SURE pilot study: Improving quality in inclusive mainstream classrooms to increase educational opportunities
Background and aims
The Teaching through Interactions framework (Hamre et al., 2013) postulates that the quality of teacher-student interactions (emotional supports, classroom organization, specific instructional supports, school motivation) has an important effect on the school and psychosocial development especially of children with risk factors (special education needs, migration background). Studies have shown that high-quality teacher-student interactions can offset risk factors (Hamre & Pianta, 2001; Hamre & Pianta, 2005; Ladd & Burgess, 2001; Meehan et al., 2003). For this reason, it is worthwhile to improve the quality of teacher-student interactions. It could be centrally important particularly in inclusive mainstream classrooms, as these are characterized by the risk factors mentioned above. However, the cooperation between classroom teachers and school-level special education teachers in inclusive education is a challenge regarding high-quality teacher-student interactions (Pool Maag & Moser Opitz, 2014; Reusser et al., 2013). For this reason, the aim of this pilot study is to support, for the first time, classroom teacher/school-level special education teacher teaching teams in improving teacher-student interactions through the video-based ‘cooperative teaching approach’.
