Abstract:

With changes in education laws after the "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities" became effective, provisions and goals for the development of inclusive education have been established. To offer optimal support for all children, teachers in inclusive schools must have a comprehensive knowledge of special teaching strategies that can be adapted to students' learning requirements and improve their academic outcomes.

Approaches such as classroom management are becoming increasingly important in this context to achieve a productive classroom climate by building positive relationships with students, engaging them in learning activities and avoiding classroom disruptions. Classroom management combines three main elements: maximizing instructional time, arranging classroom activities to maximize academic achievement, and proactive behavior management practices.

The central focus of this paper is on the development of an assessment tool with which to measure the extent of classroom management in inclusive schools reliably, validly and economically. The "Scale for Classroom Management in Inclusive Schools (InClass)" enables teacher staff to assess classroom management. Inclass focuses on heterogeneous groups of students in inclusive settings, necessitating the adaptation of the components to meet the needs and learning requirements of all students, with and without special educational needs. We developed a tool that comprises three subscales on a five-level Likert scale (1 = “does not apply” to 5 = “always true/daily”). The Adaptive Teaching Scale (ATS) focuses on how teaching staff adapt their teaching to the heterogeneity of the students. The Relationship Scale (RS) focuses in equal measure on developing and strengthening both the teacher-student and the student-student relationships. The Behavior Management Scale (BMS) focuses on preventing classroom disruptions in order to maximize learning time for all students.

In a pilot phase, we evaluated InClass on the basis of students of different teaching professions in Germany and Austria. Student teachers (N = 79) assessed lessons in school internships using the scales of InClass. The data analysis for the pretest was conducted with SPSS 29. For the purpose of a reliability analysis, Cronbach's alpha was calculated to assess the internal consistency of the three subscales, each of them consisting of seven questions. The internal consistency of the three subscales was found to be satisfactory, with Cronbach's alpha for Adaptive Teaching Scale (ATS) = .833, for Relationship Scale (RS) = .845 and for Behavior Management Scale (BMS) = .776. Pearson's correlation showed a significant positive relationship between all three subscales measured, with the lowest correlation between ATS and RS being r = .634 (p < .001) and the highest correlation between RS and BMS being r = .734 (p < .001). In all three subscales, sample participants who assessed teachers in special education schools (MATS = 4.17, SDATS = .788; MRS = 4.50, SDRS = .580; MBMS = 3.98, SDBMS = .683) rated them higher than students who assessed teachers in elementary schools (MATS = 3.76, SDATS = .732; MRS = 4.19, SDRS = .590; MBMS = 3.63, SDBMS = .679).

The subscales will be reanalyzed in terms of reliability and validity based on extensive data sets in a measurement period scheduled for May 2023. The findings of the pilot phase need to be confirmed and extended to other types of schools in the next phase of the study.

Keywords:

Classroom Management, Inclusive Schools, Student Teachers, Special Educational Needs.