Teacher professional development for disability inclusion in low‐ and middle‐income Asia‐Pacific countries: An evidence and gap map

Abstract Background In the Asia‐Pacific region, around one‐third of the children who are out‐of‐school have a disability and given that teacher readiness and capability are key contributors for inclusive education, it is high time for a mapping of disability inclusive teacher professional development (TPD) interventions in this region. Objectives The key objective of this evidence and gap map (EGM) is to locate evidence on interventions for in‐service TPD focussing on education for the inclusion of students with a disability in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) in the Asia‐Pacific region. Search Methods A broad range of bibliographic databases and repositories were searched electronically to identify the evidence published between January 2000 and December 2021. Key search platforms included the British Education Index (BEI), Education Research Complete (ERC), Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), SCOPUS, 3ie Development Evidence Portal (Evidence Hub) and the Campbell Collaborations Systematic Reviews and EGMs portal (Better evidence for a better world). In addition, potential program evaluations/impact reports, reviews, case studies, and program descriptions/summaries were sought through ‘snowballing’ based on searching bibliographies and reference lists of papers located during the search process, as well as specific searches of relevant grey literature. Selection Criteria To be eligible for inclusion, studies had to contain sufficient details about TPD interventions that support early childhood educators and kindergarten to Year 12 teachers to understand the needs of students with disabilities and aid them to create inclusive mainstream classrooms and/or provide improved support for students with disabilities in special education settings. Data Collection and Analysis A total of 820 records were entered into the MS Excel file in which the entire data extraction process was managed. All records were screened against the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data were extracted independently by two reviewers and any differences were resolved through consultations. All included studies and their characteristics were extracted from the MS Excel file and uploaded to the ACER server in.csv file format. The interactive, online EGM is available here: https://datavis.acer.org/gem/disability-inclusion-TPD/. Main Results Fifty studies from 16 countries out of the 41 LMICs in the Asia‐Pacific region were identified, whereby Thailand had the largest number of studies with evidence (7) followed by China, Vietnam, and India (5 each). Two main gaps in research about professional learning were identified. First, only three studies reported interventions aimed at supporting mental health among students with a disability. Second, no studies were found that reported on how teachers could support positive student behaviour. These gaps are important because research has persistently suggested that experiencing disability is an important risk factor for young people developing mental health conditions. Authors' Conclusions This report illustrates the critical value of evaluating and publishing evidence from disability inclusive TPD interventions in LMICs, including any that are ongoing, or are components of highly resource intensive large‐scale education sector programs.

1 | PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY 1.1 | Evidence and gap map finds 50 studies on teacher training for the inclusion of students with disabilities in low-and middle-income Asia-Pacific countries Only 16 out of 41 countries report evidence on in-service teacher professional development for disability inclusion in low-and middleincome countries (LMICs) of the Asia-Pacific region. These LMICs are still transitioning from segregated schooling to inclusive education. A majority of the identified interventions focus on changing teacher attitudes towards the inclusion of students with disabilities and understanding different forms of disabilities.

| What is this EGM about?
More than 1 billion people live with disabilities, 80% of them in LMICs.
While it is widely recognised that teacher readiness and capability are key contributors to a successful transition towards disability-inclusive education, in-service teacher professional development for disability inclusion remains an under-researched area.
This evidence and gap map will help governments, schools, and policymakers to identify areas where there is sufficient evidence and areas where more evidence is needed. The EGM will assist agencies in deciding where to channel their resources, to: • support interventions with a greater evidence base • improve evidence collection where the evidence base is weak • re-assess support for current interventions.

| What is the aim of this EGM?
The aim of this EGM is to identify evidence on interventions focused on in-service teacher professional development for the inclusion of students with disabilities. The EGM considers early years to Year 12 education in LMICs in the Asia-Pacific region.

| What studies are included?
The 50 studies included in this EGM were published between January 2000 and December 2021. Most (29 studies) were published in the last five years. The studies vary greatly in their methods: a few have experimental designs and many use observational techniques for data collection.

| What are the main findings of this EGM?
The included studies are unequally distributed across the intervention and outcome categories of the EGM. A significant number of interventions focus on changing teacher attitudes and understanding of disability, as many of these countries are in the early stages of the inclusive education agenda.
Only three studies discuss interventions for supporting mental health amongst students with a disability. One study reports an intervention to support students with physical disabilities where the teachers received training on mobility disability, as part of a larger teacher development programme.
Almost half of the 50 included studies are in mainstream school settings. None of the interventions identified support students with Evidence from LMICs also suggests that teachers often lack the knowledge and skills for recognising and supporting students with disabilities (Ghimire, 2017;Kutcher et al., 2013;Shari & Vranda, 2015). Moreover, a lack of encouragement for teachers (e.g., a lack of increased pay or improved work conditions) (Muwana & Ostrosky, 2014) and widespread teacher-centred methods of instruction (Arbeiter & Hartley, 2002) further impede the implementation of inclusion in these contexts (Wapling, 2016). Examples from Cambodia and India illustrate these issues where classroom practices were dependent on more traditional, less interactive teaching methods, in addition to overcrowded classrooms, scarce teaching resources and overambitious curricula, which made it harder for teachers to facilitate instruction with a focus on individual students or small groups of students (Singal et al., 2018;Song, 2015).

