Learning disability is a term used to describe the difficulty in such skills as writing, reading, arithmetic operation, speaking, and reasoning and this problem is widespread worldwide and observed usually in school years. The most commonly encountered learning disabilities in the literature could be stated as Dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia. On the other hand, the number of projects on dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and learning disabilities is only 80 among about 15 thousands projects supported by the Erasmus+ program between 2014 and 2018. For this reason, it could be argued that the projects on learning disabilities are quite limited. The report by the World Health Organization reported that the number of educators is inadequate to meet the educational needs of the students with learning disabilities. Considering that reading and writing skills are developed in the first year of primary schools, it is particularly expected that primary school teachers are likely to encounter with students with learning disabilities compared with the teachers from other fields. Therefore, the most significant actors in recognizing these students are primary school teachers. Whereas, it is highly required to early diagnose learning disabilities and use coping strategies, accordingly, to properly support these students. It is a requisite to design and evaluate materials for them to have special education possibilities. Thus, pre-service teachers need pedagogical support for learning disabilities. Considering technological developments and its effects on education, the selection of appropriate supportive technologies would improve these students’ motivation and life quality. Therefore, pre-service teachers need technical and pedagogical support to provide their students with learning disabilities with effective learning environments. The main goal of this project is to support pre-service teachers about what learning disabilities are and what kind of learning environment they should provide the students with learning disabilities. Based on this main aim, it is firstly aimed to improve pre-service teachers’ knowledge and skills as well as awareness about learning disabilities. It is also aimed to inform pre-service teachers about the learning environments they could provide students with learning disabilities and to show how to use technology in these environments. Besides, it is aimed to support pre-service teachers’ experience with the technological tools that they need during the design and development of the learning environments. There are differences in the teacher training programs of the countries and educational possibilities offered to the students with learning disabilities. There is a need for this type of international project with the partners to transfer and disseminate exemplary practices. The pre-service teachers, who are the primary target group within the scope of the project, will be at the forefront both in the pilot study and in the dissemination process. In addition, teacher trainers, who are the target audience within the scope of LTTA, are also important for the project in the dissemination process. A handbook and an e-learning platform will be developed for the project to achieve its goals. During the development of these outputs, both qualitative and quantitative methodologies will be used to evaluate the outputs. And also, according to the results of these evaluations, academic publications will be prepared to contribute to the literature and to disseminate project results. It is aimed that teacher trainers integrate the outputs produced within the scope of the project into their own lessons and thus reach a wider application area. The main expected effect is to overcome the lack of knowledge of pre-service primary school teachers about learning disabilities. In addition, the development of pedagogical and technological knowledge about how to enrich the learning environment for individuals with learning disabilities is another expected impact. Besides, similar effects are expected in the long term in teachers and teacher trainers. Thus, this project will also contribute to the early diagnosis of individuals with learning disabilities.
By implementing the project partners wanted to achieve different results, that are not easy to be measured, but they are very important in long-term perspective: • To improve pre-service primary school teachers’ knowledge regarding learning disabilities, so they are better prepared for the challenges they will face when they start their pedagogical career in mainstream schools, where practically in every class there are students with learning difficulties; • To improve their knowledge and skills on using technologies for providing appropriate – interesting and motivating learning environment to their students and this way to stimulate their learning; • To provoke soon-to-be-teachers to seek new innovative approaches and to implement them in their work with students; • To create the conditions for raising the achievement of students, including those with learning difficulties, by providing their teachers with the knowledge and skills to make appropriate and effective use of technology (different applications) to create interactive learning materials adapted to the needs of the diversity of students in the classroom. • To increase awareness of the importance of early identification of the learning difficulties and early intervention; • To develop a national and international network of specialists and teachers who work together to identify resources and find ways for providing better support to pupils with learning difficulties and this way giving them a chance to reveal their full potential • To improve the quality of services provided by the partner institutions through sharing knowledge, experience and good practices with colleagues from other countries and through implementation of the newly gained knowledge and skills in their every-day work.
The problem E-DYS-LEARN project addressed is of great importance not only for the selected target groups (pre-service primary school teachers and their trainers), but for much wider auditory and for the society in general. This is due to the fact that the young people who are now studying in pedagogical departments very soon will become teachers and will be responsible for the quality of education of children. It is well-known that the first school years are crucial for the academic achievements of pupils, for their cognitive and emotional growth and for their future realisation. This put on the primary school teachers a great responsibility to teach all children the best way, to have knowledge and skills to recognise possible difficulties, to find a way to cope with them, to apply different methods and approaches in order to provide every student with the opportunity to be successful. Nowadays technology play a considerable role in people’s life and the education could not stay aside. So young teachers should know which technologies they can use and how to use them for creating an appropriate learning environment and to develop interesting and motivating educational materials. From the other side the number of students with learning disabilities steadily increases, and in the situation when all European countries make efforts to implement the principles of inclusive education and to have all children in the same (mainstream) school, it means that practically in every class there are students who face difficulties in learning. The report by the World Health Organization reported that the number of educators is inadequate to meet the educational needs of the students with learning disabilities. A research report from Bulgaria similarly revealed that only 27% of the primary school teachers participated an in-service training on dyslexia (which is the most common learning difficulty); 77% of respondents expressed their need of more extended training. As the motivation is one of the crucial factors for learning to be successful, the partnership believes that the selection of appropriate supportive technologies would improve students’ motivation, as well as their results. Unfortunately, most of the pre-service teachers, as well as in-service ones have inadequate knowledge and skills to adapt the technology into educational environments; in terms of design, development, and adaptation of rich learning environments. For many teachers, the integration of technology into the learning environment is a complex and challenging issue. So, they need technical and pedagogical support to provide their students with learning disabilities with effective learning environments. Тhe needs described above were at the heart of the project and the partners' efforts to fill some of the existing gap.