individualised help and support and adapting the educational process to the child's specific needs, in order to create the conditions for optimal learning performance, social inclusion and the development of the child's potentials. Since an individualised educational programme for children with special needs is of great importance, it is essential to know its theoretical foundations and the basis for its preparation and implementation, which is presented in the theoretical part of the Master's thesis.
The main purpose of the master's thesis is to identify the key conceptions and attitudes of the providers of additional professional support in relation to the individualised educational programme and to check which aspects of an individualised educational programme are highlighted by the individual professional profiles of the providers of additional professional support in their definitions of an individualised educational programme. The data were collected by means of a question in the survey for practitioners of the national evaluation study entitled Identification of problems and good practices in the education of children with special needs with suggestions for change (2020-2022). Descriptive and cavalier non-experimental methods were used, as well as both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The survey included 358 free-text responses from providers of additional professional support in different primary schools across Slovenia.
The results of the survey showed that providers of additional professional support have positive attitudes and perceptions towards the individualised educational programme, as in their answers they mainly highlighted the importance of the individualised educational programme for the education of children with special needs. At the same time, however, they pointed to some challenges and shortcomings in its implementation in practice. Similarly, providers of additional professional support place more emphasis on the content of the individualised educational programme itself, especially adaptations, planning, teamwork and adaptation, and less on the implementation of the programme and the evaluation record, despite the importance of these elements. In addition, the results of the survey showed that special and rehabilitation educators focus most on the content of the individualised educational programme, while other professional profiles focus on the meaning and purpose of individualised educational programmes.
These findings help us to better understand the implementation of an individualised educational programme in practice, as our conceptions and attitudes influence our behaviour and thus our practice, which is very important in teaching.
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