Collaboration between special education teachers and visual arts education teachers in working with pupils with severe specific learning difficulties and its relationship to professional development

Rihter, Janja (author), Košak Babuder, Milena (author), Valenčič Zuljan, Milena (author)

Collaboration among different teacher profiles is one of the most important factors in meeting the needs of pupils with special needs. In a study of 138 teachers from different regions of Slovenia (57 special education teachers and 85 visual art teachers), we investigated how they collaborate when working with pupils with severe specific learning difficulties and how this collaboration relates to their professional development. The online questionnaire survey found that most participating professionals felt that collaboration was necessary, and 25% had not yet collaborated. Those who have collaborated most often consult informally in hallways and work as a team in expert groups for individualised programmes. The most common team teaching approach is for the visual arts teacher to lead the art class and the special education teacher to assist the teacher by providing support to the pupils with and without learning difficulties. They also see many benefits for the pupils and themselves in this type of collaboration and follow the desirable - positive - side of the S model of professional development. An analysis of the situation in practise can form the basis for recommendations on how to promote professional development in collaboration between these pedagogical professionals.

• Language: English
• Keywords: collaborative team teaching, collaboration, professional development, pupils with severe specific learning difficulties, severe SpLD, special education teacher, SE, visual arts education teacher, VAE
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 19–32
• Numbering: Vol. 39, no. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-154372
• UDC: 376:373.32.016:74
• ISSN on article: 1469-591X
• DOI: 10.1080/08856257.2023.2185859
• COBISS.SI-ID: 144820227
• Publication date in RUL: 12.02.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: European journal of special needs education
• Shortened title: Eur. j. spec. needs educ.
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 1469-591X
• COBISS.SI-ID: 12900104

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: sodelovanje, učenci, učne težave, profesionalni razvoj, vzgoja in izobraževanje oseb s posebnimi potrebami, likovna vzgoja in izobraževanje, učitelji