Designing Inclusive Learning Environments (ILE) to support all students

20th August

I arrived at Florencia airport on the 20th of August. I then took the tram to the city centre, and even before going to the hotel I couldn´t help walking around the streets and take some pictures of the wonderful Santa Maria del Fiore church. I was actually very tired, but it was worth it. I didn’t want to waste a minute not enjoying the wonderful monuments I had in front of me. After that, I went to the hotel for some rest. 

21st August

The next morning, I did some more walking and tried to visit some of the monuments that were around. The hotel was actually very close to everything. Just at the end of one of the streets where the hotel was, I could see the Medici Chapel, where many of the members of the Medici family where buried. From the hotel I could also see the dome built by Filippo Brunelleschi.

We started the first lesson at 14:00h at Europass Academy, in Palazzo Galleti. There I met my wonderful classmates (Pilar, Damian, Sabina…) and teacher, Maddalena Bucciarelli. We introduced ourselves to the rest of the classroom. We were given some class info and even places to taste the wonderful cuisine of the city. This day, we talked about positive education/psychology and were introduced to some concepts by Martin Selligman. We were asked to do a presentation about our school and how we dealt with special needs in it.

22nd August

On the second day, we talked about challenging behaviours and how to cope with them. In this sense, we talked about concepts such as the Low Arousal Approach. We were introduced to writers such as Bo Hejlskov Elvén and his book “No fighting, No bitting, No screaming”, which deals with behaviour problems in people with autism. We also talked about concepts such as “inclusion”, “segregation”, and the differences between “separation”, “exclusion”, “integration” and “inclusion”, and the teacher gave us some tips on how to deal with ADHD students. It was stressed that inclusion is the goal and that we have to understand the kid. Not all people deserve the same help and there are different solutions for different types of needs. That is why the UDL framework is so important.

23rd August

We started our third day at school with the presentation of our classmates from Castellón. Then, we continued talking about challenging behaviour. We learned that we have to avoid confrontation and reduce the triggers that cause such behaviour. Arousal is a state of activation. As far as arousal is concerned, we learned that both low arousal and high arousal are not good because the former can lead to boredom and the latter can lead to anxiety. As Aristotle said, “virtue is in the middle point” (quoting from memory). Humor can lead to a reduction of stress and tension. We also learned some grounding techniques for ADHD students, such as touching something familiar and the teacher gave us some references.

We also had another presentation this day by Pilar, a teacher from Madrid.

24th August

We talked on fostering connections with our students. In this respect, one of the ways to foster connections is eye contact. We learned about the VTS (Visual Thinking Strategy) and the Jigsaw strategy. Both are inclusive strategies that foster inclusiveness. In VTS, everybody can participate. In the Jigsaw strategy, students are organized in different groups which are mingled later on so that every member in the group is either at the expert level, the beginner level, or the intermediate level. In this respect, the UDL framework is of paramount importance.

The second part of the lesson was devoted to the presentation of our classmates from Flanders who were education inspectors and some other activities.

25th August

We started the day with the presentation by our classmate and friend Damian. In his school, there is a program where old students tutor younger ones. Sport is very important in his school.

In another section of the class we dealt with issues and techniques such as “social stories” to deal with bad behaviour. We also reflected on how to organize a lesson for people with special needs. We were asked to copy some sentences in different languages. Obviously, some wrote faster than others. The exercise was intended to make us reflect on the importance of differentiation for every student, since not all students can cope with the same tasks. The lesson was that we are all different by nature.

The rest of the class was devoted to reflecting on the UDL context, identifying problems/barriers, talking about Bloom’s taxonomy or the Cubing Theory, learning styles (visual, Kynesthetic…). One important issue was our reflection on people with ADHD. These students tend to have weak working memory. That is why we have to use different strategies, such as not to overload exercises with too many details. We also learned that there are different instruments that we can use to make them release stress (desk dividers, clock in the classroom, elastic bands.

This is the day I also presented my school to the rest of the classroom. Later, we were given our certificates and we gave Maddalena a plant as a present, since she was such a good teacher.

26th August

This day, we were taken on a tour to the Chianti region, where we could tasted the cuisine of the area. Wonderful experience.

Apart from the academic element, I had the chance to make wonderful friends from other countries and educational institutions from different parts of the world, as you can see in the photos. I was also able to walk around the city and feel delighted to see the wonderful architecture of Florence, as well as its wonderful work of arts. Florence is a city I am in love with.