Attitudes of SENCOs and colleague teachers towards SENCOs’ role in schools in the U.K. Associate...

Attitudes of SENCOs and Attitudes of SENCOs and colleague teachers towards colleague teachers towards

SENCOs’ role in schools in the SENCOs’ role in schools in the

U.K.U.K.

Attitudes of SENCOs and Attitudes of SENCOs and colleague teachers towards colleague teachers towards

SENCOs’ role in schools in the SENCOs’ role in schools in the

U.K.U.K. Associate Prof Tomomi Sanagi Associate Prof Tomomi Sanagi

Chiba University, Japan Chiba University, Japan [email protected] [email protected]

Abstract • SENCOs are expected to fulfill daily work with their colleagues in the

schools.• However, it is known that there are some different attitudes on

SENCOs’ work.• There are many researches to clarify SENCOs’ attitudes on their roles

and responsibilities. And, several facts indicated that most of SENCOs have suffered from the burden of their roles. On the contrary, there are very few researches on attitudes toward SENCOs’ roles from their colleagues.

• The author and Farrell P (The University of Manchester) conducted investigation for colleague teachers and SENCOs.

• The results indicated that there are some different attitudes on SENCOs’ work between SENCOs themselves and their colleague teachers. Many teachers have expected SENCOs to fulfill their roles of giving teachers advice on how to teach children with SEN, advice on implementation of IEP, and detailed information on pupils’ SEN. However, in actually colleague teachers see their SENCOs especially have fulfilled their roles on teaching pupils with SEN directly and keeping pupils’ records, registers and Statements.

Purpose and methods• The purpose of this study was to clarifying

teachers’ attitudes towards SENCOs’ roles in their schools.

• We diffused a questionnaire for 50 primary and 50 secondary SENCOs.

• We have 71 questionnaires from 20 schools. (We hesitate to generalize the results because of its

small size sample.)

Type of School , Number of SENCO ,School Size , Total teaching experience

N %

Primary Teacher

29

40.8

Secondary Teacher

42

59.2

N %

100-199 3 4.2

200-299 2 2.8

300-499 15 21.1

500-799 18 25.4

800-1199 29 40.8

1200 + 4 5.671 100.0

The Number of SENCO

N %

1 49 69.0

2 18 25.4

3 4 5.6

Total teaching experience : Ave. 13.0 yrs (min 1yrs max 33yrs)

Have you had any training to teach pupils with SEN?

N %

YES 35 49.3

NO 34 47.9

No answer 34 2.8

Most teachers do not want to become SENCOs. The interviews with some teachers suggest that this is because of the amount of time dealing with management issues.

Do you want to become SENCO in the future?

N %

YES 5 7.0

NO 58 81.7

No answer 8 11.3

What do you think about the importance of the following roles of SENCOs?

Ave SD

Coordinating provision for children with SEN 4.68 0.32

Liaising with and advising fellow teachers 4.56 0.67

Managing the SEN team of teachers and /or LSAs 4.56 0.61

Liaising with external agencies 4.48 0.84

Liaising with parents of pupils with SEN 4.37 0.96

Overseeing the records on all children with SEN 4.30 0.77

Contributing to the In-service training of staff 4.17 0.61

Overseeing the day-to-day operation of the school’s SEN policy

4.01 0.61

These roles are prescribed by the revised Code of Practice.Teachers especially expect their SENCO to take roles such as coordinating provision, liaising with and advising, managing the SEN team and liaising with external agencies.

1 = Not Important - 5 = Very Important

Differences between Primary and Secondary teachers

(t-test: What do you think about the importance of the following roles of SENCOs?

Primary secondary

Coordinating provision for children with SEN 4.48 (0.74)

4.81 (0.40)

Liaising with and advising fellow teachers 4.52 (0.63)

4.60 (0.63)

Managing the SEN team of teachers and /or LSAs

4.28 (0.80)

4.76 (0.48)

Liaising with external agencies 4.45 (0.74)

4.50 (0.74)

Liaising with parents of pupils with SEN 4.03 (0.87)

4.60 (0.63)

Overseeing the records on all children with SEN 4.07 (0.88)

4.46 (0.74)

Contributing to the In-service training of staff 4.07 (0.92)

4.24 (0.85)

Overseeing the day-to-day operation of the school’s SEN policy

3.69 (1.31)

4.24 (0.91)

In comparing primary and secondary teachers, there are some differences. In general, secondary teachers estimated the importance of the roles of SENCO higher than primary teachers.There are statistically significant differences on some areas, that is, “overseeing the day-to-day operation of the SEN policy”, “managing the SEN team”, “coordinating provision”, and “liaising with parents”.

