Teachers and inclusion: an empirical survey on specialist training for support teachers

Abstract

This paper illustrates the results of an empirical-experimental research conducted as part of the Specialization Course for support activities, held at the University of Palermo in the academic year 2016/17. The survey, concerning the effectiveness of training courses for teachers for the development of active learning, involved 450 teachers and had the main objective of investigating whether there was an actual increase in specific professional skills functional to school inclusion among those who attended the course. Despite leading to different kinds of meaningfulness, the pre/post-test data are evidence of a general positive improvement, highlighting how a student-centred approach has allowed us to achieve appreciable results in relation to the didactic, communicative-relational, evaluative dimensions and to perceived self-efficacy, which are fundamental skills for the inclusion process of each student.