Improving Assistance in Inclusive Educational Settings (IMAS II)

Abstract

Teaching assistants play a key role in the implementation of an inclusive educational system. They support children and adolescents with special educational needs (SEN) in regular schools and contribute in a decisive way to a successful education of these students. Although their field of activity is very comprehensive, scientific evidence indicates that assistants do not consider themselves to be sufficiently qualified and lack specific competences to support students with SEN and enable inclusion. In order to meet this need for qualification, five web-based knowledge boxes on topics relevant to the daily work of assistants are being designed and evaluated within the framework of an international cooperation project IMAS II funded by the European Union. The knowledge boxes will be developed together with assistants, accompanied students and their classmates as co-researchers and then tested with assistants, teachers, parents and students. The impact of the knowledge boxes will be evaluated. This flexible further training opportunity is intended to contribute to a quality improvement and long-term quality development of assistance services and to the success of inclusion in schools.