1 = Not Important - 5 = Very Important

Please indicate the extent to which SENCO fulfill these roles.Ave. SD

Liaising with external agencies 4.57 0.76

Keeping pupils’ records, registers and Statements 4.57 0.66

Making the bridge between parents and the school 4.28 0.85

Assessing and evaluate pupils’ SEN in detail 4.07 0.97

Giving you detailed information on pupils’ SEN 4.07 1.00

Taking the role of consultant for parents 4.00 0.89

Helping to make the school more inclusive 3.88 0.95

Teaching pupils with SEN directly 3.84 1.30

Giving you advice on implementation of IEP in brief 3.72 1.01

Making sure to diffuse the inclusion policy 3.62 0.80

Arranging the curriculum for pupils with SEN 3.57 1.20

Managing good staff meeting 3.56 1.10

Giving you advice on how to teach children with SEN 3.51 1.12

Giving you advice on assessing and recording of pupils’ needs

3.48 1.06

Arranging and managing staff training opportunities 3.43 1.05Teachers regard their SENCO as fulfilling roles of “liaising with external agencies”, “keeping pupils’ records, registers and Statement”, and “making the bridge between parents and the school”.On the other hand, they think that SENCO spend less time “arranging and managing staff training”, “giving advice on assessing and recording of needs”, and “giving advice on how to teach”.

Differences between primary and secondary teachers (t-test)(Please indicate the extent to which SENCO fulfill these roles.)

Primary secondary

Making sure to diffuse the inclusion policy 3.46 (0.76)

3.74 (0.82)

Helping to make the school more inclusive 3.78 (0.80)

3.95 (1.05)

Giving you advice on how to teach children with SEN

3.46 (1.14)

3.54 (1.12)

Giving you advice on implementation of IEP in brief

3.79 (0.96)

3.67 (1.06)

Giving you detailed information on pupils’ SEN 3.79 (0.92)

4.28 (1.02)


3.64 (0.91)

3.36 (1.16)

Arranging the curriculum for pupils with SEN 3.00 (1.19)

4.00 (1.05)

Teaching pupils with SEN directly 2.85 (1.29)

4.57 (0.69)

Managing good staff meeting 3.39 (1.10)

3.68 (1.09)

Keeping pupils’ records, registers and Statements

4.39 (0.79)

4.69 (0.52)

Making the bridge between parents and the school

3.96 (0.88)

4.51 (0.76)

Taking the role of consultant for parents 3.71 (0.81)

4.21 (0.89)

Arranging and managing staff training opportunities

3.32 (0.90)

3.51 (1.14)

Assessing and evaluate pupils’ SEN in detail 3.82 (0.82)

4.26 (1.04)


4.51 (0.82)

*

**

**

*

*

** p<.01 * p<.05

Differences between primary and secondary teachers (t-test)

(Please indicate the extent to which SENCO fulfill these roles.)

• Three areas were estimated higher by primary teachers than secondary teachers. These areas are “giving advice on implementation of IEP”, “giving advice on assessing and recording pupils’ needs”, and “liaising with external agencies”.

• All other areas were estimated higher by secondary teachers than primary teachers. Especially, in the areas on “arranging the curriculum for pupils’ with SEN” and “teaching pupils with SEN directly”, there are large differences with statistical significant differences between them.

• It is possible that the reasons why these items were estimated higher by secondary teachers were that primary SENCOs took on the roles of SENCO and classroom teacher so that they do everything to meet pupils’ SEN.

• On the other hand, the secondary SENCO is the only person with responsibility for SEN. There are also some differences between primary and secondary teachers.

• On the items “giving detailed information on pupils’ SEN”, “making the bridge between parents and the school”, and “taking the role of consultant for parents” are estimated higher by secondary teachers than primary teachers.

Please give your overall view of the important role of SENCO in the following areas.

Ave.

SD

Giving you detailed information on pupils’ SEN 4.54

0.63

Giving you advice on how to teach children with SEN 4.45

0.71

Liaising with external agencies 4.35

0.81

Giving you advice on implementation of IEP in brief 4.24

0.75

Giving you advice on assessing and recording of pupils' needs

4.10

0.88

Making the bridge between parents and the school 4.07

0.95

Assessing and evaluate pupils' SEN in detail 3.90

1.17

Keeping pupils' records, registers and Statements 3.90

1.10

Arranging the curriculum for pupils with SEN 3.85

1.04

Helping to make the school more inclusive 3.81

0.95

Taking the role of consultant for parents 3.77

0.99

Making sure to diffuse the inclusion policy 3.71

0.87

Arranging and managing staff training opportunities 3.68

0.95

Managing good staff meeting 3.38

1.06

Teaching pupils with SEN directly 3.31

1.31

Teachers especially think the important role of the SENCO is as "an Advisor on SEN" who gives some information on SEN, how to teach, implementation of IEP, assessing and recording, and so on. However, they think roles such as teaching pupils directly and managing staff meeting are not so important. And it seems that they think "helping to make the school more inclusive", "assessing and evaluate pupils' SEN", and "keeping pupils' records, registers and Statements" are not so important as well.

