Decision support model for assessing behavioral disorders in primary school

Urška Šuštaršič (2012) Decision support model for assessing behavioral disorders in primary school. MSc thesis.

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Abstract

The master’s thesis presents a development of a multi-parameter decision support model that offers aid to identify and assess children with special needs in primary schools. The decision support model is a multilevel model composed of two parts. The first part consists of identification of children with special needs using screening test from a single classroom. Using this decision support model a teacher can systematically choose children which stand out in external or internal behavior. The model points out children with a particular deviation of behavior and those who have a chance of deviation in the future. In the second part the teacher can make further assessment on the children that were chosen in the first part. The test determines the level of children’s behavioral disorders and gives an assessment of special needs. This assessment helps teachers and social workers to decide whether a child needs to have further professional examination, a special help or no further examined. The framework of the decision process is a diagnosis of behavioral disorders according to the classification provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) [54]. The category of children with special needs has a wide specter of parameters such as different misbehaviors, problems and other psychological states. The thesis focuses on those diagnoses that are usually difficult to identify. The difficulties in identification can be caused by the lack of professional knowledge of teachers and social workers, unsystematic assessments, or a lesser intensity of the problems. The identification of children with special needs is supported by programs DEXi and HiView which enable the presentation of knowledge base, option assessment and evaluation of results. The decision support model describes the children with special needs with chosen parameters or criteria that are arranged in a tree. Because of the specific nature of this problem every single problem or disorder of children with special needs has its own deviation function i.e. every diagnosis cannot be covered by a single decision model. This decision support model for children with special needs was tested in practice in eight different primary school classrooms. The results of DEXi and HiView models are compared and critically evaluated.

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