Insegnanti di sostegno: un’evoluzione necessaria

How should the professional role of the 115 000 Italian support teachers change? In this article, a new and ground-breaking proposal for redefining the main professional activities of support teachers is presented and discussed. Many findings about the evident professional and personal difficulties of support teachers should be interpreted through five structural elements that are seen as the main causes: the individual medical model of disability; the special role of support teachers; the special support classrooms; the use of additional human resources only for support teachers; the lack of inclusivity in general teaching activities. The proposal suggests a radical transformation in the role of the special teacher in two directions: first, 80% of them should become regular classroom teachers involved in co-teaching with the whole group and collaborating in the integration processes; second, 20% should become peer consultants supporting the regular teachers with methodological advice. The ongoing research and practical implications of this hypothesis are discussed below.How should the professional role of the 115 000 Italian support teachers change? In this article, a new and ground-breaking proposal for redefining the main professional activities of support teachers is presented and discussed. Many findings about the evident professional and personal difficulties of support teachers should be interpreted through five structural elements that are seen as the main causes: the individual medical model of disability; the special role of support teachers; the special support classrooms; the use of additional human resources only for support teachers; the lack of inclusivity in general teaching activities. The proposal suggests a radical transformation in the role of the special teacher in two directions: first, 80% of them should become regular classroom teachers involved in co-teaching with the whole group and collaborating in the integration processes; second, 20% should become peer consultants supporting the regular teachers with methodological advice. The ongoing research and practical implications of this hypothesis are discussed below

Inclusive education in Italy: Historical steps, positive developments, and challenges

AbstractThe Italian school system has a long tradition of inclusive education, starting in the 1970s with the first experiences of integrating students with disabilities into regular schools. Since then, legislation has developed to guarantee students with disabilities and other special educational needs the right to individualization and personalization. This article presents the main developments in Italian inclusive education, documenting both positive outcomes and ongoing challenges, especially those which could be of interest for international readers. The article is structured around three relevant themes: the persistent influence of an individual-medical model of disability on school practices; support opportunities and additional resources for inclusion; and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms and their role in the improvement of the quality of inclusion

Learn by distance: advice for choosing an effective and inclusive e- Learning platform

In this last eventful year, in order to deal with the health emergency, the logistic problems related to it and the imposition of "distance learning", digital e-Learning platforms and tools have been widely used both for teaching and for autonomous work. However, these technologies were often completely new to users and their parents, who had to quickly adapt to the situation by learning how to handle them, not always in the most efficient way. Moreover, many families were not technologically and economically prepared for this situation due to inadequate internet connection, equipment and related tools (Beaunoyer E. 2020, Van Lancker, W. 2020). In this complex scenario, children and adolescents with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have suffered the most and the already existing gap with their schoolmates has widened further (Asbury, K. 2020). With the aim of both reducing this gap and improving the school inclusion and distance learning experience, we believe it is necessary to provide families and all those involved in learning environments useful information for choosing such platforms. In this work we have analysed some existing platforms in order to highlight and list the most suitable features for better learning that can somehow both fill the many gaps in distance learning and boost the experience of face-to-face teaching when the health emergency will be over. Features such as cooperative teaching, the availability of a wide variety of evaluation types (true/false, quiz, cloze test etc.), digital repositories and the possibility to set specific and guided learning paths and monitor learning trends should help teachers organize daily activities. Working in small groups, having more listening space, receiving effective feedbacks on progress from tutors and teachers, having materials organized with an appropriate search system based on semantic tagging by topic and subject and the presence of gamification principles (rewards, enhanced visuals and interactivity) should also be considered in the decision process. Furthermore, the selection process must pay proper attention to the characteristics of SEND's. Specifically, it is pivotal to stimulate as much as possible their meta-cognitive strategies and provide proper materials to strengthen existing competences and boost new compensatory strategies.  

