SEN and the art of teaching: The effect of systematic academic instruction on the academic and behavioural problems of students with EBD in special education

This research concerns the curriculum in special schools for students with severe behavioural problems (Cluster 4). In literature, it is often suggested that the learning outcomes of these students can be explained by the assumption that too much time is spent on their behaviour at the expense of the learning instruction. However, the results of this research show something else. Teachers offer more academic instruction during their lessons than behavioural instruction and in a systematic manner. The latter is necessary because the specific and individual educational needs of these students could not be met sufficiently with a regular curriculum. These students need an adapted curriculum and special education is doing well in this respect! However, the findings also show that there are still a few obstacles to be overcome when it comes to the implementation of systematic academic instruction in daily practice of SE. These students, often diagnosed with severe behavioural disorders and with a range of different problematic behaviours, are brought together in groups of ten students averagely . To meet the variety of the special needs of all these referred students, teachers will have to make choices. In addition, to prevent escalations in problem behaviour, all the teacher's attention sometimes needs to go to only one or two students in the classroom. The latter at the expense of the other students that also need their attention. This is the bottleneck of teaching at SE, namely the challenge of the teacher to offer all individual students adaptive instruction based on their unique needs simultaneously in one group.