Stone experiment #2: Glass & Egg

This is an exercise that you can use with teachers and parents to visualize the difficulties and dilemmas in regards to choosing which SEN children should be integrated into the classroom.

It helps to visualize for teachers and parents what goes into making the decision of including a SEN child into a class.

How do you select which student should be integrated and what are thought process and dilemmas connected hereto?

1. Divide the participants in two groups.

2. Group 1 will play the teachers. They pick a glass “stone” each and draw a face on it, then put them on a piece of paper, which symbolises the classroom.

3. Group 2 play the parents. They pick a stone each and draw a face on it. They imagine that the stone they picked and has drawn a face on is their SEN child. They introduce their “child” with a few sentences, and then put them in the paper “classroom”.

4. The situation is that only 1 SEN child can stay in the classroom, because 10 % of the number of children in a class may be a SEN child. Now the teachers have to choose that 1 SEN child, who can stay.

5. The parents can “lobby” for their child.

Aspects to be considered during the argumentation:

• Which kind of diagnose does the child has?
• Which kind of experts are there in the school to support the child?

6. Talk about the process. How did it feel to be the teachers? To be the parents? What are the dilemmas? What is important to consider when thinking about selecting a SEN child for integration into the classroom?