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ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 77 – 82

7th International Conference on Intercultural Education “Education, Health and ICT for a Transcultural World”, EDUHEM 2016, 15-17 June 2016, Almeria, Spain

Descriptive study on the quality of attention to diversity plans Isabel Martínez Sáncheza, Beatriz García Lupiónb & Daniel González Gonzálezb* b

a Facultad de Educación, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, C/ Juan del Rosal, 14. 28040 Madrid Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad de Granada, Campus Universitario de Cartuja, s/n, 18011. Granada

Abstract The present study has as its basis the commitment and interest with the quality improvement to the diversity awareness through improvement plans. The main goal was to determine the main components of analysis of the quality of the centers that serve the diversity, from the teachers´ perspective. The purpose is to appreciate the teacher staff perception about the plans for the improvement of attention to diversity. This is a descriptive and evaluative study in which we have designed and validated a questionnaire that was applied to 112 E.S.O. teachers. The results showed that there is a majority agreement on the revised researches on the deficiency in the resources that schools have to deal with the diversity. The number of students that make up the classrooms of E.S.O., its diversity of personal situations, lack of funding and support staff makes a low involvement of teachers in the design and development of improvement plans. We conclude that teachers consider necessary for the improvement of the quality of diversity awareness some aspects as an adequate number of students per classroom making their education more personalized; a close relationship between schools and families; adequate material resources to the different diversities, and collaboration between the different professionals at the school. 2016The TheAuthors. Authors. Published Elsevier © 2017 Published by by Elsevier Ltd.Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016. Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016. Keywords: Diversity, Improvement Plans, Professional Perception.

1. Introduction The aim of all educational systems today is to provide quality education. The Spanish educational systems have often highlighted the existing interrelationship between the different elements that directly affect quality, as something

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +34679046348; E-mail address: [email protected]

1877-0428 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2017.02.032

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Isabel Martínez Sánchez et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 77 – 82

to which we all aspire and which constitute a permanent concern. It is interpreted as a hallmark of quality and acknowledges that something has been done well (Giné and Parcerisa, 2007). Seen from this angle, one of the goals of quality education would be to mitigate the high rate of academic failure or the relocation of teachers. However, the concept of quality, which unanimously includes the notions of fairness and efficiency, is so broad and has so many acceptations that the considerations of culture and research change its meaning, limits and possibilities. There is a different core set of values, each educational reality is perceived in a distinct manner and the world can be understood in a variety of ways. Depending on where it is positioned in the world, the way it develops and the manner in which we perceive education, which we consider to be a necessary utopia to enable humanity to make balanced progress, we shall place greater emphasis on either the procedures or the results and, in all cases, we shall search for paths that reconcile the resources in that direction. What is understood by quality in the field of education? Pérez and collaborators (2007) state that the quality of education depends on what is expected or asked of it in a certain context, with specific objectives and social expectations. Following these authors, quality education must point towards the results but taking the processes that lead up to them very much into account. For the purposes of what we consider quality, a plan that addresses diversity must take into account the diversity of the students’ initial situation, pay attention to the factors of exclusion, carry out actions that promote inclusion and bear in mind all the students, in all contexts and in a wide variety of situations. From this perspective, Mortimore (1991) considers a school of quality is one that fosters the students’ progress in a wide range of intellectual, social, moral and emotional achievements, taking into account their socioeconomic status, family environments and previous learning. An efficient educational system is one that maximises the capacity of schools to attain these results. In view of the foregoing, it can be easily deduced that assessing quality is not a simple process as all the situations involve previously choosing the meanings given to the fundamental elements of education, quality and assessment. Thus, quality assessment means and implies agreeing on the definitions of the concepts mentioned above in a process that is consistent with a cultural context that has already been defined, due to the fact the terms, assessment and quality are exposed to multiple definitions and interpretations that are frequently used confusingly to justify the interests of other social agents. As a result, our goal is to determine the main components for analysing the quality of the centres that address diversity from the perspective of teaching staff. Our objective is to observe how teachers perceive diversity improvement plans. 2. Objectives The general aim of our research work is to understand the perception of teachers on those improvement plans that include attention to diversity. For this we have designed the following specific objectives: 1. Understand the perception of teachers regarding: 2. the interaction with the Education Center context 3. the planning of the improvement plan, 4. the curriculum design, and 5. the agents to address diversity and the material resources available for it. 3. Sample Teachers from three Institutos de Educación Secundaria (state-owned secondary schools) participated in the research. Said schools have been awarded the quality management system certification based on the UNE EN ISO 9001/2008 standard, in acknowledgement of their participation in a project that links them with the improvement of academic education that is both taught and received. The sample selection was done intentionally, fulfilling the criterion that the center had a quality attention to diversity plan and who voluntarily agreed to participate in this research.