Issues affecting education for the inclusion of students with a disability in the Asia-Pacific region
In the Asia-Pacific region, around one-third of the children who are outof-school have a disability (Modern et al., 2010). This indicates the need for appropriate education services that support the learning goals of children with disabilities to unleash their full potential (DFAT, 2015b).
Additionally, 52.7% of students with disabilities drop out of secondary schools, mostly from mainstream schools (UNESCAP, 2019). According to UNICEF, 43 million children with disabilities live in East Asia and the Pacific and the exclusion of these children from school is widespread in every country in this region (2021). The 2015 attendance data from 21 education systems in the Asia-Pacific region suggests that only 19% of children (on average) with disabilities attended special primary schools (UN, 2018). Often, children with disabilities dropped out because of the financial burden on their families or contextual challenges (UN, 2018).
One of Australia's key responses to this challenge has been through the provision of funds to 'improve the accessibility to and quality of education for people with disabilities through policy dialogue, teacher training, curriculum development and education infrastructure' (DFAT, 2015b, p. 10) in the region. Yet, the transition from segregated schooling to inclusive education and teacher education reforms has been sluggish (Forlin, 2010;Wu-Tien et al., 2008).
In Southeast Asia, teachers and pre-service teachers mostly hold negative attitudes towards IE for students with disabilities (Forlin et al., 2007(Forlin et al., , 2009Sharma et al., 2006). Some reasons for this include a 'lack of policy enforcement, lack of resources, lack of trained personnel, inflexible school system, merit-oriented educational system, and also, societal attitude towards disability' (Bradshaw & Mundia, 2005; as cited in Low et al., 2018, p. 237). The influence of community/societal attitudes and beliefs on the beliefs and attitudes of teachers cannot be ignored. Collectively, studies by Hopf et al. (2017), Kuzma et al. (2016) and Kamenopoulou and Dukpa (2018), in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Bhutan, respectively, highlight several attitudinal barriers to the effective implementation of education for the inclusion of students with a disability in these LMICs.
Even in some high-income locations in the region, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, high parenting pressure within some communities can lead parents to internalise social stigma (Mak & Kwok, 2010;Wong et al., 2015) which results in keeping their children with disabilities at home.
In most schools in this region, educational segregation of students with disabilities is accepted, and teachers largely believe it is appropriate for children with disabilities to be taught by special education teachers (Lee & Low, 2013;Low et al., 2018). In Malaysia, for instance, 'it is expected that the preservice teachers in the regular subject areas would not perceive that it is their responsibility to teach students with disabilities, whilst the special education teachers would perceive teaching students with disabilities to be their distinct responsibilities' (Low et al., 2018, p. 238).
Besides, mainstream teachers may not be using teaching-learning practices suitable for inclusive classrooms and 'there is widespread acknowledgement that pedagogy is out of sync with the demands and challenges of the inclusive educational environment' (Rieser, 2013, p. 68). This is enhanced by the reality that teaching and learning in the Asia-Pacific region is often driven by assessment results, creating a conflict between high achievement scores and inclusion (Forlin, 2010).
Some mainstream teachers may even be pushing out students with disabilities from their classrooms because they are not sufficiently skilled to manage inclusive classrooms (Nes et al., 2017).
Also, research has shown that teachers require in-depth training to learn how to effectively implement assistive technologies (Blossom Cygnet et al., 2019;McMillan & Renzaglia, 2014) that help students with disabilities to perform tasks and improve their functional capacity to participate in everyday activities.
Lately, this transition to education for the inclusion of students with a disability has gained momentum in the region and it is widely acknowledged that funding effective teacher professional development (TPD) programmes has the potential to create a profound impact on the wellbeing and school outcomes of students with disabilities. In this context, Australia is one of the key partners in supporting the education of students with disabilities by providing funds to the development of teacher training programmes in the region (DFAT, 2015b).
Against this background, an Evidence Gap Map (EGM) of TPD interventions supporting the inclusion of students with disabilities is useful and timely.
2.1.2 | Scope of the EGM TPD programs are the key to transitioning to education for the inclusion of students with a disability (CRPD, 2016). Since disabilities are complex, with changing definitions and thresholds for identification, teachers require regular professional learning to support education for the inclusion of students with a disability (Forlin & Sin, 2010). One recent study from transnational and cross-sector perspectives has suggested that to enable inclusion, teachers 'require professional learning that is collaborative, interprofessional, and acknowledges that the challenges they face are multifaceted' (Beaton et al., 2021, p. 1). Although globally, inclusive education is accepted as the most suitable approach to ensure universality and non-discrimination in the right to education, many countries and especially resource poor LMICs, still have students with disabilities learning in a range of settings including special schools, integration classes in regular schools as well as in inclusive classrooms.
Preventing this dilution of inclusion is the purpose of UNICEF's statement (UNICEF, 2017)  Gujarat, a state in western India, health and education departments collaboratively developed a training program for the early identification of children with learning disorders such as dyslexia (Shastri, 2019;UNESCO, 2020). Some other countries are yet to establish policies which would result in the delivery of professional development opportunities for inclusion and supporting children with disabilities (UNESCO, 2020). For instance, in Bangladesh, teachers have reported an absence of professional development programs (both pre-and in-service) for supporting children with disabilities (Rahaman, 2017). International data from the OECD Teaching and learning International Survey (TALIS) 2018 shows that even with 52% of teachers in primary education participating in TPD on teaching students with special needs in the 12 months before completing the survey, around 28% of teachers still reported a high need for it (OECD, 2021). Besides, the UNESCO GEM report notes a high demand from teachers in many middleand high-income countries for TPD programs that support teaching children with disabilities (UNESCO, 2020).
While both pre-and in-service teacher development programs are needed to support teachers in transitioning to an inclusive education system, the current EGM compiles information on inservice TPD interventions only for the following reasons: • In-service programs can have a more immediate impact on the inclusion of students with disabilities in classrooms as they focus on practices and attitudes of current teachers.
• In-service learning programs are usually practice-oriented with suggestions of how to make pedagogical practices more inclusive.
• Pre-service education does not always equip teachers with competencies required to deal with everyday classroom challenges (Forlin, 2010). 'Whether newly qualified teachers (NQTs) consider that they are sufficiently prepared to teach students with SEN in regular classes continues to be a cause for concern…' (Forlin, 2010, p. 180).
• Many teachers who have been in the profession for decades may not have received any formal training on education for the inclusion of students with a disability. A study examining the skills of regular primary and secondary school teachers in Delhi in India found that nearly 70% of regular schoolteachers did not get training in special education and lacked experience of working with children with special needs (Das et al., 2013).
In summary, while most EGMs tend to have a broader scope, given the importance of the issue in this region, the authors are focused on synthesising evidence of TPD interventions for education for the inclusion of students with a disability in the Asia-Pacific LMICs only.
This work and its scope have been supported by discussions with key funders and education experts in the region-such as DFAT and Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) offices in India, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Stakeholders agreed on the need to have more information about the TPD interventions focused on education for the inclusion of students with a disability in this region rather than the full spectrum of TPD programs out there, since they do not tell the regional policymakers much about teachers' preparedness and needs on supporting disability inclusive education.

