Inclusion-oriented teacher education. Interdisciplinary seminar concept for students of general and special education studies

Abstract

Educational inclusion calls for teachers who are prepared to teach heterogeneous groups of students. In order to be able to serve the needs of all students, teachers require expertise in the field of special educational needs as well as in subject didactics. Interdisciplinary co-teaching is widely regarded as beneficial not only to students’ learning outcomes but also to the overall professional development of teachers. Therefore, interdisciplinary cooperation should be initiated as early as in the first phase of teacher education.

The University of Wuppertal has developed the concept for a seminar that addresses trainee teachers for special educational needs (SEN) as well as trainee teachers for general education (GE). At first, students attend a theoretical unit at the university, in which they acquire basic knowledge about educational inclusion and co-teaching. At the end of this unit, there is a phase of active team-building with two partners of different disciplines. Afterwards, the teams support and conduct lessons at inclusive schools once a week over the period of one semester (12 weeks). This requires not only the subject-related scientific and pedagogical expertise of the GE teachers but also, and most importantly, the educational and
inclusion-oriented expertise of the SEN teachers. The intensive exchange in the multidisciplinary teams results in an interconnection of partial competencies and a transfer of expertise between the partners.