Inclusive classroom - Course overview

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Teacher Training Courses

The primary school classroom – effective teaching approaches for an inclusive classroom through NFE tools and resources

COURSE OVERVIEW

Every individual is unique, equally worthy and has the right to education. The inclusive classroom meets everybody’s needs and respects the students’ right to live according to their beliefs, customs, practices and established behavior rules. The Inclusive Classroom respects diversity and student engagement and agency. The teacher in the Inclusive Classroom has the 3Hs - the heart (commitment), the head (critical knowledge) and hands (practical strategies). Globalization and migration have brought together people from different ethnic origins, religious backgrounds, beliefs, traditions and languages. However, sharing a common space does not automatically result in overcoming the boundaries of historically constituted communities; it does not necessarily involve opening yourself to diversity, trying to understand differences, valuing diversity and building common grounds for dialogue. But we live together and we should not only tolerate this diversity, we should value it as an opportunity through which we can learn from one another in order to build stronger, more dynamic societies. Children’s rights, diversity, tolerance, empathy, non-violence related issues and non-formal education (NFE) teaching approaches have become even more important considering the diversity of our societies resulting from the migration flows in recent years and the long periods of distance learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Schooling could play a key role in overcoming the historically developed negative attitudes to human differences and the lack of life communication and citizenship skills resulting from distance learning. The realization of this role suggests that teachers have the relevant knowledge, skills and tools.

This 7-day course will empower primary school teachers with the skills and knowledge how to organize relevant training sessions for their students so that the teaching process meets everybody’s needs. Students will become more open-minded and acquire active citizenship skills. The course is the result of an Erasmus+ partnerships - cross-sectoral school education project Young Learners Embrace Social Inclusion and Social Involvement (YESI). The partners - Prosveta-Sofia Foundation, IP Santarem – Portugal and AENAO – Greece, developed a Teachers’ Toolkit comprising 38 training resources distributed in 3 modules: Children’s Rights - Human rights, Diversity and Social Inclusion, and Active Citizenship and Social Involvement. Participants in the training course will have free-access to the ready-to-use training materials. Each topic is accompanied by a number of multimedia objects, e.g. animated cartoons, video clips, filmed drama performances and discussions, simulations, case studies as basis for discussions, interactive e-games, etc. Multimedia objects are ready-to-use materials meant to support teachers' work as mediators in the trainings. The multimedia resources are described with the corresponding characteristics as learning objects in the Toolkit.

After participating in the training course participants will be supported in the practical implementation of the newly acquired skills and competences. They are expected to deliver trainings to their students using the topics in the Teachers’ Toolkit which they will be taught how to use. We will provide mentors for all teachers who will be at the participants’ disposal during a 6-month-period after the training course.

MAIN OBJECTIVES

The course aims to support teachers in:

1. Getting deeper in the specifics of the Inclusive Classroom’s major characteristics.
2. Learning what the 3 Hs of the inclusive teacher are.
3. Getting the knowledge of basics in Children’s Rights, Diversity and Involvement education through the topics in the Teachers' Toolkit.
4. Mastering skills which will enable them to discuss with their students questions on existing notions of human differences in modern society and run relevant activities choosing from the ones suggested in the Teachers’ Toolkit considering the local context.
5. Getting to know non-formal education teaching approaches and start using them not only in the suggested civic education trainings but also in the routine teaching process.
6. Responsibly accepting a code of behaviour so that all their actions and interactions bear respect to students’ individuality by participating in the course training sessions together with a diverse group of European teachers.
7. Learn more about the challenges Portuguese teachers have faced regarding the use of the Teachers’ Toolkit through the planned sessions with the involvement of Portuguese teachers who have piloted the training topics.
8. Learn how to work in international teams through the group and pair activities.