Conversations with children to identify educational needs

Presently, many primary education schools in the Netherlands are in the middle of implementing a new way of dealing with diversiy (HGW), which tries to avoid the labeling of deficiencies, but emphasizes the cooperation between all parties involved (parents, teachers, students) to encourage student learning. The teacher is supposed to first identify the educational needs of all students and then cluster them. Conversations with children is recommended as one of the ways in which educational needs can be identified (Pameijer, Van Beukering & De Lange, 2009). The present study focuses on the experience of teachers in conducting these conversations. Our research question is: What role do conversations with children play in identifying the educational needs of students.