Educational Goals Of Inclusive Didactics.

 An Inclusive School

There is an indispensable prerequisite for making an inclusive school: this Is  the  sincere, powerful trust in the various interests of the child, in her°his natural instinct to act and to know.

"The child must always be given work to do with her°his hands as she°he works with her°his mind, for the child's personality has a functional unity." Maria Montessori

In harmony with this assumption, we believe that task of an educating community is to identify and propose for each person a network of non standardized, integrated, educational actions aimed at fostering the unique and unrepeatable cognitive style of each child. To this purpose, we think it is necessary to develop a flexible and innovative learning approach, the creation, or the enhancement, of healthy and stimulating learning environments.

In this perspective, our educational offer plan and its related actions are: intentional, contextualized, systematic, flexible, based on the ‘learning by doing’ principle.

Elements of a teaching that aims at personalizing and including.

1) awareness that education is essentially a meaningful ‘relationship’ (Bruner); this relationship is nourished by empathy, active listening, mutual help; we believe that the school is a gymnasium where children learn about life, a place where children and educators experience and learn emotional literacy.

2) accurate detection of children's abilities, skills and competences, with continuous reference to each child’s zone of proximal development (ZPD, Lev Vigotsky);

3) Use of diversified teaching methods and strategies that promote the training success of each student: peer tutoring, cooperative learning, brain storming, problem solving, circle time.

4) Use of educational facilitators and "mediators": Presence Of technological equipments, Designed and scientifically organized environments where nothing is left to chance and where everything Supports the full Child’s development in her°his uniqueness and complexity.

5) Formative Assessment for a continual testing of the validity of structured paths.

Technical Aspects And Inclusive Actions (G.L.I. * Gruppo di Lavoro Per L'Inclusione * Working Group For Inclusion).

In Any School,  Diversity can not be anything but Wealth. 

The G.L.H. - Working Group On Handicap of our institution focuses Its Work on priorities related to all the Special Educational Needs. 

For each disabled pupil enrolled at Any Italian School Institution, an inter-institutional working group operates collegially: this is called the H Working Group (GLHO). It is composed by the Principal or by her°his delegate, by the Class Council or, on her°his behalf, by one or more teachers or by the support teacher, by the Psycho-Socio-Healthcare workers responsible for the case, by the parents of the pupil. In addition, educational, support, technical municipality operators, the school staff and all other institutional and professional staff  Who are of interest for the pupil's integration can participate in the GLHO's work. 

Members of G.L.H. are supplemented by all the human resources With Tasks Of Coordination present in the school to form the G.L.I., that is to say  the Working Group for Inclusion. The G.L.I. is thus formed by: the G.L.H. and by the all the 'funzioni strumentali' teachers whose task is to support the developement of specific areas of the overal educational offer plan (P.T.O.F.), by the special educational needs teachers (S.E.N.), the communication assistants, the experienced subject teachers, the class coordinators teachers, the parents, the institutional or external experts in agreement (convenzionati) with the School.

The Working Group for Inclusion is coordinated by the Principal or by one Delegate Member and performs the following tasks:

1. general survey of the Special Educational Needs present in the schools of the Institution;

2. collection and documentation of all the teaching and educational practices implemented also To Possibly propose And organize learning actions in network between schools and/or in connection with strategic actions of the Administration;

3. focus/comparison on cases, advice and support to The Class Teachers about appropriate class management strategies and or methodologies;

4. detection, monitoring and evaluation of the inclusiveness level, in one given Class And In the various Schools Of The Institution.

5. collection and coordination of all the proposals formulated by each operational GLH on the basis of the actual needs, pursuant to art. 1, c. 605, letter b, of law 296/2006, translated during the definition of the so called P.E.I. Individualized Educational Plan, as established by art. 10 paragraph 5 of the Law of 30 July 2010 no. 122;

6. Designing and proposing  a Plan For Inclusion with specific  reference to all the students with Special Educational Needs; this Plan has to be assessed at the end of each school year (within the month of June). For this purpose, the G.L.I. formulates a global hypothesis for the functional use of all the available resources in order to increase the Institution's overall level of inclusiveness; The G.L.I. also has the responsibility to require the amount of needed S.E.N. Teachers. In September, with reference to the staff actually assigned to the school, the Group will adapt the Plan, on the basis of which the Principal will proceed with the final work appointments.

Activities And Aims For Inclusion.

All the pupils formally recognized as disabled are entitled to a specific educational plan:
a) to a P.E.I. Individualized Educational Plan, pursuant to art. 12, paragraph 5 of Law 104/1992, in favor of students with disabilities;


b) To a P.D.P. Personalized Didactic Plan as per art. 5 of Ministerial Decree N ° 5669 of 12 July 2011 and point 3.1 of the Guidelines for students with DSA Specific Learning Impediments or with disorders referable to former point 1 of the Ministerial Directive of 27 December2012;

c) A P.D.P. Personalized Didactic Plan for all students with Impediments other than those referred to in letters "a" and "b". In the afore mentioned plans the teaching objectives to be pursued through the plans must be specified.


