Internships in innovative and interdisciplinary educational practices: the Inclusive Interdisciplinary Practice Design (IIPraD)

Author(s):

Elke Emmers(presenting / submitting)Annet Devroey(presenting)Sofie Van Eynde Meggie Verstichele Lijne Vloeberghs

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

04. Inclusive Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

04 SES 07 B, Professional Development for Inclusive Education

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-24

17:15-18:45

Room:

OB-H0.12

Chair:

William Kinsella

Contribution

The ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN, 2006; 2008) and the approval of national legislation regarding additional support or reasonable accommodations for pupils with disabilities in the general curriculum, incites the Flemish government to expand inclusive education (Flemish Parliament, Flemish Government, 2014).

In this process towards inclusive education, teacher education plays an important role in preparing and training pre-service and in-service teachers to deal with student diversity. To accomplish this goal, three bachelor programs (Bachelor-after-bachelor Special Education (UC Leuven-Limburg), Bachelor Remedial education (Odisee) and the Bachelor Primary Education (Odisee)) belonging to two university colleges each developed a training (internship) that allows students to gain competences in inclusive education practice. However, because of the changing educational landscape in Flanders, the role of teachers and classroom support staff changed as well and a clarification of these roles is needed for students, organizations and the training field.

In order to guide students through an internship in roles and tasks that are not clearly defined in the field, tools are needed to support the student before and during the time of the internship. For instance, it is important to have a good training guide including an interdisciplinary practice design that supports the process of the internship and focuses on domain description, roll refinement and agreements on conditions. Therefore, the three partners setup a research project (IIPraD), which aimed to enhance internships in innovative and interdisciplinary practice contexts of professional training through a thoughtful organization and content resourcing in “tridialogue” with the field, the student and training. More specific, the project aimed to create an Interdisciplinary Practice Design (IIPraD) and an interdisciplinary platform for organizations, coaching of internships and the possibility of assessment of teaching practice in an innovative context characterized by roll shifts and roll creation.

Within this project, three research questions are addressed:

What roles can be incorporated into a support process and how do they relate to the different training programs?
what steps should be taken to set up or optimize an inclusive internship to stimulate the learning process and support the inclusive practice?
what tools can we provide to enable an inclusive internship and to meet the challenges in the changing educational landscape?

Method

The research process consisted of different steps. The first step involved a thorough desk research (step 1), including a literature review and a document analysis of the existing internship guides. As such, we discovered a number of themes. Based on these themes, the first version of a focus group guide was designed to map the perspectives of the different actors (schools, students and parents). These results were valorized through a steering committee that consisted of experts from various courses and content experts in the field of research. Step 2: within each cooperating professional educational program, a focus group was organized with the students of the internships and the schools where internships are organized and a questionnaire was filled out by the parents of a child with a disability that were part of an inclusive internship. The results of these focus groups and the parent survey were analyzed and the results were put together in a synthesis, These results were used as a blueprint for the framework of inclusive internships in an educational context. Afterwards, this synthesis was re-valued by the relevant stakeholders (schools, parents, students) and supplemented with insights of teacher trainers and pre-service teachers to bring the full breadth of perspectives in the development of a framework. This re-valued synthesis was again presented to the steering committee and a framework called the Interdisciplinary Practice Design (IIPraD) was developed.

Expected Outcomes

From the focus groups and the parent survey we identified three main clusters: (1) preparation for inclusive internship, (2) learning environment for the student, and (3) roll clarification. These clusters were further deepened in this project. We will elaborate on the first cluster. The other clusters are being described in a project report that we are developing and will be presented at the congress. All the focus groups show that there is a need for information and dialogue concerning the implementation of an inclusive internship. There is a need for information about the internship goals and internship objectives. In that way it becomes clear for every stakeholder (student, school, parents) what the expectations are, or information about how these expectations will be achieved. The same applies for a list of possible tasks and roles that a student could accommodate or information about how these tasks and roles could emerge. Students also need clear information about their training objectives. A clear overview of the competences targeted, tailored to an inclusion training, seems essential. For example full parental involvement is essential. Parents can also play a role in the provision of information to the school and to the pre-service student e.g. with regard to extracurricular activities (or contexts) or the child’s behavior. The survey of parents shows that the vast majority of parents would like to know in advance who will support their child. Others indicate that in addition to more practical information, it's also nice to get insight into the motivation of the student to do an internship assisting their child.

References

Broer, S. M., Doyle, M. B., & Giangreco, M. F. (2005). Perspectives of Students With Intellectual Disabilities About Their Experiences With Paraprofessional Support. Exceptional Children, 71(4), 415–430. Carter, E. W., & Kennedy, C. H. (2006). Promoting Access to the General Curriculum Using Peer Support Strategies. Research & Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, 31(4), 284–292. Eisenman, L. T., Pleet, A. M., Wandry, D., & McGinley, V. (2010). Voices of special education teachers in an inclusive high school: Redefining responsibilities. Remedial and Special Education, 32(2), 91–104. http://doi.org/10.1177/0741932510361248 Giangreco, M. F., Broer, S. M., & Suter, J. C. (2009). Guidelines for Selecting Alternatives to Overreliance on Paraprofessionals: Field-Testing in Inclusion-Oriented Schools. Remedial and Special Education, 32(1), 22–38. http://doi.org/10.1177/0741932509355951 Mcduffie, K. A., Mastropieri, M., & Scruggs, T. E. (2009). Differential effects of peer tutoring in co-taught and non-co-taught classes: results for content learning and student- teacher interactions. Exceptional Children, 75(4), 493–510. Petry, K., Ghesquière, P., Jansen, D., & Vanhelmont, L. (2013). GON en ION anno 2012 (OBPWO 10.01). Leuven. Scruggs, T., Mastropieri, M., & McDuffie, K. (2007). Co-Teaching in Inclusive Classrooms: A Metasynthesis of Qualitative Research. Exceptional Children, 73(4), 392–416.

Author Information

Elke Emmers (presenting / submitting)

KU Leuven, Belgium; University college Odisee

Annet Devroey (presenting)

UC Leuven Limburg, Belgium

Sofie Van Eynde

UC Leuven Limburg, Belgium

Meggie Verstichele

SIHO, Belgium

Lijne Vloeberghs

UC Leuven Limburg, Belgium

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