| Why it is important to develop the EGM
The Asia-Pacific region is frequently affected by a range of natural disasters that impact the education of all children (UNESCAP, 2019) and that makes it particularly difficult to provide quality education to children with disabilities when they occur (INEE, 2009). The recent pandemic and environmental disasters such as widespread floods, have created additional obstacles to the transition to education for the inclusion of students with a disability in most LMICs (World Bank, 2020). The Christian Blind Mission (CBM) Australia for UNICEF's East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office and UNICEF Australia emphasises a further need to support teachers with training on education for the inclusion of students with a disability particularly due to the added health and wellbeing complexities owing to this pandemic and other recent climate change challenges (UNICEF, 2020), as well as advocates the provision of additional TPD, support, and mentoring for empowering teachers (UNICEF, 2020). Therefore, a mapping of disability inclusive TPD interventions in this region is valuable and timely to gain more insights into the current situation and future needs for this sector. The content focus suggested for this EGM helps to keep this evidence synthesis manageable, appropriate, and relevant for interested funders and implementing agencies, who primarily support education for the inclusion of students with a disability in the LMICs of the Asia-Pacific region. The geographical focus means a greater potential for TPDs to be replicated or adapted as countries in the region share some common cultures, backgrounds, and histories. AHMED ET AL. | 5 of 54 3 | OBJECTIVES As researchers and policy makers are often unaware of the extent of the evidence base, an evidence map (EGM) is a way of making explicit and accessible different interventions on a certain topic in a specified geographic area, to 'guide users to available relevant evidence to inform intervention and design and implementation' (White et al., 2020, p. 3).
The key objective of this EGM is to locate evidence on interventions focused on teacher professional learning and development (TPD) for the education for the inclusion of students with a disability in LMICs in the Asia-Pacific region. As such, it illustrates different levels of evidence for TPD interventions as well as where there is no evidence (i.e., gaps). In other words, the EGM aims to empower agencies to better target resources by: • Supporting interventions with a greater evidence base • Supporting evidence collection in areas where the evidence base is weak • Re-assessing support for current interventions in light of the available evidence .

| Existing EGMs and/or relevant systematic reviews
An earlier critical review by Waitoller and Artiles (2013) examined research evidence from professional development studies focused on inclusive education and found six types of TPD for inclusive education: action research, on-site training, university classes, professional development schools, online courses, and a special educator's weekly newsletter on how to include children with disabilities. However, this review could not locate any systematic reviews on TPD for inclusive education and most reviews on TPD focused on studies conducted in Australia the UK, and the US. Van Mieghem and colleagues identified four reviews that highlights the TPD for inclusion theme: Kurniawati et al. (2014), Loreman (2014, Qi and Ha (2012), Roberts and Simpson (2016). A key finding in this area is that TPD is more effective when it focuses on specific student needs or disabilities, rather than on inclusion generally (Kurniawati et al., 2014), while a focus on specific teachers' concerns and their teaching context is the most helpful in encouraging change in teachers' practice (Kurniawati et al., 2014;Qi & Ha, 2012;Roberts & Simpson, 2016). Van Mieghem et al. (2020) concludes that TPD on evidence-informed inclusive practices leading to successful teacher experiences is the cornerstone for the implementation of inclusive education.
A current EGM on disability interventions (Saran et al., 2020) illustrates various initiatives for improving health, education, livelihood, social issues, empowerment and advocacy and governance for people with disabilities. However, this review reports only a single study on in-service TPD in Kenya (Carew et al., 2019).
A key point to note is that most research in this space focuses on evidence from interventions that attempt to improve skills in the students with disabilities 'rather than addressing institutional or environmental barriers, which are often the key focus of disabilityinclusive development' (Kuper et al., 2020, p. 2). For instance, an earlier review by Bakhshi et al. (2013) analysed programs that increased the accessibility to education for children with disability aged between 4 and 18 years across economically developed and developing countries but did not include any TPD intervention.
A recent Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) by Kuper et al. (2018) of What Works to Improve Educational Outcomes for People with Disabilities in Low-and Middle-Income Countries focussed on interventions to improve educational outcomes for people with disabilities in LMICs, which reported a few TPD interventions (Carew et al., 2019;DeVries et al., 2018;Martin et al., 2001) from China, Kenya and Uganda, respectively.
In summary, prior research identifies teacher readiness (Van Mieghem et al., 2020) as a major factor for a successful transition towards education for the inclusion of students with a disability while relevant work summarised here either does not cover TPD or countries outside the Asia-Pacific region. Hence, this EGM is timely and highly focused to provide a useful information base for targeted stakeholders.

| METHODS
The published protocol covered the conceptual model of the EGM, and the EGM framework, in addition to defining the methods, selection criteria and the strategy for data collection and analysis.
These are briefly discussed in the following sections.

| Evidence and gap map (EGM): Definition and purpose
EGMs 'are a systematic evidence synthesis product' (White et al., 2020, p. 1) intended to guide researchers and policymakers to high quality evidence to identify research gaps, inform research priority setting, and support evidence-based decision making (Katz et al., 2003;. Over time, different agencies have defined such evidence maps in different ways and used different approaches to generating such maps. However, Saran and White (2018, p. 9) discuss key components that should be present in any evidence maps which include the following: • Systematic approach Results from such evidence syntheses are valued by development partners who prefer to make investment decisions which are based on high quality evidence (e.g., DFAT, 2015aDFAT, , 2015bDFID, 2013;Jones, 2012;USAID, 2019). In recent years, such maps have gained popularity, particularly in the international development field. Thus, for example, a recent 'map of maps' commissioned for international development interventions (Phillips et al., 2017) reported as many as 73 maps . While most evidence maps are broader in scope a few are quite focused (e.g., Bakrania et al., 2018;Robinson & Rust-Smith, 2017). In line with the Campbell EGM guidance that critical appraisal of all included studies is desirable but not mandatory White et al., 2020), therefore this step was taken out in the interest of producing the EGM within a strict timeframe, which is shorter than what would have been required for a full-sized systematic review. The search for this EGM was quite comprehensive and systematic, similar to a systematic review search. However, some of the more stringent search steps were not undertaken to enable this work to be completed within the planned timeframe. For instance, the search statement used for the current work, relied heavily on subject terms to provide a more specific search with more relevant results. In contrast, the search statement for a systematic review would have been broadened to rely less on subject terms and to consider more variations including proximity operators.
The data extraction step essentially follows the elements suggested by Saran and White (2018, p. 16)

| Stakeholder engagement
Advice from DFAT and CBM on an initial draft EGM proposal has been helpful for refining the direction of this work and the inclusion of practice-based evidence. In addition to first scans of evidence emerging from initial topical searches, feedback from the following stakeholder engagements has further clarified the topic and scope of this EGM: • Initial consultations with the GEM Centre Executives on the value of this work for ACER and its alignment with the GEM Centre's principles.

