SPARK

Assessment, Identification, and Support of special educational needs and disabilities in early years settings

2024-02-29T11:24:08+00:00

The primary focus of this research was to explore the assessment, identification and support of special educational needs and disabilities in early years settings, and how educational settings treat and support children going through this process and post-diagnosis. This research was conducted in Liverpool, England with data being gathered through speaking to parents of children with confirmed ASD, reflecting on their experiences of the process of obtaining the diagnosis for their children. The methods for this research include online one-to-one interviews with myself and the parents of the children, where they confided in me their personal experiences and how they themselves and their children were supported in this process. The key findings of this research include a lack in levels of support for the most part from the professionals including during the process and post-diagnosis process for children and their families. Equally as important, support networks have been found to have been a significant support for parents especially, where they can gain advice and recommendations from other parents experiencing similar processes. This research concludes that higher levels of support must be provided for parents and their children during and after the diagnosis process of ASD, including treatment options like early intervention and therapies being offered due to its proven success. More importantly, professionals must acquire deeper knowledge and understanding of ASD and how to support those with the diagnosis and through this process. The recommendations for further research include using a bigger sample size of participants worldwide to gain a more accurate contextual analysis along with investigating professionals to establish their perspectives to find gaps in knowledge to fill this with additional training to solidify this knowledge.

Relationships and Sex Education in the 21st Century. Working towards a child-centred approach.

2024-02-29T11:35:39+00:00

This dissertation seeks to determine if the RSE curriculum in 2023 is effectively developed to suit the demands of students by using critical theory. The public and theorists have divergent views on The Children's and Social Work Act of 2017. Concerns about age-inappropriate themes being taught in the school have recently sparked public criticism, which has worried lawmakers and educators. Due to the delicate nature of the subject, the public domain has consistently had negative perceptions of RSE. By using historical methodologies, I will demonstrate this and show how current legislation can still cause problems in the 2023 curriculum. Additionally, it will use quantitative data to understand the perspectives and worries of parents and teachers to demonstrate adults’ perceptions of RSE in classrooms. Additionally, intersectional analyses will be done to determine how policy impacts SEND pupils. Findings suggest that oversexualisation of young people is negatively contributing to their mental health, more commonly young girls. By approaching Education from a child-centric view, this dissertation will argue how incorporating young people’s views it is possible to uncover systemic problems that need to be repaired by taking into account the opinions of young people.

An exploration into the support that places of Higher Education provide young adult carers, in an attempt to evaluate the effectiveness and increase awareness and support.

2024-03-01T10:02:26+00:00

This report presents research conducted into young adult carers’ experiences of Higher education, specifically focusing on the support in place from Higher educational institutions. Young adult carers are a large population that is often overlooked and unstudied, with both support and research gaps that require addressing. Qualitative research, consisting of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, has been utilised to obtain the findings of this study. These have then been analysed using thematic analysis. The research findings indicate differing experiences of young adult carers in Higher education, which could link to the inconsistencies in support identified. Some young adult carers receive sufficient support from their place of Higher education which benefits their experience. However, others receive inadequate support, or in some cases no support. Concerns have also been identified regarding many young adult carers being unaware of the support available in Higher education. Young adult carers should be acknowledged and prioritised, with a compulsory structure of support followed by all places of Higher education, to ensure all receive consistent and sufficient support no matter the Higher educational institution they attend. This support must be communicated to young adult carers in Higher education to ensure they are aware of it and can access it if needed.

Using Published Literature to Understand How Educational Provisions can be made for Pupils with HUWE1 Intellectual Disability (ID)

2024-02-29T11:41:48+00:00

This systematic literature review will evaluate limited knowledge regarding HUWE1 ID, a rare intellectual disorder, and how this impacts educational practice. It will investigate the complex needs within this disorder alongside the lack of teacher guidance, to view how this can complicate educational practice. This is due to the low possibility of encountering a child with HUWE1 ID in education. However, rare disorders collectively can increase the possibility of educating a child with such complex needs. Teachers may be left to hypothesise this child’s education. Hence the need for increased awareness on how to make educational provisions for a child with a rare disorder, which teachers can adapt to HUWE1 ID. It is suggested a proactive approach from teachers can be used by breaking down the complex symptoms of HUWE1 ID. This is to fill the gap in knowledge of educational provisions for HUWE1 ID that literature fails to provide. The research questions within this systematic literature review will entail a process of evaluating disease-related research to apply it to HUWE1 ID. This enabled research in educating children with singular symptoms of HUWE1 ID to be evaluated. This further highlighted the overlapping effective educational approaches to provide suggestions for educational practice for a child with HUWE1 ID. This process was useful in detecting provisions that benefitted disease-related research. It would be recommended that educators used these research questions if they needed support with symptoms of a HUWE1 ID variant not addressed in this research.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Teaching Professionals in Primary Education Settings in Northern Ireland

2024-03-01T10:00:15+00:00

This study will explore the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on teaching professionals in primary education settings in Northern Ireland. The aim of the research was to gather the experiences of teaching professionals during the pandemic, identifying the possible challenges they may have faced, but also the positives which came from remote learning. The researcher used semi-structured interviews to collect the data, which was then analysed to find themes made throughout the data. With three main themes being found thee including:

Use of online teaching methods
Returning to face-to-face teaching
Teaching professionals’ mental health and wellbeing

These themes will be explored in-depth to provide the reader with a greater understanding of the topic. There may also be information found that may surprise the reader, as they may not have thought about some of the experiences the teaching professionals discuss.

Through the research, it was found there was a lack of information surrounding teaching professionals in primary education settings in Northern Ireland. With most research conducted looking at the experiences of higher education, children’s experiences, or as the UK as a whole rather than specifically at Northern Ireland. This highlighting the need for further research to be conducted to ensure that this group of individuals is not being forgotten about.

Issue 15 - Celebrating Dissertation Success

2024-03-08T15:55:49+00:00

Guidelines for future contributors

2024-03-08T15:59:29+00:00