4th ZINT Workshop at the HSZG

As part of the "ZINT - Developing inclusive schools together" project, the 4th workshop for former and current participants of the inclusive teaching certificate course took place from October 20 to 22, 2016 at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences under the title "Those who learn by laughing learn to love life". They held in-depth expert discussions on the design of inclusive teaching and school development with specialist advisors for integration, school supervisory staff, those responsible for the integration of pupils with disabilities in mainstream schools and special needs teachers. We welcomed around 150 participants from all over Saxony and 30 speakers from all over Germany and Austria to the conference. 

The event was moderated by Mr. Jörg Heidig and Mr. Fabian Starosta from KIB e. V. in their usual professional manner and presented a diverse overall picture of the questions and challenges of designing lessons in inclusive learning groups.

Prof. Dr. Friedrich Albrecht, Rector of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and project manager of the overall project, welcomed the participants and focused on the development of the ZINT project from 2008 to the present in his welcome address. In addition to the further development of the project concept, the focus was particularly on the expansion of the project with the development of networking and in-depth training, including the annual workshops. Ms. Petra Zeller gave the welcome address on behalf of the Saxon State Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs, as a supporter of the further development of the project's content since its launch in 2008 and as a project sponsor.  Dr. Peter Jogschies conveyed the greetings of the Vice-Rector for Education and International Affairs of Leipzig University and the Institute for Special Needs Education as a representative of the project partner.

Prof. Dr. Erwin Breitenbach from Humboldt University Berlin gave the opening presentations on the first day of the conference with the question "Inclusive diagnostics? The need for diagnostic skills in inclusive education and diagnostic tasks for teachers.

Jörg Heidig, graduate communication psychologist, organizational and process psychologist with the question: Meeting the demand for individual support with multi-professional competence and cooperation or how can multi-professional cooperation between teachers from different types of schools contribute to individual support?

The second series of lectures took up two exciting topics.

Dr. Barbara Schratz from the Institute for Teacher Education and School Research, Centre for Learning Schools at the School of Education, University of Innsbruck, Austria, focused in particular on the question of well-being for teachers and pupils as a decisive factor for learning and learning success. Her presentation was entitled Resilience, inclusion and the joy of teaching and learning.

Jana Thiele and Dr. Angelika Wolters presented materials, procedures and challenges in the development of good school practice. Based on the theory that many strong "I's" lead to a lively "we", they presented the factors for successful school and lesson development and used individual factors to present possible ways of successful school development. To this end, you invited the participants to an exemplary flying visit.

On Friday, Prof. Dr. Birgit Werner from the Heidelberg University of Education invited the participants to reflect on the question: Is inclusive teaching also good teaching? Inclusive teaching in the field of tension between educational standards and individual skills.

And Dr. Sven Basendowski was able to enrich the topic with an international perspective: Young people in difficult life situations between school and education in Switzerland, Finland and the USA.

Workshop offers and workshops on the support of pupils with special educational needs from both the perspective of those affected and from a specialist perspective as well as opportunities for cooperation and appreciative collaboration with special needs teachers at special schools and support centers in Saxony rounded off the offers with professional impulses for inclusive school and teaching development. The Institute for Special Needs Education at Leipzig University was active in the workshops with all departments.

The final highlight was humorist Peter Schulze, who interpreted the topic from the perspective of a gelontologist and gave the participants' laughter muscles a real workout at the end. The participants left the 4th workshop invigorated and with many professional impulses and individual impressions.

Gunter Jähnig from Behindertenverband Leipzig e. V. presented the great didactic and methodical learning and play materials he had developed himself on the subject of "Learning accessibility through play" and the Comenius bookshop in Görlitz invited the participants to browse and take away relevant specialist literature at a literature table.

The first day of the conference came to a great end in the evening at VINO E Cultura with a meet and talk and the opportunity to exchange ideas and make new contacts and activate existing ones, also thanks to the entire restaurant team led by Ms. Simone Apitz. The mentalists Thomas Majka and Vincent Frommer invited us to their witty and charming thought experiment and amazed teachers and scientists alike. At the end of the conference, we were still thinking "How do they do that?" - and this will certainly help us to see some of the participants again at the next conference in October 2017.

We would like to thank all those who supported the conference: Sandro Hänseroth for the conference documentation, Jürgen Möldner for the technical support and the support of the university students in organizing the conference.

Thanks also go to the janitors Mr. Otto, Mr. Zucker and Mr. Zenker as well as Ms. Krusche from the Office of Academic Administration for their support in organizing the conference. The Kelichhaus catering and gastronomy service in Görlitz once again succeeded in providing the conference participants with culinary delights.

During the conference, the committed educators from all types of schools were able to deepen their specialist knowledge, share experiences and expand their own skills with the aim of finding ideas and solutions together to overcome challenges on the path to inclusive school development.

We would like to thank the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences for supporting the conference and look forward to the 5th conference in the fall of 2017, when new topics on integrative/inclusive teaching and school development will be discussed.