The project continues the idea of inclusive education development in the system of general education of European countries. The conducted scientific research revealed that all the European countries seek to establish inclusive education systems and to ensure equal opportunities for each learner to experience learning success. In some countries there are schools applying systems of inclusive education; however, efforts towards the universal change in educational systems face a complicated inertia of traditional educational systems. The Project team have set a goal to create a Transformative Educational Methodology grounded on Universal Design for Learning, inclusive values, and child’s wellbeing. Having introduced the methodology, teachers will master and apply the didactics that facilitates overcoming oflearning obstacles for each learner, the children’s motivation to learn will grow in the environment of successful education, and the teachers’ attitude towards the diversity of learners will also change. The Project will be implemented by teams from four European countries. Each country has different experience and relevant issues in inclusive education. Finland has achieved high educational results but seeks to further reduce the practice of special education. Austria has introduced universal inclusive education into its system but is facing inclusion issues for immigrants and refugees. Lithuania has been educating more than 80% of SEN children in schools of general education but education differentiation remains one of the areas to be improved the most. Poland has been applying its specific system of inclusive education but aims at increasing its efficiency and universal application in education. The Project team consists of university researchers and general educationschool teachers from four European countries: University of Lapland and Aleksanteri Kena School (Finland), University of Vienna and Stadtschulrat fur Wien School (Austria), Pedagogical University of Cracow and Szkola Podstawowa z Oddzialami Integracyjnymi No. 12 (Poland), Vytautas Magnus University and Balsiai Pro-gymnasium (Lithuania). The Project team (researchers and teachers) will design a Transformative Educational Methodology that promotes development of inclusive education. The school communities participating in the Project activities will introduce the methodology in their schools. The university researchers, conducting the scientific research, will analyse the efficiency of the methodology and will continuously improve it on the basis of research results. Webinars, held during the whole period of Project implementation by the specialists in the Universal Design for Learning from CAST organisation will help to achieve the efficiency of the methodology under development. Participating in the seminars, the school communities and researchers from the universities will reflect on the success of the implementation of Universal Design for Learning every month. The sustainability of the methodology under development will be ensured through the participation of experts, who are globally acknowledged researchers, in the international colloquiums of researchers, which will focus on analysing the research data and improving the Transformative Educational Methodology. Project activities: 1. Short-term reflexive training seminars on conceptualisation of Universal Design for Learning targeted at the Project team. 2. Creation of Transformative Educational Methodology and its implementation in schools. 3. Evaluation of the Transformative Educational Methodology under implementation.
The project continued the idea of inclusive education development in the system of general education of European countries. The conducted scientific research revealed that all the European countries sought to establish inclusive education systems and to ensure equal opportunities for each learner to experience learning success. In some countries there were schools applying systems of inclusive education; however, efforts towards the universal change in educational systems faced a complicated inertia of traditional educational systems. The Project team had set a goal to create a Transformative Educational Methodology based on the Universal Design for Learning, inclusive values, and child’s wellbeing. Having introduced the methodology, teachers would master and apply the didactics that facilitates the overcoming of learning obstacles for each learner, the children’s motivation to learn would grow in the environment of successful education, and the teachers’ attitude towards the diversity of learners would also change. The Project was implemented by teams from four European countries. Each country had a different experience and relevant issues in inclusive education. Finland had achieved high educational results but sought to further reduce the practice of special education. Austria had introduced universal inclusive education into its system but was facing inclusion issues for immigrants and refugees. Lithuania had been educating more than 80% of SEN children in general education schools but education differentiation remained one of the areas to be improved the most. Poland had been applying its specific system of inclusive education but aimed at increasing its efficiency and universal application in education. The Project team consisted of university researchers and general education school teachers from four European countries: University of Lapland and Aleksanteri Kena School (Finland), University of Vienna and Stadtschulrat fur Wien School (Austria), Pedagogical University of Cracow and Szkola Podstawowa z Oddzialami Integracyjnymi No. 12 (Poland), and Vytautas Magnus University and Balsiai Pro-gymnasium (Lithuania). The Project team (researchers and teachers) designed a Transformative Educational Methodology that promotes development of inclusive education. The school communities participating in the Project activities introduced the methodology in their schools. The university researchers, conducting the scientific research, analysed the efficiency of the methodology and continuously improved it on the grounds of the research results. Webinars held during the whole period of Project implementation by the specialists of the Universal Design for Learning from CAST organisation helped to achieve the efficiency of the methodology under development. Participating in seminars, the school communities and researchers from the universities reflected on the success in the implementation of the Universal Design for Learning every month. The sustainability of the methodology under development was ensured through the participation of experts, who are globally acknowledged researchers, in the international researcher colloquiums, which focused on analysing the research data and improving the Transformative Educational Methodology.