Best practices: Inclusion

The bell rings at the “Constantin Gh. Marinescu” Secondary School in Galați. Teacher Ana-Viorica Huțanu asks her students to sit in a circle.

The children already know what’s coming, but each time they approach the activity with the same enthusiasm and curiosity. They tell each other that it will be “fun” and wish that at least the first hour of every school day could start this way. Some even sigh, “If only all the classes were like this…”

The students take turns creating a story, each adding a sentence or a short paragraph that ends with “then” or “but,” signaling the next participant to continue. No one can predict how the story will unfold, but they can introduce words like “suddenly,” “immediately,” “surprisingly,” etc., to change the direction of the story.

Since incorporating games into her teaching methods, Mrs. Huțanu has noticed that students enjoy this approach to learning. She has also observed an increase in acceptance of diversity among the students.

We have previously discussed how we believe educational games develop skills and offer a new dynamic compared to traditional methods. Some time ago, we published the “Report on Best Practices in Inclusion” on our website. You can read it for free here.

The research report is a collection of best practices in the field of children’s rights and inclusion (especially concerning special educational needs) implemented in mainstream schools or impacting inclusion in such schools.

The “Report on Best Practices in Inclusion” was developed as part of the project “All Different, All Equal in Romanian Schools!” carried out by the Romanian Angel Appeal Foundation, with financial support from the Active Citizens Fund Romania, funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway through the EEA Grants 2014-2021.