Isabel Martínez Sánchez et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 77 – 82 Table 1. Participating teachers Type of CentreTotal number of teachersParticipating teachersParticipation percentage Centre A

41

37

94.24

Centre B

48

45

93.75

Centre C

46

30

65.22

Total

135

112

4. Instrument In this descriptive and evaluative study, and in order to respond to the objectives, we designed and validated a questionnaire that uses a Likert-type scale, applying it to 112 secondary school teachers. The instrument was based on the following literary works: x Benítez, L. M. T., & Sánchez, J. C. (2010). Atención a la diversidad en la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria: Propuestas educativas para su desarrollo en el marco escolar. Wanceulen SL. x Galán, M. Á. G., & Fernández, M. C. J. (2011). Pedagogía Diferencial y Atención a la Diversidad. Madrid: UNED. x Gazïel, H., Warnet, M., & Mayo, I. C. (2000). La Calidad en los centros docentes del siglo XXI: propuestas y experiencias prácticas. Madrid: La Muralla. x Bellón, E. M. E. (2008). Evaluación de la calidad de la atención a la diversidad en un centro educativo de Galicia: plan de mejoras (Doctoral dissertation, Universidad de la Coruña). The questionnaire was validated by nine people, experts who work in either the fields of methodology or attention to diversity. The former field comprised academics from the Faculty of Educational Sciences and the latter, secondary school teachers, qualified in Therapeutic Education. We subsequently carried out the factor analysis in order to assess the construct validity, adhering to the following: x Conditions for the application a) Correlation matrix b) Bartlett's sphericity test c) The KMO measures of sampling adequacy x Common factor analysis x Extraction method x Rotation method As the SPSS 15.0 enabled us to perform a factor analysis of all the dimensions, we focused on obtaining an initial overview of the questionnaire’s structure by spliting it into subdimensions. Finally, the questionnaire was structured in 6 dimensions and 53 items. Table 2. Structure of the questionnaire DIMENSIÓN

Entorno del Centro Educativo

ÍTEMS DE LA DIMENSIÓN 1. Las características y necesidades socioculturales del entorno inmediato 2. Las características de todo el alumnado del centro. 3. Las posibilidades de interacción con las instituciones y asociaciones del entorno de barrio y municipio. 4. Las posibilidades de interacción con las familias o tutores. 5. El grado de autonomía del centro para atender la diversidad que comprende. 6. Las posibilidades de inserción profesional que tiene el alumnado con necesidades educativas especiales 7. La colaboración con otros centros educativos 8. Las colaboraciones e interacciones periódicas del profesorado con el de otros centros y sus especialistas. 9. Las colaboraciones mediante programas de cooperación con otras instituciones educativas y sociales. 10. Las colaboraciones mediante programas de comunicación y trabajo conjuntos con Servicios Sociales y Hospitalarios

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Definición del Plan de Mejora

Planificación del Plan de Mejora

Diseños Curriculares

1. Grado de consenso en los objetivos del centro para atender su diversidad 2. Grado de conocimiento que el Consejo Escolar posee de la variedad de identidades y necesidades en el alumnado a atender. 3. Los recursos disponibles. 4. La estructura organizativa para dar respuesta a los objetivos del plan de mejora. 5. Las infraestructuras físicas y ambientales para atender la diversidad que comprende el centro 6. Las limitaciones para alcanzar los objetivos consensuados 7. Las consecuencias de no poner en marcha determinadas mejoras 8. El establecimiento de procedimientos para el seguimiento y revisión del cumplimiento de los objetivos 1. Debe elaborarse una Programación de medidas 2. Deben determinarse los puntos fuertes y débiles del centro educativo para atender la diversidad 3. Debe explicitarse la estrategia para optimizar los recursos del entorno social del centro 4. Deben determinarse las relaciones del plan de mejora con los planes estratégicos (PCC, PEC Programaciones…) y los de atención a la diversidad 5. El grado de acuerdo entre los miembros de la comunidad educativa sobre las acciones prioritarias para mejorar la calidad de la atención a la diversidad 1. La modificación de la organización de la enseñanza por la inclusión del plan. 2. La adecuación de la competencia curricular de cada estudiante con NEE a los objetivos y metas prefijados 3. La adecuación de la ratio profesor-alumno a las características de los alumnos con NEE en cada aula y centro. 4. La coordinación y trabajo conjunto de todo el profesorado 5. La adecuación de las adaptaciones de los PEC y PCC para dar respuestas eficaces a los objetivos del centro en la atención a la diversidad 6. El diseño y utilización de evaluaciones basadas en los currículos reales que los alumnos/as experimentan en las aulas y centro

