Eight out of 10 higher education teachers say they do not feel prepared to teach students with special educational needs, a deficiency that the i-HETP program wants to address by offering training content that is now open to the public.
David Sotto-Mayor Machado knows well the difficulties of a student with special educational needs. In the first year of his studies he was diagnosed with a tumor in his mouth and, after treatment, he was left with a lesion on his brain.
Personal experience led him to later dedicate himself to the topic of inclusive education and it was within the framework of his master’s degree at the Atlântica – Instituto Universitário that he developed the i-HETP (Inclusive Higher Education Training Program), presented this Wednesday.
“I have dedicated my academic research to technological projects to support students with special educational needs”He explained in statements to Lusa, adding that, throughout this work, the need for training in pedagogical methodologies also became clear.
In a survey carried out last year, in which 452 university professors participated, most of them Portuguese, 82% of those surveyed considered they were not prepared to teach a student with special educational needs.
“Most of these teachers are especially concerned if students have a sensory disability”said David Sotto-Alcalde Machado.
According to the survey results, Only three out of 10 teachers said they were satisfied with the training they received in relation to methodologies, strategies and pedagogical tools for student inclusion with specific educational needs.
Based on these conclusions and the reports from associations and students heard, the team of researchers coordinated by David Sotto-Mayor Machado developed the i-HETP program, focused on training university teachers and non-teaching staff in inclusive teaching methodologies.
“I tried to forget the personal experience,” explained the researcher, adding that the difficulties reported revealed the need to go beyond pedagogical training.
“In addition to our modules that contain material related to pedagogical methodologies and physical accessibility, which are extremely important, but of which society, fortunately, is already much more aware, We address other topics such as the inclusion of students in their daily lives”, said.
504 users from eight countries participated in the pilot phase, the majority in Portugal (252), but also in Romania (70), Spain (57), Czech Republic (36), Poland (31), Italy (30). Türkiye (26), Brazil (one) and Hungary (one).
“After this pilot phase, The project will continue ‘online’, it can be used by any teacher.“said the program coordinator.
With content on different types of physical disabilities, David Sotto-Mayor Machado highlighted that a teacher who takes a class with a student with specific educational needs will be able to access the platform to obtain “answers to the specific questions they find.”
The program is presented this Wednesday at a symposium, at Atlântica – Instituto Universitário, with the participation of researchers and specialists in the area of teaching and accessibility. The objective, explains the coordinator, is “to try to reach an even broader audience.”
Source: Observadora
