Chinese regular education teachers’ perceptions of the holistic development of students with special educational needs in inclusive schools

This study reports the development and validation of a questionnaire to assess the holistic development of students with special educational needs (SEN) as a reliable instrument for measuring their overall performance in inclusive education. The survey was administered to 981 regular education teachers in Beijing. The identified factor structure contained six dimensions: Academic Performance (AP), School Adaptive Skills (SAS), Social Rules (SR), Motor Ability (MA), Interpersonal Relationships (IR), and Behaviour Management (BM). The data showed that students with SEN gained in the IR, SAS, SR and BM domains. These domains are more closely related to social and life skills than AP, which received the lowest scores. Student development in different domains varied depending on demographic variables, including student characteristics, learning environment and regular education teachers. The findings suggest that teachers prioritise the abilities of students with SEN to adapt to ‘learning’ and ‘life’ in inclusive schools. The presence of students with SEN in inclusive schools is a longstanding challenge facing Chinese inclusive education. There remains a long way to go to realise the goal of equitable and appropriate education for all. Continuous reform should be strengthened to support a more equitable education system with increased training and support for inclusive schools in China.