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Preparing teachers for inclusive education: some reflections from the Netherlands
Author(s) -
Pijl Sip Jan
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of research in special educational needs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.543
H-Index - 27
ISSN - 1471-3802
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-3802.2010.01165.x
Subject(s) - inclusion (mineral) , special education , pedagogy , special needs , psychology , mainstreaming , teacher education , mathematics education , teacher preparation , sociology , medical education , medicine , social psychology , psychiatry
Teachers in the Netherlands hesitate to accept responsibility for students with special needs in regular education. They generally do not have positive attitudes towards inclusive education, citing a lack of personal knowledge and skill for teaching students with special needs, an area that was not sufficiently covered in their basic teacher training. Changing teacher training is an option, but it takes many years for the effects to be noticeable. This essay argues that there are other ways to prepare teachers and argues that by discussing problems in education with colleagues and working together as a team, they can resolve many of the issues for themselves.