TEACHING MANAGEMENT AND E-LEARNING TOOLS FOR COLLABORATIVE WORKING IN INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

Collaborative working fosters interaction, improves the process of becoming familiar with pupils and has a strong socializing impact, especially in inclusive education. It appeals to tolerance towards different ways of thinking and feeling and it emphasizes the pupil's needs in a friendly and supporting environment. Significant policy developments have taken place on an international basis to harness and adopt inclusive education however reforms in many areas are needed and this remains very challenging for many EU member states. The experience of latest years and the new concepts and policies related to integration, inclusion and diversity underpin the new equity-based approach to the educational system. The adoption of this new approach has, in most cases, become a new challenge for professionals in education. FIESTA project provides professionals in education with e-learning tools, training materials and resources in order to offer equal opportunities and respect fundamental rights to education for all children. This project supports educational stakeholders giving them the opportunity to collaborate and thus meet the individual needs of pupils. FIESTA recognizes the current difficulties & gaps facing EU countries in relation to inclusion, transition & collaborative working. Using an interactive approach, professionals will have the opportunity to learn through professional development resources. The project merges action research originating in teacher training colleges together with a methodology that facilitates teachers, therapists, learning support specialists and disabled students at key transition points in their school careers. This connected research and action perspective is an innovative application of integrated thinking and policy in transforming traditional schooling structures and systems to promote more advanced methods of integration and mutually beneficial learning