The national Symposium on Learning in Wurzburg, that took place from Nov 16th – 17th, was fully booked long before its actual date.
Hence the university auditorium was packed with participants listening to Wurzburg Prof. Dr. Stephan Ellinger’s opening talk on “A teacher’s professionalism in the SNE focus on learning”.
Based on findings from research on professionalism he developed a profile of competence for the SNE focus on learning.
He took on the various approaches on difficulties in learning - individual and socio-cultural approaches as well as institutional critique - to derive the dimensions of substantiated professional action. He emphasized in particular on the educational dimension, which takes a positive idea of man as a starting point and focuses on the relationship to the pupils and their entity in the educational process.
Friday’s talk was followed by twelve workshops, which gave an understanding of the challenges given in the SNE focus on learning within an inclusive school. The first day concluded with a well-visited panel discussion chaired by Prof. Dr. Clemens Hillenbrand, in which vds’ national chairman Stephan Prändl, national referee for SNE focus on learning Annette Kriszio, and Prof. Dr. Stephan Ellinger faced up to the panel’s keen questions.
Centre point in particular was the future prospects of the SNE focus on learning.
Annette Kriszio referred to the varying speeds in implementing the UN-convention on the rights of persons with disabilities within the respective federal states and the associated set of problems occurring in the work of the national department. The development of matters of education policy as reported by the participants gave cause for serious concern. Stephan Prändl pointed out just how important the vds’ actual work on matters of education policy is, especially when looking at vocational education and training. “If the job’s quality is to be secured, then an independent course of SNE studies must continue to be available. With great concern the association is watching the current development of letting the SNE training merge with general education training – as it is being considered in Berlin – and will critically bring forward the issue at the Parliamentary Evening in Berlin at the end of November.
The embedding of offers in SNE aid within regional education networks is still seen as important perspective for an adequate development, especially for the SNE focus on learning.
Saturday started with Prof. Dr. Christian Huber’s talk on “Inclusion needs structure – how to re-think inclusion of pupils with SNE focus on learning using the Response-to-Intervention approach”.
Comprehensibly, he developed the basics and practical application of this concept.
Numerous states use this framework concept to implement their SNE aid programmes in the fields of learning, speech and behaviour. It allows for a tight coupling of support with both feedback and diagnostics in a scaled intensity system.
Therefore the SNE focus on learning obtains a constitutional orientation towards prevention. In order to avoid leaving teaching personnel on their own, multiprofessional teams are needed.
For this reason RTI may in the end contribute to teachers’ relief, who experience increased self-efficacy and professional success.
Further 12 workshops followed, introducing sustainable concepts and effective approaches and methods of learning aid to the participants.
The spontaneous feedback of the attendees showed, that – with this expert conference and the broad range of workshops and seminars – the German Association for Special Education (vds) met the colleagues’ demand for vocational training and professional exchange.
This is also expressed in the number of registrations to attend next April’s Special Needs Education congress, which is almost 80% booked with just under 500 registrations so far.
Marianne Schardt
Translation: Ruth Stang
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