Children with Special Needs – Learning Knows No Boundaries

Preparation:

Course organisers will send to the participants list of materials related to the course topic they can read in order to prepare for the course. Organisers will be on stand-by if  participants need any information related to the accommodation, plane tickets or any detail necessary in organising the course.

Course description

There are many children with special needs; very often those children are in the classroom together with other children, that have no special needs. Teacher has to deal with all students, special and not special ones.
The course focuses particularly on work with sesitive group of special needs children. Trainees will improve their theoretical knowledge and expertise in the area of special needs children. They  will also have a chance to see and try many different methods and activities suitable for working with special needs children. They will also see how to adapt existing tasks and assignments in a way that they suit the needs of mixed ability classes. They will discuss how to engage parents in the learning process and how to communicate with them and see how special needs children should be assessed in a way they benefit from it. They will also see and experience activities suitable for teaching in multicultural classrooms and classrooms with children from different sociocultural backgrounds. 

Methodology:

The methodological approach implicates:

• Team – Building Sessions;
• Ice – Breaking and Warm – Up Sessions;
• Energisers
• Group Discussions;
• Debates;
• Creation of individual learning pathway for the learners;
• Problem – Solving Activities;
• Project – Solving Activities
• Inquiry – Based Activities
• Questioning;
• Goal – Setting sessions;
• Decision – Making Sessions;
• Action – Based Strategies;
• Brainstorming;
• Star bursting;
• Planning an Structuring;
• Negotiation and Persuasion;
• Self – Motivation Sessions;
• Questionnaires

Objectives

• Learning the terminology regarding Special Education
• Developing tools and techniques for dealing with students with emotional problems.
• Increase parental involvement in education
• Encouraging students to question as a tool of learning
• Stimuting learner-based approach in education
• Exchanging experiences and cross cultural practices in dealing with students who have special needs
• Learning how to tackle problems of various difficultues in classroom: from autism to dyslexia

Learning Outcomes

• Integration with teachers from various European countries
• Improvement of language and communication skills
• Increased capacity to cooperate on international level
• Getting practical ideas for applying in classroom
• Enhanced intercultural awareness
• Internationalisation at the level of education
• Broader understanding of practices, policies and systems in education
• Improve the teaching of special needs children and children with mental health disorders
• Bring positive and long-lasting effects on the trainees involved and synergy activities
• Improve knowledge of best practices and latest research in children’s mental health issues and related fields
• Enhance diversity and intercultural awareness, critical thinking and cyber media literacy
• Encouragement of sharing best practices, ideas and materials between colleagues within the EU
• Mastery of teaching techniques, e.g. multiple intelligences,editing and structuring reading texts, reinforcement and different approaches to teaching.
• Acquisition of practical language to be used in the classroom, of new techniques, ideas…
• Development of tools and techniques for innovative problem solving.
• Encouraging students to question as a tool of learning.
• Early identification of risk factors in class, including school climate and developing a safe school
• Improve competences linked to the trainees’ professional profiles
• Improve teachers’ confidence in developing appropriate methods within intercultural community
• Early identification of risk factors and different types of barriers, improve primary, selective and indicated prevention
• Provide teachers with a bank of ready‐to‐use materials
• Allow teachers to meet colleagues of different nationalities within the EU, discuss their background and cultural differences, and build a network of teachers for future cooperation and increase capacity to cooperate on international level
• See and analyze examples of good practice