Recursos Humanos para atender la diversidad

1. La capacitación profesional del profesorado para atender las NEE en las aulas ordinarias 2. La dotación de profesorado voluntario para la formación de sus compañeros en orden a obtener más calidad en los resultados 3. La formación continua al profesorado y demás personal 4. La dotación de tutores específicos para coordinar las adaptaciones curriculares de su alumnado y su inclusión en los grupos. 5. La constitución de una comisión especial encargada de hacer seguimiento de los efectos de las medidas adoptadas para la mejora de la atención al alumnado con NEE. 6. La dotación de personas encargadas de fomentar acciones de colaboración con las familias en actividades de apoyo al desarrollo global de sus hijos

Equitaciones y Recursos

1. La adecuación y novedad de las equipaciones y recursos especiales para atender la diversidad de cada centro 2. La cantidad y calidad de equipamientos específicos relacionados con las NEE. 3. La adaptación, funcionalidad y seguridad de todas las instalaciones del centro y especialmente en las aulas

5. Results We then analysed the evidence, examining and organising the information without losing sight of our target. To be able to analyse the responses to the variables grouped together in the different dimensions we decided to classify those that constituted strong points (variables with an average value of 3, or higher) and those that represented

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weak points (variables that show an average value lower than 3); thus obtaining the results of the items that, in the teachers’ opinion, had a particularly significant or relevant role in the quality analysis of centres that address diversity. As a result, we found that the degree of importance of the item ‘possibilities to interact with families or legal guardians’ obtained one of the highest scores, with 4.48 out of 5. This tells us that teaching staff consider interaction is an important aspect when carrying out a diversity improvement plan. In turn, the teachers regarded the items ‘available resources’, ‘level of agreement in the educational centre’s objective to address its diversity’ and ‘physical and environmental infrastructure for addressing diversity’ as strong points. However, of the 53 items the one to obtain the highest average is the question that refers to the adaptation of the teacher-student ratio, which shows that teachers generally perceive that they have to attend to many students in the same class, which prevents them from being able to adapt the lessons to each student’s needs. Below is a table with the most relevant results obtained in the research presented. Table 3. Most relevant results Importance

Fulfillment

Item

Average

St Desv.

Average

St.Desv.

p3 The possibilities of interaction with institutions and associations in the district and municipality (local context)

3,73

1,039

2,81

,985

4,48

,759

3,45

,782

4,10

,936

2,70

,984

p13 Resources available.

4,09

,965

2,78

,906

p21 The strategy should be made explicit to optimize the resources of the social context of the Centre

3,97

2,99

,859

p4 The possibilities of interaction with the families or tutors. p6 Employability opportunities pupils with special educational needs have

p24 The adaptations of the teaching organization due to the inclusion of the plan. p25 The adaptation of curricular competence of each student with SEN to the set goals and objectives p26 The adaptation of the teacher-student ratio to the characteristics of students with SEN in each classroom and Center p27 Coordination and joint efforts of all teachers p30 Professional training of teachers to meet the SEN in mainstream classes p35 The provision of people responsible for promoting collaborative actions with families in activities to support the overall development of their children p37 The quantity and quality of specific equipment related to SEN

,721

3,93

,867

2,87

,825

4,09

,931

3,22

,885

4,37

,889

2,73

1,188

4,44

,730

3,05

,980

4,43

,777

3,08

1,189

3,95

,905

2,19

,908

4,14

,742

2,62

,842

6. Conclusions Our aim was to find out how teachers view diversity improvement plans and using the dimensional structure of the questionnaire as a basis, we will provide inferences and conclusions, relating them to each dimension: In respect to interacting with the environment of the educational centre, the teaching staff considers that when it comes to designing a plan for improving relationships and collaboration with the other institutions and social agents in the area, interaction of this nature is not particularly relevant. An educational centre is still an ‘isolated island’ standing within the environment it serves. Therefore, we consider that in order to strengthen the institutions and services that are closely related to an educational centre, it is necessary to implement training and awareness-raising actions for teachers.

