GPS for inclusion - generating partner support for inclusion

Objective - This learning activity will help you to explore the resources you can use to create inclusive learning environments.

Time - around 15 min

Steps: Inspiration and resources for quality education for all learners can be found in many people, in many places, and in many forms and materials. In that abundance, the trick is to search purposefully for knowledge and resources that really contribute to your professional development towards inclusion.  

What is my goal/learning question? 

A goal-oriented search for resources always starts with setting a goal: what do you want to learn/what do you want to achieve when you think of an inclusive learning environment? A well thought out goal is usually a SMARTI goal, a goal that is: 

• Specific: not vague 
• Measurable: we know what it will look like when we come close to attaining our goal 
• Ambitious: it gets us out of our comfort zone 
• Realistic: it is doable 
• Time specific: we decide when we want this goal to be attained 
• Inspiring: it makes other people enthusiastic 

Don't you see an immediate goal yet? Some people find it easier to formulate a learning question first. To turn a question into a learning question, start, for example, with ‘How can I...?’ A good learning question matters to your practice: 'If I can answer this question, it would benefit me, our learners, our school, ... '. 

What kind of support am I looking for? 

Based on the goal you set, what kind of support are you looking for? 

• Didactical material: material that you can implement on the classroom floor, such as a game, a tool, learning material, ... 
• Emotional support: venting about school-related events, informal chats, sharing pleasant experiences, giving each other a pat on the back or encouragement, helping thoughts, ... 
• Information or knowledge: advice on how something could be done, brochure, website, working method, ... 
• Observation and feedback: going to observe a colleague, asking for a class observation with feedback, look for a critical friend, ... 
• Supervision, intervision or coaching: learning together starting from your own work experiences, learning from each other, reflecting together, becoming aware of your own strengths and working points, ... 
• Co-teaching/team teaching: teaching and working together when preparing, giving or evaluating a lesson with shared responsibility and equal status, but possibly different roles. 
• (Learning) support in the classroom: someone supports an individual pupil or a group of pupils in the classroom (e.g. giving extra explanations, support with motor activities, ...). 
• (Learning) support outside of the classroom: someone supports an individual pupil or a group of pupils outside the classroom (e.g. providing support in learning to learn, remediation, a listening ear, ...). 

What or who could bring this kind of support?  

Who or what seems like an interesting starting point to me?  

The resources cannot be strictly distinguished from each other. On the one hand, they focus on what can help you (e.g. helping thoughts, knowledge or information,...), on the other hand on who can do this (e.g. a critical friend, pupils, and parents,...). This means that you can combine resources. For example, you can talk to a critical friend to explore the knowledge center together, ask someone in your social network for information, or reflect together with a colleague on thoughts or beliefs that might help you achieve your goal. The order in which you think about possible resources is not linear. There are many ways to think of possible resources.  

• If you start from "Who do I need?" you might first think about what you can do yourself, then who you can talk to who is close to you, and then who you can involve in the network around your school or outside. You can find that order in the overview of possible resources. 
• If you start from 'What do I need?', you may already be looking for knowledge and information, or it may be that you first want to get a clear picture of what kind of support you are specifically looking for, in order to later reflect on the impact of your own views and thoughts.