The overall objective of the IP is to develop both teaching and study materials for higher educational institutions (HEIs) with an aim of reinforcing academic, professional, and social competencies of the participating teaching staff and students. In addition, it is ought to develop a common module in teacher education for working with inclusive education in schools and other educational settings for children, in order to form a cohesive entity in terms of higher education and innovation.
In the third round of IP, it is aimed to work towards a number of factors that
lead to good practices of successful inclusive education and which are the
sub-topics of the IP:
- Well-being of each child with the relevance to his/her future life in society;
- Differentiation in school and classroom with the purpose of having an outset
of learning in a single child in the context of the class group;
- Extended co-operation between school and parents as a preeminent factor in the
foundation of the awareness of shared responsibility in regards to propitious
development of the child;
- Participation of and coordination with other teachers, professionals, and
support staff;
- Analysis of current research conducted in inclusive education as a source of
information on the up-to-date issues on the topic.
The hosting HEI of TEACHWISE 2011 is the Polytechnic Insitute of Guarda, Superior School of Education, Communication and Sport. IP will be mplemented jointly by seven HEIs altogether (see Section "Partners").
In TEACHWISE 2011, the emphasis is on the issue of ‘good practice’—social, cultural, pedagogical, didactical—that namely should be understood as ‘inclusive practice’. The topic needs to be mainly recognised as how to develop educational processes (at all educational levels), combining the aspect of both academic and personal development with reference to the issue of social inclusion.
The structure of the IP consists of lectures, workshops and didactical reflective dialogues on inclusive practice. These three will be the elements of the final product(-s). Thus, the overall goal of the third round of “Teacher Education for Working With Inclusive Education in School” is to develop eight concrete descriptions of ‘good practice’. We aim to deliver these specific examples of inclusive practice to the broader society as valuable materials that can be used not only in the participating HEIs, but also in other educational institutions working with issues of (social) inclusion. All the materials will be available for public on the IP webpage: http://www.teachwise.liepu.lv/2011.
To ensure active approach to the contents of IP, e-learning and learner-centered teaching methods will be applied, taking into account that each and every participant of IP is a potential learner.
Day to day presentations and workshops:
1. Countries presentation guidelines:
a. Students present a participant country – randomly assigned;
b. Duration 30 minutes;
c. Referring to Geography, Politics, language, Culture, national school system;
d. Activating the audience during the presentation.
2. Workshops:
a. Teachers conduct the workshops: one per country/day for all the students, divided by multinational groups;
b. Short lecture introducing the topic of and the teaching practice program [the workshop] – presenting the objectives & the theoretical or practice experience backgrounds.
c. The workshops must be exemplary practice programs on either inclusive teaching or teaching practices that develop needed competences/experiences for an inclusive good practice;
d. After the workshop, students produce a report that:
i. Evaluates the objectives completion of the workshop;
ii. Describes their own learning outcomes;
iii. Presents perspectives for implementing programs of inclusive education good practices.
Conference products:
1. Teaching and Learning programs for inclusive education;
2. Reports of students´ learning outcomes and perspectives for implementing the programs of inclusive education good practices;
3. A photographic report of the workshop process.