”Spesialpedagogisk arbeid i barnehagen med fokus på individuelle opplæringsplaner (IOP)”.

This study is aimed at preschools ("barnehager"). The overall purpose of the study is to elucidate the implementation of individual teaching plans for children ("individuelle opplæringsplaner, IOP"). How is a planning document translated into a specific work tool? The study focuses on how preschools have implemented individual teaching plans, and what activities and new knowledge this implementation has created in practice, particularly with regard to children with special needs. The main research question in this study is: How do preschool teachers work on the implementation of individual teaching plans?

The preschool teachers identify the assistant teachers as their most important internal collaboration partners in connection with implementation and use of individual teaching plans. The remaining staff, such as the preschool manager, can act as a sounding board if the preschool teacher finds this necessary.

Typically, the preschool manager is not directly involved in this work. The preschool teachers experience that they are fully responsible for implementing and using individual teaching plans. They also find that this is manageable and a natural consequence of being a preschool teacher.

All preschool teachers have received and continue to receive guidance from a special educational needs teacher, either regularly or when necessary. These special educational needs counsellors are very important for determining the specific initiatives launched towards a child with special challenges. Almost all the preschool teachers interviewed experience that the choice of supporting activities is the greatest challenge in implementing individual teaching plans. Moreover, they find it difficult to develop specific plans for the individual child, and they lack knowledge about how to formulate relevant goals and identify the right activities to reach these goals.

The preschool teachers assess individual teaching plans as a good tool that helps them safeguard the needs of the children. This is through the structure and continuity within an individual teaching plan, which enable preschool teachers to maintain focus and ensure that the child experiences progression. The plans make it possible to measure special needs work because preschool teachers are compelled to follow up on the child and the child's progression.

Data was collected through five in-depth interviews with preschool teachers in five different preschools. The five preschool teachers had worked for at least one year with individual teaching plans, and they represented private and public as well as small and large preschools. One preschool teacher was the manager of a department and was assumed to be the person at the preschool responsible for implementing and using the individual teaching plans in work with children with special needs. On the basis of an inductive approach, the data was first analysed and structured with open coding, then organised in sub-categories and finally divided into the final categories.

Pettersen, M. (2014): ”Spesialpedagogisk arbeid i barnehagen med fokus på individuelle opplæringsplaner (IOP)”. I: Reinertsen, A.B., Groven, B., Knutas, A., Holm, A. (red.): FoU i praksis, 2013, conference proceedings. Trondheim: Akademika forlag. 210-218.