High Level Conference European Parliament

MHADIE-Policy Recommendations for Education

Judith HollenwegerWork package Leader “Education”

Zurich University of Applied Sciences and ArtsSchool of Education

Policies in regular education

low achievement

bad teaching male

Which schools are eligible for additional resources?

excellent teaching

high achievement

Policies in special education

mental retardation low achievement

male

Which children are eligible for additional resources?

giftedness high achievement

Integrated policy approach

mental retardation low achievement

bad teaching male

Recommendation 1

MHADIE researchers recommend the ICF framework as a useful structure for collecting data relevant to developing eligibility criteria for educational services for children and youth.

Children with Disabilities

OECD 2005

Blind and partially sighted students

Blind and partially sighted students

Italy

Blind and partially sighted students

Czech Republic

Percentage of students in special schools: Finland

Percentage of students in special schools: France

Recommendation 2

Across the education sector, we recommend that the consistent and valid understanding of disability provided by the ICF be used to understand the embeddedness of disability categories and the process by which disability categories of special needs are created and applied.

Different application of traditional disability categories

Problem 1: Application of same category for different purposes:• Clinical description based on formal assessment• Problem-based analysis of child in educational context• Needs-based analysis of child in educational context• Eligibility criteria• Label of a child attending a specific programme or school• Statistical information guiding policy decisions

Analysis of levels of education system

Problem 2: Circular application of disability categories:• Label need programme label

Analysis of process of education

Linking process to level

ProblemAssess-

mentAssign-ment

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Evalua-tion

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Organisational perspective

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Process of Education

Learning Disability: what information to rely for policy decisions?

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mentAssign-ment

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Process of Education

On clinical diagnosis of individual?

ProblemAssess-

mentAssign-ment

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Process of Education

On educational assessment of teacher?

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mentAssign-ment

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On achievement information?

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mentAssign-ment

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Process of Education

On educational programmes attended by students?

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mentAssign-ment

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Process of Education

MAP-EP allows systematic analysis of information used for policy

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mentAssign-ment

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Recommendation 3

MHADIE has shown that MAP-EP© (Matrix for Analysis of Problems in Educational Planning), developed by MHADIE researchers, is a useful and valid protocol for linking clinical, administrative and survey data to components in the education sector, and we recommend to use it as a guide to identify the information that needs to be collected for educational planning.

Information fit for purpose

Systems have to discuss and decide what information is relevant and meaningful for which purpose:

• Adequate to represent “disability” in educational context with information on impairment?

• Adequate to plan children’s school life and learning based on their disability, difficulty or disadvantage?

Early Childhood

What information to use for policy development?

• diagnosis often unavailable or misleading

• often a more general “developmental delay” rather than “clear impairments”

• ideologically-based decisions on what should be done because meaningful longitudinal data is not available

Common framework to link data relevant at different ages

Neutral factors, protective factors and risks

Engagement in Life Situations

Health Problems

Impairments

A priori decisions on what factors to concentrate on make comparisons across time difficult.

Recommendation 4

MHADIE research highlights the importance of including the 0-6 year children subgroups in population surveys for prevention policies. Given this, MHADIE researchers recommend that the ICF-CY (ICF Children and Youth version) be used to collect these data.

Instruments to describe functioning and disability

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mentAssign-ment

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Organisational perspective

Educational perspective

Clinical perspective

Instruments to describe changes functioning and disability

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mentAssign-ment

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Organisational perspective

Educational perspective

Clinical perspective

Procedures for interdisciplinary planning and decision making

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mentAssign-ment

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Organisational perspective

Educational perspective

Clinical perspective

Establishing eligibility

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mentAssign-ment

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Organisational perspective

Educational perspective

Clinical perspective

Recommendation 5

We recommend that new instruments and tools, that more reliably capture the child’s participation and complexities of educational participation in school, be developed.

Coherent policy development requires linking SEN to education

Children, Youth (and their Families)

Goals and Contents of Education

Services, Schools and Professionals

Need for / R

ight

to Education

Need for / Right toInstruction and Support

Nee

d fo

r / R

ight

to

Ada

ptat

ion

…and linking disability to education

School EnvironmentsMeans of Education

CurriculumGoals of Education

Opportunities

Recommendation 6

MHADIE researchers recommend that the social impact, resulting from outcome evaluation of education policies, be collected along with education’s outcome indicators for children with disabilities.