Gary Gannon
Question:94. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Education to outline the training teachers who work in special educational needs classes receive. [52826/23]
View answerThursday, 30 November 2023
Questions (94)
Written answers
I would like to thank the Deputy for the question and would like to advise the following:
Under Section 38 of the Teaching Council Act, all initial teacher education (ITE) programmes must be accredited by the Teaching Council for registration purposes. The council reviewed its policy on the standards for programmes of ITE and published updated standards in Céim Standards for Initial Teacher Education in October 2020.
Céim includes seven core elements which underpins all aspects of programmes of ITE. One of these is inclusive education, which is defined as follows:
The term inclusive education refers to any aspect of teachers’ learning aimed at improving their capacity to address and respond to the diversity of learners’ needs; to enable their participation in learning; and remove barriers to education through the accommodation and provision of appropriate structures and arrangements to enable each learner to achieve the maximum benefit from his/her attendance at school.
The Council’s view of a truly inclusive approach to professional practice recognises that teachers encounter a diverse range of needs in the course of their teaching, regardless of setting. This will include additional learning needs (e.g. autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia) and learning needs associated with diverse linguistic, socioeconomic, cultural and ethnic (including Traveller community, Roma) backgrounds.
By delineating these as core elements, the council has taken a high-level approach to ensuring that they inform every aspect of programme design.
All new and existing ITE programmes have been realigned with Céim for first year student teachers as of September 2022. All other ITE programmes are undergoing the accreditation process under the new standards through the Teaching Council, due to be completed by the end of this year.
The Deputy might also be aware that my colleague, Minister Foley, published a policy statement for ITE in March of this year. It seeks to build on progress made over the past decade and sets out our commitment to ensuring that student teachers at primary and post-primary level have the skills to support all of our children and young people as learners in the years ahead.
It has a phased implementation plan which includes actions to progress it's vision. There are a number of actions which focus on inclusive education, one of these is to explore how the core element of inclusive education in Céim is helping to prepare student teachers to teach students of all abilities and in all settings (including special-education settings), through their ITE. The Teaching Council will report to the department on this action in 2024.
For serving teachers, on an annual basis, the Department of Education provides funding for a Post-Graduate Diploma Programme of Continuing Professional Development for Special Education Teachers in a number of higher education institutions (HEIs).
This is a level 9 award is available in six HEIs across the country:
• Dublin City University (DCU), Dublin, (115 places available)
• Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, (50 places available)
• School of Education, University of Galway (30 places available)
• St. Angela’s College, Sligo (50 places available)
• School of Education, University College Cork (UCC), (25 places available)
• School of Education, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4 (25 places available)
The aim of the programme is to provide substantial theoretical and practical continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers working with students with special educational needs, thereby, to contribute to the school’s overall capacity in this area.
In addition, the department provides annual funding for a Graduate Certificate in the Education of Pupils on the Autism Spectrum for teachers through DCU.
In terms of other continuing professional development, the Oide support service, funded by my department, works with teachers and school leaders to provide ongoing support and professional development, which promote inclusive practices.
Oide is currently supporting the implementation of new and revised curricula at both primary and post primary. Oide recognises that learners are diverse and through the provision of a range of supports, each of which are designed and underpinned with the fundamental principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in mind, invites teachers to examine and alter teaching and learning approaches that meet the needs of all learners.
UDL is a framework that facilitates the inclusion of all learners to access the school curriculum in a meaningful way. It is used in schools to reduce barriers to learning for all students and promoting inclusion by:
1. Creating multiple ways that teaching is represented.
2. Facilitating multiple ways that students can access their learning.
3. Supporting the multiple ways that students can demonstrate their knowledge which supports the diversity and variability of all learners in our schools. Just like architects use universal design to make schools buildings accessible to all, teachers use UDL to design learning experiences which are always accessible to all students.
In addition, at primary level, over the last number of years the department’s teacher professional development services have provided full day CPD to teachers in relation to team teaching and inclusion of children with special educational needs in the mainstream classroom.
They have also created a UDL Webinar. The digital technology team provide guidance on how digital technologies can be used to support the principles of the UDL framework.
There is also a broad range of special education summer courses available through the summer course programme to provide additional support to teachers in special education. All face-to-face summer courses have a module on inclusive education/accessibility.
The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) provides support for teachers with additional training needs in the area of special educational through the NCSE support service. This service manages, co-ordinates and develops a range of supports in response to identified teacher training needs.
The NCSE support service provides teacher professional learning (TPL) support for teachers of pupils with special educational needs through an inclusive learning resource teachers course as well as an online resource facility and an online book borrowing facility.
The support service continues to update current TPL courses for teachers and design new TPL courses in response to the needs of teachers. Specific training is provided for schools opening new or additional special classes each year.
Detailed information on the comprehensive programme of TPL seminars on a variety of special educational needs topics is published on the NCSE website. www.ncse.ie/tpl .