Teaching without barriers: How to make learning inclusive and accessible for all students
The Smart Tools for Inclusive Teaching in VET project, co-funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ Programme, aims to provide innovative tools and learning opportunities for VET staff who work with students with Special Educational Needs, Specific Learning Disorders, and/or disabilities.
Over the past two years, the STIT project has brought a question to the centre of the discussion among the project partners and the direct and indirect beneficiaries:
"How is it possible to create a school environment that fosters students’ growth and development, turning their needs into added values?"
Talking to teachers, tutors, and educators in Italy, Romania, and Spain revealed a lack of training in how to apply educational methods that were more inclusive and accessible than the more conventional and traditional approach.
The efficient collaboration of the international partnership has resulted in two project results that aim to enhance the knowledge and competences of the school staff, while promoting alternative/complementary teaching that is more participative and engaging.
As the American author bell hooks wrote in Teaching to Transgress. Education as the Practice of Freedom (1994):
"When education is the practice of freedom, students are not the only ones who are asked to share [...]. Engaged pedagogy does not seek simply to empower students. Any classroom [...] will also be a place where teachers grow, and are empowered by the process”.
Moreover,
“To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin”.
The methodology used to achieve the project results is the Flipped Classroom Approach, which encourages the active participation in democratic life, intercultural education, digital skills and combating early school leaving.
At the same time, it enhances educational inclusion and the right to study of students with SEN by designing individualised and adapted pathways.
The following free multilingual platforms (English, Italian, Romanian and Spanish) were created combining the needs of students and teachers with partners’ expertise:
A Moodle platform consisting of 10 videos developed with Artificial Intelligence to analyse issues related to accessibility and inclusion in the educational sector.
An innovative platform where more than a hundred pre-compiled activities, tools, and useful programmes are available to design lessons in which no student feels left behind.
During the numerous Focus Groups held in partners’ countries, teaching staff have expressed their interest in using the STIT platforms to support and promote diversity and environments that are progressively more inclusive and accessible to everyone.
In this way, the STIT consortium aims to celebrate youth involvement in educational activities to foster a healthy and balanced environment where everyone can express their opinions.
All these tools are already available and can be used free of charge through the official website of the Smart Tools for Inclusive Teaching in VET project.
In addition, you can stay up-to-date via Facebook and YouTube.
Project Coordinator
Aforisma | Soc. Coop. Aforisma Impresa Sociale | Pisa, Italy
Partner Organisations
QZR srl | Lucca, Italy
FLIPNET – Associazione per la promozione della didattica capovolta | Rome, Italy
Bexley C-Level IT | Constanța, Romania
Fundación Docete Omnes | La Zubia, Spain
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In the upcoming weeks, a series of interviews with the project partners will be published on how the project STIT was implemented and what the impact was on the direct and indirect beneficiaries and on the participating organisations as well.
The multilingual texts in English, Italian, Spanish and Romanian were translated by the project coordinator (Sara Porta - Aforisma) and the Italian, Spanish and Romanian project partners (Luigi Bevilacqua - QZR srl, Francisco Hurtado Martínez - Fundación Docete Omnes and Nicoleta Acomi - Bexley C-Level IT).
