Special Needs Education and Inclusion for the 21st Century— Achieving an Inclusive Multi-tiered System of Support

The aim of the call is to establish a research centre on Special Needs Education and Inclusive Practice to strengthen research in special education and inclusion in Norway. Five special needs education research environments in Norway, with Department of special needs education at the University of Oslo as the host, University of Stavanger, University of Bergen, Nord University and Agder University, have joined forces to realize this centre. The main idea is to bring leading researchers and highly promising early career researchers together to solve the WHO, WHEN, WHAT and HOW of special needs education and inclusion: WHO needs special education or additional support? WHEN should it be delivered? WHAT interventions are needed? HOW should interventions be delivered? Answering these questions will require both basic research but also an understanding of practice and the educational system. This consortium possesses both these type of knowledge. The framework for answering the WHO, WHEN, WHAT and HOW questions, is the "three-tier system", where 80% of the children follows universal teaching, 10-15% gets additional support, and 5-10% receives special education. The first 4 work packages in the center addresses the WHO and WHEN questions, and focus on background studies and Tier 1. The 3 last work packages focus on WHAT and HOW and Tier 2 and tier 3. All work packages will have a focus on inclusion. The large scale and robust multi-site studies in the work packages will move the research front, and map Norway as one of the leading actors in research on children with special needs and inclusion. Through high-quality research paired with detailed plans for implementation and impact, this centre will give a research-based foundation that can make us able to improve the outcomes for children with special needs both when it comes to learning, well-being and motivation.

The aim of the call is to establish a research centre on Special Needs Education and Inclusive Practice to strengthen research in special education and inclusion in Norway. Special needs education and inclusion have several challenges: poor research quality, weak evidence based foundation for practice, and that research is not implemented in practice. Five special needs education research environments in Norway, with Department of special needs education at the University of Oslo as the host, have joined forces to realize this centre. The main idea is to bring leading researchers and highly promising early career researchers together to solve the WHO, WHEN, WHAT and HOW of special needs education and inclusion: WHO needs special education or additional support? WHEN should it be delivered? WHAT interventions are needed? HOW should interventions be delivered? Answering these questions will require both basic research but also an understanding of practice and the educational system. This consortium possesses both these type of knowledge. The framework for answering the WHO, WHEN, WHAT and HOW questions, is the "three-tier system", where 80% of the children follows universal teaching, 10-15% gets additional support, and 5-10% receives special education. The first 4 work packages in the center addresses the WHO and WHEN questions, and focus on background studies and Tier 1. The 3 last work packages focus on WHAT and HOW and Tier 2 and tier 3. All work packages will have a focus on inclusion. The large scale and robust multi-site studies in the work packages will move the research front, and map Norway as one of the leading actors in research on children with special needs and inclusion. Through high-quality research paired with detailed plans for implementation and impact, this centre will give a research-based foundation that can make us able to improve the outcomes for children with special needs both when it comes to learning, well-being and motivation.