The INSIDE project has been running since December 2016, with the aim of exploring the conditions for the successful implementation of inclusive lower-secondary education in Germany.
Representatives from the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories, the Institute for Educational Quality Improvement and the Universities of Potsdam and Wuppertal recognised that there was a gap in knowledge about the structural and procedural conditions for the successful implementation of inclusive secondary education in Germany. As a result, they designed a research project around three main questions:
- How is inclusive education implemented in secondary education in Germany?
- Under what conditions does inclusion result in a successful individual development of learners with special educational needs and how does inclusive education affect their classmates?
- How is teaching organised to be adaptive and differentiated to individual learning capabilities?
The conditions necessary for the success of inclusive learning will be identified at an individual and a familial level and at a class and school level. The questions are addressed in a variety of ways, such as questionnaires and interviews directed to a range of stakeholders, including head teachers, teachers, parents and learners with and without special educational needs. The ‘success’ of implementation of inclusive education is measured by academic competences, as well as life skills (e.g. social competences) and further goals of inclusion (e.g. social participation).
INSIDE is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), with the current funding phase running until May 2021. It is hoped that a second phase of funding will allow the study to continue into 2025.
For further information in German, visit the INSIDE website. For information in German and English, download the flyers below.