Professional Development Of Teachers And Inclusive Teaching: Development Of a Formative Self-Assessment Tool

Based on results from the Erasmus+ project Enabling eXtremely Creative, Inclusive, Inspiring Teachers for Europe (EXCIITE), which aims to assist educators from primary to secondary school, we present a tool to support teacher PD concerning inclusion. From our analysis of existing models of PD and educational practices in partner countries, we have derived the “Good Practice Elements” (GPE), which are relatively independent of their socio-cultural contexts, thus enhancing reproducibility across different settings. These components reflect the concept of “inclusion” as a process of reducing obstacles to learning and participation for all students and involve: the design of educational spaces; the creation of supportive environments; building collaborative relationships; fostering a vision of learning in which everyone is engaged; encouraging student agency; rethinking organizational aspects; and creating a democratic environment. As reflection constitutes a continual posture that enables teachers to experiment with reasoning to recognize regularities and register changes, the tool is designed to accompany teachers—reflective practitioners—through PD aimed at improving the quality of inclusion in the classroom context and inclusive education teaching.