Supporting teacher's professional development on inclusive learning design: a case study of an Erasmus+ project

This paper discusses the approach and outcomes of PLEIADE (PLayful Environment for Inclusive learning Design in Europe), a three-years Erasmus Plus project involving eight partners, including four schools. PLEIADE aims to improve European teachers' competence in inclusive pedagogy. To this end, the project adopts a playful and participatory approach to Teachers' Professional Development (TPD), focused on codesign of collaborative learning activities and reflective practice. During PLEIADE, 83 European teachers followed a blended training phase of 13 months during which they developed a number of collaborative inclusive designs for their students, some international and some national. The same teachers are currently supported by experts while they enact their designs in their classes. The project Intellectual Outputs include an innovative gamified TPD pathway dedicated to inclusive education, learning design, and collaborative learning; the I4Ts game, a hybrid (digital and tangible) tool to support the design phase; a gamified digital platform hosting teacher interactions during the design and enactment of their teaching; a collection of inclusive collaborative practices generated by the teacher community; an evaluation kit for inclusive-aware collaborative learning activities and a project's impact amplification kit. The paper describes the project approach and achievements, and discusses the main issues faced and solutions adopted in its implementation. The discussion also touches upon some features of the Erasmus+ Programme, specifically the Strategic Partnerships for school education, to support the claim that the way its funding scheme works runs the risk of putting across undesirable messages hindering the programme potential in terms of supporting innovation in European school systems.