Editorial: Interactive learning environments: Fostering learning, development, and relationships for children with special needs

Abstract

Research and theoretical developments in education and educational psychology have shown that interactions, especially communicative interactions through dialogue, have a crucial role to promote students' progress in learning and development (Vygotsky, 1978; Bruner, 1996; Wegerif, 2011). These interactions especially include learning with diverse peers in heterogeneous contexts, but also with other people in the community (Valls and Kyriakides, 2013). However, not all students have had the same opportunities to benefit from such interactive learning environments. Students with special needs have traditionally received an education based on separate attention and individual programs which often reduced learning objectives and contents and opportunities for social interaction. In this regard, it is a concern that students with special educational needs tend to leave school without adequate qualifications (European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, 2017), and that it is a group especially vulnerable to bullying and abuse (Rose et al., 2011).