UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT ON THE WELLBEING OF STUDENTS WITH SPECIFIC LEARNING DIFFICULTIES THROUGH TEACHING INTERVENTIONS

Abstract

The study set out to explore whether teaching methods can improve the wellbeing of students with SpLDs. This study addresses a gap in the literature, identifying wellbeing differences between different types of educational environment and SEN provisions. It explores whether there are benefits from inclusive education to student wellbeing, considering constructs of wellbeing relevant to the impact of SpLDs, synthesising pedagogic, psychotherapeutic and developmental perspectives. 74 student participants were recruited through the SEN departments of 4 UK schools - each with differing approaches to SEN support. Student participants completed two psychometric wellbeing questionnaires. They also engaged in photographic exercise, capturing scenes of importance to them, which contributed to semi-structured interviews. 8 teacher participants engaged in semi-structured interviews. These teacher participants also had their classroom practice observed. Parallel interpretative phenomenological analyses (IPA) were used to interpret the findings. Several themes from both student and teacher IPA analyses revealed a differences between 2 pairs of schools, which was supported by the same difference in psychometric scores and classroom observations. Schools environments were found to have common features of inclusion either absent or present which were recognised by both students and teachers within their own social world perspectives, which were predictive of wellbeing. This study identified that school aged students with SpLDs could articulate the relationship between inclusive teaching and their wellbeing.