This article was published in Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol 27 number 3,
Author(s): Ioannis Agaliotis and Efrosini Kalyva, "A Survey of Greek General and Special Education Teachers’ Perceptions regarding the Role of the Special Needs Coordinator: Implications for Educational Policy on Inclusion and Teacher Education", Pages 543-551, Copyright Elsevier (April 2011)
This article presents a study which explored the perceptions of general and special teachers regarding the role and the professional characteristics of special needs coordinators (SENCOs).
The participants were 466 Greek general and special primary teachers.
The findings reveal that Greek general educators believe that each SENCO should teach about 8 students for about 7 h per week.
Furthermore, the participants believe that the SENCO should have both teaching experience in general schools and specialization in teaching students with special needs (SEN), and also be able to deal with all types of SEN.
In addition, SENCOs’ responsibilities include evaluating and directly teaching students, counselling teachers and parents, contributing to in-service training of staff, and undertaking initiatives for program enrichment and knowledge dissemination.