ENPAIR 2025

In Germany, the transition to secondary school is of particular importance for children with special educational needs (SEN). It is not only the decision for a secondary school type but also implies the choice between an inclusive or a special school. However, the choice of a special instead of an inclusive school is associated with reduced career opportunities (Klemm, 2010).
Teachers play a crucial role in this transition as they advise parents. Therefore, they should base their recommendations on high-quality diagnostics. Studies on the quality of diagnostics for students with SEN currently focus on the procedures used to determine SEN (e.g. Gasterstädt et al., 2020). For example, the “Prüfauftrag zur Feststellungsdiagnostik” in NRW revealed that different and varying numbers of diagnostic methods were used (Timmermann, 2024). Similar findings can be expected at the transition to secondary school.
The presentation examines the diagnostic methods used in the context of transition. The data basis consists of 31 guided interviews from the DFG project “SeGeL”. Using a content analysis (Kuckartz & Rädiker, 2024) the presentation aims to provide answers to the question what kind of diagnostic methods seem to be relevant from a teacher’s perspective when it comes to transition at the end of an inclusive schooling in primary school. The data was analyzed both across cases and by comparing cases. According to initial analyses, informal diagnostics play an overriding role in the recommendation. Across all cases, this primarily includes non-standardized observations but the diversity of methods varies between the cases.

Key words: inclusion – school transition – pedagogical diagnostics

References
Gasterstädt, J., Kistner, A. & Adl-Amini, K. (2020). Die Feststellung sonderpädagogischen Förderbedarfs als institutionelle Diskriminierung? Eine Analyse der schulgesetzlichen Regelungen. Zeitschrift für Inklusion, 4. https://www.inklusion-online.net/index.php/inklusion-online/article/view/551
Klemm, K. (2010). Gemeinsam lernen. Inklusion leben. Status Quo und Herausforderungen inklusiver Bildung in Deutschland. Bertelsmann Stiftung.
Kuckartz, U. & Rädiker, S. (2024). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Methoden, Praxis, Umsetzung mit Software und künstlicher Intelligenz (vol. 6). Beltz Juventa.
Timmermann, D. (2024). Teilprojekt 4. Ökonomische Analyse und Bewertung der Antragstellungen. In MSB NRW (Eds.). Gemeinsames Gutachten zum Wissenschaftlichen Prüfauftrag zur steigenden Anzahl der Schülerinnen und Schüler mit Bedarf an sonderpädagogischer Unterstützung. (pp. 38-83). https://www.schulministerium.nrw/system/files/media/document/file/langfassung_wissenschaftlicher_pruefauftrag_sonderpaedagogische_foerderung.pdf