Inclusion is about belonging: being part of a school, a community. That’s just one of the reasons why true inclusive education can be so powerful. Spurred by human rights declarations, more European students with special educational needs (SEN) are joining mainstream schools. But what can teachers do to best support and teach SEN students, and to create an inclusive learning environment? Join the latest Teacher Academy online course “Supporting Special Educational Needs in Every Classroom”– starting 15 October – to better understand the topic, learn about easy tools, methods and approaches for inclusive classrooms and schools, and discover how to coordinate the work with other general and special education teachers.
More and more teachers in Europe face the challenge of integrating students with special needs in their mainstream classroom. This is partly the outcome of a general trend towards accommodating children with special needs in mainstream education schools rather than in special school settings. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, signed by all EU Member States, articulates the right of students with special needs to be taught in mainstream education. While this trend is a very welcome and necessary move towards a more inclusive Europe, it does provide new challenges to teachers that need to teach more diverse classrooms with more learners with particular needs.
The course provides an introduction to Special Educational Needs (SEN), and helps educators to teach and support SEN students both in- and outside the classroom. It does that by providing a better understanding of the definition, legal basis and identification of special needs education, and showing what easy changes can be implemented in their teaching to make the classroom more inclusive. Concretely, new methods and approaches are provided to intervene and make their teaching more inclusive, engage relevant actors (such as family and the local community) and getting external support if needed.
List of modules
Course Introduction
Module 1: Introduction to Special Education
Module 2: Teaching children with SEN in the classroom
Module 3: Teaching children with SEN beyond the classroom
Module 4: SEN case studies & Final Activity
