Implementation of the Advanced training cycle for integrated education

During the period September – December, 2013 the teachers from Group 1 and 2 completed the advanced training cycle for integrated education within the NDC Skopje Training Centre.

The objectives of the advanced training program were the following:

• Introducing the concept and idea for integrated education and its distinctions and characteristics;
• Promoting respect for diversity and otherness in the wider social environment;
• Supporting constructive cooperation and interaction between teachers as well as well as educational institutions from different municipalities in the territory of the Republic of Macedonia;
• Qualification for qualitative evaluation of the contents’ component in the books/literature;
• Familiarization with positive examples and experiences on successful implementation of integrated education;
• Development of the idea for integrated education in Macedonian social context;
• Creation of standards for evaluating different types of integrated activities.

The structure of the advanced training program was the following:

– 40 hours from the thematic fields: principles, goals and objectives of integrated education; national curriculum as a precondition for integrated education; books/literature for primary and secondary education in the context of the concept for integrated education; design of multi – ethnic school environment; development of the idea for integrated education in Macedonian social context; evaluation of the structural components of the concept of integrated education;

–10 hours on the topics: Integrated education as an educational trend and tendency; the role of the teachers in the society and in the process of developing integrated schools; education in the 21^st century and the challenges of the Turkish educational system; integrated education ethos in Northern Ireland; good practices of integrated and multicultural education in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia;

–10 hours of results evaluation of the integrated extracurricular activities and drafting annual program for integrated extracurricular activities.

The training program represented a set of theoretical and practical activities that enabled the teachers to gain additional skills and competences on integrated education policies and practices.