Full Description
First published in 1992. Special educational needs are being defined in new ways. Changing laws and perspectives in many countries present new challenges to practitioners. The fundamental shift underlying all these changes is the idea that handicap is not an absolute phenomenon, that special educational needs are relative to a person's environment. Once this is accepted, it is inevitable that there will be a radical re-examination of how such needs are identified and how they are assessed.
This book draws together a range of contributions from leading figures in special education worldwide, to emphasise assessment in the service of prevention, of teaching, and of mainstreaming and integration. It is not enough to understand children's individual strengths and weaknesses. The primary objective of assessment is to guide intervention, and for that purpose it must have a broader focus and not concentrate exclusively on the target individuals who appear to have disabilities or learning difficulties: the learning environment is equally important as a focus for assessment.
The book is divided into three sections that explore three broad themes: empowering children and parents during the assessment process; designing assessment so that it supports the integration and mainstreaming of children rather than their segregation; and making improvements through specific approaches to assessment.
Contents
List of Figures; List of Tables; List of Contributors; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part One: Empowering Children and Parents During the Assessment Process; 1. Images of Deaf Children as Learners: The Influence of Adults' Perceptions on Assessment and Intervention Alec Webster 2. Pupil Involvement in Assessment Irvine S. Gersch 3. Towards More Effective Decision Making in Assessment: Pathway - Meeting the Needs of All Pupils Miles Halliwell and Tom Williams 4. Assessing Needs in the Planning of Home-Based Learning Services Lilian Mariga; Part Two: Assessment in the Service of Integration and Mainstreaming; 5. A Second Change to Learn Literacy: By Different Routes to Common Outcomes (The Reading Recovery Programme) Marie M. Clay 6. Enabling Schools for All: Assessment in the Service of Systemic Reform Winston E. Rampaul and D. Richard Freeze 7. The Challenge of Special Educational Needs: An Approach to Identification and Assessment of Individuals with Cerebral Palsy in a Community Setting Sudha Kaul; Part Three: Growth Points in the Improvement of Practice; 8. Assessment of Special Educational Needs: Meeting Reasonable Expectations? Tony Cline 9. Looking with Different Eyes, Listening with Different Ears: Reading Evaluation from a Holistic Perspective Randall Cranston and Judith King 10. Curriculum-Based Assessment: Broadening the Base Norah Frederickson 11. Dynamic Assessment: Pitfalls and Prospects Harry Daniels 12. Minimizing the Inappropriate Referral and Placement of Ethnic Minority Students in Special Education Victoria L. Graf; Index
