After detailed analysis of learning achievements of pupils with special needs and the analysis of potential solutions for managing the problem of low learning achievements and early school leaving with pupils with special needs, the most innovative and interesting strategy was the use of Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) in educational processes, which has proven to be very effective in raising pupils´ interest, motivation, cognitive and learning abilities, especially with pupils with special needs. The main objectives of the project are to develop an innovative approach for teachers and provide a more attractive education. This will be achieved by development of a guideline for teachers about how to use AAT in their curriculum and in their classrooms. The project will create new or improved practices to cater for the needs of disadvantaged group – pupils with special needs. Another objective is to train the members of the teaching staff how to use AAT in their curriculum programme and make them more skilled and prepared to integrate good practices and new methods into their daily activities and to support schools, teacher and pupils with special needs in the field of early school leaving. At the same time the teachers and others involved in the project will benefit from the linguistic and cultural diversity. The project involves 10 organizations from 8 different countries. The coordinator, an adult educational centre, was chosen because of its experience in coordinating and disseminations in national and international projects. ELISTA organization was chosen for the project because it is one of the rare institutions in Europe that offers AAT trainings and will offer its expertise on this subject throughout the project. The project focuses on teachers and on their use of AAT in classrooms on regular basis. We especially focused on teachers who deal with special need students and therefore we included five organizations with education for special needs students and three regular primary schools that have an increasing number of pupils with special needs. Through the project we will carry out various activities to reach the final output of the project – the guideline. The members of teaching staff will undergo theoretical and practical training in the field of using AAT in classrooms on regular basis. During the project they will work together with local volunteer organizations, which deal with AAT and will be trying out AAT method in the classrooms. During this they will keep detailed records, opinions and suggestions, which will be gathered by the coordinator. At the same time there will be activities carried out for the children in order to test reactions of children to animals. On the basis of all the experience in the project, partners will develop the final guideline for teachers on how to use AAT in classrooms. During the process of testing the guideline we will use the method of experimenting, method of problem solving will be used in cases of reports about occurring problems from the teachers, which will probably occur through testing, but will be solved by the project team. During the practical training and afterwards during the work done together with the local AAT organizations, we will use the method of demonstration, because the AAT experts will be demonstrating good practices to the participants and all through the project the project participants will use discussion techniques to manage the project and come to results. The main result of the project will be a final guideline for teachers about how to use Animal Assisted Therapy in classrooms. Among other we wish to encourage and educate members of teaching staff to use this method for the benefit of children and in this way raise their motivations for learning and at the same time raise their level of learning achievements. The impacts of the project are to improve participants´ knowledge of foreign languages, to gain a broader understanding of practices, politics and systems in the field of education and training, better understanding of social, language and cultural diversities and reactions to them, a more positive attitude towards European projects and values of the EU, to give participants a better understanding that it is not only the formal education is the one that is important for their further education and trainings, a strengthen motivation and contentment at their everyday work, to upgrade their yearly curriculum and educational plan with an innovative AAT method, a better understanding of different educational programmes in the special need education and general education in Europe, to raise their awareness of the beneficial effects of AAT in education. The organizations have already made plans how to continue with the AAT after the project finishes and they all made plans how to integrate project results into their regular segment of activities which will improve their educational offer and improve quality of services they offer.
SWOT analysis of learning achievements of pupils with special needs and the research carried out by the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education (EASNIE) have shown that the learning outcomes of pupils with special needs are very low and that there is a decreasing number of learners with special educational needs enrolled in higher levels of education. The aim of the project was to find an effective way which would raise the learning outcomes of special need students and analysis done by the Slovenian coordinator, Ljudska univerza Rogaška Slatina, found significant benefits of using animals in the educational process, due to animal’s beneficial effects on people during the learning process, especially with people with special needs. Further researches showed that integration of animals into schools is still very rare or not used at all, especially not on regular basis. Therefore, the main goal of the project was set: to develop a guideline about integration of animals into educational programme and classes on regular basis for teachers and other interested individuals, who would like to make learning more interesting for their students or their children. At the same time, during the project teachers were trained in the field of conducting useful lessons with animals and transfer their knowledge, gained in the project, among their colleagues. Project also involved activities for children, in order to educate them about animals and get them familiar with various animals. Although the focus was on children with special needs, the project involved also children who visit regular schools and do not have any special disabilities, because there was a big interest in these kind of activities. In general, the objectives of the project were: - to develop an innovative approach for teachers and provide a more attractive education which was achieved by development of a guideline for teachers about animal integration in school curriculum; to create new or improved practices to cater for the needs of disadvantaged groups; to train the members of the teaching staff how to use animals in their curriculum and make them more skilled and prepared to integrate good practices and new methods into their daily activities; participating schools were able to create a link and develop cooperation among local organizations, dealing with activities with animals, which has opened synergies with organisations active in different fields; the members of teaching staff were strengthening their profiles of the teaching professions and were able to deliver high quality teaching and adopt new methods and tools; another objective was to support schools, teacher and pupils with special needs in the field of early school leaving and the beneficial effects of animal integration in the educational programme have shown improvement in the learning achievements of involved students, which will help raise the educational level of pupils with special needs. The parents were also invited to various project activities to achieve better collaboration among schools and parents. The teachers and others involved in the project have also benefit from the linguistic and cultural diversity. This project was also a great opportunity for organizations from different countries to compare and exchange good practices and educational systems, especially in the field of special need education. The project involved ten organizations from 8 different countries. The coordinator was a Slovenian adult educational centre and partners were 4 educational organizations for special need students from Greece, Croatia, Slovenia and Turkey, 4 primary schools with regular programmes but increasing number of special need students from Slovenia, Hungary, Poland and Romania and an organization from Ireland, which deals with education and trainings in the field of animals. During the project various activities were carried out. One group of activities were intended for teachers and helped them learn about ways to integrate animals into educational programme, how to try out various activities with animals in classrooms and to give feedbacks and analysis which were needed for the final intellectual output of the project - guideline for animal integration in the educational programme. The other group of activities were developed for children to connect them with animals better, see their responses during interactions with certain animals and teach them about the value of animals. During the project various evaluations were made by teachers involved and internal project teams. They showed severe increase in motivation, interest and success in learning with most of the children involved in activities with animals. Therefore, most of the schools involved started buying their own animals or involve animals from school staff members into their regular school activities, which has ensured a continuation of activities with animals after the project finishes.