Passi verso una leadership inclusiva a scuola

Il tema di una scuola inclusiva richiama quello di una leadership educativa in grado di assumere la responsabilità di una vera e propria leadership etica, che agisce in modo equo e coerente con principi e valori dell’inclusione, rispettando e valorizzando le differenze e i diritti di tutti. L’inclusione riguarda la giustizia sociale, ossia tutto quello che la scuola fa per ridurre la marginalizzazione e per compensare, nel segno dell’equità, le varie differenze che possono in qualsiasi modo produrre disuguaglianze sostanziali. L’articolo si pone come obiettivo quello di proporre alcune riflessioni per impostare una leadership davvero inclusiva a scuola. In particolare, verranno proposti sei passi fondamentali che è necessario realizzare per far sì che tale attuazione diventi concreta e abbia ricadute operative adeguate ed efficaci

Learning, Social, and Psychological Outcomes of Students with Moderate, Severe, and Complex Disabilities in Inclusive Education: A Systematic Review

The purpose of this systematic review was to investigate the learning, social, and psychological outcomes of students with moderate, severe, and complex disabilities (MSCD) in inclusive settings. The review discusses barriers to conducting rigorous research in this field. Whilst an initial literature search located 1,338 records, only 18 were finally included due to the eligibility criteria. Studies were placed in categories based on the topics investigated. Regarding learning outcomes of students with MSCD, findings were moderately in favour of school inclusion for both academic achievement and adaptive skills. Regarding social outcomes, results showed that inclusive settings offer more access to instructional time and peer interaction, although they reported marginalisation during class activities and social isolation within the peer group. Finally, in terms of psychological outcomes, inclusive settings appeared to reduce the frequency of challenging behaviours. The paper also addresses conceptual barriers regarding the definition of inclusion and its consequences on research and practice as well as research design barriers resulting from the quality of research in this field. Based on review results, this paper outlines epistemological propositions for developing standards of quality for both research and practice in the field

“Student Voice: uno strumento per raccogliere il punto di vista degli alunni con Sindrome di Down sull’integrazione scolastica”

The Student Voice approach in educational research simples listening to students and taking into account their opinions in order to consider their points of view in research and in changes for education policies. In the field of inclusive education this issue is particularly relevant as it makes research methods more participative and inclusive. It is also a very demanding because it requires data collection instruments that can give voice to all students –also students with disabilities- in a reliable way.In this research project a digital instrument for interviewing in structured way students with intellectual disabilities and communication difficulties has been developed. The instrument was created and tested with the collaboration of the Italian Association of Persons with Down Syndrome and experts in the field of Augmentative and Alternative Communication. The interview has been conceived on 4 different levels that can be chosen according to the students‘ intellectual and communicative abilities. On the first level the student works autonomously and answers open questions; on the fourth level a teacher guides him through multiple choice questions represented through images and symbols. The investigated topics are: activities in class, push and pull out and socialization within and outside school. The article describes the way the instrument has been created and tested.The Student Voice approach in educational research simples listening to students and taking into account their opinions in order to consider their points of view in research and in changes for education policies. In the field of inclusive education this issue is particularly relevant as it makes research methods more participative and inclusive. It is also a very demanding because it requires data collection instruments that can give voice to all students –also students with disabilities- in a reliable way.In this research project a digital instrument for interviewing in structured way students with intellectual disabilities and communication difficulties has been developed. The instrument was created and tested with the collaboration of the Italian Association of Persons with Down Syndrome and experts in the field of Augmentative and Alternative Communication. The interview has been conceived on 4 different levels that can be chosen according to the students‘ intellectual and communicative abilities. On the first level the student works autonomously and answers open questions; on the fourth level a teacher guides him through multiple choice questions represented through images and symbols. The investigated topics are: activities in class, push and pull out and socialization within and outside school. The article describes the way the instrument has been created and tested

