Projects

Up till now, there has existed no comprehensive, systematically ascertained and empirically sound information on the situation regarding the school education of pupils with severe disabilities. This research project is intended to close this gap.
The aim of the project is to acquire information about central aspects of the situation of school education of pupils with severe disabilities and to draw conclusions for practical work, education and further education.
 
The project pursues this aim in two differently orientated parts of the research: the first part consists of a quantitatively orientated questionnaire, the second part of a series of qualitatively orientated individual case studies.
 
 
The quantitative part
 
In 2003, a questionnaire was sent to all schools in Switzerland that teach pupils with severe disabilities. It was decided to adopt a multi-perspectival approach: at each school, a class teacher, the therapist, the health care worker, the responsible team, the school principal and the child's parents were questioned about the educational situation of two children.
 
The inquiry aroused lively interest at the schools in question. This was evident, among other things, from the extremely high rate of returned questionnaires of 86.5% in terms of the schools and 83.8% with regard to the pupils.
The preliminary evaluations point to the wide variety of the situation regarding the school education of pupils with severe disabilities in Switzerland.
 
Presentations of the results:

• Presentation of the preliminary results for the participating schools and parents in German-speaking Switzerland took place at the HfH in Zurich on 12 May 2004.
• Introduction of aspects of school education of pupils with severe disabilities in Switzerland within the framework of the Konferenz der Lehrenden der Geistigbehindertenpädagogik an wissenschaftlichen Hochschulen in deutschsprachigen Ländern (KLGH) (conference of teachers on intellectual disability in German-speaking countries) held in Freising near Munich from 10 – 12 June 2004.
• Poster presentation at the World Congress of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities (IASSID) in Montpellier from 14 – 19 June 2004.
•  Presentation of results at the SZH-Kongress in Bern from 26 – 28 September 2005
• Presentation of results at the Internationaler Kongress für Heilpädagogik in Ulm from 18 – 20 November 2005

Publications:

• Various results can be found on this homepage (German and French).
• Various journal articles on the individual themes are in preparation, to which references will be made on this page as soon as they are published.
• In 2006 a book will be published which, in addition to a descriptive analysis, deals with themes such as "The institutional context", "Educational arrangements" , "Education and care" and "Parents and the school".

 
Qualitative part
 
The qualitative part of the research develops and tests instruments and techniques for the reflection on and analysis of concrete educational situations on the basis of a comprehensive educational concept in everyday school life. The aim of this part of the research is to review the importance and feasibility of these instruments and techniques. The procedure selected for this purpose will also be tested in terms of its suitability as a model for practice-orientated further education.
 
Beginning in September 2004, a preliminary stage took place with 1 – 2 schools. Further schools were included starting in January 2005.
 
 
Co-operation

• Credas, St. Légier & Morges (http://www.credas.ch )
• Pädagogische Hochschule, Heidelberg    (http://www.ph-heidelberg.de/org/geistigb) The questionnaires were developed at the Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg (Prof. Klauß and Prof. Lamers) for an inquiry in the state of Baden-Württemberg and adapted by us to the situation in Switzerland. We plan to undertake a comparison of the results from Baden-Württemberg with the results from Switzerland in co-operation with the Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg.