Four eyes see better than two: team teaching with special needs teachers

Series: Child and therapy - Part 3

Special needs teachers fulfil an important function for both children with strong and weak learning abilities. They are deployed in very different ways in Swiss schools. They often teach together with the teachers in the same class, but sometimes they only teach a small group or individual pupils. A look at the Felsberg GR school shows how the different learning rhythms of children in a class can be accommodated by teachers with special educational needs.

For Irene Baselgia, the special needs teacher at Felsberg GR school, today is small group day with the fifth-graders. This means that she is in the classroom together with the teachers, observing, supporting and looking at fractions in detail with five pupils. The composition of the small group is not fixed. Depending on need and topic, a pupil switches to Mrs Baselgia for a period of time. Sometimes it is the strong learners who receive additional tasks from her, sometimes the weak learners with whom she introduces a topic. With textbooks, exercise books and pencil cases under their arms, the five children move into the special needs teacher's practice room.
Irene Baselgia practises the same as in the classroom next door. Nevertheless, there are differences. The teacher in the classroom gives the pupils more freedom when organising the learning objectives for fractions. They have to continue working independently after two examples.
Irene Baselgia, on the other hand, gives the children more time. She goes through all the thinking steps with them again and then sets them a first task: «½ is smaller than 2/4. Is that right?» The children ponder, arms shoot up in the air. Irene Baselgia takes out a small box with the coloured circle cake pieces. The quarters are yellow. The halves are red. She lays the pieces out on the table in front of the children. Now the image of the quarter and the half is combined with the abstract number. The answer is self-evident and becomes clear to everyone. She works out the principle of fractions again from scratch with the boys and girls in the small group. How is it that 1/9 is smaller than 1/8? When 9 is bigger than 8! The circle cake pieces in the different sizes help to understand this logic.

Child and therapy - the series More than half of Swiss schoolchildren receive therapy at some point during their school career. Far too many, say some paediatricians and experts, and plead for more serenity when it comes to school and learning difficulties. Parents, on the other hand, are often at a loss, question their expectations and fear stigmatisation. In this five-part series, we would like to shed some light on the field of school therapy programmes. What is the aim of so-called special educational measures? When are they necessary? What does a special needs teacher do in the classroom? How does a speech therapist work? What does psychomotor therapy mean? And don't we perhaps simply have the wrong idea of what is and isn't the norm? You can find all previously published articles here: Child and therapy - the series
Child and therapy - the series
More than half of Swiss schoolchildren receive therapy at some point during their school career. Far too many, say some paediatricians and experts, and plead for more serenity when it comes to school and learning difficulties. Parents, on the other hand, are often at a loss, question their expectations and fear stigmatisation. In this five-part series, we would like to shed some light on the field of school therapy programmes. What is the aim of so-called special educational measures? When are they necessary? What does a special needs teacher do in the classroom? How does a speech therapist work? What does psychomotor therapy mean? And don't we perhaps simply have the wrong idea of what is and isn't the norm?
You can find all previously published articles here: Child and therapy - the series

In small groups, Baselgia can also check where the pupils stand. The basic concepts of fractions are firmly established in all of them.
When asked about numerators and denominators, the children's arms shoot up in the air. So the remedial teacher increases the difficulty of the tasks: «Which is bigger, 7/8 or 8/9?» To help, she draws circles on the board and colours the pieces of cake in the circles. Together they work out the answer. Now it's up to the children to colour in the circle pieces: «Which is bigger, 4/6 or 3/4?» All five children come to the same, correct result. Now it's time to practise. Five heads bend over the tasks in the exercise book. Baselgia observes, goes to each child and can answer all the children's questions in peace.

Working in inclusive education

Irene Baselgia has been a special needs teacher for a long time. She has experienced how children with learning difficulties used to be grouped together in a small class and taught separately. She only taught children with reading and spelling difficulties (dyslexia) or maths difficulties (dyscalculia) in an individual setting. «The children concerned experienced these dyslexia and dyscalculia lessons as wonderful islands of learning. Back in the classroom, however, these children were repeatedly confronted with the harsh reality of performance,» she explains.

Today, she works much more closely with the class teachers in integrative lessons as a special needs teacher. Working in small groups as described above is only a small part of her job. She is allocated team-teaching hours for each class. «Together we look at which child needs which support. Four eyes see better than two,» says Baselgia. In collaboration with the teachers, the special needs teacher looks at the weaknesses and, above all, the strengths of the children in a class. «Our aim is to recognise and address the special needs of a class or each pupil.» The aim of inclusive teaching is prevention. Strengths and weaknesses can be recognised earlier, as their training makes special needs teachers specialists in children's learning and cognitive development. Special needs teachers observe pupils' hearing and visual abilities, but are also trained in cooperation, counselling and the development of schools or organisations.

Practise writing

Compared to earlier times, children today do not have higher basic requirements in German and maths. But they have more subjects than before: a foreign language in year three, a second foreign language and media and IT in year five. That is demanding.
Thanks to the competency-orientation described in Curriculum 21, it should be possible for every child to be given challenging tasks that are appropriate to their development and that they can master. Some subjects have also been cancelled or reduced. The remedial teacher is aware of this: the omission or reduction of writing and drawing lessons means that these skills now have to be practised in other lessons. Depending on the class and subject, Irene Baselgia sets a focus together with the teacher. «In the 1st and 2nd classes, we practise reading and writing to make sure that these basic skills are there.» How and within what framework the support is organised is the responsibility of the special needs teachers and teaching staff. At Felsberg School, it takes place in the classroom, in small groups of varying composition and, for children with adapted learning goals, also in short one-to-one sessions as required.

«The chemistry has to be right»

Baselgia greatly appreciates team teaching. However, she is also aware that it can have its pitfalls. «The chemistry between the teacher and the special needs teacher has to be right,» she says. Differences of opinion are allowed, indeed they have to happen. For Baselgia, they are the basis for good discussions. «We can reflect on teaching and learning through this exchange,» she says. The dialogue between teachers and curative educators doesn't just take place on the go, but is clearly defined and paid for as a meeting lesson or half-lesson in the weekly timetable. «This is an important part of our work.» The school bell rings. The small group lesson is over. Irene Baselgia meets with the class teacher for a brief discussion. And now it's time for the pupils to continue practising at home.

About the author

Ursina Trautmannist Journalistin und Autorin, schreibt Bücher sowie für Zeitschriften und Bühne. Sie hat zwei Töchter (15 und 10) und interessiert sich für Psychologie und Entwicklungsfragen.
Ursina Trautmann is a journalist and author, writes books as well as for magazines and the stage. She has two daughters (15 and 10) and is interested in psychology and development issues.

Series: Child and therapy

PART 1 The therapy dilemma
PART 2 Speech therapy
PART 3 Curative education
PART 4 Psychomotor therapy
PART 5 Occupational therapy

Read more about therapy:

  • When does my child need therapy?
    One child can't hold a pencil properly, another can't hop on one leg during gymnastics - these issues are brought up during the school assessment meeting in kindergarten. This is often followed by an offer of therapy: What forms of therapy are available and how useful are they?
  • Medication for stress: when can a child make their own decisions?
    If a child is not yet capable of making its own judgement, adults must decide on medical treatments. But when is a child capable of judgement? A guide through the legal jungle.
  • «Don't write again»
    For children with reading and spelling difficulties, reading and writing is a «Chnorz». Speech therapist Andrea Weber-Hunziker talks about the signs and causes and how learning at school can still be successful.