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This study examined the views of 101 boys and girls aged 10–11 and 13–14 with statements of special educational needs for moderate learning difficulties. Questions centred on their experiences of school, teaching and learning in mainstream and special schools. The study is set in the context of the international move towards more inclusion of children with disabilities into mainstream schools and the greater importance attached to the child's voice in decision‐making in education. Most children expressed positive evaluations of their schools and the teaching they received, while a significant minority expressed mixed views. A significant proportion in the mainstream preferred learning support in withdrawal settings. While the majority in both settings preferred their current school, a significant minority in special school preferred to be in a mainstream setting. A notable emergent theme from the study was the high incidence of ‘bullying’ that was experienced. Though experienced in both settings, those in special schools experienced far more ‘bullying’ by children from other mainstream schools and from peers and outsiders in their neighbourhood. These findings are discussed in terms of the tensions or dilemmas about difference that were experienced and their implications for the move towards greater inclusion.

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Teacher training becomes crucial as a process of adopting patterns of thought and strategies for responding to students with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

Teachers' perceptions and thoughts on educational matters re ect on their teaching decisions and actions to their students in general, and their students with emotional and behavioural dif culties, in particular. A study based on the theoretical assumptions of Weiner's model of attributional theory of motivation, Ajzen & Fishbein's planned behaviour theory and Bandura's social cognitive theory aimed to construct a portrayal of teachers' causal attributions, emotional, cognitive and behavioural responses to students with emotional and behavioural dif culties. The distribution of an Attribution Inventory to 391 elementary teachers revealed that teachers' causal attributions predicted their emotional and cognitive responses, which in turn predicted their intentional behaviour. Intentional behaviour in conjunction with perceptions of effective coping strategies nally predicted their actual behaviour. This study contributes to our understanding of teachers' perceptions of and decisions about emotional and behavioural dif culties, with relevance to teacher trainers and policy-makers.Teachers' beliefs, thoughts and decisions on educational matters occupy the major part of the psychological context of teaching process. Teachers re ect on their behaviour towards their pupils and on their teaching decisions and actions in general. As Brophy (1985) argued, teachers' beliefs and expectations motivate and control their behaviour and the nature of their interactions with students in general and problem students in particular. Nespor (1987) also stated that it has become an accepted idea that teachers' ways of thinking and understanding are vital components of their practice. Finally, Ainscow (1998) claimed that perceptions about learners and learning lead to the design, selection and use of certain strategies and approaches.The link between teachers' thoughts and actions, however, is not a 'cold' process. It is not devoid of emotions and feelings, for themselves as the people who personify the teaching profession, or for their pupils. Pintrich (1990) argued that the rather cold image of teachers as decision-makers and processors of information about teaching needs to be complemented by the picture of teachers having a variety of thoughts and feelings about themselves and their environment. These feelings sometimes become hard to hide, irrespective of how much effort or practice a teacher can devote to concealment. On the other hand, students are very sensitive receivers of teachers' messages. Depending on their idiosyncrasy, they respond to teachers' emotional and behavioural discourses and send their own personal messages back to them. Thus, teaching becomes a circular and continuously interactive process, with complex causal relationships among the events taking place within it. The present study views that process from the teachers' standpoint, as they are the people who actually have the control of, and responsibility for, the teaching events. It focuses particularly on the part of their performance which is related to pup...