Inclusion Initiatives in Primary and Lower Secondary Schools

The political ambition to have more inclusion entails that more special-needs pupils are to be included in ordinary lessons at primary and lower secondary schools. In this context, the “Inklusionspanelet” (inclusion panel) monitoring research project was initiated to monitor inclusion work by Danish primary and lower secondary schools.

This report presents an impact evaluation of two inclusion initiatives tested in the project. One initiative aims at teachers who are offered a skills-upgrade course to develop their competences and knowledge within inclusion. The second initiative aims at pupils and is based on the MinMestring pedagogical self-assessment tool. Both initiatives have special focus on pupils with ADHD and ADHD-like difficulties, but they involve all pupils.
The evaluation shows overall that initiatives improve the pupils’ concentration skills, but have only limited benefits for their academic development.
The study was funded by the Danish Ministry for Children, Education and Gender Equality. The initiatives evaluated were developed at the Metropolitan University College, Denmark and at VIA University College.