3. Learning and teaching

3. 1. Pedagogical assessment and improving teaching methods

• Effectiveness of inclusive education of pupils with special educational needs mainly depends on the applied elements of pedagogical-methodological culture. Pedagogical culture is renewed in learning-teaching strategies, methods, instruments, procedures of organising learning. Inclusion is accomplished in empathy towards children, a change of attitudes, integrated approach, applying differentiated pedagogical methods that take into account the personality of the pupil as well, diagnostic approach, procedures of organising learning, everyday use of the culture of differentiated education.
• Inclusive practice cannot go without disability-specific methodological procedures.
• In inclusive education the host institution is given an active role. In the teaching-learning process the individual development of all children in the class is emphasised, taking into account the special needs, pace of work and abilities of each pupil. Instead of relating information and checking the development of learning skills are in the foreground. A child different from others can more easily be included in a class which is seen as a community of individuals as school work is designed not for average students.
• The National Core Curriculum assigns standards not to certain grades but to a wide time interval. Therefore pupils – at whatever level they may be – are given tasks at the appropriate level of requirement. Individual development plans for all pupils that need them get more and more appreciated.
• Textbooks, task sheets, tests, activity systems assigned to given development levels are not available for teachers; they are being developed by the teachers of the host institution in cooperation with special teachers of special education institutions.
• Research data prove that in the best host institutions there is univocal commitment in the institutional practice, teachers’ approach to their role has changed, teacher competencies have enriched. Teachers of host institutions regard as important:
  • To create, activate the (personal, community) motivation basis for education-development.
  • To find individual methods, techniques suitable for differentiated teaching and development of pupils with special educational needs.
  • To design and run classes with the participation of pupils with particular disabilities.
  • To interpret pupil diagnoses from pedagogical aspects and to find development procedures in view of them.
  • To give alternative solutions for a given teaching-educational problem and to manage classes in an effective and efficient way. To be able to stay in the background and to encourage pupil activities.
  • To be able to cooperate with parents, social partners, other professionals.

3. 2. Initial and in-service teacher training

• The central programme plan of the 2.1 measure of the Human Resource Development Operative Programme of the National Development Plan Creating equal chances for pupils of disadvantaged background refers mainly to the initial training of professionals involved in teaching of pupils from a disadvantaged background, mainly of Roma children and pupils with special educational needs and to developing teaching packages connected to integrated education.
• The main objective of the development programme facilitating the equal chances of pupils with special educational needs is that following the expansion of inclusive education children could learn in schools which are suitable for inclusion by the force of their operation, where the organisational and content frames of inclusion as well as the conditions necessary for satisfying the educational needs of all children have been created. To achieve this, a support system has to be created, which will facilitate the development of the pedagogical systems of the institutions, teacher training, adaptation of programme packages, the change of attitudes of the inclusive and the outside environments.
• The package of measures designed for assuring equal chances for pupils with special educational needs provides support for institutions undertaking the inclusive education of pupils with special educational needs through competitions and central programmes.
• Developments to be realised in the framework of the central programme enhance the creation and renewal of a pedagogical support system that provide support for institutions at the level of the concrete pedagogical practice and activity. As a result of this programme packages, the conditions of a well functioning integration will be developed – these programme packages follow detailed.

Developing programme packages for initial teacher training

• The pedagogy of inclusion has not been widespread in initial teacher training in Hungary. Training programmes linked to pupils with special educational needs are run in the framework of special education training – in cases inclusion can be taken up as a specialization or as a module in training for a second degree. Some teacher training institutions are open to initiatives for disseminating the pedagogy of inclusion. However, no unified training module has been developed for all teacher training, through which teacher trainees would learn about competences essential for the effective realization of inclusion.
• The programme package developed for initial teacher training contains professional, theoretical foundations and methods, procedures, techniques, therapeutic activities, pedagogical and legal background based on them – all this from the aspect of special educational needs and presenting the characteristic specialities.

Developing in-service teacher training programmes and expert training

• All teachers undertaking inclusion get into a new situation, in which their existing competences and well-tried practices cannot completely satisfy the special needs of development. The target groups of in-service training are mainstream and special teachers.
• Special teachers have to use their professional competences in a situation in which they have not had any experiences. That is why the knowledge and the experiences transferred in professional cooperation are most important.

Developing trainings increasing social sensitivity

• Successful inclusion of pupils with special educational needs has impact beyond the walls of educational institutions. It affects areas related to the integration of children, various services and policy areas. The assertion of the rights of those with disabilities, their social inclusion also depends on how many actors know the treats of effective inclusion.
• In this process local decision-makers play a significant role, as they coordinate locally the policy tasks in which inclusion appears as an especially sensitive task. Social integration requires the support of locally, regionally functioning civil organisations and of professional groups that can provide special services and also the harmonisation of their work. Information necessary for that can be acquired in trainings.

3. 3. Developing assessment materials, tools, tests, programmes facilitating inclusion

Developing the know-how of integrated education, establishing a methodology data bank and a service programme package

• The teaching programme packages developed in this programme are aimed to facilitate the teaching of particular subjects on the one hand, and the pedagogical work done in cross-curricular areas. The special content supplements that enhance the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs are parts of the programme package. The programme packages will be stored in a databank and host institutions can apply for adapting them.

Developing new methods for preventing drop-outs

• Considerably fewer pupils with special educational needs attend secondary schools in Hungary. Along with the lines of performance-centred education at secondary schools teaching of pupils with special educational needs can be realised with difficulties only. To prevent mass failure, and to manage the causes of it, programme developers undertake to develop a research programme followed by a concept of development.

Knowledge transfer from special institutions to the mainstream ones

• Increasing the readiness of mainstream general schools for inclusion provides new opportunities for the processes of social learning for pupils with special educational needs and others attending mainstream schools. Seeking of new ways accompanying inclusion, institutional innovations bring about significant qualitative improvement in the work of the host institution as well. Effectiveness greatly depends on how much the development supply of institutions providing education for pupils with special educational needs and of mainstream schools can be linked and harmonised with available professional services. To what extent can new spaces be opened up for children and young people by creating cooperation between their family background and the local possibilities of making contacts. Pupil self-assessment, changing the anti-inclusion attitudes of parents and teachers, the aims, basic principles and methods of differentiated education, division of labour in the classroom can be achieved by presenting and evaluating examples. For this the development of supporting assessment material, aids, tests, programmes has been started in the changing special institutions.