Esqueda Villegas Fernanda, van der Steen Steffie, Minnaert Alexander
Department of Inclusive and Special Needs Education, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, Groningen, 9712 TS, the Netherlands.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2025 May 8. doi: 10.1007/s10803-025-06861-5.
Opportunities for children and adolescents to share their views in society and research remain scarce, especially in terms of their first-hand learning experiences. This problem extends to autism research, where the voices of autistic people are under-represented. Therefore, this study investigated the classroom experiences of autistic students in mainstream secondary schools in the Netherlands and Mexico, focusing on their perceptions of teachers' autonomy-support, structure, involvement and classroom interactions. Using video-stimulated recall (VSR) interviews, we recorded 13 students' thoughts and emotional reactions while viewing two of their videotaped lessons. The data were analyzed qualitatively using both deductive and inductive approaches to provide a narrative of the aspects that autistic students reported affected their learning. Autistic learners had varied reactions to autonomy support, but they all valued different types of structure provided by their teachers, which increased their confidence in achieving goals (i.e. completing a task) and provided a sense of mastery. In particular, fear of making mistakes, especially due to negative reactions from classmates, was a recurring problem for autistic students. Teachers who were approachable, understanding and supportive made a significant difference for these students. Finally, autistic participants relied on both the teacher and peer interactions to gain clarity on tasks and move forward. Our findings highlight fundamental issues that all secondary school teachers could consider in their daily practice. We propose that VSR method can serve as a solid basis for conducting interviews with autistic youth and move towards a more inclusive approach in autism research.
儿童和青少年在社会及研究中分享自身观点的机会仍然很少，尤其是在他们的第一手学习经历方面。这个问题在自闭症研究领域同样存在，自闭症患者的声音在该领域的研究中未得到充分体现。因此，本研究调查了荷兰和墨西哥主流中学中自闭症学生的课堂经历，重点关注他们对教师自主支持、教学结构、参与度和课堂互动的看法。通过视频刺激回忆（VSR）访谈，我们记录了13名学生在观看两节录像课时的想法和情绪反应。使用演绎和归纳方法对数据进行定性分析，以呈现自闭症学生报告的影响其学习的各个方面。自闭症学习者对自主支持有不同的反应，但他们都重视教师提供的不同类型的教学结构，这些结构增强了他们实现目标（即完成任务）的信心，并带来了掌控感。特别是，害怕犯错，尤其是因同学的负面反应而产生的恐惧，是自闭症学生反复面临的问题。和蔼可亲、善解人意且给予支持的教师对这些学生有显著影响。最后，自闭症参与者依靠教师和同伴互动来明确任务并取得进展。我们的研究结果突出了所有中学教师在日常教学实践中都可考虑的基本问题。我们建议视频刺激回忆方法可为与自闭症青少年进行访谈提供坚实基础，并推动自闭症研究朝着更具包容性的方向发展。
