‘Various methods towards one goal - Successful Inclusive Education!’ is a two years Strategic Partnership project under Erasmus Plus Programme. Six partners from Poland, Finland, Macedonia, Spain, Greece and Italy decided to start a cooperation on the topic of inclusive education.
The need for such a project raises from following reasons: one in ten young Europeans leave education or training without having the skills and qualifications which are now considered necessary for a successful transition to the labor market and for active participation in today’s society, meaning they risk unemployment, social exclusion and poverty. The 21st century brings new challenges and those challenges need new ways of thinking in education - inclusive education. Making the learning process more flexible could help to prevent early school leaving problem in Europe. It could help to reduce dropping out of basic education, to promote working with action-based and work-oriented methods and provide instruction also in other learning environments. It is very important to strengthen the resilience of our pupils to be ready to face the future. They should be flexible and able to cope with society changing constantly. Besides knowledge, they all need to develop a broad set of competences and ability to cope with change, regardless of their background or their specific educational needs.
The main objectives of the project are: spreading idea of inclusive education among the teachers and the community, learning the methods to use them as tools of the creative, innovative and equal learning process to prevent early school leavers and support disadvantaged pupils, supporting teachers in adopting collaborative and innovative practices and gaining knowledge and skills on methods supporting inclusive education.
The implementation of the project assumes six part training course on different methods of inclusive education. Each partner country will organise a 5-days training on one method which is effective in the learning process of disadvantaged children:
- Poland: Using visual arts in inclusive education
- Spain: Art and creativity as a way to revolutionize the classroom
- Macedonia: Formative assessment as a vehicle of inclusive education
- Finland: Green empowerment as a tool of inclusive education
- Italy: Technology for the inclusive classroom
- Greece: Choreotherapy: a gift to the body and mind!
Participation in those trainings will lead to have a group of well equipped specialist (change agents) in each school. Their task will be to change the attitude towards the importance of inclusive education among community by sharing the knowledge and tools through the workshops for other teachers and stakeholders, meetings with parents and using the methods in daily work with children.
After each training an ‘open lesson’ presenting the elements of the learned method will be organized in each school. It will be available for the headmaster, co-workers (teachers) and parents of the pupils. The aim of 'open lesson' is to present the methods and its use in daily work of teachers but also to start changing the attitudes towards inclusive education.
As a result of this project, a publication will be made. It will promote the idea of inclusive education and help to understand the need of diversity in education. The practical parts of the publication will support teachers and other stakeholders in adopting collaborative and innovative practices.
Direct participants of the activities of the project are the teachers (special needs teachers, supporting teachers, subject teachers, headmasters) from the schools of the partners. They will directly take part in the six trainings provided in the implementation of the project. There will be 4 participants from each partner country taking part in each training. The second group of participants are the pupils of partners' schools. The teachers are going to work with them by using the methods known during the trainings. The main focus will be on pupils at risk of early school leaving and disadvantaged (which includes children with special needs, refugees, migrants, children with different social background). Their participation will be indirect but they are the most important participants of the project. The third group will be other teachers who gain knowledge and skills during the implementation and dissemination of the project. There will be possibility for them to take part in open lessons and in the workshop presenting the selected methods of inclusive education at the end of the project. Parents of the children and other stakeholders will also have a chance to watch presented "open lessons" to understand the idea of inclusive education and its importance in the process of learning. All the activities planned during the implementation of the project will promote the Erasmus Plus Programme and the importance of quality of teaching process.