THE ROLE OF PEERS IN THE INCLUSIVE EDUCATION OF STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Abstract

One of the most widespread challenges in education in recent years is the role of peers in the inclusion of students with special needs, in order to achieve socialization and academic achievements. With a descriptive character, this research has collected quantitative and qualitative data, the quantitative data were collected through the questionnaire instrument carried out with 128 students of the eighth and ninth grades of those classes where there were students with special educational needs. For the collection of these data, we stopped at the Inclusion Index manual by the authors Tony Both and Mel Aincow, adapted and adapted in the Albanian language Zabeli and Behluli (2014) and a semi-structured interview was conducted with 5 support teachers and 5 assistants of students with special educational needs. The research was carried out in Kosovo, in four primary schools in the city of Gjilan. These schools were randomly selected, while the classes were purposively selected. The results show that peers positively affect the socialization of students with special needs as well as educational development. The results show that girls have more positive attitudes than boys towards peers with special educational needs.

Keywords: Peers, education, attitudes, inclusive education.

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