Summaries of group presentations – Melike Ҫetin

“Amigos del Football”
Our topic was “Inclusive schools”. According to UNESCO the main aim of inclusion is to provide more effective educational responses for all children and the overall trend is to make these responses within the context of general educational provision. Inclusive schools are defined by the development and design of schools, classrooms, programs and activities so that all students with different abilities learn and participate together. Gordon Porter, a director of inclusive education, is for equity and quality in inclusive education systems. For him, it’s important to use the current resources effective. Tony Both explains in his Index for Inclusion to build supportive communities and foster high achievement for the educational/ pedagogical staff and students. Mel Ainscow says that inclusion is a process, so it has to be seen as a never-ending search to find ways of responding diversity. But there are also barriers and challenges which schools are facing nowadays. One of these barriers is the policy. Schools and the government have to work together to implement inclusion in schools. The government has to support schools with the needs and also with laws to ensure that inclusion has to work on every school. Another challenge is the diversity itself. A teacher can’t teach in a class of 27-30 children where 10 percent of them are disabled. It could be difficult to give answer to all the student’s needs, so that’s why the government has to support schools with resources like a second teacher in a class or a social worker. The last barrier is the didactics. Most of the teachers don’t have the qualification or training to educate disabled children. Here, it is important to get support from the side of the school and also from the education authority. But the main barrier it’s up to the teacher self. If the teacher is not willing to work with disabled children or not even to try to get a qualification for t, inclusion – on the scale of teaching – will not work. So it is important to built communities and establish inclusive values for creating an inclusive culture. Also, the policy has to organize support for diversity and mobilize resources.

“Crónicas Viajeras”
The topic of this group was “ICT and learning disabilities”. They presented a conceptual map based on three disability groups and gave technology examples to handle with them in school. The first disability was autism. It’s a complex and diverse neurological disorder which affects the development of social interaction, communication and behavioral repertoire. By using for examples tablets or games, it is possible to integrate children with this disability in class and lesson. The second disability was the Down syndrome. This is a genetic disorder caused by a chromosomal abnormality. In the genetic material, the chromosome 21 doesn’t exist twice, but three times (trisomy). By this, people with Down syndrome have morphological changes and functional defects. To include children with Down syndrome in school, it’s possible to use for example whiteboards or cameras to support the memory aid and the concentration due to the lack of concentrativeness. The last disability they presented was the motor or physical disability. A disruption of motor skills means a crucial impairment to children. This disability restricts not only the movement and scope, it also inhibits the social activities, affects the self-esteem and self-confidence and may adversely affects other areas of personality. Here, the use of computers may help these children by supporting adaption in class or communicating with other children.

“Team Perk”
The topic of this group was “ICT and school improvement”. A lot of people believe that children learn better in school by using ICT which means “information and communication technology”. But many teachers struggle to provide ICT to their students. It’s not about the hardware which schools offer; it’s more about how to use ICT smartly in class to improve the learning process. Teachers are afraid to use new technologies in class but it’s necessary to give answer of student’s needs. Children nowadays grow up with digital hardware, they are digital native. It has many advantages to use ICT in class, e.g. there will be no need for books or you can teach a complex content in class by using ICT. The first step is to introduce these new technologies and their methodology in university to future teachers, so they can apply their knowledge about this in class.

“Modern Students”
The Modern Students had a presentation about the “Ways of living together in school” which they divided in three parts and showed on an example. The first part is the school mediation. A mediator can be a pupil, teacher or non-teaching staff and they help against violence or bullying by preventive and repair strategies. The other part is the program to support peers by achieving the objective of fostering collaboration and improving coexistence. The last part is the archaeology of feeling in school. Here, using archaeology as a metaphor you can improve the atmosphere at school or in class by following 5 steps to investigate them before. The group showed us the example of the KIVA International School which is offering a research-based anti-bullying program to help the children in school who have problems with other peers.

“Unknowns”
The topic of the Unknowns was “inclusive schools”. They didn’t focus on the 4 authors like we did; they focused on the main ideas of inclusive schools. Their man ideas of inclusive schools are that every child, disabled or not, has a right to participate on education progresses. Also inclusive schools show ways to live together and are linked to multicultural education. Besides the inclusion of every child in class, another objective is to offer equal opportunities and to promote democracy and justice. The benefits of inclusive schools are to learn about diversity in life and that actually society is composed of diversity.

“Wanderlust”
The topic of this group was “Social and emotional learning”. Social and emotional learning is only possible on the basis of emotional competence and age-appropriate development of the child's personality. Emotional competence can be seen in the ability to perceive the own feelings and deal appropriately with them. On this basis, social perception and empathy can develop. Social learning proceeds in an interaction peers. Children must be able to adapt to individual peers and the whole group, to develop their own positions and draw up a control and storage system in dealing with each other. The main aims of the social-emotional learning are self-perception and control, sensitivity, communication skills, cooperativeness, rule consciousness, tolerance and conflict solving skills. The teacher can help to promote social and emotional learning by develop empathic skills, emotional stimulation or to create a learn-supportive environment.

“Dumbledore Teachers Army”
The topic of this group was “leadership & school effectiveness”. School leaders are improving and promoting school effectiveness. A leadership for a school is important because he/she formulates long-term goals and plans strategies and approaches how to reach it. Also a school leadership is a contact point for teachers, parents and pupils. A good school leadership has high expectations and is motivated to fulfill them. Also, leaderships should be ambitious of pupils success by promoting the staff to be/work professional. A leadership should also be an expert of assessment and self-aware to develop strategies for improvement.

All in all, the strategies and techniques which we have presented show us the possibility we can use in school by implementing them. Nowadays, technology is something which children grow up with. If you want to support your pupils learning progress, you have to tie on their interests, and technology can one opportunity you can start with. It also could give access and confidence to do what children want and to enjoy the (school) life. Inclusion doesn’t have to be seen as a challenge in all because there are strategies to deal or to handle with it. Diversity in it’s could be a change to socialize the children and to show them that life is characterized by diversity.
I’ve learnt a lot of things by all these presentation which were prepared very well! For me, I’ll take all the information as an impulse to regard and implement them in my teacher training.