Heading for Inclusive School in Europe: an Erasmus+ project that responds to real training needs

AN
UNFILLED
NEED

The project entitled “Heading for Inclusive School in Europe” was born from the widely shared observation that teacher training was too often unsuited to pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN), whereas the means used to meet the challenge of inclusion, while important, were inefficient due to a lack of synergy between education stakeholders and the medico-social sector.

KNOW-HOW
TO BE
EXPLOITED

However, throughout Europe or elsewhere, initiatives or experiments showed that satisfactory outcomes could be achieved by using differentiated pedagogies, an interdisciplinary approach to learning and the close cooperation between professionals in charge of disability. It seemed therefore obvious that identifying and exploiting these good practices could provide a basis for improving teachers training course.

AN ERASMUS+ PROJECT
TO EXPLOIT KNOW-HOW
AND CREATE EDUCATIONAL TOOLS

To this end, 10 partners in 7 European countries were brought together according to criteria of motivation, complementarity and diversity, in order to develop a training module suited to teachers hosting SEN children in their classes.

This partnership brings together associations working in the field of disability, teacher training organizations, primary and secondary schools. All these structures are involved at various levels in inclusive education.

A methodology that combines research, creativity and optimization of human resources

The followed methodology is divided into 3 phases:

Phase 1: Module Base Development

Collection of 100 research summary sheets designed to identify good practices according to predefined themes (horizontal activities)
Exploitation of these sheets through 5 workshops in order to classify them into 5 groups and give them coherence (vertical activities)
•Development of the base of the training module, based on the exploitation of the research summary sheets and the resulting definition of teacher training needs

Phase 2: Development of module contents – the D.R.E. method - by 3 workshops replacing the previous 5

Workshop D for Defining inclusion and its upper and lower limits
• Workshop R for Reassuring SEN pupils, teachers and the rest of the class in order to create a serene atmosphere conducive to learning
• Workshop E for Educating and Evaluating: it aims at proposing alternative methods both for the acquisition of learning contents and for the assessment of skills and progress targets, in order to best meet the specific needs of these pupils.

This training module will be supported by a file of 100 worksheets tailored to the target audience and children with learning difficulties. These sheets will be related to the programs of the institutions..

These first two phases will be concluded with 4 productions:

A training module: the D.R.E method, which will be available on this website by April 2019 at the latest
100 pedagogical worksheets, available for download on this site
100 resource sheets which will be used to support the teaching worksheets and illustrate the module
• A collection of good practices, available for download online

Everything will be published in the 6 languages of the partnership and in English.

Phase 3: Impacts, dissemination of productions and sustainability

Our productions and outcomes will mainly impact:

The target audience (SEN pupils), who will be offered teaching and assessment methods adjusted to their specificity. We can therefore expect a lower vulnerability to discouragement and an increased interest in learning
Teachers who welcome these children: getting appropriate pedagogical tools to meet the challenge of inclusion is likely to reassure the teacher on his own skills, enhance his personal image and thus increase his self-confidence. An improvement in its educational performance is therefore expected
The educational team: promoting teamwork is likely to instill a synergy between professionals. A better assessment of these pupils' cognitive abilities and skills, as well as a better adjusted improvement plan, could result from this cooperation.
Pupils in classes accommodating SEN children: learning tolerance and respecting differences will be part of the recommendations of our method. Impregnated with these principles, these pupils will be better equipped to resist the temptations of xenophobia and racism that our societies suffer
Participating organizations: having an easily usable tool will enable them to meet currently unmet needs, thus improving the effectiveness of these organizations' actions while increasing their reputation. An opening towards Europe is also expected in the wake of the internationalization of these institutions

The sustainability of the outcomes will be ensured by maintaining the website at the end of the project. A call for voluntary participation will be launched on the site to continue supplying it with educational sheets throughout its audience area.