Special Educational Needs & Inclusion
The exchange program SEN & Inclusion is a semester program offered at the Marnix Academie.
This English-taught SEN & Inclusion exchange program focusses on two main topics:
- enlarging your comprehension of neurodiversity diagnoses and their roles/usage in education, and
- developing a broad outlook on and understanding of children’s upbringing contexts and educational needs.
In collaboration with international and Dutch students, you will work on deepening your professional and personal view on educational needs and inclusion from an international perspective. This exchange program encourages you to explore what it means in practice to meet educational needs from an inclusive approach.
During the classes at the Marnix Academie you will study a variety of international and historical perspectives on SEN and Inclusion, to familiarize yourself with different approaches to this topic in primary education. Parallelly, in practice, you design and execute a series of small research activities to learn more about one child’s needs and upbringing context. In doing so you develop your own sensitivity and personal and professional inclusive attitudes towards all children – including children with educational needs – their families and the school as an organization.
The exchange program SEN & Inclusion offers unique chances to broaden your scope. Not only does it challenge you to investigate your own assumptions and personal views, but it also invites you to connect to a diversity of students from countries all over the world. How do professionals in different countries and cultures approach a diverse classroom? How do we, as professionals from various social/cultural contexts, increase our sensitivity and responsiveness to children’s needs in education? Listen, learn, try and professionalize, to make a change for children with unique educational needs in your classroom.
Student Experiences
Discover what our international students have to say about the teaching methods and learning process in the semester program Special Educational Needs & Inclusion at Marnix Academie.
Teaching methods
“In my country, professors will only lecture. We as students sit still, listen and take notes. But in the exchange program SEN & Inclusion here at the Marnix Academie we interact. We have classroom dialogues, discussions in small groups, we go for a walk to think about things, we journal… It is like nothing I have experienced before.”
“The teaching program offers room for your own story. We reflect; we share. I feel comfortable here.”
Learning process
“I discovered that working on SEN and inclusion means working together with the systems around the child, such as the parents.”
Semester program Special Educational Needs & Inclusion
When?
Autumn/winter semester; you will have to study at the Marnix Academie in Utrecht during the autumn/winter semester until the Christmas Holiday in December. In January you will have the possibility to attend consulting meetings with the lecturer online.
Nomination deadline: May 1st
Who?
- You are in your second or higher year of a teacher training college.
- Your English language skills are at CEFR-level B2 or higher.
SEN & Inclusion Research and educational design (15 EC)
During this program, you will explore children’s educational needs and develop your awareness of the challenges and importance of inclusion in education. You will work on developing your own, authentic view on inclusive education and related professional skills and knowledge. Key topics include inclusivity, equal chances for children in education, diversity in upbringing contexts, and international perspectives on inclusion in education.
As an introduction to children’s educational needs and inclusive education, you will participate in lectures, explore relevant literature, and interact with other students to deepen your understanding of these topics. In addition, you will explore the practices and approaches used to meet children’s educational needs in your internship school. These encounters and explorations will not only enhance your understanding of diversity, inclusion, and educational needs, but also broaden your perspective on these topics. Since becoming aware of your own assumptions and perspectives is an important starting point in this program, you will engage with these issues in an open and curious manner and encourage your fellow students to do likewise. To keep track of your discoveries and the development of your perspectives, you will keep a reflective journal.
The program consists of 3 learning tasks with related learning outcomes:
Learning task 1: Perspectives on SEN & Inclusion.
- Learning outcome 1: You describe different approaches to SEN & Inclusion, based on the lectures and international literature, and reflect on the way SEN and inclusion are approached in your internship school.
Learning task 2: Researching one child’s background and needs in practice.
- Learning outcome 2A: You design a series of small research aimed at deeply exploring one child’s upbringing context and needs in education.
- Learning outcome 2B: You describe the outcomes of this research, both concerning this particular child ánd the consequences for your own view on SEN and inclusion in relation to this child, all children, families and the school as an organization
Learning task 3: An inclusive view on educational needs.
- Learning outcome 3A: You reflect on the diversity of approaches and experiences of educational needs that you have encountered while participating in the COIL and the international exchange in the classroom.
- Learning outcome 3B: You formulate two overall conclusions (one for yourself and one for a school organization abroad (in a country of your choice)) in which you demonstrate an inclusive outlook on children’s needs in education.
Assessment
Each learning task has its own assessment, such as a presentation, a research activity plan, a podcast or a final written/visual report.
Internship (6 EC)
The students will go to a Dutch primary school for their internship. They will go there at least one day a week depending on the possibilities in the school. The students are able to see the Dutch education system in practice. Students will do activities with children for example in subject areas such as English language, sports, music, arts and crafts. During specific subject classes at the Marnix Academie international students will get ideas and develop skills to include these subjects into their internship practice.
The educational design is closely related to the internship and the students will carry out their educational design in the internship school.
Assessment
Students make a report on their internship and have an assessment conversation with the teacher and the coordinator of teacher training in the school of internship.
Dutch Language and culture (6 EC)
The students are encouraged to investigate aspects of Dutch culture and share information with fellow students. Discussion about these aspects is an important part of the Dutch Culture classes. Students are stimulated to visit places of interest in the Netherlands. During the course, we visit for instance the Rietveld-Schröder House and
the governmental city of The Hague. Also, students are challenged to discover Utrecht and its surroundings in their free time. The students will take Dutch lessons. In this small course (14 education weeks, one hour a week) students will learn to introduce themselves in Dutch and understand and participate in a small conversation in internship.
Reading aloud a children’s book is trained in class and performed in the school of internship. Part of the language course is self-study with DuoLingo. (Students may propose alternative apps, please contact the teacher about this.)
Assessment
Students make a digital assessment-file of several parts of the Dutch Language and Culture assignment.
Study Coaching (3 EC)
In the coaching sessions we will discuss the progress of minor activities and internship. The expectations of studying in the Netherlands and the wellbeing of the students is often a conversation topic. Together we reflect on experiences in internship.
Assessment
Students make a digital assessment-file of several parts of the Study coaching assignment.