| Conceptual framework
Research shows that the provision of high-quality inclusive education is mainly influenced by teachers and their ability to support and acknowledge students' heterogeneous needs (Gomendio, 2017;Moen, 2008;Schwab & Alnahdi, 2020). More specifically, TPD is particularly relevant in the context of resource-scarce LMICs in the Asia-Pacific region where teachers empowered with the right skills through interventions for the inclusion of students with disability can have a significant impact on student outcomes (Chakraborty et al., 2019;UNESCO, 2017). According to a model put forward by Finkelstein et al. (2019), inclusive teacher practice has five key aspects, namely instructional practice, organisational practice, socio/emotional practice, determining progress, and collaboration and teamwork. Teachers' expectations and beliefs-in-action resulting from social, cultural, and political influences have a dominating effect on teaching and learning in inclusive classrooms (Florian & Rouse, 2001;Howes et al., 2009).
Thus, disability inclusive TPD not only needs to focus on eliminating stigma associated with disabilities but also create awareness and understanding of these issues to empower teachers.
In addition, it is equally important for education systems to assist teachers in developing the capabilities and confidence necessary to be inclusive of students with disabilities. In a high-quality education system, teachers are supported through educational policies that focus on teachers' wellbeing and inclusion, pre-service learning, and ongoing professional development (Darling-Hammond & Cook-Harvey, 2018).

| Criteria for including and excluding studies
The criteria detailed in Table 1 have been considered when deciding whether to include or exclude a study/review in this EGM.

| Dimensions
In line with the conceptual framework (Figure 2), this EGM has two main dimensions, with interventions shown in the rows and outcomes captured in the columns. As can be seen, interventions are categorised in two ways, namely by disability types and by special interest groups.
Disability types include physical, mental, developmental and sensory disabilities. Special interest groups cover disability awareness, learning difficulties as well as specialised tools, approaches, and techniques for supporting Students with a Disability (SWD).
The outcomes of TPD interventions are categorised depending on whether those outcomes are aimed mainly at teachers or students. For teachers, the TPD interventions are categorised depending on whether they are aimed at changing teachers' attitudes, knowledge and understanding of disability, pedagogical changes to support education for the inclusion of students with a disability in their classrooms, enabling positive student behaviour, and impacting their confidence and efficacy to implement education for the inclusion of students with a disability. In addition, some TPD interventions are also aimed at improving student outcomes, such as student learning and achievement, behaviour, and engagement in the classroom, and/or their social and emotional learning (SEL) and wellbeing. To be included in the review, the intervention must be aimed at-at least one-teacher outcome. Only then is it examined whether the intervention is also aimed at some form of student outcome (see further details under the heading 'Outcome categories' below). The interventions and outcomes are described in detail in the following sections.

| Intervention categories
As mentioned above, one way of categorising interventions in this review is by disability types which includes physical, mental, developmental, and sensory disabilities, based on formal diagnostic categorisations as specified below: • A physical impairment affects the mobility or physical capacity of individuals. It may result, for example, from acquired brain injury, spinal cord injury, Spina bifida, Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy (Aruma, 2019a).
• The World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry suggested a change in the way persons with mental health disabilities are described and are to be referred to as persons with psychosocial disabilities (WNUSP, 2008). While we acknowledge the term psychosocial disability, for the purposes of this EGM mental health condition or another recognised classification, that is, Developmental Disability (DD) will be used.
• The American Psychiatric Association lists conditions such as Schizophrenia, Obsessive-Compulsive, and Related Disorders as mental health condition (APA, 2020).
• Developmental disabilities (DDs) are defined by Zablotsky et al. (2019) as 'a group of lifelong conditions due to an impairment in physical, learning, language, or behaviour areas' and notes 'Children diagnosed with developmental disabilities typically require services to address behavioural and developmental challenges' (p. 144). While persons with ASD and Intellectual disability (ID) carry increased risk of developing a mental health issue (Matson & Williams, 2013) these are distinct, and therefore ASD and ID can be classified as a developmental disability (Zablotsky et al., 2019). The second way of categorising interventions is in terms of special interest groups. Thus, for example, the EGM includes interventions which support disability awareness, that is, knowledge and understanding of various disabilities and impairments, the impact that societal attitudes, inherent stigma, and discrimination, therefore encourage inclusion of SWD in classrooms. Others focus only on learning difficulties, such as, difficulties in learning to read (dyslexia), and write (dysgraphia) or other areas of learning, such as mathematics (dyscalculia), which do not fit precisely under the above types of disabilities/impairments but are vital for promoting inclusion in classrooms. Finally, some interventions focus on training or teaching specialised tools, approaches, and techniques (e.g., Functional behavioural assessment, cognitive strategy instruction, collaborative inquiry, and individual learning plans).

| Intended outcome categories
As the EGM is focussed on TPD, for interventions to be included they must have at least one of the following intended outcomes aimed at the teachers: • Attitudes, knowledge and understanding  details about a program (e.g., XYZ program has been running in the Pacific Islands and has supported students with disabilities through several initiatives, that also includes teacher professional training)

Context (geographic location and settings)
Interventions in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) in the Asia-Pacific region Interventions in high-income countries (HIs) in the Asia-Pacific region or countries (including LMICs) from a different region.
A relevant study found in a review which is from a country of interest will be included as a primary studyif the review covers interventions in other regions and countries it cannot be included as a review based on this inclusion criteria.
Interventions for teachers who are beyond school levels (such as faculties at tertiary education level institutions or vocational institutes).
Interventions in early childhood settings including nurseries, playgroups, child-care centres, or pre-schools; and school settings including, K-12 mainstream schools and/ or special education schools.
Intended outcomes As specified in the EGM outcomes framework (See Table A1).

Quality
Not to be restricted based on any quality assessment. None Abbreviations: EGM, evidence and gap map; TPD, teacher professional development.
In addition, interventions may also have intended student level outcomes such as: • Learning and achievement • Behaviour and engagement • Social and emotional learning/wellbeing.
These are discussed in further detail in Table A1.

| Types of study design
Since the main purpose of this review is to map the evidence for inservice TPD for education for the inclusion of students with a disability in classrooms, a wide variety of study designs has been accepted if they added information on the topic of interest and helped to identify where evidence is currently available and where there are gaps.
This EGM therefore considers both qualitative and quantitative study designs (e.g., experimental, quasi-experimental, before and after studies without control groups, descriptive studies, case studies, etc.) (see Table A1 for more details). The studies may follow any of these research methods or follow a mixed methods design if they meet the inclusion criteria. Additionally, any study with a TPD program impact summary/description which provides insights into the inclusion of students with disabilities for in-service teachers in LMICs in the Asia-Pacific region is eligible for inclusion if it meets all the criteria.
Any systematic review and/or EGMs focusing solely on TPD for education for the inclusion of students with a disability with studies only from LMICs in the Asia-Pacific region are also eligible for inclusion.
However, we could not find any eligible systematic review for inclusion.

| Types of intervention/problem
Any type of TPD/learning program/intervention or in-service training opportunity with the aim of creating or fostering disability inclusive classrooms for students with physical, mental, developmental, sensory, and or multiple or complex needs are eligible. Also, any TPD focused on supporting learning difficulties and specialised tools, approaches and techniques are eligible for inclusion as they support education for the inclusion of students with a disability outcome in classrooms.
For the practice-based reviews in which only a subset of the interventions is eligible for inclusion in the map, only the relevant interventions (i.e., the relevant program component details) are included in the data extraction and mapping.

| Types of population (as applicable)
The population in focus are practicing teachers or special needs educators in early childhood centres or child-care services, preschools, and schools who are working with children/students between the ages of 0 to 18 years.
The EGM also covers interventions for in-service teachers and educators who work with students with special needs in mainstream schools or special schools or special education classrooms in mainstream schools.

| Types of outcome measures (as applicable)
Intended outcomes (prospective) Included interventions have at least one teacher outcome and may also report student outcomes.

Intended teacher outcomes
• Attitudes, knowledge and understanding • Pedagogical practices • Enabling positive student behaviour • Confidence and efficacy to implement inclusion.

Intended student outcomes
• Learning and achievement • Behaviour and engagement • Social and emotional learning/wellbeing.
See Table A1 for more details.
T A B L E 2 Evidence by source

Evidence sources Definition Number of studies
Practice-based Practice-based evidence in this EGM refers to other forms of reporting such as program reviews or case reports widely accepted by the international development agencies as valuable forms of evidence, some using mixed research methods but also includes many that could not be classified into a specific study design.

Systematic
Research studies and reviews that are published in peer reviewed journals, and dissertations, program impact evaluations are classed under 'systematic data base searches'. These also include results from research evidence hubs and repositories (such as, 3ie Development Evidence Portal, Campbell Collaborations Systematic Reviews and EGMs portal, and Center on Knowledge Translation for Disability and Rehabilitation Research (KTDRR)).

Unintended outcomes
Any potentially adverse or unintended outcomes of the interventions have been noted in this EGM report (see Table A2).

| Other eligibility criteria
Types of location/situation (as applicable) Only Besides, non-English studies were excluded based the review teams' own language skills, and resource needs (time and costs) that are required to involve professional translators.

Types of settings (as applicable)
The intervention could be set in any of the following: • Early years settings including nurseries, playgroups, child-care centres, or pre-schools up to Year 2 (Ages 0-8) • Mainstream schools (K-12) • Special education schools or classrooms.

Status of studies
The EGM covers both completed and on-going studies which are presently in-progress and have been documented in some formfor example, website descriptions of current programs, that are yet to undergo any formal evaluations if they included sufficient details.

| Search methods and sources
An initial limited search of development partner portals was undertaken to scope several potentially relevant studies, including previous literature reviews and systematic reviews on in-service teacher training for inclusion of students with disabilities in LMICs in the Asia-Pacific region. Results of these searches has been used to further develop search terms.
A broad range of bibliographic databases and repositories have been searched electronically to locate the relevant evidence.
Given, the time allocated for this EGM was shorter than that for a systematic review, the search statement was developed and adjusted accordingly. The information specialist relied heavily on subject terms to provide a more specific search with more relevant results within the timeframe provided. Also, keyword searches, including title and abstract were conducted on selected terms only relating to various disability terms-see terms and variations (*) not proceeded by SU-for example, see exclus* OR equit* OR inequit*OR marginali* OR 'activity limitation' OR 'partici-  The systematic search was rerun by the study team during January 2022 as the initial search date was more than 6 months from the planned publication date. Results of the additional search have been thoroughly screened for potentially eligible studies.
Some practice-based interventions were not included because they did not meet the strict inclusion criteria for this EGM. However, these have been included under the 'Studies awaiting classification' section of this report. These will be monitored and any emerging reports about these interventions could be included in updates of this EGM.
However, ongoing studies found through research database searches, which are past their registration cut-off date or with uncertainty about their completion, or without sufficient details have not been included.
A sample search statement has been provided (see Supporting Information: Appendix C).

| EGM presentation
In each cell (Figure 3), circles indicate whether evidence is available for intervention (rows) and outcome (columns) intersections. into those which report actual outcomes and those that intend to report outcomes.
Hovering on a cell displays the total number of studies across both confidence categories (pink and blue) Clicking on a cell opens a pop-up box ( Figure 4) that provides additional information about studies in the intervention and outcome intersection.
The following details are included in the pop-up box.
• Total number of studies included for the intervention and outcome intersection • Title of study (with embedded hyperlink to full text journal article or report) • Confidence rating

| Filters for presentation
The EGM also includes filter functionality via two drop-down menus.
Studies displayed in the EGM can be filtered by country ( Figure 5) and intervention ( Figure 6).

| Data extraction and management
The data extraction process involved gathering information about: • The study (document/report) title, year, author(s) • The aim, brief description, content, and length of each intervention/study • The setting (early years, mainstream school, or special school) and country • Target population and sample size • The intended professional development outcomes/and any unintended outcomes • The results/effectiveness data (i.e., information about program effectiveness if provided) At least two reviewers independently extracted data from each study and resolved any differences through consultations. This involved in-depth discussion of the study and the inclusion/exclusion criteria until agreement was reached. Any contextual information about the reason for an intervention or descriptive information about how it had achieved its outcomes were also recorded. The entire data extraction process was managed using MS Excel. See data extraction qualitative designs (Rolfe, 2006;Williams et al., 2020), a quality appraisal using checklists or frameworks could potentially contribute to poor uptake and use of research, even if such research insights have a key role to play in informing evidence-based decision making.
In this context, it should also be noted that the research team attempted to use some of the available quality appraisal tools which seemed to suit the evidence materials found in this EGM (such as the which are more suitable for this purpose (Mader et al., 2022).
Therefore, instead of undertaking a quality appraisal on the individual studies, the research team has provided some guidance for interpreting the status of outcomes depicted on this map, purely based on the differences between studies that reports actual outcomes versus those that only report intended outcomes (see Figure 7). This is to ensure that users of this EGM do not deem all evidence included here to be of equal strength and magnitude. While the intervention discussed in a study may be a good one, but the team wants to emphasise this distinction between studies which collected outcome data and reports that as opposed to those interventions which promise to do many things but has no data available to prove the claims.

| Methods for mapping
The EGM was created using common web development languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript and d3.js. The EGM includes responsive design elements for example, the layout and functionality adapt according to the screen size of the user's device. All included studies and their characteristics (see Table A2) were extracted from the MS Excel file that was used for the data extraction process and uploaded to the ACER server in.csv file format. The interactive, online EGM is hosted on the ACER data visualisation site.

| RESULTS
This

| Excluded studies
The six characteristics of excluded studies are provided below: • Discussion/advocacy papers and policy documents • Does not include any TPD intervention Although this intervention is a good example of a TPD on education for the inclusion of students with a disability, the program was conducted in Turkey which is outside this EGM's area of geographical focus, and therefore was excluded.  (Table 2). A definition for each of these terms used is also included in Table 2. Evidence varies from descriptive program documents that did not include systematic analysis of the extent to which the programs attained their intended outcomes to studies which followed an experimental design with a random allocation to treatment and control groups. Many studies did not report information about the teacher sample size (n = 24) while a few (e.g., Sagun-Ongtangco et al., 2021;Simpson et al., 2016) had very small sample sizes (e.g., 3 teachers).
The EGM also includes studies with varying designs: qualitative (n = 21), quasi-experimental (n = 10), mixed-method (n = 6) and experimental (n = 2). The qualitative studies mainly used observational methods such as interviews, direct observations and focus groups (Table 3). The EGM also includes 11 practice-based studies in which the study design was unclear and thus could not be classified (Table 4).

| Status of outcomes-Intended versus actual
In reference to the discussion in section 'Tools for assessing risk of bias/study quality of included reviews', the differences in reporting of evidence have been explained in Figure 9. In the EGM, this is shown in two colours-'blue' which represents studies that report actual outcomes (n = 41), and 'pink' representing studies where only

| Aggregate map of evidence gaps
The number of studies by intervention and outcome category are presented in Figure 10, this data is split by the status of evidence reporting (i.e., blue bubble depicting actual reporting of outcomes while pink bubble depicts the reporting of intended outcomes only).
The figure shows, that the category 'Disability awareness', and 'Specialised tools, approaches and techniques' are the most frequently found interventions in the included studies. These interventions are mostly focussed on improving the teacher outcomes such as teacher attitudes, pedagogy, and teacher confidence. To a lesser extent, these interventions also aim to provide teachers' strategies to improve student behaviour.
Other notable results from the EGM are the dearth of studies that include student level outcomes. This is most prevalent for TPD intervention categories included under the 'Disabilities and impairments' such as physical, mental health, developmental and sensory focused interventions.
Another key finding includes the lack of interventions that reported outcomes about students' social and emotional learning/wellbeing.

| Intervention setting and location
Around half of the 50 included studies took place in Mainstream schools (24). Early years (8), Special (11) and studies which occurred in Mainstream and Special schools (7) comprised the remaining 26 studies as shown in Table 5.
The distribution of studies by country is shown in Table 6. Of the total of 50 studies from 16 countries, the largest number of studies was found in Thailand (7), followed by China, India, and Vietnam (5 each

| Intervention categories and their intended outcomes
To be included in this EGM, all studies had to demonstrate an intention of impacting teachers' knowledge, attitudes, behaviours, and practice, while a few studies also presented a few expected outcomes for the students -the term intended outcomes is used for these ( intended to improve teacher outcomes, far fewer studies tried to also have an impact on student outcomes (Table 8).
A few studies had multiple intended outcomes for both teachers and students which explains why the mapping of the outcomes according to these categories added up to a larger number of studies than the total of 50 included studies.

| Reporting of study outcomes
Overall, 41 of the included studies report 'actual' program outcomes.
The term 'actual' refers to any changes which were intentional or unintentional that were seen because of the TPD intervention. While a closer look at the reported actual outcomes for the included studies show that 31 studies provide evidence that the included TPDs contribute in some way to improving teachers/educators' attitudes, knowledge and understanding on issues around disability and inclusion.
This category is by far the largest as most interventions for TPD are focused on disability & inclusion awareness. Fifteen studies discuss interventions contributing to improvements in instructional practices in classrooms, while fourteen studies report outcomes for enabling positive student behaviour. Another nine studies reported improvements in teachers' confidence to deliver inclusive approaches and strategies in the classroom. See Table A2 for details on reported outcomes.
However, where studies did report some student-level actual outcomes, these mainly revolved around student's learning or achievement scores, classroom behaviours and engagement in classrooms, and their social and emotional learning or wellbeing.
Some of the key outcomes from the included studies that reports on student-level outcomes are discussed next. Developed social and emotional learning/wellbeing in the students.
Although research indicates that the understanding of social-emotional competencies is linked to greater student well-being and better school performance and the failure to achieve this competence can lead to a variety of personal, social, and academic difficulties (Damon et al., 2006;Durlak et al., 2011;Guerra & Bradshaw, 2008), none of the studies started with an intention towards improving social and emotional learning/wellbeing outcomes of the students. Yet only the study by Sagun-Ongtangco and colleagues (2021)

Number of studies
Attitudes, knowledge, and understanding of education for the inclusion of students with a disability Relates to teachers' attitudes (acceptance, confidence, and self-efficacy) towards students with disabilities and knowledge about and understanding of inclusive practices.

37
Pedagogical changes Focuses on teachers' gaining skills to improve pedagogical practice for the purpose of improving inclusive practices and educational outcomes for children with disabilities.

30
Enabling positive student behaviour Enables teachers to develop strategies to manage behaviour issues more effectively among students with disabilities.

25
Confidence and efficacy to implement inclusion Relates to teachers' confidence, and self-efficacy for implementing disability inclusive approaches/strategies. 29 the students after the intervention in terms of their self-perceptions and social awareness, but the scope of the impact was unclear.

| Summary of main results
The EGM also revealed that a significant number of programs focus on teacher attitudes and understanding of disability. This is quite understandable as many of the countries in the region have only recently started to move towards inclusive education whereby changing teacher attitude and understanding of disabilities is the foundational step. Similarly, this EGM could not identify evidence related to TPD that cover learning assessments for SWDthat is the methods and accommodations required to enable the participation of SWD in assessments. It validates the concern raised by prior research (Chakraborty et al., 2019).
Evidence on interventions which support teachers in the use and application of assistive devices is also needed. A critical aspect of teaching students with disabilities and complex needs relates to augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for students who use technological devices for communication. Professional learning for teachers to support these kinds of technology use is vital for inclusion of SWD, some of whom may be non-verbal. As TPD aimed at the inclusion of students with a disability is regarded as having a positive influence on teacher attitudes and knowledge regarding inclusion and children with disabilities to improve student outcomes in line with previous research (Savolainen et al., 2020;Van Mieghem et al., 2020), most of the identified TPD interventions focused primarily on teacher attitudes, awareness and understanding of disability, pedagogies, and confidence building rather than, for example, enabling positive student behaviour.

| Areas of major gaps in the evidence
Nevertheless, a few studies covered TPD interventions that aimed to improve the learning outcomes for SWD.
Moreover, none of the studies included in this EGM covered TPD programs designed to support children with disabilities during emergencies/crisis situations, which should be a key focus particularly in light of the current global events such as during pandemics and environmental disasters (Svalina & Ivić, 2020;Tlili et al., 2021).
Furthermore, not one TPD program could be identified that covered training around learning assessments for students with disabilities, such as using different assessment methods and/or special accommodations required to ensure that SWD can participate in learning assessments. This is key gap as assessment for SWD has already been earmarked as being critical for evaluating the learning outcomes of SWD (Chakraborty et al., 2019).
Another key finding was that while numerous research studies demonstrate the importance of Social Emotional Learning In terms of the applicability of these findings, in recent times there has been substantial reform efforts across education sectors in LMICs in the Asia-Pacific region, in line with Article 24 which is T A B L E 8 Categories of included studies by intended outcomes-Student level

Intended outcomes Description Number of studies
Learning and achievement Results in positive learning and achievement outcomes for the students. 4 Behaviour and engagement Changes in students' behaviour and engagement. 3

Social and emotional learning/ wellbeing
Changes to the way students thinks of/feels about themself and of others (their peers), leading to changes in self-esteem, learning capacity and the sense of school-belonging. Yet, as this EGM can attest, not much research has been undertaken into teachers' professional development, readiness, and adaptation as educators for creating inclusive learning experiences for students.

| Potential biases in the mapping process
Eligible studies or evidence were restricted to those published from

| Strengths
This EGM provides up-to-date information on interventions for TPD for disability inclusion. It covers 50 studies/papers published between January 2000 and December 2021, of which a majority (n = 29) have been published in the last 5 years. There has not been any other EGM which focuses solely on TPD for disability inclusion. Therefore, this EGM can assist funders and implementing agencies when making decisions as to how to better support LMICs in the Asia-Pacific region to reach the following SDG targets (UNESCO, 2016): • Developing quality teachers for the global inclusive education agenda (SDG 4.c) • By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes (SDG 4.1) • By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations (SDG 4.5).
It is noteworthy that all included studies and reports identified through systematic and wider searches were screened and coded by at least two reviewers, which improves confidence in the evidence synthesis methods.

| Limitations
Although the EGM followed a comprehensive search strategy using predefined eligibility criteria, inevitably there are limitations to our approach.

Research indicates systematic reviews and impact evaluations
which report robust results about program effectiveness and can be viewed as higher quality evidence. However, most of the primary studies and evidence materials included in this EGM are from observational studies and program reports and therefore only a few included effectiveness data.
Some implementation research evidence, or other practice-based program documents were excluded because they did not meet the strict inclusion criteria for this EGM. We have referred to these in the section 'Studies awaiting classification'. These need to be reviewed in the future and any emerging reports about these interventions could be included in future EGM's.
Focusing on low-and middle-income countries also meant that evidence from programs being undertaken in high income education systems such as Singapore, Hong-Kong, New Zealand, and Australia were excluded. The aim of this review is to capture the scenario and evidence gaps in LMICs in the Asia-Pacific region to encourage further uptake of interventions and research in these countries.

| Stakeholder engagement throughout the EGM process
The EGM is also unique in its participatory approach in protocol development involving key regional development partners and implementing agencies, such as DFAT and CBM, as well as several rounds of feedback from regional research organisations that operate in this space, for e.g., the Research in Inclusive & Specialised Education (RISE).

