Teachers' Attitudes Towards the Roles of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCO) in Mainstream Schools : Views of Colleague Teachers at Primary and Secondary Schools in Greater Manchester

Abstract

The present study highlights colleague teachers' attitudes towards various roles of the Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCO) in England. Colleague teachers (N = 7 1 ) of Special Educational Needs Coordinators working at primary and secondary schools in Greater Manchester County responded to a mailed questionnaire about the roles of Special Educational Needs Coordinators. The results included a summary of respondents' attitudes as to whether Special Educational Needs Coordinators were fulfilling their roles, and a comparison of the respondents' replies regarding the importance of the Coordinators' roles and the relation between their expectations and their ratings of how well those expectations were fulfilled. Responses from primary and secondary school teachers were also compared. The present findings indicated that colleague teachers have high expectations of receiving advice on how to teach, on implementation of Individual Education Plans, and on assessment of pupils' needs. However, the colleague teachers considered the actual activities of Special Educational Needs Coordinators to be quite different from those expectations, mainly involving keeping records, registers, and/or Statements, assessing pupils' needs, and, in secondary schools, doing direct teaching. These results suggest that, for collaboration and sharing of roles in schools, further in-service teacher training is needed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract).