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Klaus Wedell CBE was a British educational psychologist and innovator of national and international importance in educational psychology and in special educational needs (SEN), with respect to theoretical and conceptual developments, professional practice and policy.
Klaus Wedell was born in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1931 and came with his family to Britain as a refugee from Nazi Germany aged seven. [1] He started school in England without speaking English and began a sojourn from place to place and school to school. The family, classed as ‘enemy aliens’, lived from hand to mouth with acute privations. Eventually in August 1943 circumstances became more stable as they moved to Wistow, a residential training college for Germans preparing to return to Germany to help rebuild the country after the war. Private funding enabled the teenage Klaus to continue his education at Bryanston School. [2]
From Bryanston, Wedell went on to study Psychology and Philosophy at King's College University of Cambridge (1950–53). [3] [1] During his National Service (1953–55) he served in the British Army in Germany; he wasn’t much good as a tank unit leader due to his disinclination to give orders, but his bilingual skills were put to good use at brigade headquarters. [1] He then undertook his PhD at the University of Bristol, supported by a Spastics Society Studentship, on the perceptuo-motor problems of children with cerebral palsy. [1]
Klaus married Nina (nee Weaver) in 1956, when both were post-graduate students. They had two children, Stephen (born 1962) and Katherine (born 1964). [1]
Klaus’s family background and the experience of being a refugee both had a powerful influence on his life. His forebears had a strong vocation to public service: on his father Hans’s side the Jewish Wedells and on his mother Gertrud’s side the Christian Bonhoeffers. [4]
Wedell's PhD research was framed within the prevailing model of classification: analysing children's learning difficulties by starting from predetermined classifications of difficulty, located within the child. From this research, Wedell concluded that such classification could not adequately address children's learning needs. In his 1973 book Learning and Perceptuo-motor Disabilities in Children, he expressed frustration with the concept of classifying children with learning disabilities, describing it as 'an exercise of limited value', [19] and instead discussed the importance of the interaction between the learner's strengths and needs and their school and home environment. [20]
From these findings, the concept of 'compensatory interaction' emerged as a model for assessing children's special educational needs. [21] This model moved away from both classifications of learning difficulty and seeing learning difficulties wholly as deficits within the child. Instead, compensatory interaction conceptualised learning difficulties as interactions between strengths and needs within the child and advantages and disadvantages in their environment, considered over time. [5]
Wedell initiated a major change in EP training and practice on the Educational Psychology training course in Birmingham, with trainees going into schools, rather than working in child guidance clinics. The compensatory interaction model required that Educational Psychologists should assess children's learning difficulties and needs within their educational and home settings. [1]
Wedell was concerned with the early identification of children's special educational needs. The work that he and colleagues did in this area indicated the significant difficulty of finding a measure that could predict the educational progress of children with apparently similar problems. [22]
At the Institute of Education, Wedell promoted and refined what he called the 'I and I Strategy' - to investigate and intervene in the individual case': an approach opposed to the use of generalisations and the fitting of pupils to general patterns. What was generally applicable for Wedell was the process of investigation and intervention. The starting point was the learning objective; and the strategy was one of investigating the strengths and needs of the individual and their environment in relation to the learning objective, and in the light of those strengths and needs to find interventions that would work for that individual, rather than applying generalised, ready-made solutions. [11]
Wedell promoted the concept of special educational needs as relative: a learner's needs depend on the learning objectives, and if the objective is changed, the special educational need may change or disappear. Additionally, a learner's difficulties may be relative to their other learning characteristics and their learning environment. [11]
Arising from the principle of inclusion and the recognition of the diversity of learning needs, Wedell became concerned with curriculum modification and systems of organising learning, considering how educational contexts can respond to pupil diversity. . [11] He recognised the complexity and dilemmas of inclusion. [23] [24] He advocated that educational provision should maximise organisational and pedagogical flexibility [23] [24] [1] and recognised that Information Technology could be an instrument in achieving this. [25]
Collaboration was a key concept in all of Wedell's thinking about the delivery of special educational needs provision. The 1981 Education Act required education, health and social services to work together to address the needs of young people with a Statement of Special Educational Need. [26] Wedell not only focused on the practical implications of this requirement but went further. He stressed the need for collaboration at all levels as a basic principle of good practice. For example, at the Institute of Education he collaborated with local authorities in the disbanded ILEA to provide in-service training; he was very active in the SEN Policy Research forum, a broad network of all concerned with SEN, including families, to examine and debate SEN policy issues; and he developed links between statutory, professional, and voluntary organisations, both in lobbying and in service delivery. [11]
Wedell, K. (1960) ‘The visual perception of cerebral palsied children’, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1, pp. 217–27.
Wedell, K. (1964) ‘Some aspects of perceptual-motor development in young children’, in J. Loring (ed.) Learning Problems of the Cerebral Palsied, London: Spastics Society.
Wedell, K. (1970) ‘Diagnosing learning difficulties: A sequential strategy’, Journal of Learning Difficulties, 3(6), pp. 23–9.
Wedell, K. (1971) ‘Perceptuo-motor factors’, in B. Keogh (ed.) ‘Early Identification of Children with Potential Learning Problems’, Journal of Special Education, 4, pp. 223–31.
Wedell, K. (1973) Learning and Perceptuo-motor Disabilities in Children, London: John Wiley.
Wedell, K. (1978) ‘Early Identification and Compensatory Education’ paper presented at the NATO International Conference on Learning Disorders, Ottawa.
Wedell, K. (1980) ‘Early identification and compensatory interaction’, in R.M. Knights and D.J. Bakker (eds) Treatment of Hyperactive and Learning Disordered Children: Current Research, Baltimore University Park Press
Wedell, K. (1989) ‘Some developments in the concepts and practice of special education’ (unpublished manuscript).
Wedell, K. (1990) ‘The 1988 Act and current principles of special educational needs’ in H. Daniels and J. Ware (eds) Special Educational Needs and the National Curriculum, London: Institute of Education / Kogan Page.
Wedell, K. (1993) ‘Special Needs Education: The Next 25 Years’, National Commission on Education Briefing, 14, London: NCE
Wedell, K. (1994) ‘Conclusions’, in I Lund and J. Evans (eds) Allocating Resources for Special Educational Needs Provision, Stafford: NASEN Enterprises.
Wedell, K. and Raybould, E.C. (1976) ‘The early identification of educationally ‘at risk’ children’, Educational Review, Occasional Publications No. 6. University of Birmingham.
Wedell, K. and Lambourne, R. (1979) An Enquiry into Psychological Services for Children in England and Wales, Birmingham: University of Birmingham, Department of Educational Psychology.
Wedell, K. and Lambourne, R. (1979) Psychological Services for Children in England and Wales, Social Science Research Council.
Wedell, K. and Lambourne, R. (1980) ‘Psychological services for children in England and Wales’, DECP Occasional Papers, 4(1) and (2), pp. 1–84
Wedell, K. and Lindsay, G. (1980) ‘Early identification procedures: What have we learned?’ Remedial Education, 15, pp. 130–5.
Wedell, K. (1995). Making inclusive education ordinary. British Journal of Special Education. [27]
'Points from the SENCo Forum': regular column in the British Journal of Special Education [28] from 1997 to 2021.
Wedell, K. (2005). Dilemmas in the quest for inclusion. British Journal of Special Education. [29]
Wedell, K. (2008). Confusion about inclusion: patching up or system change? British Journal of Special Education. [30]
Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of human learning. The study of learning processes, from both cognitive and behavioral perspectives, allows researchers to understand individual differences in intelligence, cognitive development, affect, motivation, self-regulation, and self-concept, as well as their role in learning. The field of educational psychology relies heavily on quantitative methods, including testing and measurement, to enhance educational activities related to instructional design, classroom management, and assessment, which serve to facilitate learning processes in various educational settings across the lifespan.
Special education is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates their individual differences, disabilities, and special needs. This involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials, and accessible settings. These interventions are designed to help individuals with special needs achieve a higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and in their community, which may not be available if the student were only given access to a typical classroom education.
School psychology is a field that applies principles from educational psychology, developmental psychology, clinical psychology, community psychology, and behavior analysis to meet the learning and behavioral health needs of children and adolescents. It is an area of applied psychology practiced by a school psychologist. They often collaborate with educators, families, school leaders, community members, and other professionals to create safe and supportive school environments.
A reading disability is a condition in which a person displays difficulty reading. Examples of reading disabilities include: developmental dyslexia, And alexia,
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The Education (Scotland) Act 2004 is an Act of the Scottish Parliament that received Royal Assent in 2004. It seeks to redefine the law relating to the provision of special education to children with additional needs by establishing a framework for the policies of inclusion and generally practising the "presumption of mainstreaming" in Scottish education. The Act is an attempt to broaden the narrow definition of Special Educational Needs (SEN) which has typically been used to define children with special needs.
Learning disability, learning disorder, or learning difficulty is a condition in the brain that causes difficulties comprehending or processing information and can be caused by several different factors. Given the "difficulty learning in a typical manner", this does not exclude the ability to learn in a different manner. Therefore, some people can be more accurately described as having a "learning difference", thus avoiding any misconception of being disabled with a possible lack of an ability to learn and possible negative stereotyping. In the United Kingdom, the term "learning disability" generally refers to an intellectual disability, while conditions such as dyslexia and dyspraxia are usually referred to as "learning difficulties".
Intensive Interaction is an approach for supporting the social inclusion and social communication skill development of people with learning difficulties and/or autism, and other groups of people who have difficulty with social engagement.
A resource room is a separate, remedial classroom in a school where students with educational disabilities, such as specific learning disabilities, are given direct, specialized instruction and academic remediation and assistance with homework, and related assignments as individuals or in groups.
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Academic achievement or academic performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement.
The Council for the Registration of Schools Teaching Dyslexic Pupils (CReSTeD) is a charity which maintains a register of schools for dyslexic children in the United Kingdom. The use of upper and lower case letters for the acronym CReSTeD is an attempt to graphically represent the difficulties a person with dyslexia experiences when trying to read.
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Daniel Sobel FRSA is a consultant in the field of Inclusion (education), a teacher and mentor at Immanuel College, Bushey, and a SENCO and assistant head at King Solomon High School. He began working part-time as a freelance consultant on inclusion for the Borough of Redbridge, promoting good practice through his articles. In 2014, he established the company Inclusion Expert to continue this work.
How the West Indian Child Is Made Educationally Sub-normal in the British School System: The Scandal of the Black Child in Schools in Britain is a non-fiction book by Grenadian author Bernard Coard published in May 1971 by New Beacon Books in the United Kingdom. In the book, Coard examines educational inequality and institutional racism in the British educational system through the lens of the country's "educationally subnormal" (ESN) schools—previously called "schools for the mentally subnormal"—which disproportionately and wrongly enrolled Black children, especially those from the British Caribbean community. These students rarely advanced out of ESN schools and suffered educationally and economically. Coard also intentionally made a "critical decision" to write specifically for an audience of Black parents.
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