Teachers with disabilities: a systematic review of the international literature

Despite an increasingly heterogeneous student population, the teaching staff is still characterized by a high level of homogeneity and the under-representation of teachers with disabilities. Research on the issue is also quite limited. To fill this knowledge gap, in this article we present a systematic review conducted by selecting primary studies published between 1990 and 2018 investigating the experiences of teachers with disabilities. The 32 included studies were evaluated in terms of methodological rigor and analyzed through thematic analysis, from which 9 categories emerged. The latter highlight the full potential of these teachers, both in terms of teaching effectiveness and greater understanding of special needs in the classroom, but at the same time they underline the complexity of their careers in learning settings, still partly permeated by ableism and discriminatory practices. Insegnanti con disabilità e DSA: una revisione sistematica della letteratura internazionale. Pur a fronte di una popolazione studentesca sempre più eterogenea, il corpo docente è ancora caratterizzato da una forte omogeneità e dalla sottorappresentazione di insegnanti con disabilità/DSA. Anche la ricerca sul tema è assai limitata. Per colmare questo gap conoscitivo, in questo articolo presentiamo una systematic review, condotta selezionando gli studi primari pubblicati tra il 1990 e il 2018 sulle esperienze di docenti con disabilità/DSA. I 32 studi inclusi sono stati valutati dal punto di vista del rigore metodologico e analizzati mediante un'analisi tematica, da cui sono emerse 9 categorie. Queste ultime mettono in luce tutto il potenziale di questi insegnanti, sia sul fronte dell'efficacia didattica che della maggiore comprensione dei bisogni speciali in classe, ma allo stesso tempo sottolineano la complessità delle loro carriere in setting di apprendimento ancora in parte permeati da una cultura abilista e da pratiche discriminatorie

Didattica e inclusione scolastica - Inklusion im Bildungsbereich

The inequalities in education, which have also been exposed by the pandemic, highlight the need for alternatives and new horizons. The seventh edition of the conference series "Didattica e Inclusione Scolastica – Inclusion in Education", which was organized for the first time under the direction of the Competence Center for Inclusion in Education of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, offered a space to deal with the priorities of a just and inclusive education during this time. This volume opens up a dialogue on inclusive didactics, which builds a bridge between german- and Italian-speaking traditions through its multilingual and intercultural orientation. The twelve contributions open up from different perspectives theoretical references, methods and instruments for the development of an inclusive school with a special focus on didactics.Die Ungleichheiten im Bildungsbereich, die auch durch die Pandemie zutage getreten sind, verdeutlichen die Notwendigkeit von Alternativen und neuen Horizonten. Die siebte Ausgabe der Tagungsreihe „Didattica e Inclusione Scolastica – Inklusion im Bildungsbereich“, welche erstmals unter der Leitung des Kompetenzzentrums für Inklusion im Bildungsbereich der Freien Universität Bozen veranstaltet wurde, bot einen Raum zur Auseinandersetzung mit den Prioritäten einer gerechten und inklusiven Bildung in dieser Zeit. Dieser Band eröffnet einen Dialog über inklusive Didaktik, der durch seine mehrsprachige und interkulturelle Ausrichtung eine Brücke zwischen deutsch- und italienischsprachigen Traditionen schlägt. Die zwölf Beiträge erschließen aus unterschiedlichen Blickwinkeln theoretische Bezüge, Methoden und Instrumente für die Entwicklung einer inklusiven Schule mit besonderem Augenmerk auf die Didaktik.Le disuguaglianze in ambito educativo, emerse anche a causa della pandemia, indicano la necessità di alternative e nuovi orizzonti. La settima edizione del Convegno “Didattica e Inclusione Scolastica – Inklusion im Bildungsbereich”, organizzato per la prima volta dal Centro di Competenza per l’Inclusione Scolastica della Libera Università di Bolzano, ha voluto creare uno spazio per mettere a fuoco le priorità per un’educazione equa ed inclusiva in questo tempo. Con questo volume si dà avvio ad un dialogo sulla didattica inclusiva che si fa plurilingue ed interculturale, creando un ponte fra le tradizioni di lingua italiana e tedesca. I dodici contributi presenti delineano, da prospettive diverse, riferimenti teorici, metodologie e strumenti per lo sviluppo della scuola inclusiva, con un’attenzione particolare alla dimensione didattica