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INTRODUCTION
ICEVI is an organisation of professionals involved in the education and rehabilitation of the visually impaired; originally it was an organisation mainly consisting of special teachers. However, at ICEVI conferences relatively little attention has been paid to the training of these teachers. There has hardly ever been an opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences with regard to curricula and working methods.
As the education of blind and partially sighted children depends to a large extent on good, expert teachers, a discussion on the training of these teachers could be very valuable and productive.
Against this background, the ICEVI European Committee decided at its 1996 annual meeting to organise a small-scale, invitational workshop on this subject. Two representatives would be invited from every European country with teacher training institutions specialised in this field, some 30 to 40 people in total.
The workshop would centre around discussions on a number of important topics related to the training of special teachers of the visually impaired. Each thematic group and plenary discussion would be started off by a short introductory lecture.
The preparations as regards contents of the workshop were carried out in consultation with Mrs Christine Arter, Dr Heather Mason and Mrs Juliet Stone, three senior lecturers in visual impairment of the School of Education of the University of Birmingham, UK.
It was decided to hold the workshop in Central Europe in order to reduce the travelling expenses of representatives from Central and Eastern Europe. The offer of the School of the Partially Sighted in Budapest to host the workshop was therefore gratefully accepted. The organisational preparations were carried out in consultation with Mrs Judith Brezovay, head mistress of this school, and Mrs Krisztina Kovács, who was chairperson of the Local Organising Committee of the European Conference of ICEVI in 1995.
Research showed that nearly
30 European countries offer, in some form or another, training for special
teachers of the visually impaired. A letter of invitation was sent out
in September 1996 and the response was really good. Positive reactions
were received from 26 countries. In the end representatives of 4 out of
these 26 countries could, for various reasons, not attend.
The final workshop programme
was circulated in January 1997.
All participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire on the situation in their country with regard to the training of special teachers of the visually impaired.
The objectives of this workshop
included:
- to exchange experiences
- to establish contacts
- to discuss the role of
the teacher training facilitator with regard to other aspects of education
and rehabilitation
- to discuss the role of
the teacher training facilitator with regard to changes in the education
of the visually impaired, for example the development of integrated education
- possibly to prepare bilateral
contacts/exchange programmes for professors/lecturers and students.
The workshop consisted of 4 working sessions, each with its own theme:
- Desired competencies of
teachers of the visually impaired.
- Methodological and organisational
aspects of training of teachers of the visually impaired.
- Special topics in teacher
training as part of teacher competencies.
- The specific competencies
of itinerant teachers.
Each working session was
organised as follows:
- Introductory lecture 15
mins
- Small group discussions
(4 groups) 75 mins
- Break 30 mins
- Plenary discussion 60
mins
- Video presentations 30
mins
The persons presenting the introductory lectures had been asked to formulate a number of discussion points related to the theme of their lecture. These points would subsequently be discussed in small groups. The outcomes of these group discussions would then be presented to and discussed in a plenary meeting.
A number of participants had been invited to act as chairperson and secretary for both the plenary and the group discussions. This working method proved to work well.
During the preparation of the workshop it was decided to publish the lectures and the discussion reports in order to make these available to a wider audience, both within and outside Europe.
This way of working proved
to be very productive. The participants felt that, in particular, discussing
topics in small groups which were composed differently for each session,
was very fruitful. The atmosphere in which the discussions took placed
was characterized by openness, involvement and commitment. Most if not
all participants felt that this workshop had a very stimulating effect
on them. This became clear at the end of the plenary meeting of the fourth
working session when the chairperson asked each of the participants in
a slightly provocative manner what they would start working on in their
own country after the workshop, following on from what they had heard/learnt
during this workshop.
This resulted in the following
variety of replies:
- continue with courses
for teachers, parents, visually impaired children
- participate more actively
in Socrates/Helios
- publish the information
from this workshop
- make more use of e-mail
- discuss further developments
with the ministry
- work out new ideas
- realise supervision of
newly started teachers
- reflect on our teaching
methods
- be more aware of the need
to adapt theory to practice
- prepare for setting up
a network on the Internet
- start a new periodical
- stimulate exchange of
lecturers and students
- introduce distant learning
courses
- start a professional resource
centre
- give greater emphasis
in the curriculum on the importance of attitudes.
- to talk to the ministry
of education about my dream of integration of the visually impaired in
my country
- to continue working on
further changes
- to promote more tolerance
for the visually impaired
- organise such workshop
in my own country
- create a network for our
itinerant teachers to share experience
- to do more research, especially
on integration
- to write articles about
integration and itinerant teachers for journals for regular school teachers.
During the closing session Krisztina Kovács from Hungary summarized her impressions as follows - I quote:
"This workshop was a real challenge for us. I was amazed about how many different systems exist in Europe: pre-service, in-service, part-time, full-time, distant learning, face-to-face, tutorial, post-graduate, undergraduate, and so on. Are we divided by all these differences? After this workshop I am really convinced that the answer is "no". Diversity and variation give us freedom and add colour to our professional life. It is like spices in food or the bouquet of a wine. This is why our profession - and I truly believe that it is a profession - is so interesting. Among all the variations there are also many points in common. The main thing we all have in common is, besides our aims, our responsibility. I could feel that we all think exactly the same about responsibility. We, as trainers of teachers of the blind and visually impaired, are catalysts : knowledge, attitude, competency, methodology and affection towards people with visual impairments are transferred to the students by us. Even if some decisions and regulations are imposed by the government, most of the important issues related to the education of visually impaired children are decided in college auditoriums and seminar rooms. And this is why the greatest responsibility is in our hands."
I would now like to make
a number of concluding observations:
Such a small scale workshop
involving no other people but experts in this particular field has a number
of advantages:
- people get to know each
other very quickly, which stimulates productive discussions;
- the emphasis is on the
exchange of experiences and discussions which is more productive than the
more passive approach of listening to lectures;
- it is relatively easy
to organise at low costs; the total costs amounted to some 12 to 15 USD
(accommodation, meals, social programme, etc.)
Most of the objectives have
been realised:
- many contacts have been
made - these will be the basis of future exchange programmes for lecturers
and students;
- a great deal of experience
has been shared;
- in particular in working
session 3 there was a long and in-depth discussion on the role of teacher
training colleges/universities with regard to the training of other professionals
who have a role in the education and rehabilitation of the visually impaired.
At the end of the workshop participants were asked to fill in an evaluation form and to assess the individual sessions and the working methods used on a five-point scale. 36 participants filled in this evaluation form and the average score was just over 4.5. All participants agreed to hold a second workshop on this topic in 1999.
The report on this workshop was published in June of this year. There are a number of copies available here. If you do not manage to get a copy, please fill in the application form and send or fax this to me and a copy will be sent to you.
Thank you for your attention.