Collaboration towards the inclusion of children with autistic spectrum disorders: the views of the general and special education teachers in Greek primary schools

It has been reported an increase in the children diagnosed with ASD over the last decades. As a result of that more and more children with ASD attend the mainstream schools, towards the implementation of the concept of inclusion. For achieving that goal GET and SET share their expertise and form collaborative relationships with each other. The following study is an investigation of the perceptions of the GET and the SET on their collaboration that aims in the successful inclusion of the children with ASD in the classrooms. A survey was conducted in the Greek primary schools and questionnaires were distributed to the co-teachers of those schools. The questions focused on their views about the benefits of their collaboration, their current collaboration, the collaborative practices and the school-based supports which facilitate collaborative teaching. Since it is a quantitative study, a sample of 34 co-teachers was drawn from the population of the eastern part of Thessaloniki's district and SPSS software program was used for the data analysis. The findings showed that the main co-teaching approach is the “one teach, one observe” and that the co-teachers believe that their collaboration has a positive influence the academic and the social development of both the students with ASD and their “typical” peers. Moreover factors like gender, education level, experience and working position found that do not influence the perceptions of the co-teachers for their collaboration and no significant differences detected in the perceptions of the co-teachers about how they perceive their collaboration. There was significant difference, though, between the value the co-teachers place on the collaborative practices and support services, and the degree they implement them or have access to them. Additionally this study provides suggestions for further research on the topic, and possible ways of implementing the findings