Differences between primary and secondary teachers (t-test)

Please give your overall view of the important role of SENCO in the following areas.

Primary Secondary


4.67 (0.53)


4.34 (0.77)

4.52 (0.67)


4.43 (0.77)

Giving you advice on implementation of IEP in brief 4.21 (0.74)

4.26 (0.77)

Giving you advice on assessing and recording of pupils' needs

3.86 (0.83)

4.26 (0.89)

Making the bridge between parents and the school 3.66 (0.90)

4.36 (0.88)

Assessing and evaluate pupils' SEN in detail 3.14 (1.19)

4.43 (0.83)

Keeping pupils' records, registers and Statements 3.45 (1.09)

4.21 (1.00)


4.07 (1.07)


3.86 (1.03)


4.05 (0.85)


3.74 (0.89)


3.55 (0.95)

3.76 (0.96)


3.40 (1.06)


3.69 (1.32)

Like as the result No.10, secondary teachers estimated higher than primary teachers in all areas about important role of the SENCO.There are statistically significant differences in some areas. ("giving detailed information on SEN", arranging the curriculum", "teaching pupils directly", "keeping records, registers and Statements", "making the bridge between parents and the school", "taking the role of consultant for parents", and "assessing and evaluate pupils' SEN")

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Primary teacher’s view of perceptions of their “ideal” and “actual” roles (t-test between “Importance” and “fulfill in actually”)

Ideal Actual


3.46 (0.76)


3.78 (0.80)


4.32 (0.77)

3.46 (1.14)


4.19 (0.74)

3.78 (0.97)


3.79 (0.92)


3.82 (0.82)

3.64 (0.91)


3.00 (1.19)


2.77 (1.24)


3.39 (1.10)


3.54 (1.00)

4.39 (0.79)


3.75 (0.75)

3.96 (0.88)


3.71 (0.81)


3.64 (0.83)

3.32 (0.90)


3.82 (0.82)


4.64 (0.68)

**

**

*

**

**

*

** p<.01 * p<.05

Primary teacher’s view of perceptions of their “ideal” and “actual” roles

(t-test between “Importance” and “fulfill in actually”)

• This comparison is for let us know how teachers think ideal roles of SENCO and actual roles.

• In some areas, primary teachers were estimated higher on "actual" (item 4) than "ideal" (item 3). This means that primary teachers regard their SENCO as working too much in actually. Such areas are "keeping pupils' records, registers and Statements", "assessing and evaluate pupils' SEN in detail", and "liaising with external agencies". (These items were underlined in ideal roles.)

• On the contrary, there are higher estimated areas in "ideal" (item 3) than in "actual" (item 4). ("giving advice on how to teach children with SEN", "giving advice on assessing and recording of pupils' needs", and "arranging the curriculum for pupils with SEN") This imply that primary teachers have more expectation to their SENCO than these are in actually.

Secondary teacher’s view of perceptions of their “ideal” and “actual” roles

(t-test between “Importance” and “fulfill in actually”)

Ideal Actual


3.74 (0.82)


3.95 (1.05)


4.49 (0.68)

3.54 (1.12)


4.23 (0.78)

3.67 (1.06)


4.28 (1.02)


4.26 (0.91)

3.36 (1.16)


4.00 (1.05)


4.57 (0.69)


3.68 (1.09)


4.23 (0.96)

4.69 (0.52)


4.36 (0.87)

4.51 (0.76)


4.21 (0.89)


3.82 (0.94)

3.51 (1.14)


4.26 (1.04)


4.51 (0.82)

**

**

***

**

**

** p<.01 * p<.05

Secondary teacher’s view of perceptions of their “ideal” and

“actual” roles (t-test between “Importance” and “fulfill in actually”)

• This table shows the same comparison between "ideal" (item 3) and "actual" (item 4) by secondary teachers. Like as primary teachers, secondary teachers estimated that SENCO fulfilled their roles in some areas such as "keeping pupils' records, registers and Statements". And similar as primary school, relatively not so high estimated areas were in two areas on "giving advice on how to teach children with SEN" and "giving detailed information on pupils' SEN". Also the same tendency was in the area "giving advice on implementation of IEP" and "giving advice on assessing and recording of pupils' needs". Secondary teachers seem to want to have more advice from SENCO than they actually receive.

• On the area of "teaching pupils with SEN directly" the finding is different from primary teachers. That is, it seems that secondary SENCOs are perceived as spending too much time on "teaching pupils with SEN directly."

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