In-Clues clues to inclusive and cognitive education : recommendations, theory, research, application models of good practice

This booklet with DVD, brings together the most important works of the INCLUES Network - a European Network around the theme of inclusive and cognitive education. Inclusive education means that no child is excluded from a mainstream school on the ground of bang an exception or having special educational needs. In inclusive education, children learn and live together. It is not limited to children with a label of "disability" but also extends to children, often with a poor socio-economic background, deprived of proper educational support, who tend to be at risk of educational failure. Many of these children have a poor development of learning skills and basic cognitive functions. Therefore the "cognitive" goal of the IN-CLUES Network is to promote ways to reinforce basic learning prerequisites - while at the same time being well aware that this in itself needs an affective climate fostering acceptance of difference, feelings of competence and learning challenges. Also teachers have special educational needs: the need to change their minds and to be able to deal with so large differences. Realizing inclusive & cognitive education involves work on many levels: families, schools, counsellors, teachers, teacher trainers, assessing psychologists, and policy and decision makers. Despite the discourse on inclusion as a human right to belong, despite laws and financial stimuli in some countries, there was (and still is) a lot of hesitation, practical ignorance or many times resistance against inclusive education. Teachers lack a proper preparation and sometimes do not know what to do. Systems of in-service counselling and training are lacking. Assessment methods are obsolete. Proper content is lacking: how to work with a concrete child, with particular difficulties and chal-lenges, in a group with widely varying learning differences. Yet, in all European countries, whether well-established or in a beginning phase, there are examples of good practice. This booklet contains recommendations on what the conditions are for a good implementation of inclusive education; what are essential aspects of an inclusive teacher training and what are the conditions of a good programme which activates basic learning prerequisites of children. The accompanying DVD contains a wealth of materials: videos and presentations of examples of good practice of inclusive and cognitive education from several countries, papers and presenta-tions, about such widely varying subjects as behaviour management, mathematics education, parent counselling, dynamic assessment and cognitive activation, teacher training and implementation of inclusive education.