Designing, decision making and problem solving: the internship in university training for the inclusive teacher

Abstract

The aim of the present work is to probe and analyze the outcomes of a train-ing program (in its fourth cycle) organized at the University of Palermo for the specialization of support teachers working both in infant & primary school. The teacher training proposal, carried out from July 2019 to March 2020, aimed at developing, in 522 training teachers, the following skills: designing action plans in response to the observed special educational needs; evaluating teaching methods; transforming theoretical constructs on inclusion into educational practices. The research aimed to detect if and how the internship was effective to strengthen the critical awareness of future sup-port teachers’ professional profile. The results achieved through the training activities are appreciable for developing of specialist expertise. Although the findings concern only one experimental situation that cannot be general-ized, the survey draws a progressive increase of some skills in support teachers: observing and reflecting, dealing with problems and formulating hypotheses, making choices and defining evaluation criteria, elaborating al-ternative plans for emerging needs of each pupil.