Transforming Educational Practice in Autism: enhancing the skills, knowledge and understanding of teachers in the UK, Italy and Greece. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Transforming Educational Practice in Autism: enhancing the skills, knowledge and understanding of teachers in the UK, Italy and Greece.

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships addressing more than one field

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Disabilities – special needs; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The Transform Autism Education (TAE) project focused on the domain of ‘good autism practice’ in the education of pupils with autism in the UK, Greece and Italy with the overall objectives to i) research good autism practice in education; ii) create professional development programmes in Greece and Italy; iii) enhance the knowledge and practice of school staff and iv) facilitate the inclusion of autistic children in primary schools in those countries.

Funded by the European Commission through Erasmus Plus Key Action 2, Strategic Partnerships scheme, and led by Principal Investigator Dr. Karen Guldberg, the project involved a range of Greek, Italian and UK partners. It employed the Autism Education Trust (AET) collaborative training schemes in the UK as a founding model. While the requirements of each country were distinct, and so necessitated careful adaptations of the materials to their specific needs, what united all aspects of the project was a desire to improve the educational inclusion of autistic children, as well as their general experiences in school and their outcomes.

Specifically, Transform Autism Education created three levels of training in autism education for school staff in Italy and four levels of training in autism education in Greece. In addition, the project developed a set of Quality Indicators for self-evaluation by settings and a Competency Framework to enable professionals to plan their Continuous Professional Development in Greece and Italy. Project members also developed a trilingual public website with educational resources for practitioners: http://www.transformautismeducation.org. This was launched internationally and has had engagement from a wide audience of people from a range of countries.

Starting in 2014 and running over three years, the TAE project has traversed several stages, such as the underpinning research, piloting of training materials and the launch of the resource-based website, and it has included a number of international meetings in Greece, Italy and the UK. These incorporated a range of academic and practical activities, including conferences during which information about the project was shared with teachers, researchers and parents.

‘Transform Autism Education’ used communities of practice theory and a participatory methodology to inform the collaborative and participatory working practices of the project. The partners developed all materials through consultation with autistic individuals, expert reference groups, regional authority staff and teachers. Through an iterative developmental approach involving feedback from training deliverers and other stakeholders throughout the creation of the materials, the project team ensured that all content was clear and accessible, and relevant to the local educational context and practitioners in partner countries. Over 1,600 school staff in Greece engaged in the training and the Italian team launched their own, bespoke professional development programme at the final TAE conference in June 2017,having already engaged over 200 participants in the raining programme.

Project results have been disseminated widely through social media, publications, reports, conferences and workshops. The project has impacted on the team members themselves, and a range of school and therapeutic staff in Italy and Greece, leading to practitioners enhancing their practice in meeting the needs of autistic pupils. The work has resulted in a sustainable model of good autism practice in partner countries and has made a contribution to local, national and international knowledge, skills and experience.

Evaluations indicate that the training and the website materials show sensitivity to the local and national delivery context and provide the basis for further organic development. The project has had positive effects on the participant organisations and policy systems as well as on the individuals directly or indirectly involved in the project.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 438087 Eur

Project Coordinator

THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM & Country: UK

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITA CATTOLICA DEL SACRO CUORE
• UFFICIO SCOLASTICO REGIONALE PER LA LOMBARDIA
• Autism Education Trust
• Genium Creative Ltd
• AIKATERINI LASKARIDIS FOUNDATION