| Implications for research, practice and/or policy
For any educational setting to be effective in including all children efforts must include partnerships with and involvement from teachers, staff, parents, and the school community.
Education in the Asia-Pacific is undergoing a transformation from segregation to integration to inclusion. In such a situation, teachers in special education schools have the potential to support mainstream teachers for adopting inclusive practices.
'In a dual system, special schools often provide additional support in the transition of students with disabilities from segregated to general schools' (Chakraborty et al., 2019).
In a majority of LMICs, teachers may not be part of a training program or apply inclusive instructional methods, which is further amplified by large differences in nation-wide standards for teacher training from country to country (Hayes & Bulat, 2017).
Evidence from this EGM can help policymakers dive deeper into the TPD interventions in this area and understand how these types of professional learning for teachers can contribute to changes in teacher attitudes and knowledge about inclusion and children with disabilities, and ultimately influence student-level outcomes. However, more rigorous program evaluation and impact measurement is needed to understand the full extent of impact of disability inclusive TPD on the outcomes for children with disabilities.
The lack of evidence regarding in-service TPD for supporting children with disabilities during emergencies also indicates the need for policymakers to quickly focus on developing interventions for such events. This particularly applies given the added challenges for children with disabilities during the recent pandemic, which are expected to take more children out of schools than ever before (McClain-Nhlapo, 2020). The effects of this interruption to children's schooling will need to be considered on top of any other disaster risks the countries in the region face frequently.
Several implications of this EGM are discussed as follows: • More primary research in LMICs in the Asia-Pacific region is required around TPD interventions aimed at education for the inclusion of students with a disability. Experimental studies involving some form of pre-post-test or intervention-control group design, which are more valuable for evaluating the effectiveness of programs in terms of their desired outcomes, are needed to ensure higher confidence in the evidence collected.
•  Lietz was a co-author of several systematic reviews (Best et al., 2013;Lietz et al., 2017) and meta-analyses (Lietz, 2006) demonstrating her expertise with these methods. Ms. Chakraborty (Chakraborty et al., 2019) has recently contributed to a NEQMAP review on assessments for students with disabilities in the Asia-Pacific region. Dr. Armstrong, who leads pre-service teacher education about inclusion and disability, at RMIT University, Melbourne has contributed extensively to the field (Armstrong, 2018;Armstrong & Armstrong, 2021;Armstrong et al., 2015).

He provides expert advice to Amnesty International, Parliamentary
Inquiries in Australia and to other key stakeholders about enabling educational inclusion and reducing the exclusion of students with disabilities.

PLANS FOR UPDATING THE EGM
Ms. Ahmed will be responsible for updating this EGM every 5 years, subject to funding availability from the GEM Centre.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
The authors declare no conflict of interest.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PROTOCOL AND REVIEW
The intervention outcome framework from the protocol 2 has been revised slightly to reflect the findings. The intervention category 'multiple impairments and complex needs' was taken out in the final EGM framework; this was defined in the protocol as: A more complex form of disability is when an individual has multiple impairments and complex needs that is, when two or more conditions simultaneously impact a person's ability to live their life independently. There could be any combination of disabilities impacting someone, for instance a sensory and a physical impairment which causes unique learning needs that cannot be accommodated in a special education setting designed for a specific disorder (AIHW, 2009). There could also be increased complexities from negative attitudes, stereotyping or prejudice by others.
However, teaching students with complex needs was not mentioned by any of the studies captured for this review. Therefore, we have taken this out from our final EGM framework. Instead, we have added a new category under the special interests called 'disability awareness' as many interventions included modules/ content focused on knowledge about education for the inclusion of students with a disability and intended to create awareness and understanding around the topic.
Some practice-based interventions were not included because they did not meet the strict inclusion criteria for this EGM.
However, these have been included under the 'Studies awaiting classification' section of this report. These will be monitored and any emerging reports about these interventions could be included in future EGM's.
Also, while the original plan was to clearly distinguish where evidence is practice-based or emerging from ongoing interventions that are selected from grey literature and match the inclusion criteria for this EGM, we decided that this information was better placed in this report. The EGM only shows the status of outcomes reported in two colours-pink and blue-where pink shows that a study that describes an intervention's intended outcomes without providing sufficient evidence of what has been achieved, and blue represents evidence that provide actual results from the interventions. However, not all the actual results can be deemed to be of equal strength/ confidence as some studies followed rigorous study designs (such as RCTs, QEs and impact evaluations) and reported effectiveness data from the program. Others merely discussed the teachers' perceptions of improvements or talked about observed changes, from before and after-the interventions. Malaysia: National report on the provision of inclusive quality primary and junior secondary education for children with disabilities. https:// unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000186838?posInSet=1& queryId=888a60e3-84eb-44a4-a7fc-9c3c88422d9e UNESCO Office Bangkok and Regional Bureau for Education in Asia and the Pacific. au/about-us/about-disability/types-of-disabilities/types-ofsensory-disabilities/ Aruma (2019b). Types of sensory disabilities. https://www.aruma.com.au/ about-us/about-disability/types-of-disabilities/types-of-physicaldisabilities/; https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/fiji-aqep-6-monthly-progress-report-jan-15-jun-15.pdf Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW ECCD and elementary school teachers' testimonies revealed that they benefited from KASALI project. It aided teachers in applying IE instructional strategies efficiently, including teacher's awareness of cultivating learner self-esteem, and greater confidence in one's capacity.

Students with disabilities
Learning and achievement Results in positive learning and achievement outcomes for the students Professional Learning Program for Enhancing the Competency of Students with Special Needs. Trained teachers to support children with ASD and learning disabilities which led to improvements in students' reading, spelling and mathematics. Kantavong, P., & Sivabaedya, S. (2010). A professional learning program for enhancing the competency of students with special needs. International Journal of Whole Schooling, 6(1), 53-62.

APPENDIX A SUMMARY OF FINDINGS TABLES
The outcome categories for the EGM framework are featured in Table A1. The table defines each of the outcome categories and provides examples for studies that will be included in the proposed EGM.

Intended outcomes Description Examples
Behaviour and engagement Changes in students' behaviour and engagement Professional Development and Learning by General Teachers Implementing Functional Behavioural Assessment in Thai Inclusive Classrooms. The PD decreased teachers' aversive approaches and some of them included more preventative and positive approaches with the target students, which in turn led to a decrease in the inappropriate behaviours of the target students during and after the program. Opartkiattikul et al. (2015). Professional development and learning by general teachers implementing functional behavioural assessment in Thai inclusive classrooms. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 6(5), 545-564.

Social and emotional learning/ wellbeing
Changes to the way students thinks of/feels about themself and of others (their peers), leading to changes in self-esteem, learning capacity and the sense of school-belonging