Inclusive education: teacher training for a diverse future!

Inclusive education: teacher training for a diverse future!

The Pedagogical Day of the Center for Teacher Training (ZfLB) at Vechta University will take place on May 7, 2025, with the title “Designing inclusive learning environments in the context of school – recognizing individual needs and supporting students”. The aim of this event is to promote the integration of studies, school practice and scientific research. Around 230 teacher training students will take part in this day, supported financially by the Vechta University Society. The cooperation with the Regional Advice and Support Center for Inclusive Schools in Vechta underlines the relevance of the topic.

A central point of the event is the keynote by Ina Medeke, who deals with the topic “Inclusion concerns us all – the legal implementation in Lower Saxony schools”. The anchoring of inclusive schools in the Lower Saxony school law and the associated legal framework are discussed. Medeke's comments provide an important basis for understanding the legal requirements that are placed on teaching staff.

Diverse workshops for individual support

In addition to the keynote, eleven workshops will be offered that deal with specific funding priorities and needs of students. Topics such as dealing with heterogeneous learning groups, mental illnesses and the autism spectrum are central. One of the workshops, “Differentiation in teaching with heterogeneous learning groups,” is led by Marieke Pannenborg. She emphasizes that the different abilities of students require individual learning opportunities, which must be taken into greater account in teacher training.

The challenging situation in the inclusive school system is reflected in the lack of resources and the high demand for special school teachers. It is all the more important that future teachers deal intensively with the topic of inclusion during their training. This is done not only through theoretical knowledge, but also through the exchange and presentation of research work in the form of a poster exhibition during the Pedagogical Day.

Challenges of inclusion

Social diversity is increasingly evident in schools. Schools have the mission to give all students from different walks of life the same right to education and participation. During their studies, teachers must acquire the necessary specialist knowledge to deal with heterogeneity. The “Quality Offensive for Teacher Training” (QLB) has initiated projects in research, teaching and structural development in order to prepare students for these challenges in a practical and comprehensive manner. Almost all projects address inclusion and heterogeneity.

Inclusive education follows the ideal of shared learning for all children, regardless of their origin, gender, disabilities or other differences. According to Prof. Dr. According to Kerstin Merz-Atalik, Professor of Pedagogy for Disabilities and Disadvantages/Inclusion, it is crucial that teachers have skills that enable them to design individual learning opportunities. This also means that the training must be tailored to the needs of the students.

However, the implementation of inclusion varies greatly depending on the classroom and specific conditions. The training curricula must be reformed and new teaching-learning formats created so that the quality of teacher training meets the requirements of the inclusive education system. The paradigm shift towards inclusive structures also requires close cooperation between educational science, specialist science and subject didactics.

With events such as the Pedagogical Day, Vechta University provides significant impetus for high-quality teacher training. As part of the university information days, which will take place from May 13th to 15th, 2025, those interested can gain further insights into the university's topics and offerings, including the information and advisory program on campus.

You can find more information about the university information days here: www.uni-vechta.de/hit and for further training offers here: https://www.uni-vechta.de/zentrum-fuer-lehrbildung/competencezentrum-fuer-regionale-lehrkraeftefortbildung/fortbildungen-1.