Self-advocacy skills of students with individual learning disabilities in the process of co-creating and individualized education programme

Samozagovorništvo v najširšem pomenu besede pomeni izražanje potreb z namenom zagovarjanja lastnih interesov. Je spretnost, ki je definirana kot sposobnost posameznika, da učinkovito komunicira, se pogaja, zagovarja svoje interese, želje, potrebe in pravice. V šolski situaciji dobro razvite spretnosti samozagovorništva povečujejo učenčevo motivacijo za delo in zato posredno vplivajo na učenčevo učno uspešnost ter njegovo višjo samopodobo. Še posebej pa je samozagovorništvo pomembno pri tranziciji, npr. iz osnovne v srednjo šolo. Učenci s primanjkljaji na posameznih področjih učenja (v nadaljevanju PPPU) imajo zaradi svojih primarnih primanjkljajev težave pri usvajanju spretnosti samozagovorništva. Posledično jih je potrebno o tej temi neposredno izobraževati. Izvrstna priložnost, da svoje znanje konkretno preizkusijo v varnem okolju, je soustvarjanje lastnega individualiziranega programa. S pomočjo vprašalnikov, ki smo jih izdelali posebej za namen magistrskega dela, smo ugotavljali, v kolikšni meri imajo učenci s PPPU razvite spretnosti samozagovorništva. Vsi učenci so v tretjem vzgojno-izobraževalnem obdobju in so vključeni v program prilagojenega izvajanja z dodatno strokovno pomočjo. V vzorec smo zajeli 38 učencev s PPPU, njihove starše (38) ter specialno-rehabilitacijske pedagoge (15‒20), ki z učenci, zajetimi v vzorcu, izvajajo dodatno strokovno pomoč. Za namen statistične analize vzorca smo uporabili naslednje metode: opisno statistiko, Mann-Whitnneyev U-test, Friedmanov test in Spearmanov koeficient korelacije. Rezultati so pokazali relativno visoko razvite spretnosti samozagovorništva pri učencih s PPPU glede na mnenje njih samih, mnenje njihovih staršev ter SRP. Ugotovili smo, da spol pri razvitosti spretnosti samozagovorništva nima bistvene vloge. Starost se je izkazala kot nekoliko boljši prediktor, čeprav tudi hipoteze o tem, da imajo starejši učenci boljše razvite spretnosti samozagovorništva kot mlajši, na tem vzorcu nismo uspeli potrditi. Primerjali smo tudi mnenja učencev, staršev in SRP o tem, v kolikšni meri imajo učenci razvite samozagovorniške spretnosti. Ugotovili smo, da so razlike v mnenjih prisotne, a niso statistično pomembne. V pričujočem magistrskem delu nismo uspeli dokazati vpliva direktnega poučevanja samozagovorniških spretnosti na razvitost tovrstnih spretnosti. Glede na dobljene rezultate so v delu zbrana tudi praktična priporočila in strategije za direktno poučevanje samozagovorniških spretnosti, ki jih bodo lahko strokovni delavci uporabili pri svojem delu z namenom omogočanja večjega vključevanja učencev s PPPU v soustvarjanje njihovega individualiziranega programa.Self-advocacy refers to expressing needs with proposal to advocate your own interests. This is skill which is defined as ability of individual who can communicate, negotiate and defend his own interests, wishes, needs and rights effectively. In school situation well developed skills of self advocacy help to raise student\u27s motivation for school work and have indirect impact on student\u27s school sucessfulness and good self-image. Self advocacy is especially important during transition process, for example: before entering secondary education. Recognizing that most students with learning disabilities have difficulties learning skills of advocacy, we need to initiate explicit self-advocacy training. Excellent opportunity that their knowledge is concretely tested in safe enviroment is co-creating their own individualised programme. Based on questionnaries, which were made just for purpose of our thesis we investigated how self-advocacy skills are devloped among students with learning disabilities. All students in research sample are inclused in the third educational period and are included in regular curriculum programme with the support of suitable adjustments. We survey 38 students with learning disabilities, their parents (38) and special-education teachers (15‒20) who offer special educaton support. For processing the results folowing statistical methods were used: descriptive statistic, Mann-Whitnney U-test, Friedman test and Spearman\u27s correlation. Results have shown realative high developed skills of self-advocacy at students with learning dificulties considering their own opinon, opinion of their parents and special-education teachers. We found out that gender has almost no role when we talk about developement of self-advocacy skills. Age turned out as better predictor, although hypothesis that older students have better developed skills of self-advocacy than younger ones have not turned out to be statistically significant on this sample. We also compared opinons of students, their parents and special-education teachers about how student\u27s self-advocacy skills are developed. We found out that differences between answers are present but not statistically significant. In this thesis we can\u27t prove the impact of explicit self-advocacy training on self-advocacy skills development. According to results of this research, reccomendations and strategies are gathered in the thesis in order to help teachers with including students with learning disabilities in process of co-operating their own individualised programme