The 5 day course which I took part in proved to be beneficial both professionally and culturally. The course provider was Plus Project and I should say that they made sure we have all the necessary information from before our travel. They already sent out the whole program and more through email, set up a Whatsapp group for easier communication and they were ready to help and answer our questions whenever needed. The course was called Inclusive Education – Increase participation in learning of student with different backgrounds which was delivered by our Spanish trainer, Sara, who warmly welcomed us and introduced herself as a professional psychologist. Participants included an elementary teacher from France and 2 secondary school teachers from Czech Republic.

On the first day, Carlos made sure he had all the documents that were needed to be signed to share with the course manager Ezgi. I had the opportunity to develop practical strategies in offering a high-quality education to all students including those most vulnerable or at risk of exclusion, marginalization, or school failure. I learned to have a tailored approach in my teaching to the individual specific educational needs of each child, without losing sight of the common educational framework. The mobility helped me to be more aware of the different types of special needs that teens today can have. Gaining this awareness is the first step in first identifiying and recognizing their needs and then planning on how to tackle the problem from the beginning.

On the second day, the participants introduced their schools and talked about the school systems in their countries and then we checked the history of inclusive education in each of our contries and realized that this issue is quite new and there is no school that is doing great in this area. It is way early in its development, so we will need long years until we educate generations that will finally reach to a perfect scenario of inclusive education. I learned that for gifted students who find the material taught too easy in contrast of others, they need to be given more creative work to do instead of just more work. Another idea was that in a classroom we can have different corners like the science corner so students can have more mobilty and interactions. The method of shared-concern (or Pikas method) was new to me which is a punitive multi-stage strategy that addresses group bullying through the use of a series of interviews and discussions with the parties involved.

During the course, different challenges of today’s educational systems were introduced which widened my awareness of different needs. In an inclusive education, we saw the difference with equality and equity and each one shared their personal experiences. We learned how to be inclusive about emotions and saw ways to facilitate children to share their concerns and emotions. I am more aware of mental health conditions, disabilities and illnesses that can be found in some children, and we got some recommendations on how to deal with them. We saw the importance of a respectful environment for education and the need of family-school cooperation. For a better coexistence, we had some activities about sexuality, gender, migration and cultural issues about which we were sent a resource which I will definitely read. A key to tackle many issues is to work hand in hand together all colleagues and even parents in many cases. Many exercises were about realizing one’s self and to self reflect including listing down 10 things what makes you get angry from the least to the top of the list.

Another exercise was about writing down what we can control in our lives and what we cannot and I think this can be very useful for students who need to understand themselves and help them not to feel too anxious about their problems. Another exercise that involved self reflection was to list things that people easily see on us and some other things that they need time to notice or till we tell them.Finally, discussions about future cooperation especially with the teachers from the Czech Republic and follow up activities were made along with exchanging contact information and receiving our certificates.

This mobility was funded by the European Commission.

The information presented here does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.

Written by: Harout Parseghian

10. Aug. 2024