In addition to the specific teaching objectives, the following System Objectives of a transversal nature are also indicated:

1) Reception: all pupils, including those with S.E.N., are entitled to two forms of reception:
a) Social°Affective Welcome in the whole School Community;


b) Welcome Related to their specific cognitive style: e.g. the right to an educational communication (see next point 3) that takes into account the specific preferences and learning resources of each child; in this regard, we refer to: a) iconic channel (preference for working with drawings, images, diagrams, etc.), b) verbal channel (preferences for written/oral text), c) operative-motor channel (preference for manipulations, constructions, etc.).

The three afore mentioned channels typically activate and integrate in a Laboratory Setting.


2) breaking down / overcoming architectural and non-architectural barriers inside and outside the school;

3) didactic communication: the didactic communication will select and adjust appropriate teaching methodologies, subject contents, appropriate information flow;   the didactic communication will be inclusive also with reference to each Child’s communicative style variables: These includes encouraging evaluation,  teacher’s consideration for pupil's preferences, the assessment of the type of learning best suited to the pupil (Multiple Intelligences Theory), the treatment of the proxemics (Gestures And Their Meaning) and of the prosodic variables, the listening skill, the register and the tone of the voice, the modulation of loads and types of different assignments.

4) Use and adaptation of technological equipments to facilitate learning and educational inclusion

With Particular Reference To Our Aims.


A. Organizational and management aspects involved in an inclusive change


A1. Active listening and dialogue practices are considered as Key Components  of the educational relationship. It is Fundamental To Put into practice and / or enhance good pro-social practices (like: empathy, active listening, mutual help).

A2. School as a gymnasium for life skills for the fundamental "emotional literacy") we constantly refer to the principles of the peace code adopted by our institution starting from the reception.


A3. Continuous, shared research, use of active methodologies and enlivenment techniques able to develop children’s critical skills:  to ask questions, to learn to put oneself in someone else’s shoes , to activate networks of interaction, to get out of the box, to be creative and use the divergent thinking.


A4. Structuring learning environments that nourish children’s motivation and desire to research, an intense and emphatic relationship with things and tools,  stimulate learning in the group, create spaces where children can debate, can share interpretations, their emotions, their reflections.


A5. Use of teaching facilitators and mediators: these are technological equipments that improve the attractiveness and usability of the proposed learning.


A6. Managing the appointment of the teaching staff and of the auxiliary, technical, administrative Staff with special reference to the particular students’ needs and to the selected methodologies.



B. Adoption of evaluation strategies coherent and consistent with inclusive practices.


B1. To perform a continuous monitoring of the learning objectives achieved by each single student, considering the entry skills and the achievements acquired in progress and at the end of the path.

C. Management of the different types of support present within the school.


C1. To increase open classes didactics, teaching°learning in small groups of students (homogeneous and heterogeneous), teaching° learning with projects.

We constantly aim at obtain and work with additional staff resources (conpresenze): copresent educators can guide and help learners with difficulties, or support outstanding students.


C2. Four-monthly meetings (October, February, June) for the G.L.I., Working Group For Inclusion;


C3. Approval of additional teaching time, appointment of supplementary teaching staff to classes or schools with a relevant percentage of s.e.n. Students: cfr.  Former art.9 of the Italian CCNL - National Common Job Contract for the Teachers,  or even acquired from the whole teaching staff of the institution.

D. Acquisition and distribution of additional Teaching resources who can be used for project implementation On inclusion.

D1. Maintenance and/or  increase of additional staff, possibly specifically trained, as support for s.e.n. students or for students with specific learning impediments (d.s.a., Disturbi Specifici dell’Apprendimento).




E. Attention devoted to the transition phases that mark the student’s path into the whole school system; attention devoted to the continuity between the different levels of schooling: preprimary – primary – lower secondary – upper secondary.


E1. Where necessary, Increase of meetings between all the subject teachers  to promote a real continuity between the different school Levels (Caring For The Student’s Life project);


E2. Reflective practices and pedagogical components. The teachers can meet, share and reflect on the different educational paths that the student has performed in her°his previous school stages.


E3. Involved teachers are invited to conceive, design and implement a flexible and personalized educational path, with particular attention to transition between the various school stages; in each of these school stages teachers can create special ad hoc projects for these students.


Our school Operates For Facilitating And Supporting:
a. the construction of  The Student’s personal and cultural identity;
b. the sense of belonging and the integration to a group;
c. the interaction with diversity And otherness;
d. the development and enrichment of communications and exchanges.


Conclusion
: We believe that, in order to fully respond to the emerging special educational needs, it is important for the schools to choose a dialogic method of work including all those involved in the student’s educational path. Let us recognize, develop and enhance the potential of each individual in its specificity and in its uniqueness!