Special needs in the classroom - Mel Ainscow

After four years of research and associated with the UNESCO teacher education project, "Special Needs in the Classroom" has been written to provide a source of ideas for teacher educators who wish to improve teachers' skills in dealing with pupil diversity in mainstream schools. There has been a growing awareness that conventional systems of categorization are inadequate for representing the diversity of special needs, and that mainstream schools will have to adapt in order to provide for all their pupils.;The book promotes a rethinking of our perception of the nature of special needs by arguing that the dominant approaches to educational difficulty can in fact work to the disadvantage of those children they aim to serve. It goes on to state the teacher education changes that would necessarily be entailed. A description of the UNESCO project is given, with an account of the research undertaken. Full advice on teacher education methods is offered, including accounts of initiatives already undertaken.