Abstract:

Background:
The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) is often assigned the leadership and management of special educational needs (SEN) provision and the promotion of inclusive education approaches in the school setting. Professional learning for SENCOs in imperative to ensure that these professions have the skill-set and capacity to enact their role as inclusive leaders. Professional learning and development for SENCOs should be based on their learning needs as strategic system leaders in inclusive education. There is limited research exploring the professional learning needs of their evolving profession.

Research Aim:
This research aimed to assess the professional learning needs of SENCOs in Irish primary schools with a focus on the content areas that should be addressed and the mode of professional learning delivery.

Methods and Data Sources:
A two-phase mixed methods sequential explanatory research design (quan + QUAL) was adopted for the study and this abstract presents findings from aspects of Phase One which relate to the professional learning needs of SENCOs. The questionnaire was developed in line with relevant research and gathered information related to the SENCOs’ experience, role, professional learning needs and qualifications. Following piloting of the questionnaire, all primary school SENCOs in Ireland (n = 3,104) were invited to participate and 371 questionnaires were completed. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data.

Key Findings:
SENCOs were asked to rate the importance of 26 content areas for professional learning programmes for SENCOs, such as ‘Inclusive policies’, ‘Mentoring and coaching of SEN staff’ and ‘Leadership and management in education’. A 5-point Likert scale ( 1=’very important’, 5=’not important at all’) and mean and median scores are reported. All of the 26 areas had a mean rating less than 2 which indicates that SENCOs felt that all areas were very important or important. The component with the lowest mean response and thus closest to very important is ‘Teaching strategies for students with SEN’ (mean rating=1.26), followed by ‘Developing alternative curriculum for student with SEN’ (mean rating=1.29). SENCOs were also asked to choose their top five preferences for the type of professional learning needed for the SENCO role. The results show that the preferred type of professional learning is ‘relevant day release courses’ (67.9%), followed by ‘communities of practice’ (65.2%) and then by ‘National Council for Special Education (NCSE) school-based support’ (62.3%).

Conclusions:
It could be concluded that the professional learning needs of SENCOs are extensive as all content areas were deemed important or very important. It may also be reflective of the extensive role of the SENCO. Communities of practice ranked highly as a type of professional learning and this is supported by research on the value of such transformative professional learning models. The value of single day courses is questionable and SENCOs should be supported through a transformative approach.

Keywords:

Professional development, communities of practice, SENCO, inclusive education, leadership.