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As regards the design of the improvement plan, teachers are extremely motivated and this is demonstrated by their high level of involvement and the importance they give to everything implicit in this dimension, even though they are well aware that this implies having to work very hard to prepare documents and plan actions. Curriculum design, the best valued dimension. It is obvious the level of importance teachers give to the coordination, involvement and teamwork of the entire teaching staff in an educational centre, offering solutions, exchanging opinions and devising the possible ways to work, etc. If the design of a curriculum has been defined within a context of collaboration, the teachers directly responsible for attending to special needs feel supported by their colleagues, they do not feel alone; therefore their work is made easier and their level of motivation is increased. An aspect that hinders the creation of a coherent design is the teacher-student ratio; creating a widespread feeling of unhappiness that affects all teachers. With the current ratio, it is very difficult to attend to everybody’s special needs if, in addition – and we agree with the teachers – the level of knowledge acquired and the domain of learning strategies has not been classified as a need; yet this ratio represents one of the most important special needs that has to be attended to. The agents for addressing diversity and the necessary material resources available to them are considered to be extremely important by the teachers, who use them to respond to the different educational needs with which they could be faced. It is necessary to insist over and over again that without qualified support staff, it is the specialised teacher in each subject who discovers that they have to respond to such a great diversity of situations in their classroom every day. Apart from specific support, teachers require complementary training in clearly defined teaching strategies as well as concrete resources. A lack of training and resources presuppose a situation that indicates low quality educational management of the diversity in classrooms and schools that naturally invalidates any curriculum design. It can be generally concluded that teaching staff considers that the design of a plan for addressing diversity encompasses many aspects that must be taken into account, but always considering the most important: there should be appropriate number of students in each class to ensure a more personalised education, a close working relationship between an educational centre and families, material resources that adapt to the different diversities found in schools, collaboration between the different members of the teaching staff, as well as on-going training to be permanently upto-date. References Benítez, L. M. T., & Sánchez, J. C. (2010). Atención a la diversidad en la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria: Propuestas educativas para su desarrollo en el marco escolar. Wanceulen SL. Bellón, E. M. E. (2008). Evaluación de la calidad de la atención a la diversidad en un centro educativo de Galicia: plan de mejoras (Doctoral dissertation, Universidade da Coruña). De-Miguel, M., San Fabián, J. L., Belver, J. L., & Argüelles, M. C. (2014). Evaluación de la satisfacción de los participantes en la formación profesional para el empleo. RELIEVE-Revista Electrónica de Investigación y Evaluación Educativa, 13(1). Galán, M. Á. G., & Fernández, M. C. J. (2011). Pedagogía Diferencial y Atención a la Diversidad .Madrid: UNED. Gazïel, H., Warnet, M., & Mayo, I. C. (2000). La Calidad en los centros docentes del siglo XXI: propuestas y experiencias prácticas.Madrid: La Muralla. Giné Freixes, N. Y Parcerisa Arán, A. (2007). Evaluación en la Educación Secundaria. Elementos para la Reflexión y Recursos para la Práctica. 2ª ed. Barcelona: Graó. Mortimore, M. (1991). The use of performance indicators. París: OCDE. Mortimore, P. And Whitty, G. (2000). Can school improvement overcome the effects of disadvantage? London: Institute of Education, University of London. Pérez, E. M., Martín, E., & Álvarez, N. (2007). La opinión del profesorado sobre la calidad de la educación. Madrid. FUHEM. Salazar, T. D. N. J. M. (2014). Modelo de evaluación y acreditación de los Centros de Educación y Cultura Ambiental. Horizonte Sanitario, 9(2), 44-47. Tourón, J. (2010). El desarrollo del talento y la promoción de la excelencia: exigencias de un sistema educativo mejor. Bordón, 62 (3), 133-149.