Inclusion: experts warn against 'ineffective' teaching adaptations

Experts have warned teachers against making ineffective “inclusive” adaptations that actually hinder learning for pupils with special educational needs.

The Education Endowment Foundation has produced a guide to help schools support pupils with additional needs and strengthen teaching for all pupils. This comes ahead of schools needing to publish an inclusion strategy before the end of December.

The guidance includes a section that aims to “myth-bust” misconceptions around inclusive teaching. Within this comes the warning against believing that “the more adaptations teachers make, the more pupils will learn”.

SEND guidance for teachers

The guide does highlight that some pupils will require adaptations and additional support to access high-quality teaching. However, it warns that more adaptations may not, on their own, mean more learning.

The EEF says that “distinguishing between effective and ineffective adaptations is one of the most consequential challenges of inclusive teaching practice”.

And it warns that “some well-intentioned approaches can reduce cognitive demand, lower expectations or unintentionally limit opportunities for pupils to think deeply and develop independence”.

Interventions for inclusion

The guide argues that effective adaptations can often be about increasing the intensity of high-quality teaching “rather than changing its fundamental nature”.

The advice has been published at a time when the government has made promoting inclusion in mainstream schools a central aim of its planned reforms for special educational needs provision.

It has said that all school staff will receive new training on SEND and inclusion, and that it expects every secondary school to operate an inclusion base.

Panel of experts

The DfE has also appointed a panel of experts to develop new national inclusion standards, which schools will be measured against.

The EEF guide highlights universal approaches that benefit all pupils, but that it says are particularly important for those with additional needs.

These include explicit instruction, effective feedback, scaffolding that gradually builds independence, positive teacher-pupil relationships and calm, predictable classroom environments.

The guide also contains a two-part framework comprising universal approaches and adaptations and additional support.

Adaptive teaching

The latter category includes classroom adaptations, small-group teaching, one-to-one support and targeted interventions used where needed to enable pupils to access high-quality teaching.

Professor Becky Francis, chief executive of the EEF, said: “With an increasing focus on inclusion, teachers and school leaders are looking for practical, evidence-informed guidance. Our guide is designed to help schools meet that need.

“Inclusive teaching is one of the most powerful ways to promote equity in education. As the guide shows, it is not a niche or SEND-specific concern, but a whole-school approach that benefits every pupil while helping those who need it most.”