The art of teaching includes how teaching is designed and prepared to meet classroom diversity. The general didactics are included as well as the “what”, “why”, and “how”. However, in special didactics, the focus is on the “who”–i.e., who are we teaching and their characteristics. It is how learning is available for more students, and the adjustments needed when what works for most people does not work for everybody. Special didactics is grounded in cognition and children’s learning. In special didactics, teachers are more flexible, creative, and have a broad knowledge of what different students might need. This partly aligns with universal design for learning, where the environment and content are carefully prepared and all barriers are analyzed and anticipated. That is, it is not an add-on; it is fundamental in the variation of teaching methods and materials.
Published in Chapter:
Towards Equity and Inclusion Excellence Using Diverse Interventions
Copyright: © 2023
|Pages: 21
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-7370-2.ch004
Abstract
Although inclusive education (i.e., education that does not include separate special education classes) is legislated and pervasive worldwide, the implementation of educational inclusion is poor. To create more inclusive school settings, we need to explore what constitutes good practice. Moreover, we need evidence of effective interventions that address student needs. This chapter provides evidence from two interventions aimed at improving inclusion (NDC AI and SKOLKONTAKT®). These mixed methods, which merge quantitative and qualitative data, show that professional development enhances the inclusive skills of teachers and group training of students improves social skills, school attendance, and participation, leading to less loneliness, making the whole school's social environment better. Unexpectedly, the teachers became more aware of social impairments and developed new concrete tools to handle conflicts and bullying.