Class Strategies of Learning and Inclusive Education

All national and international recommendations on specialized training point to the idea that all future teachers, must learn to cope with growing heterogeneity of the school population.

 Indeed, inclusive education is about responding to diversity, about the process of promoting the participation of all peoples, within the curricula of mainstream school.

Inclusive education is not about "special" teachers meeting the needs of "special" students in ordinary school. It is not merely about placing disabled pupils in classroom with their nom-disabled peers. It is about how we educate pupils, about learning to live one another, in all social contexts.  

This Unit involves specialized teachers learning to respect differences, to understand issues of equality, equity, cooperation, it involves the ability to promote pedagogical differentiation, adaptations and curricular modifications that respond to the specific needs of all students.

A) Conceptual dimension

Learning and diversity

Cooperative learning and inclusion

Theoretical bases of pedagogical differentiation and cooperative learning

Perspective of social interdependence (Lewin, Deutch, Johnson)

Constructivist and socio-constructivist perspective (Piaget, Vygotsky)

Behavioral social perspective (Skinner, Bandura, Slavin)

Ecological transition, interactive reciprocity and balance of powers

Conflict management and social learning contexts.

B) Methodological dimension

Cooperative structures and curriculum modifications and alterations. Structural dimension and content dimension

Planning and organization of cooperative activities of counseling and pedagogical differentiation.

Planning and organization of cooperative activities

Evaluation, process evaluation and product evaluation

Evaluation, positive interdependence and individual responsibility

Inclusion, heterogeneity, cooperative learning and conflict resolution

Inclusive school as a positive conflict management organization.

In the Unit, cooperative learning methodologies are fundamentally used.

Leitão, F. (2023). Os conflitos em contexto escolar. Lisboa: Edições Universitárias Lusófonas.

Leitão, F., R.; Silva, M., O., E. (2019). Inclusão de Pessoas com Necessidades Especiais ESTUDOS. Lisboa: Edições Universitárias Lusófonas.

Barr, J. e Bracchitta, K. (2015). Attitudes Toward Individuals with Disabilities: The Effects of Contact with Different Disability Types. Curr Psychol, 34, 223–238.

Biglan, A. (2015). The Nurture effects. Oakland: New Harbinger Publications.

Flatt-Fultz, E.; Phillips, L. (2012). Empowerment training and direct support professionals’ attitudes about individuals with intellectual disabilities. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 16, 119 –125.

Leitão, F. (2010). Valores Educativos, Cooperação e Inclusão. Salamanca: Luso-Española de Ediciones.